THE FIRST ELECTION — FIRST INVASION. 19 
A Mr. Mace was abused by them in a most ruffianly manner. He 
having replied in the affirmative whether he would take the oath, he 
was dragged away from the polls by the brutal crowd, with instant 
death staring him in the face, the incessant yells of the * mob 
being, “ Gut his throat S ” “ Tear his heart out! ” “ Kill the d—d 
nigger thief! ” After getting him away from the house, they 
stood around him with bowie-knives drawn and pistols cocked; 
one man putting to his heart a drawn knife, another holding a 
cocked pistol by his ear, and another yet striking at him with a 
club. 
A great many threats were made “ to kill the judges, if they 
did not receive their votes; ” “ no man should vote who would 
submit to be sworn; ” “ no man should vote who was not all right 
on the goose; ” and “ they would vote by foul if not by fair 
means. 55 
Cries of “ Shoot him ! 55 resounded during the day, and, in such 
a Pandemonium as would shame even Pluto’s dark domains, three 
hundred and eleven illegal votes were polled. 
Will not Americans blush that such indignities have been 
offered her citizens, and no remedy been afforded by those in power ? 
In the other districts the polls were taken possession of by bands 
of these marauders, and similar scenes of violence were enacted. 
They not only came in numbers sufficient to carry the election over 
the votes of the actual settlers, but by their outrageous conduct 
compelled them, in most instances, to keep away from the polls. 
Not satisfied with once voting, many of them, by changing hats 
and coats, repeatedly voted in the same precinct, or, after voting at 
one, went to another. At Marysville, a settlement in the northern 
part of the territory, twenty-five or thirty men polled one hundred 
and fifty votes. 
Many of the men elected to the Legislature were, and still are, 
residents of Missouri. The judges of election appointed by Gov. 
Keeder were obliged, by threats of death, to leave the polls, and 
others were appointed from among the Missourians. One of the 
judges of election, for refusing to sign the returns, in spite of 
many threats, was fired upon on his way home, but fortunately 
fvas uninjured. These bands of whiskey-drinking, degraded, foul- 
