rnment, with a military leader at their
head of a most turbulent and dangerous character. They have never
acknowledged, but have constantly renounced and defied, the government
to which they owe allegiance, and have been all the time in a state
of resistance against its authority. They have all the time been
endeavoring to subvert it and to establish a revolutionary government,
under the so-called Topeka constitution, in its stead. Even at this very
moment the Topeka legislature are in session. Whoever has read the
correspondence of Governor Walker with the State Department, recently
communicated to the Senate, will be convinced that this picture is not
overdrawn. He always protested against the withdrawal of any portion of
the military force of the United States from the Territory, deeming
its presence absolutely necessary for the preservation of the regular
government and the execution of the laws. In his very first dispatch
to the Secretary of State, dated June 2, 1857, he says:

The most alarming movement, however, proceeds from the assembling on
the 9th June of the so-called Topeka legislature, with a view to the
enactment of an entire code of laws. Of course it will be my endeavor
to prevent such a result, as it would lead to inevitable and disastrous
collision, and, in fact, renew the civil war in Kansas.

This was with difficulty prevented by the efforts of Governor Walker;
but soon thereafter, on the 14th of July, we find him requesting General
Harney to furnish him a regiment of dragoons to proceed to the city
of Lawrence; and this for the reason that he had received authentic
intelligence, verified by his own actual observation, that a dangerous
rebellion had occurred, "involving an open defiance of the laws and
the establishment of an insurgent government in that city."

In the governor's dispatch of July 15 he informs the Secretary of
State that--

This movement at Lawrence was the beginning of a plan, originating
in that city, to organize insurrection throughout the Territory,
and especially in all towns, cities, or counties where the Republican
party have a majority. Lawrence is the hotbed of all the abolition
movements in this Territory. It is the town established by the
abolition societies of the East, and whilst there are respectable
people there, it is filled by a considerable number of mercenaries who
are paid by abolition societies to perpetuate and diffuse agitation