tlement. To attain this object they organized an Emigrant
Aid Company incorporated under the laws of the State. Even before the
bill was passed, the corporation was in full working order. Thayer
himself traveled extensively throughout the Northern States stimulating
interest in western emigration, with the conviction that the disturbing
question could be peacefully settled in this way. California had thus
been saved to freedom; why not all other Territories? The new company
had as adviser and co-laborer Dr. Charles Robinson, who had crossed
the Kansas Territory on his way to California and had acquired valuable
experience in the art of state-building under peculiar conditions.

The first party sent out by the Emigrant Aid Company arrived in Kansas
early in August, 1854, and selected the site for the town of Lawrence.
During the later months of the year, four other parties were sent out,
in all numbering nearly seven hundred. Through extensive advertisement
by the company, through the general interest in the subject and the
natural flow of emigration to the West, Kansas was receiving large
accessions of free-state settlers.

Meanwhile the men of Missouri, some of whom had striven for a decade to
secure the privilege of extending slavery into the new Territory, were
not idle. Instantly upon the removal of legal barriers, they occupied
adjacent lands, founded towns, staked out claims, formed plans for
preempting the entire region and for forestalling or driving out all
intruders. They had at first the advantage of position, for they did not
find it difficult to maintain two homes, one in Kansas for purposes of
voting and fighting and another in Missouri for actual residence. Andrew
H. Reeder, a Pennsylvania Democrat of strong pro-slavery prejudices, was
appointed first Governor of the Territory. When he arrived in Kansas
in October, 1854, there were already several thousand settlers on the
ground and others were continually arriving. He appointed the 29th of
November for the election of a delegate to Congress. On that day several
hundred Missourians came into the Territory and voted. There was no
violence and no contest; the free-state men had no separate candidate.
Notwithstanding the violence of language used by opposing factions,
notwithstanding the organization of secret societies pledged to drive
out all Northern intruders, there was no serious disturbance until
March 30, 1855, the day appointed for the election of me