troops to prevent it. The whole affair was supremely ridiculous. Suffice it to say, that the Judge pursued the matter no farther.

While the Kansas Governors generally proved true to their honest convictions, other appointees of the Administration, in most instances, used all their influence to serve partisan purposes. Such seems to have been especially the case with the Judiciary. Judge Cato, of Alabama, was perhaps the most perverse and partial of all others; Judge Elmore was the most prompt to duty, strict and impartial in his judgments; Judge Lecompte, the most learned and pliant tool; Judge Williams said the most and did the least as cowardly as he was dishonest-and Judge Pettit, of Indiana, the staggering embodiment of all vices and virtues.

CHAPTER XLIII.

LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION.

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were elected by only 2,200 votes, on the third Monday in June. The free state men did not participate in the election. They assembled at Lecompton on the 7th of September, and proceeded to organize their body. John Calhoun was chosen Presibent. Delegates from Anderson and Franklin Counties presented themselves, claiming seats; but as there had been no census taken in those counties, in consequence of the want of the proper officers, and no apportionment made to them by the Secretary, they were rejected. The convention, after organizing, adjourned on the 11th of September to the 19th of October, in order to take part in the election of the Territorial Legislature.

The indignation of free state men towards this convention ran high, and reached its culminating point after the election of the Legislature. The Federal Government recognized it as a legally constituted body, and protected it with the United States troops. Threats were loud against it in buncombe speeches and letters for Eastern presses, that it should never hold its session in Kansas, with the view of intimidating and deterring the delegates from re-assembling. A free state convention was called and held at Lecompton on the same day that the Constitutional Convention convened the second time, and loudly protested against that body framing a constitution for the people, and calling upon

it to abandon its purpose. Local conventions were held, speeches and threats made, excitement kept up at boiling heat, and the denunciations of this body of usurpers, who had presumed to frame a government for the people, and who were protected in their work by Federal bayonets, rose from all parts of the Territory.

It was several days after the re-assembling of the Constitutional Convention, before a quorum could be mustered for the transaction of business. There evidently was a disposition on the part of a large number of pro-slavery men, to let the matter go by default, after the results of the recent election showed them the relation in which they stood to an enraged and indignant people. A quorum finally was secured, and they proceeded to frame a constitution for the State of Kansas, without molestation. After a session of about two weeks, they completed their work, and fortythree members affixed their names to the document.

It seems to have been the original design of the delegates to submit the constitution to a popular vote. The question having been discussed in the canvass, before the election, and the free state men charging it upon them that they did not design to submit, it the delegates nominated in Douglas county, among whom was John Calhoun, met on the eve of the election, came out in a card bitterly denying such intentions, and pledging themselves to favor a submission of the constitution, for ratification or rejection by the people, and Governor Walker testified that Calhoun never intimated, in frequent conversations he had with him, that he did not favor total submission, until shortly before the convention assembled.

It was generally believed at that time, as the Covode investigation of 1860 clearly shows, that the Lecompton constitution was transmitted entire from Washington, or at least those parts affecting admission and slavery, to the convention for its formal endorsement. Though it is evident that as late as the 12th of July, Mr. Buchanan must

have known nothing of this movement, and probably did not until after the action of the Convention. The whole design originated where all the other abominable measures of the administration towards Kansas had their origin, in the treasonable brain of Jefferson Davis. It was a movement of the rabid pro-slavery men to either fasten slavery on Kansas, or to inaugurate a war that would eventuate in a disruption of the Union.

The leading features of this constitution were, that the boundaries of the State should be the same as those of the Territory, by the organic act; that the Legislature should have no power to interfere with the right to slave property held by the present inhabitants or future emigrants, and that the constitution could not be amended, altered or changed, until after the year eighteen hundred and sixtyfour; "that free negroes shall not be permitted to live in the State, under any circumstances." It provided for a general election of State officers, in January, 1858.

The provisions for submitting the constitution to the people for their ratification or rejection, amounted to nothing more than a farce. The president of the Convention was to have complete control of the election. He was to appoint county commissioners, who were to appoint judges in their respective precincts; was to receive the returns, examine them and declare the result. "All the white male inhabitants of the Territory of Kansas, in the said Territory" upon the day of election, were to be entitled to vote; "the judges of said election shall cause to be kept the poll books by two clerks, by them appointed. The ballots at said election shall be endorsed, 'constitution with slavery,' and constitution with no slavery.' One of the poll books shall be returned within eight days to the President of the Convention, and the other shall be retained by the judges of election, and kept open for inspection." If a majority of the votes cast should be "constitution with slavery," the President of the Convention was then to send the constitu

tion to Congress. If a majority of votes cast should be "constitution with no slavery," then the clauses relating to slavery were to be stricken out, and slavery was not to exist in the State, except that the right of property in slaves in the Territory should not be interfered with, and the constitution was then to be transmitted to Congress.

Thus it will be seen that this process of submission afforded no opportunity to reject the constitution entire, nor any assurance that the election would be conducted without fraud and dishonesty. The whole matter was in the hands of John Calhoun, the President of the Convention. He was an intense partisan and void of moral honesty; Surveyor-General, in the employ of the United States, and thus not strictly a citizen of Kansas. Through his office he controlled a vast patronage in the Territory, and wielded his influence with the money of the Federal Government to make Kansas a slave State. The only qualification of an elector required, as to residence, was his presence in the Territory, on the day of the election, thus offering a fair and legitimate opportunity for the Missourians to indulge their passion in coming over to vote at Kansas elections. Besides, if the slavery clause should be rejected then all objections to the constitution would not be removed. In the first place the convention had its origin in fraud. The delegates who framed the constitution did not represent the people of the Territory, or at least only a very small portion of them, and as an evidence of the people's feelings towards them, the United States troops were required to protect the convention during its sitting, and the expression of popular indignation was loud and full against its members. Most of the counties had no show of representation, and even the delegates from those counties, whose election was not regular, though no fault of their own, were rejected seats in the convention. There were other objectionable features in the constitution than slavery. Free negroes were to be excluded contrary to the Constitution of the