Kansas "Bogus Legislature" Established

Friday, March 30, 1855

The Shawnee Indian Mission, where the Bogus Legislature met in 1855. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The so-called "Bogus Legislature," or the first Kansas Territorial Legislature, is established as a result of fraudulent voting by proslavery Missouri "border ruffians" who crossed the border under the leadership of former Senator David R. Atchison to vote in the March 30, 1855 election. The legislature never gains the full recognition of its own citizens and is finally repudiated by a vote of Kansas residents on January 4, 1858.