Kansas

My last letter was dated from Leavenworth. Business has brought me to Lecompton in the meantime, but the little intelligence I have to communicate is not the less reliable. The troops (somewhere between five and six hundred in number) left Fort Leavenworth yesterday (Thursday) morning about 8 o’clock. They marched all day, and at nightfall encamped on the banks of the Little Stranger, a winding rivulet who course is through a deep ravine which, at the point of encampment is some two hours’ travel through Lawrence. Early today they struck their tents and resumed their march, under a broiling sun. Gov. WALKER with his Aids-de-Camp, Capt. WALKER and Liet. CARR, who had left Fort Leavenworth this morning in a Government ambulance, overtook the forces about an hour and a half after they had recommenced their journey. The Governor’s party got in advance of the troops and reached the further bank of the Kaw River, immediately opposite Lawrence, soon after noon. A portion of his suite crossed the river, entered the town which exhibited no indications of unusual excitement, conversed freely with several citizens, and returned to report progress. Their impression, so far as I would have been able to gather it, was that Lawrence would “cave in” unhesitatingly; that the movement which had led to the calling out of U.S. forces was so contemptible in itself that no military aid was needed for its suppression, that out of the 600 voters in the town not more than 120 were found to vote in favor of the charter, whilst 90 voted against it, and that none of the officers elected under the new scheme of organization would be found foolhardy enough to dare the forces of the general Government, by attempting to put the Municipal laws in force. They were even informed, I understand, that none of the city officers had been sworn in, that they had not even received their certificates of election, and that the only process of proceeding so promptly condemned by the Territorial authorities, were the removal of dead offal from the town and its neighborhood, and the location of a site of a bridge across the Kansas river. Now, whilst giving every credit for good intentions to the citizens of Lawrence in this movement, I am compelled, per force, to say that the requirement contained in their charter for every city officer elected under it to take an oath to support the Constitution “of the State” (which is absurd) and of the United States, was hardly necessary as a qualification in the procuring of the removal of dead dogs, cats, and horses, and in determining the site of a bridge, and its seems very much like a dodge, and a very wretched dodge at that. It certainly failed to convince the Governor of the harmlessness of the intentions which led to the proceeding, for he ordered the troops to cross the river forthwith , which they did with the utmost alacrity, fording the river on a run, and apparently enjoying the thing hugely. The soldiers formed in companies on the other side, much to the edification of a crowd of idlers, foremost among whom I observed that crack-brained braggadocio, Gen. JIM LANE. Followed by the Governor in his ambulance they marched to the ground selected by Lieut. BUFORD, the Adjutant, and Lieut. ANDERSON, the Quartermaster, for the encampment, which is about a quarter of a mile from the town, up the river, where I now leave them.
P.H.C.