Whitman writes a rather lengthy update on the Kansas Territory situation for Stearns, focusing on the political machinations of the few and the uncertain situation created by the Lecompton debate. Of territorial leadership, Whitman observes: "While Kansas is blessed with many of the truest men of the age, men who are fully up to the emergency, she is also cursed with some of the most unprincipled demagogues that ever afflicted any country." Whitman writes that there is much confusion and disagreement about the best course of action for free state men to take, now that many acknowledged the death of the Topeka movement. He then turns to the work of the Minneola and Leavenworth Constitutional Convention of March, 1858.