In response to a January 22, 1856, appeal from free-state leaders in Kansas, the governor of Minnesota Territory, Willis A. Gorman (St. Paul, February 18, 1856), conveyed the appeal to his territory's House of Representatives and encouraged Minnesota officials to follow a policy of "Non intervention." Governor Gorman refused to recognize Lane and Robinson as "officers in the Territory of Kansas, under any authority of the laws of the United States or of that Territory."
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
W. A. Gorman to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minnesota Territory - p. 2