Editing Bleeding Kansas (section)

===First Territorial Legislature===
{{Main|1855 Kansas Territory elections}}
[[File:Bleeding Kansas Poster.jpg|thumb|1855 [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-State]] poster]]
On March 30, 1855, the Kansas Territory held the election for its first territorial legislature.<ref name=Politics/> Crucially, this legislature would decide whether the territory would allow slavery. Just as had happened in the election of November 1854, "Border Ruffians" from Missouri again streamed into the territory to vote, and proslavery delegates were elected to 37 of the 39 seats—[[Martin F. Conway]] and Samuel D. Houston from [[Riley County, Kansas|Riley County]] were the only Free-Staters elected. Free-Staters loudly denounced the elections as fraudulent. Territorial Governor [[Andrew Reeder]] pleased neither side when he invalidated, as tainted by fraud, the results in only 11 of the 40 legislative races. A special election was held on May 22 to elect replacements, and the results were dramatically different; eight of the 11 delegates elected in the special election were Free-Staters. This still left the proslavery camp with an overwhelming 29–10 advantage.<ref name=Frontier/>

The proslavery legislature convened in the newly created territorial capital of [[Pawnee, Kansas|Pawnee]] on July 2, 1855. The legislature immediately invalidated the results from the special election in May and seated the proslavery delegates elected in March. After only one week in Pawnee, the legislature moved the territorial capital to the [[Shawnee Methodist Mission|Shawnee Mission]], on the border with Missouri, where it reconvened, adopted a [[slave code]] for Kansas modeled largely on that of Missouri, and began passing laws favorable to slaveholders.

Free-Staters quickly elected delegates to a separate legislature based in Topeka, which proclaimed itself the legitimate government and called the proslavery government operating in Lecompton "bogus".  This body created the first territorial constitution, the [[Topeka Constitution]]. [[Charles L. Robinson]], a Massachusetts native and agent of the [[New England Emigrant Aid Company]], was elected territorial governor.

Reeder had not been elected but appointed by President Pierce, at whose pleasure he served. Pierce fired him on August 16, 1855, replacing him with the very pro-Southern [[Wilson Shannon]]. Reeder left the territory and found it prudent to do so in disguise.

Pierce refused to recognize the Free-State legislature. In a message to Congress on January 24, 1856, Pierce declared the Topeka government "insurrectionist".<ref>{{cite web|first=James D.|last=Richardson|author-link=James D. Richardson|title=A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents|publisher=Project Gutenberg|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11125/11125-8.txt|access-date=March 18, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930024455/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11125/11125-8.txt|archive-date=September 30, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> The presence of dual governments was symptomatic of the strife brewing in the territory and further provoked supporters of both sides of the conflict.<ref>Thomas Goodrich, ''War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1861''. (2004). Ch. 1 iii.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=December 2023}}<ref>Elizabeth R. Varon, ''Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789–1859''. (2007). Ch. 8.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In response to the disputed votes and rising tension, Congress sent a three-man [[Select or special committee (United States Congress)|special committee]] to the Kansas Territory in 1856.<ref name=Frontier/> The committee reported, in July 1856, that if the election of March 30, 1855, had been limited to "actual settlers", it would have elected a Free-State legislature.<ref name=Frontier/><ref name=Report>{{Citation | title = Report of the special committee appointed to investigate the troubles in Kansas | publisher = Cornelius Wendell | year = 1856 | url = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=simple;c=moa;cc=moa;sid=1f5114455ee8820b080a95813f091487;rgn=title;q1=troubles%20in%20kansas;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;view=toc;subview=detail;sort=occur;start=1;size=25;idno=AFK4445.0001.001 | access-date = June 18, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110811023716/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?type=simple;c=moa;cc=moa;sid=1f5114455ee8820b080a95813f091487;rgn=title;q1=troubles%20in%20kansas;firstpubl1=1800;firstpubl2=1925;view=toc;subview=detail;sort=occur;start=1;size=25;idno=AFK4445.0001.001 | archive-date = August 11, 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref> The report also stated that the legislature actually seated in Lecompton "was an illegally constituted body, and had no power to pass valid laws".<ref name=Frontier/><ref name=Report/> In other words, the Free-Staters' allegations of fraud were well founded, and the Lecompton legislature was indeed bogus.