Violence disrupts first Kansas election
In territorial Kansas first election some 5000 so-called Border Ruffians invade the territory from western Missouri and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature.Although the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in the territory Kansas Governor Andrew Reeder reluctantly approved the election to prevent further bloodshed.Trouble in territorial Kansas began with the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by President Franklin Pierce in 1854.The act stipulated that settlers in the newly created territories of Nebraska and Kansas would decide by popular vote whether their territory would be free or slave.
A few months after pro-slavery forces defrauded Kansas first election the Kansas Free State forces were formed armed by supporters in the North and featuring the leadership of militant abolitionist John Brown.In May 1856 Border Ruffians sacked the abolitionist town of Lawrence and in retaliation a small Free State force under John Brown massacred five pro-slavery Kansans along the Pottawatomie Creek.During the next four years raids skirmishes and massacres continued in Bleeding Kansas as it became popularly known.In 1861 the irrepressible differences in Kansas were swallowed up by the outbreak of full-scale civil war in America.
