But the pro-slavery leaders of the Territory were very far from relishing or desiring qualifications of this character.  In one of their appeals calling upon the Missourians for “assistance in men, provisions, and munitions, that we may drive out the ’Army of the North,’” they had given the President and the public a piece of their mind about this appointment.  “We have asked the appointment of a successor,” said they, “who was acquainted with our condition,” with “the capacity to appreciate and the boldness and integrity requisite faithfully to discharge his duty regardless of the possible effect it might have upon the election of some petty politician in a distant State.  In his stead we have one appointed who is ignorant of our condition, a stranger to our people; who, we have too much cause to fear, will, if no worse, prove no more efficient to protect us than his predecessors....  We cannot await the convenience in coming of our newly appointed Governor.  We cannot hazard a second edition of imbecility or corruption!”

Animated by such a spirit, they now bent all their energies upon concentrating a sufficient force in Kansas to crush the free-State men before the new Governor could interfere.  Acting Governor Woodson had by proclamation declared the Territory in a state of “open insurrection and rebellion,"[9] and the officers of the skeleton militia were hurriedly enrolling the Missourians, giving them arms, and planting them in convenient camps for a final and decisive campaign.

  [Sidenote] Gihon, p. 104.

  [Sidenote] Gihon, pp. 104-6.

It was on September 9, 1856, that Governor Geary and his party landed at Leavenworth.  Even on his approach he had already been compelled to note and verify the evidences of civil war.  He had met Governor Shannon fleeing from the Territory, who drew for him a direful picture of the official inheritance to which he had come.  While this interview took place, during the landing of the boat at Glasgow, a company of sixty Missouri Border Ruffians was embarking, with wagons, arms, and cannon, and with the open declaration that they were bound for Kansas to hunt and kill “abolitionists.”  Similar belligerent preparations were in progress at all the river towns they touched.  At Kansas City the vigilance committee of the blockade boarded and searched the boat for concealed “abolitionists.”  Finally arrived at Leavenworth, the Governor saw a repetition of the same scenes—­parades and military control in the streets, fugitives within the inclosure of the fort, and minor evidences of lawlessness and terror.

  [Sidenote] Geary to Marcy, Sept. 9, 1856.  Senate Ex.  Doc., 3d Sess.
  34th Cong.  Vol.  II., p. 88.