This action opened a wide door to fraud, and invited Missouri over to an invasion of final and permanent conquest.

Governor Walker had quitted the Territory on his leave of absence, and Secretary Stanton was acting Governor.

"The people in great masses," he says, "and the Legislature that had been elected, with almost a unanimous voice called upon me to convene the Legislature, in order that they might take such steps as they could to counteract the misfortune which they conceived was about to befall them in the adoption of this constitution," As already stated, Stanton had come to Kansas with the current Democratic prejudices against the free-State party.

But his whole course had been frank, sincere, and studiously impartial, and the Oxford fraud had completely opened his eyes.

"I now discovered for the first time to my entire satisfaction why it was that the great mass of the people of the Territory had been dissatisfied with their government, and were ready to rebel and throw it off." Having, like Walker, frequently and earnestly assured the people of their ultimate right to ratify or reject the work of the convention, he was personally humiliated by the unfairness and trickery of which that body was guilty.