while many
emigrants from different parts of the country, were anxiously
waiting the extinction of the Indian title, and the establishment
of a territorial government, to seek new homes on the fertile
prairies which would be opened to settlement. It cannot be doubted
that if the free condition of Kansas had been left undisturbed by
Congress, that territory would have had a rapid, peaceful, and
prosperous settlement. Its climate, its soil, and its easy access
to the older settlements, would have made it the favored course
for the tide of emigration constantly flowing to the west, and in
a brief period it would have been admitted to the Union as a free
state, without sectional excitement. If so organized, none but
the kindest feelings would have existed between its citizens and
those of the adjoining State of Missouri. Their mutual interests
and intercourse, instead of endangering the harmony of the Union,
would have strengthened the ties of national brotherhood.

The testimony taken by the committee clearly showed that before
the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise was introduced
into Congress, the people of western Missouri were indifferent to
the prohibition of slavery in the territory, and neither asked nor
desired its repeal.

When, however, the prohibition was removed by the action of Congress,
the aspect of affairs entirely charged. The whole country was
agitated by the reopening of a controversy which conservative men
in different sections believed had been settled in every state and
territory by some law beyond the danger of repeal. The excitement
which always accompanied the discussion of the slavery question
was greatly increased by the hope, on the one hand, of extending
slavery into a region from which it had been excluded by law; and,
on the other, by a sense of wrong done by what was regarded as a
breach of public faith. This excitement was naturally transferred
into the border counties of Missouri and the territory, as settlers
favoring free or slave institutions moved into them.

Within a few days after the organic law passed, and as soon as its
passage could be known on the border, leading citizens of Missouri
crossed into the territory, held "squatter meetings," voted at
elections, committed crimes of violence, and then returned to their
homes. This unlawful interference was continued in every important
stage in the history of the territory; _every election_ was
controlled, not b