Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas,: with the views of the minority of said committee.

KANSAS AFFAIRS.
troubles in Kansas, by its "unauthorized and improper schemes of
foreign interference with the internal affairs and domestic concerns
of the Territory," and its "attempt to violate or circumvent the
principles and provisions of the act of Congress for the organization
of Kansas and Nebraska."
The fact is directly the reverse of what is here stated; and a regard
for truth and justice should have led to a careful inquiry into the
facts before these assertions were made. This Company has never
"interfered with the internal affairs of the Territory." It has never
attempted to "violate or circumvent" any act of Congress. It has
never, as a company, opposed the Kansas-Nebraska act.
The company was formed to aid in the permanent settlement of the
Territory of IKansas by a free and intelligent population. In the
prosecution of this purpose, it had reason to expect the approval and
co-operation of Congress. It anticipated that, in accordance with the
true intent of the Kansas-Nebraska act, all citizens of the United
States who should go to settle in Kansas would receive the protection
of the government.
The Territory of Kansas cannot properly be spoken off as in any
sense "foreign" to Massachusetts. Like the other Territories of the
United States, it is the common property of all the States. It belongs
to Massachusetts and Vermont as well as to Missouri or Iowa. The
citizens of every State have an equal right to go there or to aid others to
go, either individually or by means of associated capital. By the Kansas-Nebraska act, the people of these Territories were left, "perfectly
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way."
Whatever may be the individual opinions of the members of this
association as to the constitutionality, justice, or expediency of this
act, the company has accepted it as the law of the land until it should
be rep)ealed, and has never violated or evaded it. All its action, on
the contrary, has been perfectly consistent with the principles and
provisions of the law.
Upon the removal by Congress of all restriction upon the future
institutions of Kansas, and the granting to actual settlers the right
to determine their character, that Territory was regarded by all parties,
both at the south and north, as thrown open to free competition for
settlement, by emigrants from all parts of the country. This fact has
been recognized by leading men in the southern States as well as at
the north, and warm appeals have been made to the patriotism and
moral sentiment, as well as to the interest and the political prejudices
of all sections of the Union. These appeals find a ready response
from the people. Public meetings of citizens have been held in many
of the States, and societies formed, to aid in the settlement of the
Territory, and to assist in the work of founding a new State.
The report asserts that this company was the first association formed
to "control the institutions" of the new Territory; and assumes that
the southern societies exist only as a "natural consequence" of its
operations. But we have abundant evidence that, before the organization of this company, associations were formed and in active operation
in Missouri, to "interfere with the internal affairs" of the Territory
in a manner neither legal nor justifiable. Indeed, the existence of a
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