The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

ROBBERY AT MESSRS. HOOPER'S COACH FACTORY.—
Horace Gallop, of Townsend-cottages, St. John's-wood,
a coach carver, formerly in the employ of Messrs. Hooper,
the well known coach makers, of Little Windmill-street,
was charged with stealing a bag of horse hair and a quan-

tity of workmen's tools.
From the evidence of John Packhouse Lake, foreman of
the factory, ft appeared that his attention was called by a
person who heard the door of the factory shut at an unusual
hour. On approaching the factory he saw the prisoner and
a person in conversation, and as soon as the former saw
him approach he started off. On examining the door
of the, factory he found that it had been forced appa-
rently from the inside, and as he had fastened up the
factory when he left he had no doubt the prisoner must
have been concealed therein at the time. The horse hair
produced had been taken from a carriage cushion, and on
examining the factory he found a quantity of tools belong-
ing to the workmen missing.
Jay, the detective officer, who had charge of the case,
said he found the bag of horse hair at the prisoner's lodg-
ings, Townsend-cottages, St. John's-wood, but at first he
could not tell the extent of the robbery.
Thomas Reed, a workman employed at the factory, and liv-
ing next door to the factory, deposed to seeing the prisoner
outside the factory at the time in question with some of the
tools in his possession. On saying to the prisoner, " That
the mystery was found out, that they had lost a quantity of
tools, and that different persons had been accused and some
discharged," the prisoner said, " I'm done," and asked him
to let him take them back, and on his sending for the fore-
man he ran away.

A workman, named Bolt, 'having identified some of the
tools as his property, and Jay having detailed the circum-
stances of the prisoner's apprehension, the prisoner was

remanded.

AMERICA.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY.

The Royal Mail steam-ship Africa, Captain
Shannon, arrived in the Mersey a little before eight
this morning, having sailed from New York on the
Bth inst. She brings 66 passengers and 187,000
dols. in specie. The Africa was off Point Lynas at
half-past ten last night, but waited outside for
water.

Congress met on the Gth inst., and, having been
duly organised, the President's Message was handed
in as follows :

THE MESSAGE.

" Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and Houso of
Representatives. _ _

" When we compare the condition of the coun-

try at the present day with what it was one year
ago at the meeting of Congress, we have much rea-
son for gratitude to that Almighty Providence
which has never failed to interpose for our relief at
the most critical period of our history. One year
ago, the sectional strife between the North and the
South, on the dangerous subject of slavery, had
again become so intense as to threaten the peace
and perpetuity of the confederacy. The applica-
tion for the admission of Kansas as a state into the
Union fostered this unhappy agitation, and brought
the whole subject once more before Congress. It
was the desire of every patriot that such measures
of legislation might be adopted as would remove
the excitement from the states, and confine it to
the territory where it legitimately belonged.
Much has been done, I am happy to say, towards
the accomplishment of this object during the last
session of Congress..
THE KANSAS QUESTION.

• "The Supreme Court of the United States had
previously decided that all American citizens have
an equal right to take into the territories whatever
is held as property under the laws of any of the
states, and to hold such property there under the
guardianship of the federal constitution, so long as
the territorial condition shall remain.

" This is now a well-established position, and the
proceedings of the last session were alone wanting
to give it practical effect. The principle has been
recognised, in some form or other, by an almost
unanimous vote of both houses of Congress, that a
territory has a right to come into the Union either
as a free or a slave state, according to the will of a
majority of its people. The just equality of all the
states has thus been vindicated, and a fruitful
source of dangerous dissension among them has been
removed.

" Whilst such has been the beneficial tendency
of your legislative proceedings outside of Kansas,
their influence has been nowhere so happy as within
that territory itself. Left to manage and control
its own affairs in its own way, without the pressure
of external influence, the revolutionary Topeka
organisation, and all resistance to the territorial
government established by Congress, have been
finally abandoned. As a natural consequence, that
fine territory now appears to be tranquil and pro-
sperous, and is attracting increasing thousands of
immigrants to make it their happy home.
" The past unfortunate experience of Kansas has
enforced the lesson so often already taught, that
resistance to lawful authority, under our form of
government, cannot fail in the end to prove disas-
trous to its authors. Had the people of the terri-
tory yielded obedience to the laws enacted by their
legislature it would at the present moment have
contained a large additional population of indus-
trious and enterpising citizens, who have been
deterred from entering its borders by the existence
of civil strife and organised rebellion.
" It was the resistance to rightful authority, and
the persevering attempts to establish a revolu-

tionary government under the Topeka constitution,
which caused the people of Kansas to commit the
grave error of refusing to vote for delegates to the
convention to frame a constitution under a law not
denied to be fair and just in its provisions. This
refusal to vote has been the prolific source of all the
evils which have followed. In their hostility to the
territorial government they disregarded the prin-
ciple, absolutely essential to the working ,of our
form of government, that a majority of those who
vote—not the majority who remain at home, from
whatever cause—must decide the result of an elec-

tion. For this reason, seeking to take advantage
of their own error, they denied the authority of the
convention thus elected to frame a constitution.

I e" The convention, notwithstanding, proceeded to
adopt a constitution unexceptionable in its general
features, and providing for the submission of the
slavery question to a vote of the people, which, in
my opinion,they were bound to do under the Kansas
and Nebraska. Act. This was the all-important
question which had alone convulsed the territory,
and yet the opponents of the lawful government, per-
sisting in their first error, refrained from exercising
their right to vtoc, and preferred that slavery
should continue rather than surrender their revolu-
tionary Topeka organisation.
" A • wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail
before the first Monday of January last, when an
election was held under the constitution. A ma-

jority of the people then voted for a governor and
other state officers, for a member of Congress and
members of the state legislature. This election was
warmly contested by the two political parties in
Kansas, and a greater vote was polled than at any
previous election. A large majority of the mem-
bers of the legislature elect belonged to that party
which had previously refused to vote. T.he anti-
slavery party were thus placed in the ascendant,
and the political power of the state was in their
own hands. Had Congress admitted Kansas into
the Union under the Lecompton constitution, the
legislature might, at its very first session, have
submitted the question to a vote of the people,
whether they would or would not have a conven-
tion to amend their constitution, either on the
slavery or any other question, and have adopted all
necessary means for giving speedy effect to the will
of the majority. Thus the Kansas question would
have been immediately and finally settled.
" Under these circumstances I submit to Congress
the constitution thus framed, with all the officers
already elected necessary to put the state govern-
ment into operation, accompanied by a strong le-

commendation in favour of the admission of Kansas
as a state. In the course of my long public life I
have never performed any official act which, in the
retrospect, has afforded me more heartfelt satisfac-
tion. Its admission could have inflicted no possible
injury on any human being, whilst it would, within
a brief period, have restored peace to Kansas and
harmony to the Union. In that event the slavery
question would ere this have been finally settled,
according to the legally expressed will of a ma-
jority of the voters, and popular sovereignty would
thus • have been vindicated in a constitutional
manner.
"With my deep convictions of duty I could have
pursued no other course. It is true that as an in-
dividual I had expressed an opinion, both before
and during the session ofthe convention, in favour
of submitting the remaining clauses of the consti-
tution, as well as that concerning slavery, to the
people. But acting in an official character, neither
myself nor any human authority had a power to
rejudge the proceedings of the convention, and
declare the constitution which it had framed to be
a nullity. To have done this would have been a
violation of the Kansas and Nebraska Act, which
left the people of the territory ' perfectly free to
form and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the constitution of
the United States.' It would equally have violated
the great principle of popular sovereignty, tke
foundation of our institutions, to deprive the people of
the power, and if they thought proper to exercise it, of
confiding to delegates elected by themselves the
trust of framing a constitution without requiring
them to subject their constituents to the trouble,
expense, and delay of a second election. It would
have been in opposition to many precedents in our
history, commexciug in the very best age of the
republic, of the admission of territories as states
into the Union without a vote of the people approv-
ing the constitution.
" It is to be lamented that a question so insigni-
ficant when Tiewed in its practical effects °II the

people of Kansas, whether decided one way or the
other, should have kindled such a flame of excite-
ment throughout the country. This reflection may
prove to be a lesson of wisdom and of warning for
our future guidance. Practically considered, the
question is simply whether the people of that
territory should first come into the Union and then
change any provision in their constitution not
agreeable to themselves, or aecomplish the very
same object by remaining out of the Union and
framing another constitution according to their
will ? In either case the result would be precisely
the same. The only difference in point of fact is,
that the object would have been much sooner
attained, and the pacification of Kansas more
speedily effected, had it been admitted as a state
during the last session of Congress.
"My recommendation, however, for the imme-
diate admission of Kansas failed to meet the appro-
bation of Congress. They deemed it wiser to
adopt a different measure for the settlement of the
question. For my own part I should have been
willing to yield my assent to almost any constitu-
tional measure to accomplish this object. I there-
fore cordially acquiesced in what has been called
the English Compromise, and approved the Act
for the admission of the State of Kansas into the
Union,' upon the terms therein prescribed.
" Under the ordinance which accompanied the
Lecompton constitution the people of Kansas had
claimed double the quantity of public lands for the
support of common schools which had ever been
previously granted to any state upon entering the
Union ; and also the alternate sections of land for
twelve miles on each side of two railroads proposed
to be constructed from the northern to the southern
boundary, and from the eastern to the western
boundary of the state. Congress, deeming these
claims unreasonable, provided, by the act of May
4, 1858, to which I have just referred, for the ad-
mission of the state on an equal footing with the
original states, but upon the fwidamental condi-
tion precedent' that a majority of the people

thereof, at an election to be held for that purpose,
should, in place of the very large grants of
public lands which they had demanded under the
ordinance, accept such grants as had been
made to Minnesota. and other new states. Under
this act, should a majority accept the proposition
offered them, it should be deemed and held that the
people of Kansas do not desire admission into the
Union with said constitution under the conditions
set forth in said proposition.' In that event the
act authorises the people of the territory to elect
delegates to form a constitution and a state govern-
ment for themselves, whenever, and not before, it
is ascertained by a census, duly and legally taken,
that the population of said territory equals or ex-
ceeds the ratio of representation required for a
member of the House of Representatives of the
Congress of the United States.' The delegates thus
assembled shall first determine by a vote whether
it is the -wish of the people of the proposed state to
be admitted into the Union at that time, and if so,
shall proceed to form a constitution, and take all
necessary steps for the establishment of a state
government in conformity with the federal consti-
tution.' After this constitution shall have been
formed, Congress, carrying out the principles of
popular sovereignty and non-intervention, have
left the mode and manner of its approval or ratifi-
cation by. the people of the proposed state' to be
prescribed by law,' and they 'shall then be ad-
mitted into the Union as a state under such consti-
tution, thus fairly and legally made, with or with-
out slavery, as said constitution may prescribe.'
"An election was held throughout Kansas, in
pursuance of the provisions of this act, on the 2d
day of August last, and it resulted in the rejection,
by a large majority, of the proposition submitted
to the people by Congress. This being the case
they are now authorised to form another constitu-
lion, preparatory to admission into the Union, but
not until their number, as ascertained by a census,
shall equal or exceed the ratio required to elect a
member to the House of Representatives.

" It is not probable, in the present state of the
case, that a third constitution can be lawfully.
framed and presented to Congress by Kansas, be-
fore its population shall have reached the de-
signated number. Nor is it to be presumed that,
after their sad experience in resisting the territo-
rial laws, they will attempt do adopt the constitu-
tion in express violation of the provision of an act
of Congress. During the session of 1856, much of
the time of Congress was occupied on the question
of admitting Kansas under the Topeka constitution.
Again, nearly the whole of the last session was
devoted to the question of its admission under the
Lecompton constitution. Surely it is not unrea-
sonable to require the people of Kansas to wt.
before making a third attempt, until the number of
their inhabitants shall amount to 93,420. During
this brief period, the harmony of the states, as well
as the great business interests of the country, de-
mand that the people of the Union shall not for a
third time be convulsed by another agitation on the
Kansas question. By waiting for a short time,
and acting in obedience to law, Kansas will glide

into the Union without, the slightest impediment.
THE TERRITORIES AND NEW STATES.
" This excellent provision, which Congress has
applied to Kansas, ought to be extended and ren-
dered applicable to all territories which may here-
after seek admission into the Union.
" Whilst Congress possesses the undoubtedpower
of admitting a new state into the Union, however
small may be the number of its inhabitants, yet
this power ought not, in my opinion, to be exercised
before the population shall amount to the ratio re-
quired by the act for the admission of Kansas .
Had this been previously the rule, the country
would have escaped all the evils and misfortunes

to which it has been exposed by the Kansas ques-
tion.

" Of course, it would be unjust to give this rule
a retrospective application, and exclude a state
which, acting upon the past practice of the govern-
ment, has already formed its constitution, elected
its legislature and other officers, and is now pre-
pared to enter the Union.
" The rule ought to be adopted, whether we con-
sider its bearing on the people of the territories or
upon the people of the existing states. Many of the
serious dissensions which have prevailed in Congress
and throughout the country would have been
avoided, had this rule been established at an earlier

period of the government. •
" Immediately upon the formation of a new ter-
ritory, people from differentstates and from foreign
countries rush into it, for the laudable purpose of
improving their condition. Their first duty to
themselves is to open and cultivate farms, to con-
struct roads, to establish schools, to erect places of
religious worship, and to devote their energies
generally to reclaim the wilderness and to lay the
foundations of a flourishing and prosperous com-
monwealth. If, in this incipient condition, with a
population of a few thousands, they should prema-
turely enter the Union, they are oppressed by the
burden of state taxation, and the means necessary
for the improvement of the territory and the ad-
vancement of their own interests are thus diverted
to very different purposes.
" The federal government has ever been a liberal
parent to the territories, and a generous contributor
to the useful enterprises of the early settlers. It
has paid the expenses of their governments and
legislative assemblies out of the common treasury,
and thus relieved them from a heavy charge. Under
these circumstances nothing can be better calcu-
lated to retard their material progress than to divert
them from their useful employment by maturely
exciting angry political contests among themselves,prematurely
g
for the benefit of aspiring leaders. It is surely no
hardship for embryo governors, senaibrs, and mem-
bers of Congress to wait until the number of inha-
bitants shall equal those of a single congressional
district. They surely ought not to be permitted to
rush into the Union with a population less than one-
half of several of the large counties in the interior
of some of the states. This was the condition of
Kansas when it made application to be admitted
under the Topeka constitution. Besides, it re-
quires some time to render the mass of a popula-
tion collected in a new territory at all homo-
geneous, and to unite them on anything like a fixed
policy. Establish the rule and all will look for-
ward to it, and goverm themselves accordingly.
" But justice to the people of the several states
requires that this rule should be established by
Congress. Each state is entitled to two senators
and at least one representative in Congress. Should
the people of the states fail to elect a Vice-Presi-
dent, the power devolves upon the Senate to select
this officer froin the two highest candidates on the
list. In case of the death of :the President, the
Vice-President thus elected by the Senate becomes
President of the United States. On all questions
of legislation, the senators of the smaller states of
the Union have an equal vote with those from the
largest. The same may be said in regard to the