Mr. Blanton, one of the judges, resigned the day before the election. It then devolved upon Mr. Cameron and Mr. Abbott to select another, which they did the next morning after assembling at the polls. By this time the imported voters had surrounded the polls. Col. Young, one of the leaders of the Missouri company, was first at the polls and took a species of oath as to his being an actual and bona fide settler, satisfactory to two of the judges, but not so to Mr. Abbott. Young stated to the dense crowd that he had sworn, and hoped that all would take the same oath, but a great many refused. Mr. Abbott then resigned, another was chosen. The judges were then two pro-slavery and one Free State, after which but four or five were sworn, and then the election proceeded with great vigor. All voted who desired, and there were 783 votes polled for the Missouri ticket, and 255 for the Free State ticket. Some little excitement went off through the day. Mr. Stearns, who was present taking notes, was threatened owing to some misunderstanding of what he had written in his book. While he was explaining, Mr. Bond was pointed out as the "Yankee bully," whereupon a number cried, "shoot him." He ran off the premises, and some one fired a shot to facilitate his removal.

The whole affair was a miserable farce. A great many of the settlers who came in to vote early in the morning, being kept from the polls so long, and thus seeing their rights so basely trampled upon, retired home without voting, saying that they regarded it no election, and would, therefore, have nothing to do with it.

The foreign voters, finding they had too many here, sent two hundred and fifty up to Tecumseh; even then there were a great number of the most respectable class that did not vote. A number of persons, who have said all along that they were Free-State men, voted the Missouri ticket, because they did not like the other. And there were a good many Free State men who did not vote at all, and there was from seventy-five to one hundred Eastern emigrants just arrived, who voted the Free-State ticket. This we tried to prevent, but could not, as the pro-slavery imported voters used this as their great argument, that if Eastern persons have a right to come in just before the election and vote, persons of other states have also the same right. When we saw that we were so entirely overpowered, we thought it best not to give the pro-slavery party any shadow of pretext in this regard. The election passed off in all other places just as it did here. So thorough was the organization of the imported voters, that they designed carrying every precinct in the territory, by large majorities. The whole design of the persons who came here was to vote, which they did, and then retired to their homes in the States.

In many places the Free-State men were driven from the polls - so that this election will be no test of their strength. Those judges who took the oath the Governor prescribed, and also permitted the illegal votes to be received and returned, will be in a very delicate position about the time the first Criminal Court sits in Kansas. The Governor will not give certificates of election to any one against whom there has been a protest entered, until he had heard the facts in the case.

"A cargo of rotten oranges once introduced death by thousands in Philadelphia (in the shape of yellow fever). A more horrible disease, and one followed by many deaths, we fear, may be the consequence if this mass of corruption, and worse than leprous loathsomeness, is permitted to land and traverse our beautiful country.

Mr. William E. Connelley, Topeka, Kansas.

Dear Sir: Before writing a description of the election of March the 30th, 1855, I should give our reason for voting at that election as follows:

We knew that Eli Thayer and Horace Greeley had organized the New England Emigrant Aid Society to send Free-Soil voters to Kansas to make it a free state, and that they were passing up the Missouri River on steamboats continually and was well armed. Our opinion was that if the north had the right to hire men to go to Kansas to vote to make it a free state the Missourians had the right to go there without being hired to vote to make it a Slave State. 800 men went from Lafayette County to Baptist Peoria's (now Paola) on Bull Creek, forty miles south of Lawrence; and as more voters were there than was needed to carry that precinct, many of us was sent to Lawrence, where we arrived the night of the 29th and went into camp on the bank of the Kansas River above the town, where we were welcomed by many other Missourians who had preceded us - all of whom assembled at a log cabin near the river bank.

Soon two election judges arrived from Lawrence, and entered the cabin. Other judges were appointed but before opening the polls there was some sparring in regard to the oath to be taken by the voters. The Kansas judges insisted that every voter should swear that he was a bona fide citizen of Kansas, to which the Missouri judge objected, and proposed that all should swear that they were inhabitants of Kansas (which they were at the time), which was agreed to and the voting began. A few took the oath at the start, which was soon dispensed with. Then it was free for all. I voted and took the oath. In a little while the two Kansan judges came out of the cabin and left the place. By ten o'clock the mass of humanity was so dense and compact that it was almost impossible to get back after voting. Some were lifted up by the Committee on Elevation, placed on the eve of the roof, went over the comb, and were received at the opposite eve and lowered to the ground by the Committee on Descent. The second time I voted (only voted twice), I went over the roof, and I know from my own experience that the performance on the roof of the cabin was really and truly high and lofty tumbling.

Some voted many times. One old planter near this place said he voted 144 times. One man from Lawrence expressed his opinion too freely. When some of our men went for him he made a break for the river bank and as he went over it Joseph J. Chin (one of Doniphan's men) fired his pistol in the air with no intention of hitting him, but to accelerate his speed. The pro-slavery party elected their candidates and controlled the first territorial convention to Kansas.

Jo Shelby was there doing a great deal of loud talking. and after a heated wordy contest with Mr. Brown, [G. W. Brown] of Lawrence, dined with him.

The Missourians went to that election well armed.

Most respectfully,