Geary the relation in which he stood to the pro-slavery party; that they were not merely political opponents, but his enemies, not because he would not do right, but because he would not be their tool. He saw that they cared nothing for the Administration, Democratic party, himself, justice or right, beyond using all these for the "single issue," and whenever either stood in the way of its interest, they would seek to sacrifice it. He discovered that they were enemies, hostile and deadly.

Governor Geary had never sought to conciliate them. He had always aimed to act independent of them, for he was not so particular about their favor as that of the Administration and the Northern Democracy, and hence, when he found that they were his irreconcilable enemies, he still trusted to the strong, far-extending arm of the General Government and the moral support of Democracy for success.

Though Mr. Geary clung to the throne, still "there was a power behind the throne more powerful than the throne itself." This was slavery. Whatever may have been the real desires of Mr. Pierce's or Mr. Buchanan's heart, and no matter what policy either would prefer, to the demands of slavery they were always bound to submit. This fact Governor Geary next learned. Immediately after the insult offered to him and others by Sherrard, in consequence of the danger which seemed to menace him, he wrote to General Smith, at Fort Leavrnworth, for two additional companies of troops, to be sent to Lecompton to preserve the peace. In a few days this officer replied that there were no laws for the employment of the troops for the purpose above mentioned, and that "all the forces had just been designated by the Secretary of War, and are under orders for other services more distant." This was the first intimation that he was to be stripped of all power to suppress disturbances and for his own protection. He was assured, on the position being tendered him, that all the force he might desire would be at his command.

But the matter is easily explained. Meantime Emory, Calhoun, Clark and other pro-slavery demagogues had gone to Washington, obtained the ear of the President through Jefferson Davis, and prepossessed his mind with false representations concerning Governor Geary, and had importuned his removal. There were no good grounds to sustain such an act before the country, so it was determined to drive him to a resignation. The troops were denied him; the payment of money, which Mr. Geary had taken out of his own private funds, was disallowed for the reason that all the appropriations of Congress for the Territory were exhausted; while rumors reached Lecompton that he had been removed and his successor named. "During all this time his dispatches to the outgoing and the incoming administrations, defining the true condition of affairs, and asking information and instruction, were unanswered, and apparently unnoticed." To cap the climax, the Governor was, in the next place, called upon by Secretary Marcy to explain certain discrepancies between his account of the Hay's case and that of Judge Lecompte's; to which Mr. Geary, who was now pretty well enlightened, replied: "What I have written, I have written, and have nothing to add, alter or amend on the subject."

Governor Geary, seeing that he was abandoned by the Administration, all military and pecuniary support withdrawn, his way hedged up by pro-slavery men, and his life in imminent peril, forwarded his resignation, on the 4th of March, to take effect on the 20th of that month. Before another day he was compelled to leave Lecompton, to escape an attack from the Ruffians. Under the generous cover of night he hastily left the capital, armed with two revolvers, and wended his lonely way to the residence of Captain Walker, a free state man, where he appeared pale with fright, and besought protection and conveyance out of the Territory. Ere the morning light fell upon the prairies, he was in Kansas City; taking a boat at this place,

he issued his farewell address to the people of Kansas. Thus ended Governor Geary's career in the Territory, abandoned and forsaken by those whose reputation he had hoped to save. He never understood what the pro-slavery men of Kansas and the Administration at Washington wanted and would have, until compelled to leave the Territory, which, had he known upon the position being tendered him, doubtless he would never have accepted it, or acted, in many instances, very differently in the performance of his executive functions. Mr. Geary has since continued to rise to distinction, as Governor of Pennsylvania.

Governor Geary's career and experience in Kansas are similar to Reeder's. Both came from the same State, honest and devoted Democrats, and based their policy upon the same principles of impartiality and justice; both leaned, at first, towards the pro-slavery men, and winked at some of their outrages, because they were the pets of the Administration. Neither understood the character of the Democracy in Kansas nor at Washington, and the political predilections and prejudices of both were against free state men. But both were honest, and assiduously labored for the good of the Territory. Both were opposed and defied by the Legislature, their lives threatened; both were abandoned by the Administration that appointed them, simply because they wished to do right, instead of doing all they could for slavery. Reeder was removed, and Geary doubtless would have been, had he not resigned when he did. Both left the Territory in peril of their lives, under the friendly shade of night.

On the 10th of April, Mr. Buchanan appointed Hon. Robert J. Walker, Governor, and Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, Secretary, of Kansas Territory. Daniel Woodson, former Secretary, was promoted to the office of Receiver of the Delaware Land District.

CHAPTER XLI.

QUESTION OF VOTING FOR DELEGATES TO THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

Hon. Robert J. Walker was the son of Judge Walker, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was born in Pennsylvania, not far from the home of Mr. Buchanan. He studied law under his father, and practiced his profession at Pittsburg, where he married the daughter of Franklin Bache, of Philadelphia, and granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. He made the first nomination of Mr. Jackson for the Presidency. He early emigrated to Mississippi, where he took an active part in politics; favored the independence of Texas and its annexation to the United States; but opposed Mr. Calhoun's project of making it all slave territory, taking about the same stand that he did in reference to Kansas that the character of labor in the different States of the Union was determined by climate and not by legislation. He conducted a famous canvass in Mississippi against Poindexter for the United States Senate, upon the issue of nullification. He bitterly denounced disunion in that early day as treason, set forth in the clearest light the relation of a State to the Federal Government, and proudly triumphed over his powerful competitor. This canvass has no parallel in the history of our country, considering the momentous issue at stake, the talented champions who conducted it, and the universal atten

tion it attracted, unless it be the famous contest in Illinois. between Hon. Stephen A. Douglas and Hon. Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Walker occupied a seat in Mr. Polk's Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, in which position he distinguished himself for his financial ability, by drawing up and establishing a system of revenue, that reduced duties more than one-half, while it produced upwards of $29,000,000 the first year.

Governor Walker is undoubtedly the greatest and most distinguished man that was ever appointed to any position. in Kansas by the General Government. He stood firmly and devotedly by the Union in the recent great national conflict; an intimate friend and adviser of President Lincoln; contributing able articles to the "Continental Review" upon the subject of currency and the war; planning and carrying out in a great measure the wonderful policy of finance adopted by the General Government. He reluctantly and hesitatingly accepted the appointment of Kansas Territory at the repeated and earnest solicitations of President Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas, but not until after a full understanding and perfect concurrence of opinion were had between himself and the President with reference to the policy which he afterwards pursued.

About the time of Mr. Walker's appointment, it was thought by the Administration, and the real friends of the Democratic party, that civil war was on the eve of breaking out in Kansas, which threatened to involve the whole Union. The Topeka Legislature had determined to put its government into practical operation, which would evidently bring on a collision between it and the Territorial authorities; each party would be supported by the different States, and thus war was inevitably the consequence. The policy therefore determined upon by Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Walker, in order to avert this calamity, was to sustain the dignity of the Territorial Legislature by compelling obedience to its enactments, and suspend action on the part of