also members of the Territorial Legisla-jected both bribes and threats, and at the ture, met at Topeka. Their object merely election held on the 3d of August, by ten was to keep up the State organization. thousand majority, trampled the LecompAt the election of the 4th of January, a ton Constitution under their feet. The Territorial Legislature, whose sesmajority of 10,226 votes was cast against the Lecompton Constitution. The result sion expired by law with the month of of the Lecompton State election long February, had failed to meet the expec remained in doubt. It was understood tations of its constituents. The members that a little over six thousand votes (a had been altogether too much engrossed large part of the Free-State men not by private bills for banks, railroads, townvoting) had been given for both sets of plots, etc., to have much time or thought candidates for State officers, but accord- to give to public interests. The most ing to Calhoun's figuring, the Pro-Slavery obnoxious of the Border Ruffian acts were men were chosen. It was also understood repealed, and a bill was passed to call a that the Free-State men, of whom a large Convention to frame a new State Constipart had voted for members of the Legis-tution; it was so late, however, in the Îature, had a decided majority in both session, when this bill was disposed of, branches of that body; but all depended as to afford Governor Denver a plausi upon the returns from Leavenworth ble pretence for insisting that it had failed County, the returns for some districts of to become a law. which had been falsified on their way to Calhoun, and as he kept the whole body of returns in his pocket, and refused to certify to anybody's election till Congress had first acted on the question by admission, the matter long remained in doubt. It was generally understood that if Kansas was admitted, Calhoun would cook up the returns so as to produce a Pro-Slavery State government and Legislature.

The Convention met, however, in April, and framed a Constitution to be submitted to Congress, which Constitution was ratified by the people by a large majority, though the entire vote upon it was but small, as the people doubted whether Congress, after their recent act, would consent to admit Kansas as a State, with her present population.

Meanwhile, Kansas has enjoyed an unIn spite of this renewed and unequivo- easy sort of quiet, not, however, without cal indication of the entire repugnance of some cruel and bloody events in the a large majority of the people of Kansas region about Fort Scott, where the Border to the Lecompton Constitution, the Presi-Ruffians made their final stand, and dent still adhered to the policy of forcing against whom the Free-State men were Kansas into the Union, under that Con- obliged to arm in self-defence. Indeed stitution. A bill to that effect was intro- there can hardly be said to have been duced. Mr. Douglas falling back upon any law anywhere in the Territory. Govhis doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, re-ernor Denver adopted the policy of keepfused to support it, and, though it passed ing quiet and doing little, or nothing the Senate, in spite of every exertion of The infamous Lecompte still remained the executive power, it was rejected in the chief justice of the Territory. It is true House. Some of the bolters were bought that the Free-State men had been enabled over; others were half bought over, so to displace by popular election the county that finally the bill passed, but only with officers and the Probate Judges, to whom a provision submitting the question of the Border Ruffian Legislature had given admission or not to a vote of the people a very wide jurisdiction, and to elect Freeof Kansas, who were also offered a large State men in their places; but the moment bribe in lands, to come in under the that these Probate Courts could no longer Lecompton Constitution, to which was be used for purposes of Border Ruffian added à prohibition against their coming oppression, Lecompte and his colleagues in under any other Constitution till they had the full population of 93,340. [A full account of these Congressional proceedings will be found in another part of the Almanac.]

It was still further attempted to bribe or delude the people of Kansas by an issue on the part of John Calhoun, of certificates to a majority of Free-State men as members elect of both branches of the Legisla

ture.

avowed their intention to decide against the validity of the law conferring general jurisdiction upon them, thus invalidating all the proceedings of those Courts, and throwing everything into confusion. To give Kansas an efficient government, and to wipe out the deep remaining traces of the oppression and misrule of which she has been the victim the speedy organization of a State government and her admission into the Union appear to be

The people of Kansas scornfully re-highly necessary.

HOW THEY ELECT BOGUS U. S. SENATORS IN INDIANA.

35

HOW THEY ELECT BOGUS U. S. SENATORS IN INDIANA.

IN 1845, fourteen years ago, it became sence of both Houses of the Legislature, the duty of the Indiana Legislature to and the Democracy determined to use elect a U. S. Senator. The House was this to trap their opponents into a Joint Whig by 10 majority, the Senate a tie, Convention, which, as no law for electing and Jesse D. Bright, as Lieutenant- Senators exists in Indiana, should immeGovernor, presided over it. Although diately after the counting elect two genthe House repeatedly invited the Senate tlemen to that office. The Republicans to meet them in joint convention to elect insisted that, in the absence of law, the the Senator, every one of their resolutions Constitution of the United States was the was lost in the Senate by the casting only guide in the matter. That instruvote of Mr. Bright, its president. The ment declares that Senators shall be election was thus staved off for the ses-elected by "the Legislature ;" and the sion; the next Legislature was "Demo- Constitution of Indiana defines the Lecratic," and Mr. Bright received the va- gislature to be the Senate and the House, cant senatorship as his reward. and requires all acts of legislation by

In 1855, another Senator was to be them to be assented to by a majority of elected. In the Senate, in consequence the entire membership of each, acting of half of its number being hold-overs, separately.

there was 2 Democratic majority; but in From the official report, and the official the House there was 16 Anti-Nebraska copies of the journals of both branches of majority, making 14 Republican majority the Legislature appended to Senate Reon joint ballot. The House sent reso-port No. 275 (Vol. 2, Reports U. S. lution after resolution to the Senate for a Senate 1857-'8), we find the following Joint Convention to elect a Senator and facts: the numerous State officers which the Constitution and the laws required to be filled by that session of the Legislature. But the Senate, by a party vote, steadily refused to join the House, leaving the senatorial seat vacant, and the entire patronage of the State in the hands of the Democratic Governor.

of

On the 12th of January, 1857, the House sent to the Senate a resolution inviting them to be present in their hall at half past 2 P.M., "to open and publish the returns of the election.'

The Republican Senators offered to concur, with a proviso that, as soon as the counting and swearing in was over, Two years passed by, and, in 1856, In- the joint meeting should be adjourned diana elected her next Legislature-a sine die. But while this was pending, and majority on joint ballot, under the issue before any vote was taken on the invitaBuchanan and Fair Play for Kansas," tion of the House, and thirty-five minutes being Democratic. But, as it happened, before the time designated in the resoluwhile the House had a Democratic ma- tion, Lieutenant-Governor Willard, who jority, the Senate now, by the changes was presiding, and who was also the in the former hold-overs, had an Opposi- Governor elect, vacated his seat, and foltion majority of four. In giving a narra-lowed by a minority of the Senate, retive of what subsequently occurred, it paired to the Representative Hall, leavshould be borne in mind that the Repub-ing the Senate still in session. Arrived licans were willing, from the first to the there, this sham Joint Convention opened, last, that both Senators (to fill the vacancy the Speaker of the House in the chair. and for Mr. Bright's full term) should be After counting the votes, one of the Dechosen by a concurrent vote of each mocratic Senators was, without any moHouse, acting separately-and that they tion, or any vote, called upon to preside. demanded as their right, only the Senator He took his eat, and without any propofor the vacancy which they had fairly sition from any member whatever, or any won by the 12,000 Anti-Nebraska major-vote being taken, adjourned the Joint ity of the people and 14 majority in the Convention till Monday, the 2d of FebLegislature at the previous election, and ruary, without stating any reason or prewhich they had been deliberately cheated text for its reassembling. out of by their opponents.

It becoming evident that a fraudulent The Constitution of Indiana requires election of Senators was about to be atthat the votes for Governor and Lieute- tempted (all persuasions to seduce the nant-Governor shall be counted in pre-majority of the Senate into a Joint Con

adjourned sine die, and the patronage again left in the hands of the Governor for the ensuing two years.

The Senate, having protested against

vention having failed), the Senate, on the 29th of January, four days before the time at which the unauthorized Convention was to meet, adopted a solemn protest against it by a vote, by ayes and this fraud on the 29th of January, in adnoes, of 27 to 20, declaring that they had vance of its commission, again repudiated given no assent to any Joint Convention it the day after its alleged consummation. for any purpose whatever-that any pre- On the 5th of February, 27 Senators out tended assemblage of that sort would be of the 50, signed and placed on their illegal and fraudulent and branding in Journals a Protest, a copy of which they advance any attempt to thus elect Sena- sent to the U. S. Senate, declaring that tors as insulting to the Senate and dis- their body had not participated in the graceful to the State. election, was in session when it was preThis formal and solemn protest, thus tended to have occurred, and most adopted by 27 out of the 50 State Senators, solemnly protesting against the recog staggered the conspirators; and when nition of this fraud. With these papers, the 2d of February arrived, although the came up also a petition to the U. S. Sennew Lieutenant-Governor, with a minority ate, signed by 27 Senators and 36 Repreof the Senate, again repaired to the sentatives, remonstrating against this Representative Hall, leaving the Senate fraudulent election, which was not parstill in session and going on with their ticipated in by a quorum of either branch business, nothing whatever was done or declaring this alleged Joint Convention attempted; but the presiding officer, without any motion or any vote, and without stating any object whatever, declared the Joint Convention again adjourned till the following Wednesday.

Senators accompanied these protests, each of them solemnly declaring that they did not participate in this so-called Joint Convention, but were, at the very hour of its alleged assembling, sitting in their seats in the Senate, in open session.

unauthorized by any law of the State, by any resolution adopted by the Legislature, or by any provision of the State or National Constitution, and that to affirm it would destroy the existence of the On Wednesday, the 4th of February, Senate of Indiana as an independent the pretended Joint Convention again branch of the legislative department of assembled (and it should be borne in the State. And to make their argument mind that the affidavits of the Secretaries unanswerable, the sworn affidavit of 26 of the Senate set forth the fact that the Senate was never even invited by the House to meet them in Joint Convention for the purpose of electing Senators from the first day of the session till the last)-when, without any motion or resolution by any member of this illegal assemblage, the Thus it will be seen that this case differs Lieutenant-Governor instructed them "to from the Harlan or Iowa case most proceed to choose United States Senators by materially. In that election, both branches a viva voce vote." Whereupon 23 Sena- had agreed to the Joint Convention, and tors (out of 50) voted for Bright and had voted repeatedly but ineffectually for Fitch-one Senator, who was present, Senator; but finding at last that a Republooking on, refused to vote-60 out of the lican was about to be elected, a majority 100 Representatives (it requires by the of the Senate, being Democrats, absented State Constitution two-thirds of the whole themselves; and although Mr. Harlan number of members to make a quorum had a clear majority of the whole Legislafor transacting business in either branch) ture, the Democrats in the U. S. Senate voted for the same candidates, and two turned him out of his seat. After this other Representatives voted for Geo. G. decision, the above high-handed and disDunn and R. W. Thompson. The Lieu- graceful outrage was carried through in tenant-Governor declared Bright and Indiana in the very teeth of the Harlan Fitch elected; and again, without any decision. And the same U. S. Senate, motion or vote, adjourned the Joint Con- after staving it off for over a year, with vention till February 11th. The inten- the usurpers meanwhile in their seats, tion was, at that time, to go on and voting Lecompton, Appropriation bills, choose the State officers, whose election etc., ratify it at last, in the expiring hours they had prevented two years before; but of the last session, by seven majority. finding that the incumbents, though of their own party, would not consent, without a legal contest, to be ousted by any such bogus election, the Joint Convention, when the 11th of February arrived, was

The sitting members at the regular session of 1857-at the extra session-and again at the last regular session-insisted that they must have more testimony than the records afforded. And finally, on

Feb. 16, 1858, a resolution passed, giving tors for 30 years past, testified that there them 90 days to take it in, before any never had been a precedent or a parallel judge, by giving notice thereof to the for this. As one reason for retaining protestants. But after this long delay on these Senators in their seats was that this pretext, they did not give a single there were no contestants claiming them, notice under the resolution, and the only the Indiana Legislature, now in session evidence they proffered was ex parte and fresh from the people, having passed affidavits of political friends, taken when in each branch, by decisive majorities, a no cross-examination was allowed. The Republicans, however, gave notice, and proved by Gov. Willard himself, by Wm. Sheets, ex-Sec'y of State, and O. H. Smith, ex-U. S. Senator, that no Joint Convention to count gubernatorial votes had ever even attempted to adjourn over for the transaction of other business; and the two latter witnesses, who had known the usage in Indiana for electing U. S. Sena

resolution denouncing the pretended eléction as fraudulent, unconstitutional and void, propose to elect two others, legally and regularly, and to instruct them to demand the two seats in the U. S. Senate, which belong to the sovereign State of Indiana, but to which that body, in spite of the above protests, saw fit to elect and install these fraudulent claimants.

UTAH AND THE MORMONS.

the Prophet, were shot at Nauvoo by a mob, in the cell of a jail, like vermin in a trap, and their followers were soon after driven out upon a desperate flight into the western wilderness; then, it was thought, the end had come to a mischievous heresy. But a stronger man than the Prophet Joseph was left to guide and govern his followers. Brigham Young, who had stood high in the confidence and esteem of his murdered chief, and was already eminent in the church, put aside all who contested with him the leadership of the Saints, and was elected Seer. Possessed of a rough eloquence, of persuasive manners, of great shrewdness, untiring energy and remarkable executive ability, he led the people, surrounded by enemies, robbed of their possessions, and driven from their homes, to a temporary settlement at Council Bluffs.

Mormonism is thirty-one years old, but its true history is yet to be written. A movement which was, at first, derided as a weak and absurd imposture, in ten years became formidable enough to be driven from State to State by exasperated and relentless mobs. A people bound together by a new, strange, and mysterious faith, which set them apart from the rest of the body politic, of which, nevertheless, they were still a part, enjoying the privileges and asserting the rights of citizenship, could hardly fail to become both feared and hated as they increased in numbers, and threatened to exercise a potent influence in political affairs. That they meant to gain and use such influence was the charge which, in those early days, was made against them, and the alleged provocation of the persecution to which they were subjected. But whether deserving or not of condemnation on this score, it is certain that they were called upon to In the course of the next season, the endure as much suffering as if they had "Lion of the Lord," as the Mormons called been the disciples of the purest, most their new Prophet, marshalled his followharmless, and most beneficent religion,ers for that long and perilous flight through proclaiming only peace on earth and good a wilderness of a thousand miles that lay will to man.

But when, fourteen years ago, the brothers Hyram, the Patriarch, and Joseph,

between the confines of civilization and the home he had chosen for them in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. This terrible

confines of civilization on the Atlantic and Pacific. And when the gold-fields of California were opened to that vast tide of emigration that flowed over them from the East, the Mormon settlement became a sort of half-way resting-place to those who went to the Pacific coast by the overland route. The Mormon influence over the Indians, through the peaceful re

journey of an army of men, women and children, encumbered with household stuff, beset with foes without in the Indians of the plains, weakened by pestilence and fever within, and suffering, sometimes starving, for want of food, was marked, from its beginning to its end, with the graves of the pilgrims. But the indomitable will of their leader, his unbounded influence over his followers, their un-lations they had cultivated with them, swerving belief that they were the chosen probably made that route a far safer one people of the Lord, and perhaps the con- than it would have otherwise been. But viction, enforced by years of persecution, it was not long before some of these emithat behind them, among their civilized grants complained that in the Mormons countrymen, they should never find rest themselves they found an enemy almost for the soles of their feet, sustained them as dangerous as the savages. They althrough their long and painful journey, leged that they were defrauded in trade, till at length they looked down from the plundered of their goods, robbed of their summit of a mountain upon the gleaming cattle, and, in various ways, harassed on beach of the Great Salt Lake, in the val- their toilsome journey. Such charges, ley of which they were to find a resting- however, the Mormons met with an indigplace. nant denial. They affirmed that the emigrants were the aggressors; that they mocked at Mormonism, insulting Mormon wives and outraging Mormon husbands; that they turned their cattle into Mormon fields, helped themselves, without pay, to Mormon produce; laughed at the Mormon judges, before whom they were arraigned, escaping the penalty of their misdeeds by defiance or by flight; and, in short, conducted themselves always as if among a people toward whom they were under no obligation of observing any relation of fair dealing or good fellowship. And this representation was fully confirmed by Lieut. Gunnison, who was very familiar, for a considerable period, with the affairs of the Territory. Such accusations, however, had their effect, and did much to awaken the early feeling of hostility against the "Saints," and which they had fled to the wilderness to escape. The death afterward of Lieut. Gunnison still further increased the popular enmity. This officer was one of the surveying party under Capt. Stansbury, and published a book upon the Mormons, after his return to the States, which, it was said, was not acceptable to the people of Utah. On a subsequent surveying tour in their territory, he and most of his party were treacherously murdered by the Indians. It was asserted that the murder was connived at by Young, or that, at least, he might have prevented it. The mere suggestion of such a crime found ready believers, and but little credence was given to the emphatic denial of the Mormons, who declared that the murder was committed at a time and place where it was impossible for them to have interfered, and that, moreover, the motive, on

66

In those early days, both before and for some years after they fled beyond the confines of civilization, the worst feature of their faith was rather suspected than known. They were believed to be fanatics, holding tenets at variance with the dogmas of Christianity and the historical truths of the Bible, and to be blindly obedient to the guidance of designing leaders. Polygamy had, indeed, been revealed to the Seer as the true relation of woman to man as early as 1843, but the revelation had not yet been made known to the 'Saints," and was not till about ten years later. But they were suspected both of the theory and practice of a plurality of wives, and though it was repeatedly denied by their elders and missionaries, the belief obtained that an attempt was to be made to establish among us, as part of a social and religious scheme, a system so abhorrent to the received morality of Christendom. The belief was at least prophetic; in 1853, polygamy was openly announced and defended as the Peculiar Institution of the people of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.

In the meantime, that people, with an industry and sobriety which, whatever else may be said of them, they certainly possess in an eminent degree, were subduing the soil, reclaiming the wilderness, breaking nature to harness, clothing the Great Valley with towns and cities, and covering it with farms. A prosperous commonwealth, sufficient to itself, gradually increasing in wealth and power, and rapidly adding to its numbers from the world without, particularly from Europe, grew up in that middle land between the