WAKARUSA WAR — PREPARATIONS. 
113 
agree. At that time Col. Lane, of Lawrence, went to Leaven¬ 
worth to offer McCrea his sei vices as counsel, which Judge Le- 
compte refused, as Col. Lane would not take the oath to support 
the laws of the Legislature of the Shawnee Mission. A majority 
of the jury were for acquit* *1, and the remainder were divided, 
one thinking the prisoner guilty of murder, and a few of man¬ 
slaughter. At the adjourned term of the court in November, 
Judge Lecompte had added seven new members to the Grand 
Jury, and a bill of indictment for murder in the first degree was 
found against him. Four of the counsel within the bar, and offi¬ 
cers acting at this tribunal, including the clerk of the court, were 
connected with the lynching of Phillips, also a lawyer at Leaven¬ 
worth, on the 17th of May. At this adjourned session of the 
court, a motion was made, by one of the attorneys, to dismiss the 
clerk, and one of the attorneys who had been thus engaged, affida¬ 
vits having been filed to prove the facts; but the court did not 
grant the motion. Thus, while one man is imprisoned for months, 
a jury packed that a bill may be found against him, and he is 
tried by those who are guilty of the most abominable crimes, they 
go unpunished, no effort being made to bring them to justice. 
Several of these grand jurors were standing outside of the 
court-house, one day, while several free-state men were within, 
and, speaking of them, asked “ if it would n’t be best to take out 
a few of those fellow T s, and string them up. Could n’t the laws 
be so construed as to render it legal? ” What justice can any one 
expect from such executors of the laws? At this time, also, the 
following call for a convention of the “ law and order ” party was 
published in all their papers : 
*• 
“ GRAND MASS CONVENTION AT LEAVENWORTH CITY, NOV. 14TH, ’55. 
“The law-abiding citizens of Kansas Territory, without distinc¬ 
tion of party, will hold a grand mass convention, at Leavenworth, 
on November 14th. Let there be a grand rally of the law and order 
citizens of the territory. Friends of the constitution and laws, 
turn out, appoint delegates from every neighborhood, and come 
yourselves, and show that there is a grand and glorious party 
in the territory, who are determined to stand by the constituted 
10 * 
