20 
KANSAS. 
mouthed marauders came under the leadership of Sam’l J. Jones, 
of Westport, Col. fcam’l Young, and C. F. Jackson, Col. Sam’l 
H. Woodson, of Independence, Mo., Gen. D. R. Atchison, of 
Platte City, and Gen. B. F. Stringfellow, of Weston. 
Col. Woodson was the leader of the rabble of Teeumseh, while 
B. F. Stringfellow was very active in his efforts to promote the 
pro-slavery interests in one of the northern precincts. Atchison, 
the urgent advocate of squatter sovereignty, the former Vice- 
President of the United States, after controlling one of the pri¬ 
mary elections in the fourteenth district, was the acknowledged 
leader of a gang at the Nemaha. In opposition to the wishes of 
the actual residents (pro-slavery), he caused a set of candidates to 
be nominated. His words at the time were, 44 There are ten 
hundred men coming over from Platte county, and if that isn’t 
enough we will send five thousand more. We’ve come to vote, 
and will vote, or kill every G—d d—d abolitionist in the territory.” 
In these northern precincts, besides being armed to the teeth with 
guns, bowie-knives, and revolvers, the ruffians wore hemp in their 
button-holes, as a pledge to carry out the designs of their secret 
societies, and singularly significant of the fiendish nature of the 
institution, while their password was “ All right on the hemp.” 
Major Mordecai Oliver, member of Congress from Missouri, — 
who, it will be remembered, stated on the floor of the House last 
spring (during the debates preceding the appointment of a com¬ 
mittee to look into the wrongs of the people of Kansas, and was 
appointed one of the number at his own request), that he knew of 
no one who came from Missouri to vote in the territory, — was 
himself present at the election, and, while it is not known with cer¬ 
tainty that he voted, he did make a speech, excusing the Missou¬ 
rians for voting. Four hundred and seventeen votes were polled 
at this precinct, of which no more than eighty can be legal. It is 
not to be supposed that even wilful blindness could have concealed 
these facts from his sight. Another instance of the elasticity 
which one’s conscience may attain may be cited here. While the 
investigat’ng committee were holding their session at Westport, 
and bandy of armed men from the border towns were continually 
in the streets, making both day and night hideous with their vile 
