protesting against the power claimed by Governor Reeder in his election proclamation, to decide contested elections.

A committee was appointed to prepare a protest assigning our reasons for this denial. A committee of three was then appointed to wait upon the governor, and present him the protest. The committee consisted of Gen. Wm. P. Richardson, Samuel Williams, and myself. We denied, in our interview with the governor, that he had any power to decide as to contested elections, and contended that that power was with the legislative body; and that the presentation of the returns of the election formally made, were prima facie evidence of the right of members to their seats; and to these propositions the governor assented. We further contended, in our interview with him, that he had no right to order a second election, except in cases provided by the organic act. To this last proposition the governor read us a communication addressed to the Attorney General of the United States, asking his advice as to all the matters in controversy between the legislature elect and himself; asserting that if sustained in his opinion by the Attorney General, he would order new elections in those districts where the returns were informally made. But if not sustained, then he would grant certificates to those persons who had received the largest number of votes, or who had been returned as elected. During all this conversation there was no threat of any kind made against Governor Reeder, and no angry words used; but, on the contrary, Governor Reeder was treated with the utmost respect due to his station, and to the last day upon which I met him we were on amicable terms. We made our report to the members elect of the legislature; and I assured them that the governor's decision would be all we could require of him, as I was satisfied that he would grant certificates of election to a majority of each house, and recognise in that house their right to go behind his decision and investigate the entire matter. On the next day Governor Reeder made his decision known in writing to the members present, which was assented to by them, as it agreed with the assurance the committee made them on the day before. And on this last occasion no insults were offered to Governor Reeder, and no demonstration was made by him of anything like personal difficulty; the whole affair went off, so far as I could see, in the most amicable and friendly manner.

There was quite a large number of citizens of Missouri present on the day of election, who were drawn there from the reports which had reached us that large numbers of persons would be thrown in upon us from the free States for the purpose of controlling the election. The determination of the Missourians present was, to resist by all means this operaton of free-State men upon us; to prevent by mild means, if possible, this forcible control of our internal affairs, or by force if necessary.

I have been controlling a paper ever since February, 1855, and I have never urged any but bona fide settlers to emigrate to this Territory, either for the purpose of voting or for any other purpose.

There were numbers of Missourians at the polls on the 30th of March, pro-slavery men, who did not vote, and were not solicited to vote. I don't know that any citizen of Missouri voted; but some

may have done it, and I not know it. The result of the electio. would in no manner have been changed, had the Missourians votes or not voted.

To Mr. Sherman :

I never saw a circular purporting to be from General Stringfellow or any circular circulated on the day of election, advising Missourian to vote at that precinct. There was no such circular published at m; office. I saw at my office one copy of a paper purporting to be a ro view of Governor Reeder's proclamation, which spoke of the manne of conducting the election, and the returns thereof; and I think tha portion of his proclamation ordering the judges of election to destro any whiskey that might be on the ground for sale. I don't know, bu I do not believe that General Stringfellow wrote the paper referred to JOHN H. STRINGFELLOW.

LEAVENWORTH CITY, K. T., May 27, 1856.

HENRY ADDOMS called and sworn.

To Governor King:

I first came into the Territory in 1847, and have been here sinc the organization of the Territory, and reside at Atchison. So far a I have heard the testimony of Dr. Stringfellow and J. W. Foreman, concur in it relative to the several elections in the Doniphan precinct I was born and raised in the city of New York, and in 1838 came t Platte county, Missouri. I know of the first excitement in Westor. Missouri, in relation to the settlement of Kansas Territory; whic was the report of the Emigrant Aid Societies which had been formed for the purpose of throwing vast quantities of men into this Territor for the purpose of making it a free-State. The report was that ther were to be twenty thousand men sent forward, and the Emigrant Ai Society was formed by the principal abolitionists, who had been agi tating the United States for some years to make Kansas a free State and thereby to make it an entering-wedge for the making of Missour a free State; which was believed by the people when they first saw th companies coming on from the east.

The object of forming organizations in Missouri was to bring pe. sons living in that State over into the Territory who designed to em grate, and to counteract the movements of the aid societies. And believe, but for the eastern movements, there never would have bee any more excitement in the Territory than is ordinary in settling ne Territories.

LEAVENWORTH CITY, K. T., May 28, 1856.

HENRY ADDOMS.

FOURTEENTH DISTRICT-Wolf River Precinct.

Dr. G. A. CUTLER called and sworn.

I came into the Territory in February, 1854. I settled in the fourteenth district. I came from Andrew county, Missouri, here, and from Tennessee to Missouri. I resided in the fourteenth district until the 4th or 5th of March, 1856, and then removed to Topeka. I was among the first settlers in the fourteenth district, and practised medicine there for fourteen or fifteen months. I knew most every person in the Doniphan portion of the district, but did not in Wolf River and California, or what was subsequently made into the eighteenth district.

The day previous to the election of the 30th of March, 1855, at the Presbyterian mission, in the Wolf River precinct, commonly known as the Vandersluyce, on the morning of that day a large body of men came in in wagons, &c.; they themselves said 80 persons in number. There was considerable whiskey demolished there. They were all armed to the teeth. I did not know any of them. While there, they held a convention to unite on two men for the assembly. This crowd was under the command of General Atchison. The pro-slavery citizens there wished to have Mr. Thomas Vandersluyce and Joel Ryans; and Atchison's company wanted Stringfellow and Kirk elected. They could not agree very well. A man got up and made a speech, and, as near as I can recollect his words, he said: "Gentlemen, we want to unite on one ticket. There are 1,100 coming over from Platte county, and if that ain't enough we can send you 5,000 more. We came to vote, and we are going to vote, or kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district." I think he said "district;" but it was "district" or "territory." I asked a man nigh to me, a stranger, who that was, and he said it was old Davy Atchison. I never saw Mr. Atchison before or since. The Missourians succeeded in uniting on Stringfellow and Kirk. The majority of that party started up to what we called California or Nemaha, or in the eighteenth district, which I understood was afterwards put with the fourteenth district for council. Some of this party remained. The next day the election commenced at Wolf river in very good order, and everything went on right for about two hours. The ice was running in the Missouri river, and none could get across till ten or eleven o'clock. Finally, a crowd of men came from Missouri, and came into the house where the election was being held, stepped up to the ballot-box, and one of them offered to vote. His name was Felix Blakely. He was a resident of Missouri, and made the town of Atchison his home. Mr. Richardson-I do not know his first name-one of the judges of the election, spoke to him and said: "Mr. Blakely, you are a resident of Missouri, and have no right to vote in Kansas, and I cannot take your vote." Blakely told him that he was as much a resident in Kansas as he was, and that he had come there to vote, and would vote. Mr. Richardson still persisted in refusing to let him vote, and told him he had to take the oath as a judge, and he would not perjure himself.

There was a great deal of disturbance; Mr. Richardson was threatened considerably; they threatened to whip him if he would come out of doors, and wanted to do it in where he was, and he finally resigned. As soon as he resigned they elected in his place a man by the name of Mr. Wilson, a pro-slavery man, but I don't recollect his first name. After that they took all the votes that were offered. I went out, and advised my iriends to go home, as there was no use in staying here, which a number of them did. I was a candidate for the assembly. I started home, and on my way there I overtook a wagon load of men going back. I asked them where they were from: they said they were from Patte county, Missouri. I conversed with one of them, and he told me that he had voted, and a number of his friends had also voted; that he did not live in Kansas, and never expected to. He said he had not violated the organic law; that Atchison had helped to make the bill, and had told them they had a right to vote, and he knew a God-damned sight better than I did. I had his name on a slip of paper, but have lost it. I had a conversation with Mr. Thos. J. B. Cooper, judge of the election of the Nemaha district--the eigh

teenth district.

[Mr. Rees objected to the detail of this conversation, as being evidence.

Mr. Reeder stated he expected to prove that Mr. Cooper partici pated with a large number of Missourians in their illegal voting; was elected by them as a judge of the election, and served.

The committee overruled the objection and allowed the evidence, with the distinct understanding that the declarations of Cooper will be ext cluded and erased, unless he is distinctly connected with the alleged combination. From which Mr. Oliver dissented.]

Witness resumed: He said that the election was not conducted fairly in that district, but excused it on the ground that the Missourians ha as much right to vote as the pauper emigrants from Massachusetts He said that there were about eighteen resident votes given, of which all but two or three voted for me. He said it was his firm belief tha there were not forty legal voters in the district. The eighteenth dis trict lies about sixty miles west of the Missouri river, and runs to th Nebraska line the voting place being about six miles from the line. There is a large prairie, forty miles wide, to cross before getting t the voting place. I am confident that there never was, up to tha time, in the fourteenth and eighteenth districts, an emigrant sent ou by the Emigrant Aid Society, because I had made diligent inquirie all over the districts. The principal part, I suppose some four-fifths of the emigrants there, were from Missouri. I voted before thes strangers came to Wolf river, but required them to swear me before would vote.

I did not continue to canvass as a candidate, and advised my friend to refrain from voting, because I saw citizens of a neighboring Stat coming over in sufficient numbers to control the election. I heard great many threats in regard to contesting that election. Major Gen eral Richardson said, in a crowd in Doniphan, that myself and offic should be thrown into the Missouri river if I contested the election o sent a protest against it. We all believed that if a second electio

was held it would be a bloody one. I afterwards heard threats against the governor of the Territory-that if he failed to sign the certificates he should not live two hours. I heard these threats in Doniphan and in Missouri. I also received an anonymous letter, stating that if I contested the election I should be put out of my misery, or something to that effect. These threats were frequent.

I have examined the poll-list of Doniphan for the 30th of March, 1855. I find on that list about fifty-five names that live there now; but a number of those have come over since, I think. I cannot tell how many of the fifty-five have come since. I think some eight or ten, I can be positive, have come over since, but there are others I cannot be positive about. These Missourians professed to come from Platte county, in which county I am not acquainted. I find on the poll-lists some names of those who live in Missouri, right opposite, as follows: J. Christopher, B. G. Wells, William Christopher, W. C. Wells; Mr. Norris, whose first name I do not recollect; Mr. Fenton, who keeps store in Rushville, Missouri; W. Duning, B. O. Driscol; Dr. Brown-I think his name is A. Brown; a Mr. Mobley, a miller in Rushville. I find the names of three boys on the poll-list-John Thomas, Wm. Smith, and Ely Ward.

To Mr. Rees:

I saw no violence offered to any voter, except doubling up of fists, &c.; no blows struck. Everybody voted after Richardson resigned that wanted to, so far as I know, until I left, which was a few minutes afterward. A few of Mr. Achison's party stopped at Wolf rivera half dozen or more-for I went back with a wagon load.

Question. You speak of Missourians voting; do you know they were citizens of that State at that time?

Answer.—Those of Doniphan precinct I know to be residents of Missouri. Those at Wolf River precinct told me they were.

Question. Do you know that the same names you have spoken of were the same persons you knew in Missouri?

Answer. Yes, sir; I may be mistaken in two of them, Mr. Fenton and Mr. Norris, whose first names I do not know, but I think I am not mistaken.

Question Did you not propose to run on the pro-slavery ticket, in that district, as a candidate for the legislature?

Answer. No; being from the South, when I first came to Kansas I took no political grounds. In a conversation on the subject with John W. Foreman, I told him I was not ultra in my views, and gave him to understand that I was a free-State man, but not ultra in those opinions, which I was not.

Question. Did you not state, after you were a candidate, that you were fooling the free-State party, and that you were all sound? Answer. No, sir; I did not.

Question by Mr. Reeder. Was the name of the judge of the 18th district Cooper, or Cramer?

Answer. I find the name of the judge of the Doniphan district on my memorandum a Thomas J. B. Cooper. Upon hearing the name mentioned I am positive his name was Cramer. I wrote it, I think,