The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-09 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.
The Cunard screw steam-chip Etna arrived to-
day with advices from New York to the 27th.
In the Senate on the 27th Mr. Cass presented
letters from General Persifer F. Smith, which he
obtained at the War Department, giving an ac-
count of the movements of the United States'
troops in Kansas. In these letters General Smith
states that the reports which had been going the
rounds of the newspapers were gross fabrications,
and that the troops had not done anything to in-
terfere with the citizens, excepting to guard the
prisoners charged with treason.
After the reading of these letters the Senate pro-
ceeded to consider the bill introduced yesterday by
Mr. Weller, to repeal certain laws of the Kansas
Legislature. Mr. Hunter stated that the Senate
had already passed bills containing the same pro-
visions as this, and sent them to the house.
The Senate then adjourned.
In the House of Representatives Mr. McQueen
asked, but did not obtain, leave to offer a preamble
declaring it manifest that no Army Bill could be
passed, and concluding with a resolution providing
for the adjournment of Congress on the following

Thursday.
Mr. Houston asked, but did not obtain, leave to
offer a resolution requiring the Speaker to direct
the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring absentees to the bar
of the house, excepting those excused on account
of the sickness of themselves or families, and that
each absentee be telegraphed to return, theypaying
their own expenses.
The accounts from Kansas state that 2,500 men
from the border counties were ready to enter
Kansas on the 22d ult. Four hundred of General
Lane's men were on the north side of the Kansas
river, for the purpose of intercepting those who
might go to the relief of Lecompton. General Smith
bad gone to the relief of that town with a large
body of troops. General Richardson, with a large
body of territorial militia, had gone to the north-
western part of the territory to cut off the retreat
of General Lane, should he attempt to escape.
Col. Titus, who was wounded at Lawrence, was not
expected to survive.
A large meeting had been held in New York to
hear an address from Governor Reeder on the
wrongs of Kansas and their remedy. The follow-
ing is the address
" I come before you not upon the mission of a politi-
cian, but I come before you to discuss a question that
rises far above the common aims of politicians, and in-
volves the character of this great and (as we are com-
placently accustomed to call it) this model republic, not
in any minor or secondary important matters, but
in that which constitutes its great strength and es-
sence. I have come to discuss no less a question than
whether the character of this great model republic, that
rears itself in all the panoply of self-complacency, pride,
and gratulation upon its past achievements, shall
in the future be entitled to the admiration of
all the nations of the earth—whether it has the ability
to protect its own citizens in the essential right of re-
publicanism—that of self-government itself. It has been
customary with us to challenge the admiration of the
world to the fact that during the 6,000 years which have
rolled around since the creation of the globe it was re-
served for us to demonstrate the problem of self-govern-
ment, and prove to the world that it has never accom-
plished before what has been demonstrated in our expe-
rience. (Applause.) It has been the fashion for us to
claim that self-government was no longer a problem,
but that it bad been reduced to a positive and absolute
certainty. I tell you, my fellow-citizens, that events have
been transpiring within the last few years that cause
every thinking man to stop and inquire whether we have
indeed demonstrated that problem. Let vs see, in look-
ing over our past history, whether there are any events
that may lead the monarchists of Europe to shake
their heads in joyous doubt whether that problem has
been solved. Look over the face of this land. You see
one of the States of this Union that for the last six years,
with a constitution such as yours, has been struggling to
sustain itself, and to grant to every individual under the
shadow of that constitution his legal and constitutional
rights, but, failing in this experiment, they have been
obliged to cast aside that constitution, and resort to an
absolute revolution in order to protect their citizens in
their social, civil, and legal rights. The Government of
California has at least proved a failure, and it needs the
corrective of revolution in order to bring it back to its
original purity. There is an event which leads us to
doubt whether this problem of self-government has been I
demonstrated, and which in connection with other events
must address itself seriously and directly to the judgment
of every man, and set him at work in order to correct
the evils which exist in our Government and among our
people. The speaker, after enlarging at further length
upon this topic, then proceeded as follows :—This is not
the only instance that should teach every man to address
himself to the solemn consideration of the present state
of our country. Look upon the plains of Kansas, and
who is there with burning eloquence sufficient to depict
the state of things that exists there I Baffled and defeated
before, I confess my total inability to convey to you a
realising sense of the true state of affairs in Kansas. No
man can realise it unless he has actually had a part in
the troubles there, and has witnessed for himself theout.
rages which have been there committed. I can only say
that upon the plains of Kansas, under the shadow of the
eta-s and stripes, and under the protection of the consti-
tution of this model republic, there is to be found a peo-
ple, whose condition, civil and political, you would im-
prove if you were to transfer them to the Government of
the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria or France.
Is this true I Why it is capable of the plainest and
surest demonstration to any man who knows all the
facts in the case, or even a few of them. It is an ad-
mitted, unquestioned, and undenied truth that the peo-
ple of that territory have no act or part in their own go-
vernment, and they have no laws of their own making.
Tney have no taxes of their own levying, they have no
officers of their own electing ; they are slaves—political
slaves, subjugated by a foreign power, with no shadow or
semblance of self-government—the complete subjects of
the border counties of the State of Missouri, who dictate
to them their laws, institutions, and officers. Are the
subjects of France, Austria, or Russia less free, politi-
cally, than these? I tell you their condition would be
improved if you could spread over them such a govern-
ment as that of France, Austria, or Russia. If you did
that, they would at least have security for life, liberty,
and property, and they would have their judicial tri-
bunals to which they could appeal for a redress of their
wrongs, for indemnity for property destroyed, houses
rifled, and for punishment for robberies and murders.
Lawlessness, outrage, rapine, and crime run riot
over the beautiful prairies of Kansas, and there is no
arm of the law to stay their course. On the contrary, the
robbers, ravishers, and murderers of Kansas have in
their own hands the arms of the law, and they are made
the ministers of this awful and horrible system of civil,
political, and social oppression. Governor Reeder then
recapitulated at length the history of the outrages per-
petrated in Kansas during the last two years, after
which he proceeded as follows :—This work goes on, as
I tell you, step by step, and I am afraid that it has been
too much the case in the States to look upon these out-
breaks as events due to some sudden excitement as you
would look upon an affray upon your own streets, hap-
pening out of some immediately surrounding circum-
stances, having its origin there upon the spot, and bar-
iug its end when tie immediate violence was over. I tell
you, my friends, if you have entertained such an opinion
of the state of things in Kansas, you have been grossly
mistaken. All these outrages are due to premeditation,
they all have been resolved upon in council, and all form
a part of this great plan. They have been pushing that
plan step by step towards its consummation. How near
has it arrived to that consummation I On the first Mon-
day of October, 1856, we are to have another election,
and you will perhaps be startled when I teil you that it
requires but two elections, and will probably occupy but
six or eight months more, before a slave constitution will
be adopted by Kansas, to be submitted to the Congress
of the United States. It is so nevertheless. [A Voice—
'Send them more rifles.] (Cheers.) On the first Mon-
day of October, 1256, an election is to be held under the
authority of the bogus territorial Legislature, at which
the people are to vote Convention or No Convention.
Every preparation has been made to carry that election
as they have carried all the previous ones. The men
who are to conduct that election are all elected and picked
expressly fir the purpose. They are picked by the
Board of County Commissioners, and they will be picked
with especial reference to the work which they are re-
quired to do. Large bodies of armed men will be sent
from the State of Missouri to surround the polls at this
election, and to control them ; but observe, my friends,
the ingenuity with which this thing is managed. They
don't like to risk the shock which public opinion might
receive in the south, as well as in the north, by parad-
ing those armed men around the polls in the same man-
ner in which it was done on the 30th March, 1855. They
Lave taken care to provide that those b ands of armed
•uffians who are to control our polls on the first Monday
o October shall be there according to law. This may
strange to you ; but men who can burn houses ac-
cording to law, who can steal horses according to law,
who can steal arms according to law, who can murder
men according to law—can find little difficulty in arrang-
ing this part of the programme. They have accordingly
provided that on the first Monday of October, 1856,
there shall be a great militia training in every county in
the territory. (Laughter.) When we complain to our
brethren of the States that on the day of this election
each poll was surrounded by bodies of armed men, we'll
be told by the ruffians at home and by their apologists
here that it was a legal militia-training. That election
will be held. Does some one say to me that this can be
prevented by the army of the United States—that the
troops of the United States will be sent out there to pre-
vent this invasion ? Without stopping to discuss the
question whether they will or will not, it is enough for
me to say that, no matter whether the army is there or
not, that election will be carried. No army officer can in
erfere between corrupt and perjured judges in the sub
ugation of the Free State men—no army officer, %vile-
ther he be Gen. Smith or Col. Sumner, can interfere be-
tween the judge and the voter, in putting a stop to the
corruption that will control that election. I tell you that
in the present state of things our people will not ap
proach these polls, because it will be a hopeless effort.
This whole work is performed, with the exception of
the last grand act. The Legislature meet ; they order
one more election of delegates to a constitutional con-
vention. These delegates are elected in the same way,
and the work is done ; and it only remains for them to'
acme together and adopt a slave constitution and send it to
Congress for admission into the Union. This contest is
*inferred from the plains of llama to the halls of Con-