34th CONGRESS, 1st Session.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

REPORT No. 200.

KANSAS AFFAIRS.

JULY 23, 1856.-Resolved, That one hundred thousand copies extra, each, of the Majority and Minority Reports of the Kansas Investigating Committee (without the journal and evidence) be printed for the use of the members of the House.

Mr. HOWARD, from the Select Committee, made the following

REPORT.

{Mr. MORDECAI OLIVER submitted the views of the minority, herewith printed.]

The Special Committee appointed to investigate the troubles in the Territory of Kansas, having performed the duties required by the House, beg leave to submit the following report:

A journal of proceedings, including sundry communications made to and by the committee, was kept; a copy of which is herewith submitted.

A copy of the testimony has been made and arranged; not according to the order in which it was taken, but so as to present as clearly as possible a consecutive history of events in the Territory from its organization to the 19th day of March, A. D. 1856.

This copy and the original, with copies of the census rolls and the poll-books of all the elections, are herewith submitted.

Your committee deem it their duty to state, as briefly as possible, the principal facts proven before them. When the act to organize the Territory of Kansas was passed on the 30th of May, 1854, the greater portion of its eastern border was included in Indian reservations not' open for settlements, and there were but few white settlers in any portion of the Territory. Its Indian population was rapidly decreasing, while many emigrants from different parts of our country were anxiously waiting the extinction of the Indian title, and the establishment of a Territorial government, to seek new homes on its fertile prairies. It cannot be doubted that if its condition as a free Territory had been left undisturbed by Congress, its settlement would have been rapid, peaceful, and prosperous. Its climate, its soil, and its easy access to the older settlements, would have made it the favored course for the tide of emigration constantly flowing to the West, and by this time it would have been admitted into the Union as a free State, without the least sectional excitement. If so organized, none but the kindest feelings could have existed between its citizens and those of the adjoining State. Their mutual interests and