greater and more complicated responsibilities,' which petitioners claim and your committee admit, devolve upon

women.

"The theological view of this question, your committee will not consider."

When the subject of elective franchise came up, a feeble and ineffectual effort was made to strike out the word "male." There were but few in the Convention who favored women's rights.

The negro occasioned considerable jarring in the Convention. Two attempts were made to exclude him from the Territory, but such motions were tabled, first by 26 yeas to 21 nays; and the second time by 28 yeas to 20 nays. Mr. Blunt, who voted in the negative, did so, not because he favored the measure, but desired it brought before the people. The vote on excluding negroes from the public schools stood as follows:

Yeas-Brown, Barton, Foster, Forman, Greer, Hipple, Hubbard, Kingman, Moor, McDowell, McCune, McClelland, Parks, Porter, Slough, Stinson, Stiarwalt, J. Wright, Wrigley, T. S. Wright-20.

Nays-Arthur, Burnet, Blunt, Burriss, J. Blood, N. C. Blood, Cracker, Dutton, Graham, Griffith, Hutchinson, Hanway, Hoffman, Houston, Ingalls, Little, Lamb, Middleton, McCullough, Preston, Palmer, Ritchie, Ross, Signor, Stokes, Simpson, Thatcher, Townsend, Williams-29.

Upon a resolution, endorsing the Fugitive Slave Law, the vote stood the same way, except Messrs. Kingman, Porter and T. S. Wright, voted in the negative. On motion to strike out the word "white" from the clause on the qualification of electors but three voted in the affirmative, Hutchingson, Ritchie and Stokes. But one voted against the clause prohibiting slavery in the State-Mr. Forman, of Atchison.

Strong efforts were made to extend the northern boundary of Kansas, so as to include all that portion of Nebraska

south of the Platte River. A delegation, representing the people of southern Nebraska, attended the convention and strongly urged the measure. The proposition was rejected by about the same votes which controlled the action on the exclusion of the negro.

The question of locating the temporary seat of government, engaged a good share of the attention of the convention. Strong electioneering was practiced. According to a resolution passed, as the roll was called, each one named the place of his preference for the capital, and the four which received the highest number of votes were to be the only nominations. But afterwards, by general consent, the number was restricted to three, Topeka, Lawrence and Atchison. The roll being called again, Topeka received twenty-six votes; Lawrence, 14; Atchison, 6. Thus Topeka was made the temporary seat of Government. It was required by an article among the miscellaneous that the first Legislature should provide by law for submitting the question of the permanent location of the capital to a popular vote.

The schedule provided that the constitution and the clause preventing a homestead from a forced sale should be submitted to the ratification or rejection of the people at an election on the first Tuesday of October, and in case the constitution was duly adopted by the majority, an election should be held on the first Tuesday in December for all the State, District and County officers, provided for in that in

strument.

The convention completed its labors on the 28th of July, and the constitution was adopted as a whole, by a Republican majority-the Democrats voting against it. The debates and full proceedings of this body were published, making a small octavo of over four hundred pages.

The constitution was duly ratified on the 4th of October by the following popular vote: For the constitution, 10,421;

against the constitution, 5,530; for the Homestead clause, 8,788; against Homestead, 4,772.

Both parties held their conventions and nominated candidates for the elections of officers on the 6th of December, under the constitution. The following is the result of that election for all State officers, the Democrats with a star before their names, the others being Republicans:

For members of the State Legislature the political result stood as follows: In the Senate twenty-two Republicans and three Democrats; in the House of Representatives fourteen Republicans and eleven Democrats.

Persons having been appointed to take the census who were rather unfavorable to the admission of Kansas, and there being no funds to defray expenses, it followed that the provisions for taking the census were not fully carried out, and the enumeration in many counties very imperfectly, or not at all, taken. The consequence was that the report of the census returns showed a population of only 69,950 whites, 406 blacks and 21,628 voters, whereas the committee appointed by the Council at the next session of the Legislature to investigate the matter, were of the opinion that the population was about 97,570. This furnished a pretext for the Democracy to oppose the admission of Kansas and to keep her out of the Union one year longer.

CHAPTER L.

THE DROUTH.

The Territorial Legislature assembled at Lecompton on the 2d of January, 1860, and on the 6th adjourned to Lawrence, which occasioned a rupture between that body and the Executive. The Governor remained at Lecompton, to await the decision of the Attorney General upon the legality of this action of the Legislature, and the Secretary of the Territory refused to furnish the members, upon their reaching Lawrence, with papers, documents, stationery, printing, &c. In view of these facts, both branches of the Legislature passed a concurrent resolution on the 18th day of January, to adjourn sine die, without having accomplished anything in the way of Legislation.

The Governor immediately issued his proclamation, callthe Legislature to convene at Lecompton the following day, "then and there to consider and perform such duties as are demanded by the interests and necessities of the people." The Legislature re-assembled pursuant to the call, but again adjourned to Lawrence, where it remained in session until the 27th of February, and faithfully performed its work, enacting many salutary and much needed laws.

The year of 1860 is remarkable for an unprecedented drouth, which occasioned what is generally termed the "Kansas famine." The facts in the case are briefly stated. From the 19th of June, 1859, to November, 1860, there

was not a shower of rain fell at any one time, to wet the earth two inches in depth. During the intervening winter, there were two slight snows, neither of which concealed the ground from view. The roads were never muddy, during the whole period, and during the summer, the ground would break open in great cracks, embarrassing the rolling of wagons, while the winds blew with a burning and parching sirocco's blast from the south, and with the hot beams of an unclouded sun, parched the soil and burned up vege

tation.

Such was the frightful character of the drouth, which it becomes faithful history to record. The consequence was, that the crops in the Territory were almost an entire failure. Fall wheat, induced by the snow and frost of winter, shot forth in the spring, but withered and died when that moisture was exhausted. Spring wheat, of which there was little sown, fared no better. Out of 4,000 acres of good land sown in Shawnee county, not five hundred bushels were raised-less than one-eighth of a bushel to the acre. Other counties did some better, but most of them did not harvest a bushel. Esculent vegetables were a perfect failure everywhere; not a cabbage, bean, radish, onion or anything of the kind was raised. Potatoes and turnips-the next things to the staff of life-were likewise failures. From the carefully prepared statistics of Shawnee county, it is shown that two hundred and seventy-nine acres of potatoes were planted, and only ten bushels raised; seventysix acres of beans produced but ten bushels; from two hundred and twenty-four acres of Ilungarian grass, only ten tons were mowed; while buckwheat, turnips and garden vegetables were utter failures. Corn fared some better. The low bottom lands, where properly tilled, averaged almost one-third of a crop, and the high lands and ridges produced no grain whatever-only dry fodder. From the above statistical table it is shown, that from 3,319 acres of