Geary came to his castle, his private Secretary shall tell us what he found: Lecompton is situated on the south side of the Kansas River, upon as inconvenient and inappropriate a site for a town as any in the Territory.

It was chosen simply for speculative purposes.

It contained, at the time of Gov.
Geary's arrival, some twenty or more houses, the majority of which were employed as groggeries of the lowest description.

It was the residence of the celebrated Sheriff Jones, who is one of the leading members of this town association, and was the resort of horse-thieves and ruffians of the most desperate character.

Its drinking saloons were infested by these characters, whose drunkenness, gambling, fighting, and all sorts of crime, were indulged in with impunity.
Here was congregated, and here was the headquarters of, that band of desperate men, who were in a conspiracy to make Kansas a slave State at whatever cost of blood, of fraud, or violence.