e.

[Footnote 1: Each territory is allowed to send a delegate to the House
of Representatives, where he can speak, but not vote.]

%388. Kansas a Slave Territory.%--The election of members of the
territorial legislature took place in March, 1855, and for this the
Missourians made great preparations. On the principle of popular
sovereignty the people of Kansas were to decide whether the territory
should be slave or free. Should the majority of the legislature consist
of free-state men, then Kansas would be a free territory. Should a
majority of proslavery men be chosen, then Kansas was doomed to have
slavery fastened on her, and this the Missourians determined should be
done. For weeks before the election, therefore, the border counties of
Missouri were all astir. Meetings were held, and secret societies,
called Blue Lodges, were formed, the members of which were pledged to
enter Kansas on the day of election, take possession of the polls, and
elect a proslavery legislature. The plan was strictly carried out, and
as election day drew near, the Missourians, fully armed, entered Kansas
in companies, squads, and parties, like an invading army, voted, and
then went home to Missouri. Every member of the legislature save one was
a proslavery man, and when that body met, all the slave laws of Missouri
were adopted and slavery was formally established in Kansas.

%389. The Topeka Free-State Constitution.%--The free-state men
repudiated the bogus legislature, held a convention at Topeka, made a
free-state constitution, and submitted it to the popular vote. The
people having ratified it (of course no proslavery men voted), a
governor and legislature were chosen. When the legislature met, senators
were elected and Congress was asked to admit Kansas into the Union as
a state.

%390. Personal Liberty Laws; the Underground Railroad.%--The feeling
of the people of the free states toward slavery can be seen from many
signs. The example set by Vermont in 1850 was followed in 1854 by Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and Michigan, and in 1855 by Maine and
Massachusetts, in each of which were passed "Personal Liberty laws,"
designed to prevent free negroes from being carried into slavery on the
claim that they were fugitive slaves. Certain state officers were
required to act as counsel for any one arrested as a fugitive, and to
see that he had a fair trial by jury. To seize a free negro with intent
to reduce him to slavery was made a crime.