The actual settlers of the territory did not evince much interest in the election. They were all engaged in what appeared to them to be the more important business of building their homes and otherwise providing necessities before the approach of winter. There were no party organizations in the territory. The slavery question was not generally understood to be an issue. The first candidates to announce themselves were James N. Burnes, whose name has for sixty years been prominently identified with the social, political and business history of Atchison county, and J. B. Chapman. These two candidates subsequently withdrew from the campaign, and the names finally submitted to the voters were: Gen. John W. Whitfield, Robert P. Flenneken, Judge John A. Wakefield. Whitfield ignored the slavery issue during his canvass, but his cause was openly espoused by the Missourians. Flenneken was a friend of Governor Reeder, with Free Soil proclivities. Wakefield was an outspoken Free-Soiler. Hon. David R. Atchison, then a United States senator, and for whom Atchison county was named, was the head and front of the pro-slavery movement. He had a national reputation and was a power in the United States Senate, and won for himself the highest position in the gift of the Senate, having been chosen president protempore of that body after the death of Vice-President King. He was loyal to the southern views regarding slavery and this made him the unquestioned leader of the party which believed, as Senator Atchison himself believed, that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill would inevitably result in a slave State west of Missouri. It was to Senator Atchison that Dr. J. H. Stringfellow, himself one of the strong leaders of the pro-slavery forces, looked for inspiration and direction. In a speech Senator Atchison made in Weston, Mo., November 6, 1854, which was just prior to the congressional election in Kansas, he said:
“My mission here today is, if possible, to awaken the people of this country to the danger ahead and to suggest the means to avoid it. The people of Kansas in their first elections will decide the question whether or not the slave-holder was to be excluded, and it depends upon a majority of the votes cast at the polls. Now, if a set of fanatics and demagogues a thousand miles off could afford to advance their money and exert every nerve to abolitionize the territory and exclude the slave-holder, when they have not the least personal interest in the matter, what is your duty? When you reside within one day’s journey of the territory, and when your peace, your quiet, and your property depend upon this action you can without any exertion send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your institutions.”
On November 28, the day preceding the election, the secret society voters in Missouri began to cross over into Kansas. They came organized to carry the election and in such overwhelming numbers as to completely over-awe and out-number the legal voters of the territory at many of the precincts. They took possession of the polls, elected many of the judges, intimidated others to resign and refusing to take the oath qualifying themselves as voters and prescribe to the regulations of the election, cast their ballots for General John W. Whitfield and hastily beat their retreat to Missouri. The whole number of votes cast in that election was 2,233, of which number Whitfield received 2,258; Wakefield, 248; Flenneken, 305, with twenty-two scattering votes. The frauds which were at first denied by both the pro-slavery newspapers and General Whitfield himself, were not long in being discovered.
In the Fifteenth district, of which Atchison county was a part, the total number of votes cast was 306, of which Wakefield got none; Flenneken, 39, and Whitfield, 267. The total number of votes given by the census was 308, and in the majority report of the congressional committee of the following year 206 illegal votes were shown to have been cast in that district. However, there was little immediate disturbance following the election. The settlers continued to busy themselves in completing their homes and were more interested in securing titles to their lands than in the future destiny of the territory.
In the following January and February Governor Reeder caused an enumeration of the inhabitants to be taken preparatory to calling an election for a legislature. H. B. Jolly was named as enumerator for the Fifteenth district and Mr. Jolly found a total of 873 persons in the district, divided as follows: Males, 492; females, 381; voters, 308; minors, 448; natives of the United States, 846; foreign born, sixteen; negroes, fifteen; slaves, fifteen. The date appointed for the legislative election was March 30, 1855. The proclamation of the governor defined the election districts; appointed the voting precincts; named the judges of the election, defined the duties of the judges, and the qualifications of voters. Thirteen members of the council and twenty-six members of the house of representatives were to constitute the legislative assembly of the territory. Atchison was in the Ninth council district and in the Thirteenth representative district. Following the precedent established in the election for congressional delegate the November before the blue lodges of Missouri became active and large numbers of members of the secret societies of Missouri were sent into every council and representative district in the territory for the purpose of controlling the election. They were armed and came with provisions and tents. They overpowered and intimidated the resident voters to such an extent that only 1,410 legal votes were cast in the territory out of 2,905 enumerated in the census.
D. A. N. Grover was the pro-slavery candidate for councilman in the Ninth Council district with no opposition and he received 411 votes which was the total number of votes enumerated for that district. H. B. C. Harris and J. Weddell were the pro-slavery candidates for representative in the Thirteenth district with no opposition. They each received 412 votes, being the total number of votes enumerated in the district.
It was another victory for the pro-slavery sympathizers and the Free State men were indignant, while on the other hand the pro-slavery residents, with their Missouri allies, did not conceal their joy, at the same time admitting frankly the outrages which were practiced at the polls. The Leavenworth Herald of April 6 headed its election returns with the following:
“All Hail.
Pro-Slavery Party Victorious.
We have met the enemy, and they are ours.