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

KANSAS AFFAIRS. their not being at the election, because when thev were at St. Louis they knew they were not in time to be at the election. Some of them on the boat said they had endeavored to get here in time for the election. My place of residence, Westport, Missouri, is within a half a mile of the Territorial line, and is a great thoroughfare of emigrants into the Territory. My impression, and I am positive of it, is, that such a thing as sending Missourians into the Territory to vote was not dreamed of until those organizations were formed in the east for the purpose of peopling the Territory with people of different opinions on the subject of slavery from those moving into the Territory. My impression still further is, that were it not for the extraordinary efforts of the people in the eastern States to send an emig,ration at that particular period, and previous to the election, MIissourians would have taken no particular interest in the struggle, beyond those who were actually intending to settle in the Territory. There was a getnerally credited rumor among the Missourians, that the nultimate object of those Emigrant Aid Societies was to surround lIissonri with free States, and eventually affect the institution of slavery in Missouri. I had conversation with several of the aid emigrants and free-State men; and the general tenor was, that they inten(lded( to first make Kansas a free State, and the result they expecte(l from that would be to make Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas free States; an(l some even went so far as to say that would be done in fifteen or twenty years. To Mr. Oliver: Some of the emigrants who came up on the boat I did were armed. I saw two Sharpe's rifles; others had the usual rifles, and some had pistols. They made no show of them at all, but came up as other emigrants did. There were six or eight women along. This I say in reference to the second trip. The river was lower that spring than usual at that season. To Mir. King: After I reached Westport a good number of these emigrants, probably a majority of those I saw on the boat, passed thlrough our town towards the Territory, and were mostly on foot, with carpet-sacks generally in their hands, and with guns of various descriptions; some rifles, &c. To Mr. Oliver: There is a great deal of outfitting of implements of husbandry in -his place for the Territory, and more done at that season than at any )ther season of the year. I was in business here myself'. I think no uch outfitting was made by these eastern emigirants in th is town. Occasionally they bought an axe, but not more than that. At that ime I believe Kansas City and Westport, Missouri, were the only ,oints near the Territory south of the Kansas river, and in Missouri, here such articles were kept for emigrants. Cross-examined by Mr. Sherman: I think it was a merchant with whom I was dealing in Boston, who 853

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Title
Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas,: with the views of the minority of said committee.
Author
United States. Congress.
Canvas
Page 853
Publication
Washington,: C. Wendell, printer,
1856.
Subject terms
Kansas -- History

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"Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas,: with the views of the minority of said committee." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/afk4445.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2025.
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