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GEARY AND KANSAS.

GOVERNOR GEARY'S ADMINISTRATION

IN

KANSAS:

WITH A COMPLETE

HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY

UNTIL JULY 1857:

EMBRACING A FULL ACCOUNT OF

ITS DISCOVERY, GEOGRAPHY, SOIL, RIVERS, CLIMATE, PRODUCTS; ITS
ORGANIZATION AS A TERRITORY, TRANSACTIONS AND EVENTS
UNDER GOVERNORS REEDER AND SHANNON, POLITICAL
DISSENSIONS, PERSONAL RENCOUNTRES, ELECTION
FRAUDS, BATTLES AND OUTRAGES.

ALL FULLY AUTHENTICATED.

BY

JOHN H. GIHON, M.D.,

PRIVATE SECRETARY OF GOVERNOR GEARY.

PHILADELPHIA:
CHAS. C. RHODES.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by

C. C. RHODES.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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PREFACE.

In giving this work to the public, the author has been actuated solely by a sense of duty. Unbiassed by any partisan or personal considerations, he has related, in as plain and comprehensive a manner as possible, the facts, as they came under his own observation, were communicated to him by individuals immediately connected with the events described, or have been gleaned from other reliable sources.

The writer is alone responsible for the contents of the book. During his official connection with Governor Geary, he availed himself of his opportunities for information, and has substantiated many of his statements, by the official documents, now on file in the Department of State at Washington, and which passed through his hands in the executive office in Kansas. These are public property, and there has been no impropriety or breach of trust in their employment.

Many important incidents have been omitted for want of sufficient corroboration; the writer having determined to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. The whole truth can only be brought to light in that great day when all human secrets and mysteries will be revealed.

The author cannot be accused of any undue prejudices in

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1881

favor of the free-soil party. When he went to Kansas, all his proclivities were on the opposite side, which he did not hesitate to make known on all proper occasions, and among all classes of people. The free-soilers regarded him as their enemy, and the pro-slavery leaders received him with marked favor as a new accession to their forces. With the latter he constantly associated, and his impressions were strengthened by their representations of territorial affairs. Hence his letters to the eastern papers, with which he corresponded, were severely condemnatory of the free-state party of Kansas. He resisted as long as possible the daily accumulating evidences of his error; but with many others like himself, was at length forced, though unwillingly, to acknowledge the truth of the statements contained in this volume.

Governor Geary, during his administration in Kansas, observed a strict neutrality in regard to the question of slavery, and invariably pursued that impartial line of policy which his official documents indicate. He was, however, a firm and unwavering Democrat, and for aught that has appeared to the contrary, still adheres closely to the party with which he has always been associated. The writer is also an advocate of the true principles of Democracy; but he repudiates that new plank which has been surreptitiously inserted into the Democratic platform, that gives to the single idea of slavery extension an ascendancy over every other consideration.

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