ination and robbery--infatuated adherents and advocates of
conflicting political sentiments and local institutions--and
evil-disposed persons actuated by a desire to obtain elevated
positions; but worst of all, against the influence of men who have been
placed in authority and have employed all the destructive agents around
them to promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every
just, honorable, and lawful consideration.... Such is the condition of
Kansas faintly pictured.... In making the foregoing statements I have
endeavored to give the truth and nothing but the truth. I deem it
important that you should be apprised of the actual state of the case;
and whatever may be the effect of such revelations, they will be given
from time to time without extenuation."

[Sidenote] Geary, proclamation, Sept. 11, 1856. Senate Ex. Doc., 3d
Sess. 34th Cong. Vol. II., pp. 93-4.

[Sidenote] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 12, 1856. Ibid., p. 95.

Discouraging as he found his new task of administration, Governor Geary
grappled with it in a spirit of justice and decision. The day following
his interview with General Smith found him at Lecompton, the capital of
the Territory, where the other territorial officials, Woodson, Calhoun,
Donaldson, Sheriff Jones, Lecompte, Cato, and others, constituted the
ever-vigilant working force of the Atchison cabal, precisely as had
been so truthfully represented to him by General Smith, and as he had
so graphically described in his letter to Marcy of the day before.
Paying little heed to their profusely offered advice, he adhered to his
determination to judge for himself, and at once issued an inaugural
address, declaring that in his official action he would do justice at
all hazards, that he desired to know no party and no section, and
imploring the people to bury their past strifes, and devote themselves
to peace, industry, and the material development of the Territory.[10]
As an evidence of his earnestness he simultaneously issued two
proclamations, one disbanding the volunteer or Missouri militia lately
called into service by acting Governor Woodson, and the other commanding
the immediate enrollment of the true citizen militia of Kansas Territory,
this step being taken by the advice of General Smith.

He soon found that he could not govern Kansas with paper proclamations
alone. His sudden arrival at this particular juncture was evidently an
unexpected _contretemps_. While he was preac