ly a million. The parties of the future were
plainly the Democratic, Southern, pro-slavery, and well organized, and
the Republican, Northern, we may now say, anti-slavery, and also well
organized.

Meanwhile the frontiersmen from Iowa and Missouri were trying to work
out the principle of popular sovereignty in Kansas, and their Governor,
Andrew Reeder, was doing what he could to assist them. Anti-slavery aid
societies in the East sent resolute men to Kansas to vote and save the
Territory from slavery, and pro-slavery lodges in Missouri went across
the border to vote against and perhaps to shoot Free-State men who
disputed the right of the South to plant and to maintain slavery there.
Under these circumstances the first election for members of the
territorial legislature was a farce. Yet Reeder felt obliged to let the
new assembly go on with its work of making easy the immigration of
masters with their "property"; when he went East a little later he took
occasion to protest in a public address against the intrusion of
Missouri voters. He was regretfully removed from office, though he
returned to Kansas to cooeperate with Charles Robinson, a Californian of
political experience, in the organization of the Free-State party, which
refused to recognize the territorial legislature and which met in
voluntary convention at Topeka in the autumn of 1855 and drew a state
constitution. In this document slavery was outlawed. Following the
example of California, representatives of the new government asked for
prompt admission to the Union.

The Southerners had never recognized California as properly within the
Union, and the pro-Southern party in Kansas made open war upon the
Topeka party in December. Lawrence, the anti-slavery headquarters, was
besieged, but the new governor managed to compromise so as to prevent
bloodshed, and the two governments of Kansas continued to exist. The
Federal Congress was compelled to decide which of the questionable
governments should be recognized as lawful. Since the Senate was
Democratic and pro-Southern, and the House Republican and pro-Northern,
a decision was impossible. The Topeka constitution was supported by the
House, and even the fair and reasonable bill of the Senate offered by
Toombs in 1856 was rejected. This called for a submission of both
parties in Kansas to an election safeguarded against unlawful
interference from any source. It seemed that Seward, Chase, and their
friends did not d