his whole division on the strength of the “Argus Extra” and neighborhood reports,[4] and the entire border was already in motion when acting Governor Woodson issued his proclamation declaring the Territory “to be in a state of open insurrection and rebellion.”  General Smith found it necessary to direct his first orders against the Border-Ruffian invaders themselves.  “It has been rumored for several days,” he wrote to his second in command, “that large numbers of persons from the State of Missouri have entered Kansas, at various points, armed, with the intention of attacking the opposite party and driving them from the Territory, the latter being also represented to be in considerable force.  If it should come to your knowledge that either side is moving upon the other with the view to attack, it will become your duty to observe their movements and prevent such hostile collisions."[5]

  [Sidenote] Woodson to Cooke, Sept. 1, 1856.  Senate Ex.  Doc., 3d Sess.
  34th Cong.  Vol.  III., pp. 90, 91.

  [Sidenote] Cooke to Woodson, Sept. 1, 1856.  Ibid., pp. 91, 92.

Lieutenant-Colonel P. St. George Cooke, upon whom this active field work devolved, because of the General’s ill health, concentrated his little command between Lawrence and Lecompton, where he could to some extent exert a salutary check upon the main bodies of both parties, and where he soon had occasion to send a remonstrance to the acting Governor that his “militia” was ransacking and burning houses.[6] To the acting Governor’s mind, such a remonstrance was not a proper way to suppress rebellion.  He, therefore, sent Colonel Cooke a requisition to invest the town of Topeka, disarm the insurrectionists, hold them as prisoners, level their fortifications, and intercept aggressive invaders on “Lane’s trail”; all of which demands the officer prudently and politely declined, replying that he was there to assist in serving judicial process, and not to make war on the town of Topeka.

If, as had been alleged, General Smith was at first inclined to regard the pro-slavery side with favor, its arrogance and excesses soon removed his prejudices, and he wrote an unsparing report of the situation to the War Department.  “In explanation of the position of affairs, lately and now, I may remark that there are more than two opposing parties in the Territory.  The citizens of the Territory who formed the majority in the organization of the territorial government, and in the elections for its Legislature and inferior officers, form one party.  The persons who organized a State government, and attempted to put it in operation against the authority of that established by Congress, form another.  A party, at the head of which is a former Senator from Missouri, and which is composed in a great part of citizens from that State, who have come into this Territory armed, under the excitement produced by reports exaggerated in all cases, and in many absolutely false, form the third.