On December 11 Cass wrote to J.W.Denver, Esq.: "You have already been informed that Mr.Stanton has been removed from the office of Secretary of the Territory of Kansas and that you have been appointed in his place." Cass further explained that the President "was surprised to learn that the secretary and acting Governor had, on the 1st of December, issued his proclamation for a special session of the Territorial Legislature on the 7th instant, only a few weeks in advance of its regular time of meeting, and only fourteen days before the decision was to be made on the question submitted by the convention.

This course of Mr.Stanton, the President seriously believes, has thrown a new element of discord among the excited people of Kansas, and is directly at war, therefore, with the peaceful policy of the Administration.

For this reason he has felt it his duty to remove him." Walker, already in Washington on leave of absence, could no longer remain silent.

He was as pointedly abandoned and disgraced by the Administration as was his subordinate.

In a dignified letter justifying his own course, which, he reminded them, had never been criticized or disavowed, he resigned the governorship.