Eli Thayer and His Emigrant Aid Scheme--Reports in Regard to its Character and Purposes--The Missouri "Border Ruffian" of 1854--Nebraska for the North and Kansas for the South--General Atchison--Dr. Charles Robinson--The First Party of Emigrants--The "Platte County Self-defensive Association"--The Founding of Lawrence--First Invasion of the Missourians--Governor A. H. Reeder--The Second Invasion of the Missourians and the Election of the Delegate to Congress--The Indignation of the North--The Republican Party--The Third Invasion of the Missourians--Governor Reeder and the Territorial Elections--The Organization of the First Legislature of Kansas Territory--The Topeka Constitution--The Removal of Governor Reeder; and His Election as Congressional Delegate--Establishment of the "Free-state" Government--The First Violence--The "Free-state" Government and the Administration--The New Governor, Shannon, and the "Law and Order" Party--John Brown--The President's Proclamation--The Congressional Committee to the Territory--Application for Admission--The "Treason Indictments"--The Sacking of Lawrence--The Attack on Senator Sumner--The Pottawattomie Massacres--The Battle at Black Jack--The Governor's Proclamation, Enforced by United States Soldiers--The Passage of the Bill for the Admission of Kansas by the House--Dispersal of the "Free-state" Legislature by Colonel Sumner--The "Free-state" Directory--The Treaty of August 17th--The New Invasion from Missouri--General Smith's Attitude Toward Invaders--The failure of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Territories--The New Governor Establishes Peace by Means of the Army of the United States--The Judicial Contribution to Kansas History. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the purchase of nearly fifty thousand square miles of territory {408} from Mexico on the Southern boundary of New Mexico, and the issue of a manifesto from Ostend by the Ministers of the United States to Great Britain, France, and Spain, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soulé, advising the acquisition of Cuba by the United States, together with the preparation of filibustering expeditions in the South for the execution of this and similar designs, all coming within the same year, 1854, seemed to be sufficient evidence of a fixed plan among the slaveholders for the extension of slavery and the increase of the number of slaveholding Commonwealths in the Union, and roused the people of the North to an appreciation of the impending danger and to extraordinary exertions for meeting the same and warding it off. [Sidenote: Eli Thayer and his emigrant aid scheme.]