maintenance. Every one of these has in his own peculiar way (except
some few of the first party) thrown aside all regard to law, and even
honesty, and the Territory under their sway is ravaged from one end to
the other.... Until the day before yesterday I was deficient in force
to operate against all these at once; and the acting Governor of the
Territory did not seem to me to take a right view of affairs. If Mr.
Atchison and his party had had the direction of affairs, they could
not have ordered them more to suit his purpose."[7]

All such truth and exposure of the conspiracy, however, was
unpalatable at Washington; and Secretary Jefferson Davis, while
approving the conduct of Colonel Cooke and expressing confidence
in General Smith, nevertheless curtly indorsed upon his report: "The
only distinction of parties which in a military point of view it is
necessary to note is that which distinguishes those who respect and
maintain the laws and organized government from those who combine for
revolutionary resistance to the constitutional authorities and laws of
the land. The armed combinations of the latter class come within the
denunciation of the President's proclamation and are proper subjects
upon which to employ the military force."[8]

[Sidenote] "Washington Union," August 1, 1856.

Such was the state of affairs when the third Governor of Kansas, newly
appointed by President Pierce, arrived in the Territory. The Kansas
pro-slavery cabal had upon the dismissal of Shannon fondly hoped that
one of their own clique, either Secretary Woodson or Surveyor-General
John Calhoun, would be made executive, and had set on foot active
efforts in that direction. In principle and purpose they enjoyed the
abundant sympathy of the Pierce Administration; but as the presidential