By the act calling this convention, a census of voters was to be taken, on the basis of which, previous to the choice of delegates, an apportionment was to be made. This census, falling into the hands of the pro-slavery sheriffs, was grossly unjust, most of the free state voters being unenumerated, and some counties entirely omitted. The apportionment and all the arrangments for the election of delegates were made, so as to perfectly ensure the return of a pro-slavery majority in the convention. Under these circumstances the free state men again refused to vote and the whole number of votes cast was only about two thousand.

The election took place on the 15th of June, and the delegates thus chosen met in convention at Lecompton on the 4th of September, 1857. After organizing they adjourned until October. In the meantime an election for members to the territorial legislature was held, in which the free state men participated, some show of fairness having been secured. The result of this election, notwithstanding many gross attempts at fraud, secured a legislature of thirty-six free state members to sixteen pro-slavery. The free state delegate to congress was chosen at the same time by seven thousand six hundred votes, against three thousand seven hundred for the pro-slavery candidate, showing the free state settlers to be in a large majority in the territory.

1 Since the above was written, Governor Walker, himself, has testified to the following facts: ** Shortly after I arrived at Lecompton," says Mr. Walker, "the county of Douglas, of which Lecompton is the capital, held a democratic meeting, and nominated eight gentlemen, I think, as delegates to the Lecompton convention, of which John Calhoun, then the surveyor-general of the territory, was at the head. The resolutions of the meeting required them to sustain the submission of the constitution to the vote of the people. They published a written pledge to that effect. Rumors were circulated by their opponents that they would not submit the whole constitution to the people. They published a second circular, a day or two before the election, denouncing these rumors as falsehoods, and reaffirming their determination, if elected, to submit the constitution to the people. But for these assurances it is universally conceded they had no chance whatever of being elected-not the slightest.

I still continued to entertain not the shadow of a doubt that the constitution would be submitted to a vote of the people by the convention, nor do I believe the slightest doubt existed in the territory. I deem it due to frankness to say, that from my long residence in the south, and my general views on the subject of slavery, I should have greatly preferred that a majority of the people of Kansas would have made it a slave state. I avowed these views very fully in my public communications in Kansas. I never disguised my opinions upon this subject. But at the same time it was perfectly obvious to myself and to every person that it was possible to accomplish that object by no fair means in Kansas. I was determined that, so far as my action was concerned, there should be a fair vote of the people, and that I would countenance no frauds, or forgeries, or villainy of any kind, in connection with a question so solemn as that. This attempt to make Kansas a slave state developed itself in the fall of 1857. It first was fully developed by the terrible forgeries in the pretended returns. They were not legal returns that were sent to me as governor of the territory, and which I rejected, although that rejection gave a majority of the territorial legislature to my political opponents, the republicans. The first forgery presented to me was the case at Oxford, which was a forgery upon its face, and that it was so has since been acknowledged by one of the judges whose names were signed to it. In a public document he declares that he never did affix his signature to it. In Oxford, some sixteen hundred votes were attempted to be given in a village of six houses, where there were not fifty voters, and it is now ascertained that not thirty votes were really given. The rest were all forgeries.

The next return presented was from McGee county, where there certainly were not twenty voters, but which was returned as over twelve hundred voters, given at three different precincts, and where it is now ascertained that there was no election holden at all—not a vote given."

The convention reassembled at Lecompton, and framed a constitution recognizing slavery and declaring the right of property in slaves to be higher than any law or constitution. Notwithstanding the members had pledged themselves to submit the constitution they were to frame, to the suffrages of the people, no such provision was adopted by the convention. Only the section relating to slavery was to be so submitted, and it was by an artful precaution made impossible to vote for or against that section without, at the same time, voting for the whole constitution. The free state settlers refusing to vote, the slavery permission was adopted by a vote of six thousand one hundred forty-three to five hundred and sixty-nine. Three-fourths of the affirmative votes were proved to be fraudulent.

Early in February, 1858, the president sent to congress a special message, with the constitution thus formed at Lecompton, recommending the admission of Kansas into the Union under that constitution. In the house the subject was referred to a select committee, on motion of Mr. Harris, of Illinois, by a vote of one hundred and fourteen to one hundred and eleven. The speaker, contrary to usage, appointed a committee opposed to the object of the

mover.

In the senate, after a debate of several weeks duration, a bill was passed to admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution; ayes thirty-three, nays twenty-five. Bell, Broderick, Crittenden, Douglas, Pugh and Stuart voted nay with the republicans. Previous to the final passage of the bill Mr. Crittenden moved a substitute providing that the Lecompton constitution should be submitted to the people of Kansas; if approved, the president should by proclamation admit Kansas into the Union; if rejected by the people, a new convention might be called to frame another constitution. Mr. Crittenden's substitute was rejected in the senate by a vote of twenty-four to thirty-two-Bell, Broderick, Douglas and Stuart voting aye with the republicans.

The bill as it passed the senate was taken up in the house on the first day of April. A motion to reject it was lost―ayes ninetyfive, nays one hundred and thirty-seven. Besides the republicans voting to reject the bill were Harris, of Illinois, and Hickman, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, immediately moved to substitute Mr. Crittenden's amendment for the senate bill. His motion was carried, and the house, by a vote of one hundred

and twenty to one hundred and twelve, adopted, substantially, the bill offered as a substitute in the senate by Mr. Crittenden.'

The bill, thus amended, was returned to the senate, where it was rejected by thirty-four to twenty-two. The house for several days maintained its position and refused to recede. The senate, equally obstinate, at length proposed a conference. The house, after one day's deliberation, by the close vote of one hundred and nine to one hundred and eight, accepted the proposition, and a conference committee was appointed-Green, Hunter and Seward, of the senate, with English, Stephens and Howard, of the house. Mr. English, who had voted in the house for the substitute, was the chairman. On the 23d of April, he reported to the house a compromise, Seward and Howard dissenting. This compromising bill· of which Mr. English was the reputed author, was prevaricating and double dealing in its terms, and a virtual surrender of the principle contained in Mr. Crittenden's substitute, which the house had just adopted by eight majority. While professing to submit the constitution to the people of Kansas, the bill provided that in case of an adverse vote, the territory should not be admitted until it contained ninety-three thousand three hundred and forty inhabitants, and also that it should thereby forfeit its right to large allotments of the public lands heretofore set apart for internal improvement and education in the territory. It nevertheless passed the house by one hundred and twelve to one hundred and three,' and the senate by thirty to twenty-two, Broderick, Crittenden, Douglas and Stuart persisting in their opposition. It was promptly signed by the president, and under its provisions the constitution was submitted to the people of Kansas. They rejected it by a large majority, only one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight voting in its favor and eleven thousand three hundred against it. Mr. Seward's speeches during this contest in the senate, are remarkable for their ability and comprehensive views. They trace with historical accuracy and striking effect the various acts of the pro-slavery party,

1 The democrats who voted for the "Crittenden amendment," as it was called, were Messrs. McKibbin of California; Morris, Harris, Shaw, Smith and Marshall, of Illinois; English, Foley and Davis, of Indiana; Adrian, of New Jersey; Haskin and Clark, of New York; Pendleton, Groesbeck, Cockerill, Hall, Lawrence and Cox, of Ohio; Jones, Hickman, Montgomery and Chapman, of Pennsylvania. Messrs. Underwood, Marshall, Davis, Ricaud, Harris and Gilmer, representatives of slaveholding states, also voted with the republicans.

2 Among those who receded from their former positions were Messrs. English, Foley, GilmerCockerill, Cox, Groesbeck, Hall, Lawrence, Pendleton and Jones.

in congress and in Kansas, in its persevering efforts to establish slavery in that territory.

During the session, Mr. Seward advocated and voted for the admission of Oregon and Minnesota into the Union. He, at the same time, opposed the proscriptive features contained in the constitution of Oregon, and protested against any indorsement of the prejudice on which the proscriptions rested. Minnesota was admitted, but the bill for the admission of Oregon, after passing the senate, failed in the house of representatives]

One of the most remarkable pages in the history, of Mr. Buchanan's administration will be that which relates to his management of affairs in the territory of Utah. Having formally removed Brigham Young from the office of governor and appointed Alfred Cumming as his successor, the president determined to send a body of troops to Utah with the new governor, to act as his posse comitatus. This little army, only three hundred strong, with a train of wagons six miles in length, started on its long and dangerous march in the autumn of 1857. During its tedious journey the train was attacked by the Indians on the route, robbed of its cattle, overtaken by Siberian snows and despoiled of a large portion of its supplies. Five hundred of its animals died in one night of cold and hunger, and fifty wagons were captured and burned by emissaries of Brigham Young. After repeated hardships, and losses amounting to millions of dollars, the train reduced to a fragment of its original proportions, arrived within one hundred miles of Salt Lake city and there went into winter quarters. A serious abridgment of rations was necessary to save the army from starvation. Brigham Young resolutely forbade the entrance of Governor Cumming and his forces into the city, and it was only by a mortifying submission that they were allowed to remain in their encampment without destruction. Thus, for several months, the rebellious people of Utah were suffered to harass and destroy the army of the United States and put its authority at defiance. Fortunately for humanity, an actual conflict was avoided by the interposition of a private gentleman of influence and practical benevolence.' The dishonor of the administration's conduct, however, remains. A bill, introduced in the senate, increasing

1 Thomas L. Kane, of Pennsylvania.

the army of the United States in view of the then threatened rebellion in Utah, was debated at much length and with great vigor.

Mr. Seward, with that patriotic regard for the honor of his country which characterizes all his acts and speeches, supported the bill and advocated the most efficient measures for suppressing the rebellion and restoring the supremacy of law and order. His speeches on the subject in the senate created not a little excitement in that body and among the people. In this instance as in others he did not hesitate, in view of all the circumstances, to separate himself, for the time, from some of his political friends. He believed it to be his duty to sustain the honor and dignity of the government even if he thereby gave aid and comfort to Mr. Buchanan's administration. And already it is generally conceded that Mr. Seward, in merging the partizan in the patriot, has strengthened his position before the country as a statesman.

An adventurer, named William Walker, during President Pierce's administration, made several expeditions, in violation of our neutrality laws, to the Central American States on the isthmus, with the evident design of revolutionizing their governments and preparing the way for their becoming slaveholding states. President Buchanan, like his predecessor, made a show of preventing these marauding expeditions, and Walker was repeatedly arrested; but his schemes seemed never to be thwarted.

On the 24th of November, 1857, he landed, with four hundred men, on the shores of Nicaragua, at Greytown, in full view of an armed vessel sent there by our government to watch and intercept him. Commodore Paulding, who was in the vicinity, knowing the unlawful nature of Walker's enterprises, soon arrested him and sent him back to the United States, a prisoner. Walker was subsequently indicted and tried at New Orleans, but the jury failed to agree, and the prosecution was abandoned. Commodore Paulding, on the other hand, was treated with marked coldness by the administration, and resolutions were introduced in the senate and in the house, by the president's friends, condemning his course. Mr. Seward defended the arrest, and supported a resolution to present Commodore Paulding with a gold medal.

The first session of the thirty-fifth congress was brought to a close on the 16th of June, 1858.