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ing from the service of his master or owner, or shall assist, harbor, or conceal any slave who may have escaped from the service of his master or owner, he shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than five years.

§ 8. If any person in this territory shall aid or assist, harbor or conceal, any slave who has escaped from the service of his master or owner in another state or territory, such persons shall be punished in like manner as if such slave had escaped from the service of his master or owner in this territory.

§ 9. If any person shall resist any officer while attempting to arrest any slave that may have escaped from the service of his master or owner, or shall rescue such slave when in custody of any officer or other person, or shall entice, persuade, aid, or assist such slave to escape from the custody of any officer or other person who may have such slave in custody, whether such slave may have escaped from the service of his master or owner in this territory, or in any other state or territory, the person so offending shall be guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years.

§ 10. If any marshal, sheriff, or constable, or the deputy of any such officer, shall, when required by any person, refuse to aid or assist in the arrest and capture of any slave that may have escaped from the service of his master or owner, whether such slave shall have escaped from his master or owner in this territory, or any state or other territory, such officer shall be fined in a sum of not less than one hundred, or more than five hundred dollars.

§ 11. If any person print, write, introduce into, publish, or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, published, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing into, printing, publishing, or circulating, within

this territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magazine, handbill, or circular, containing any statements, arguments, opinion, sentiment, doctrine, advice, or inuendo, calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of their masters, or to resist their authority, he shall be guilty of felony, and be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than five years.

§ 12. If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into this territory, written, printed, published or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years.

§ 13. No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in this territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of any prosecution, for any violation of any of the sections of this act.

AN ACT TO PUNISH PERSONS DECOYING SLAVES FROM

THEIR MASTERS.

§1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of Kansas Territory: If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of this territory, any slave belonging to another, with intent to deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, or with intent to effect or procure the freedom of such slaves, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and on conviction thereof, shall suffer death.

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§2. If any person shall aid or assist in enticing, decoying, or persuading, or carrying away, or sending out of this territory, any slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or effect the freedom of such slave, or with intent to deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and on conviction thereof, shall suffer death.

§3. If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of any state or other territory of the United States, any slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or effect the freedom of such slave, or to deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, and shall bring such slave into this territory, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, in the same manner as if such slave had been enticed, decoyed, or carried sway out of this terriory; in such case the larceny may be charged to have been committed in any county of this territory into or through which such slave shall have been brought by such person, and, on conviction thereof, the person offending shall suffer death.

The sober and well-intended residents of the territory seem at once to have repudiated the action of the territorial legislature. They regarded it as an assemblage that had been forced upon them. They determined not to submit to the control of a body-many of whose members were non-residents, and all of whom had been elected to office by non-resident voters over the heads of voters of the territory. On the fifth day of September, 1855, a convention representing the people of Kansas was held at Big Springs, numbering in all one hundred delegates. That convention resolved to repudiate all the acts of the territorial legislature; to take no part in the election of a delegate, which that body had appointed to be held; but to appoint an election to be held one week after that one

Ex-Governor Reeder, who had been removed by the President, and Governor Shannon appointed in his place, was agreed upon as candidate for delegate. It was expected that he would be elected without much opposition; and that, as Mr. Whitfield would be again elected by the Missourians, the effect would be to bring the question of popular rights in Kansas before the House of Representatives at Washington. A committee of the House was sent, in April last, 1856, to Kansas, for the purpose of investigating the character of these elections.

Another convention, on the nineteenth day of September, assembled at Topeka, and adopted a resolution, "by the people of Kansas Territory, in delegate convention assembled," authorizing the holding of an election on the second Tuesday of October, for members of a convention to form a state constitution, preparatory to application for admission into the Union. The number of delegates was fixed at fifty-two, and the convention was authorized to be held at Topeka on the fourth Tuesday of October. The election was accordingly held at the appointed time. No non-resident was permitted to vote, and no resident who had not been such for at least thirty days. The constitutional convention assembled, and adopted a constitution for the State of Kansas, eminently republican in its character, and commending itself to the people of the territory, by whom it was ratified, and who, soon afterward, proceeded to the election of state officers to carry the new government into effect, That, in brief, is the political position of the people of Kansas, who are now awaiting the action of the federal government to recognise them as a free and independent state. Charles Robinson was elected governor.

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CHAPTER XX.

AID SOCIETIES AND PREEMPTIONS.

SEVERAL Societies have been organized in the eastern and middle states, to facilitate emigration to Kansas; and through them such arrangements have been made with the different railroad and steamboat lines as lessens very materially the expense of removing to those distant regions. Under these arrangements, the following tables will show the routes, distances, time, and fares, from New York to St. Louis.

From New York, viâ the New York and Erie Railroad, Lake Shore Railroad, and Chicago and Mississippi Railroad, to St. Louis; fare, twenty-eight dollars-meals and state-rooms extra.

From New York, viâ Hudson River Railroad, New York Central Railroad, Southern Michigan Railroad, and Chicago and Mississippi Railroad, to St. Louis; fare to St. Louis, twenty-six dollars; whole distance, 1,760 miles.