Border Ruffians Steal Kansas Election Through Systematic Fraud and Violence

Kansas Territory held its first territorial legislative election on March 30, 1855, which was stolen through systematic fraud and violence by approximately 5,000 “Border Ruffians” who invaded from western Missouri. Under the leadership of U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison and other pro-slavery leaders, these armed invaders threatened election judges with injury or death, intimidated voters, and stuffed ballot boxes throughout the territory. The town of Leavenworth recorded five times as many votes as its entire population. A territorial census taken at the beginning of March counted 2,905 voters, yet the election 30 days later tallied over 6,000 votes. By some estimates, up to 60 percent of the votes cast were fraudulent, with some counties recording more pro-slavery votes than total residents.

The fraudulent election resulted in a legislature with 36 pro-slavery delegates and only 3 anti-slavery delegates, despite anti-slavery settlers comprising the actual majority in Kansas. Northern migrants reported armed voter intimidation, theft of ballot boxes, and thousands of ballots cast by Missouri “Border Ruffians” who had no intention of remaining in Kansas. Free-State supporters immediately denounced the newly elected representatives as the “Bogus Legislature.” The dispute escalated in Congress as Republicans and Democrats split over whether to acknowledge the legislature as legitimate. Free-Staters established their own government at Topeka, which President Franklin Pierce condemned as treasonous, demonstrating federal institutional capture by the Slave Power.

The stolen election triggered “Bleeding Kansas”—years of violent guerrilla warfare between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces from roughly 1855 to 1859 that significantly shaped American politics and contributed directly to the Civil War. The conflict was characterized by electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and murders in Kansas and neighboring Missouri. Border Ruffians burned farms and murdered Free-State settlers, twice attacking Lawrence, the Free-State capital. The Kansas Historical Society documented 56 political killings during the period, though the total may have reached 200. The most notorious incident occurred in May 1856 when abolitionist John Brown and his sons murdered five southerners along Pottawatomie Creek in retaliation. Many northerners viewed the election fraud as definitive proof of the Slave Power’s “hostility to the North.”