John McCannon, who had once served as Quartermaster for the Kansas free state militia, wrote from Little Osage, Kansas Territory, to James Abbott in Lawrence, Kansas. McCannon reported that peace reigned in the area in the wake of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre of the past May. Referring to the current Constitutional controversy, he proclaimed, "Lecompton can not live on the Osage," as there were not enough proslavery supporters in the area to approve it were it put to a popular vote. McCannon did not seem to be concerned that U.S. troops had recently arrived at Fort Scott, for reasons unknown to him, as local towns thrived and crops flourished.