authority of the United States marshals, sheriffs, or other proper civil officers, for the purpose of preserving the public peace, and to aid in the due execution of the laws.

You are accordingly directed to make the following disposition of your command, viz:

The two companies of the 6th infantry will be halted at Council Grove, in Wise county.

One company of 1st cavalry will be sent immediately to each of the following named places in the Territory, viz:

Emporia, in Breckenridge county; Burlington, in Coffey county; Hyattsville, in Anderson county; and Brownsville, in Shawnee county.

Should any of the places named above prove to be those in which no elections are to be held, then the said companies will proceed to the principal points, respectively, in said counties, which are election precincts.

Each officer in command of the above named detachments will be instructed by you to report his force as "posse comitatus" to the United States marshals, sheriffs, or other proper civil officers, upon his arrival at his place of destination, to execute such instructions as may be given him in that capacity; and he will remain in that position until the day succeeding the election, when he will return to this post, unless the above mentioned civil authorities, in the execution of their duties, should deem it necessary to detain the command for a longer period.

In case any of these commands have not sufficient subsistence to supply them, send your train, or a portion of it, to this post for that purpose.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. PLEASONTON,
Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Asst. Adj. Gen.

Lieutenant Colonel J. E. JOHNSTON,

1st Cavalry, Commanding Troops en route to Fort Leavenworth.

Official:

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,
Fort Leavenworth, September 25, 1857.

A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Asst. Adj. Gen.

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 22, 1857. MAJOR: The general commanding instructs me to inform you the general election in this Territory will take place on the first Monday of October next, and that the governor of the Territory has deemed it proper and necessary to make requisition upon him for the force

under your command, to act as a "posse comitatus," under the authority of the United States marshals, sheriffs, or other proper civil officers, for the purpose of preserving the public peace, and to aid in the due execution of the laws.

You are, accordingly, directed to make the following disposition of the force under your command, viz:

The two companies of the 6th infantry will be halted at Marysville, in Marshall county.

One company of 1st cavalry will be sent immediately to each of the following named places in the Territory, viz:

To Richmond, in Nemaha county; to Claytonville, or Hiawatha, in Brown county; and to Palermo, in Doniphan county; and to Atchison, in Atchison county.

Should any of the places named above prove to be those in which no elections are to be held, then the said companies will proceed to the principal points, respectively, in said counties, which are election precincts.

Each officer in command of the above named detachments will be instructed by you to report his force as a "posse comitatus" to the United States marshal, sheriff, or other proper civil officer, upon his arrival at his place of destination, to execute such instructions as may be given him in that capacity; and he will remain in that position. until the day succeeding the election, when he will return to this post, unless the above mentioned civil authorities, in the execution of their duties, should deem it necessary to detain the command for a longer period.

In case any of these commands have not sufficient subsistence to supply them, send your train, or a portion of it, to this post for that purpose.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

Major J. SEDGWICK, 1st Cavalry.

Official:

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 25, 1857.

A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 24, 1857.

MAJOR Captain Sturgis, 1st cavalry, will deliver to you a package containing a number of copies of a proclamation from the governor of this Territory, which you are instructed by the general commanding to distribute to the officers of your command, giving directions, at the same time, to the captains of the different companies to present a copy

to each of the judges of election and sheriffs at the respective precincts to which they have been assigned in a former communication.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. PLEASONTON,

Cupt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

Major J. SEDGWICK, 1st Cavalry,

Official:

Commanding Troops, Marysville, K. T.

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 25, 1857.

A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 25, 1857. COLONEL: A number of copies of a proclamation from the governor of this Territory are enclosed to you with this communication, which you are instructed by the general commanding to distribute to the officers of your command, giving directions, at the same time, to the captains of the different companies to present a copy to each of the judges of election and sheriffs at the respective precincts to which they have been assigned in the letter of instructions addressed to you of the 22d instant from these headquarters.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

Lieut. Col. J. E. JOHNSTON, 1st Cavalry,

Official:

Commanding Troops, &c., Council Grove, K. T.

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS SERVING IN KANSAS,

Fort Leavenworth, September 25, 1857.

A. PLEASONTON,

Capt. 2d Dragoons, Acting Assist. Adjt. General.

TO THE PEOPLE OF KANSAS.

LECOMPTON, K. T., September 10, 1857. The first Monday in October, 1857, is the day assigned by law for the election, by the people of this Territory, of a delegate to the Congress of the United States, both branches of the territorial legislature, and various county officers. As the governor of Kansas, numerous and urgent calls have been made upon me by various public meetings and committees, by some of the judges of elections, and also by many

citizens, to communicate my views in relation to the qualifications of voters at that election, as also in regard to the legislative apportionment and the establishment of voting precincts.

As to the apportionment, the territorial election law of the 20th of February, 1857, requires it to be made upon the census provided to be taken under the territorial convention act of the 19th of February, 1857. The returns were made under that census, and the apportionment for that convention fixed by the acting governor long before my arrival in this Territory; and, of course, over that matter I have no control whatever. Whilst it was a cause of deep regret to him, as well as to myself, that the census and registry were so incomplete in many counties, and that in fifteen counties, organized as election districts under that law and entitled to vote for delegates to the convention, there was neither census nor registry, and, therefore, that they could not participate in any manner in the choice of delegates on that most important occasion; yet no power to remedy the evil was vested by law either in him or me. The only remedy rests with the convention itself, by submitting, if they deem best, the constitution for ratification or rejection to the vote of the people, under such just and reasonable qualifications as they may prescribe. That they would pursue this course I have never doubted; and although I have no right whatever to interfere in that question, yet, when my individual opinion was asked on this subject by members of the convention and others, I have always indicated a previous residence of three or six months prior to the vote upon the adoption of the constitution as most just and reasonable-a period of three months being prescribed by the convention law itself as the prior residence required in voting for delegates to the convention, and six months being designated by the territorial election law as the previous residence required in voting for members of the territorial legislature. Either of these qualifications, in my opinion, would have embraced the great body of the bona fide settlers who might be here this fall, inasmuch as the convention would probably not terminate their labors and submit the constitution until some time in November, and inasmuch as three or six months would probably be granted by them as an interval between the date of submission by the convention and the vote upon the constitution. I repeat, however, the opinion always heretofore expressed by me, that this is a matter which belongs exclusively to the convention, over which I have no power, except, in the language of the Kansas-Nebraska act, to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," including that organic act itself, and left at liberty, as a citizen, to take such a course as, in my judgment, would be most consonant with the principles of justice, of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and of the Constitution of the United States in any contingency.

The apportionment of members of both branches of the legislature is based, as I have stated, on the census taken under the convention act of the 19th of February, 1857. My power to make the apportion ment expired on the 31st of May last, leaving me but three days exclusive of Sunday, to perform that act after my arrival in thi Territory. The territorial laws of 1857 had never been printed They were then in the course of publication at St. Louis, Missouri

and no copy reached here until the middle of June, long after my power over the subject had expired. The existence of this apportionment law was wholly unknown to the secretary of state, to the probate judge of this county, or to any other person within my knowledge, and the printed copies, as I have stated, did not reach here until the middle of June. Of course it was impossible for me to perform the duty prescribed in that act, and to guard against the contingency of those laws not reaching here before the first of June, the duty, from and after that date, was devolved by law upon the speaker of the house and president of the council.

That duty was performed by the officers designated by the law, and, I have no doubt, in good faith, although I was never consulted by them on that subject. The law prohibited them from apportioning members to counties not embraced in the census under the convention law, and I know it to be a matter of complaint, by both parties, that the districts are arranged so as to defeat their respective candidates. That the districts were arranged by these gentlemen, as charged by their opponents, with a view to bring voters from the State of Missouri into the adjacent counties of Kansas to control the election, I have the most solemn assurance from the most authentic sources of intelligence in that State, is wholly unfounded in fact. That the census or registry was not made in fifteen counties of Kansas, is owing to the neglect of the local officers of those counties to perform their duties, many of whom have excused themselves on the allegation that no means were provided, and no public money applicable to the expenses of taking the census and making the registry, and that they were unable or unwilling to make the necessary advances themselves. However this may be, I have ever regarded it as a deplorable circumstance that these counties could not participate in the election of delegates to the convention; but I feel confident that no such result was anticipated by the territorial legislature.

Although none of those fifteen counties could vote for delegates to the convention, (the remedy for which lies with the convention itself,) and although no members have been or could be apportioned them for the territorial legislature, yet the speaker of the house and the president of the council, in conformity with the duty prescribed by law, have attached them to other legislative districts, so that they can vote for members of the territorial legislature.

It is certainly a great calamity that these counties are thus deprived of their due weight in the apportionment of members for the territorial legislature, yet they vote for the members in the districts to which they are attached, and the only result is to give too many members of that body to some counties, in the apportionment, according to population, and not an absolute denial of the right of suffrage. This result was not intended by the territorial legislature, and could not be prevented by the officers by whom the apportionment was made. There was no intention on the part of the territorial authorities to disfranchise these counties. But this has arisen from accidental causes, over which I have no authority to exercise any control whatever, and I could give no legal efficacy to any vote that was not legal in itself.