CHAPTER VII. 
KANSAS LAWS — GOVERNOR SHANNON. 
Aug. 10. — “ All day the low hung clouds have dropped their 
garnered fulness down.” 
People begin to come in from the country, miles distant, to the 
Convention, which is to be held on the 14th and 15th. 
On the 2d of July, the Legislature, elected by Missourians, 
assembled, as ordered by Gov. Reeder, at Pawnee, more than one 
hundred miles from the border. Mr. Conway, of the sixth dis¬ 
trict, resigned his seat in the council, on the ground that, having 
been elected by illegal votes, this pretended Legislature had no 
claim to that character. The members of the House chosen at the 
new election, ordered by Gov. Reeder, were deprived of their seats. 
On the 4th, the Legislature passed an act, removing the seat of 
government to the Shawnee Mission, two or three miles from West- 
port. Gov. Reeder vetoed it, as inconsistent with the organic act 
On the 16th, the Legislature reassembled at that place, and on 
the 22d, D. Houston, the only free-state member of the Assembly, 
resigned his seat, not only on the ground that the Legislature was 
an illegal body, but that, by its removal from Pawnee, it had nul¬ 
lified itself. 
The laws passed by the Shawnee Legislature are of an intolerant, 
Draconian character, allowing to the people of this territory no 
rights. They are copied from the Missouri statute book, with the 
exception of those relating to the qualifications of voters of the 
Legislative Assembly, and the slave code, which are made especially 
to crush the people of this territory. They allow them no voice 
in those matters of government which most concern them. 
The following is taken verbatim from the “ Laws of the Territory 
