Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-11-03
GOVERNOR REEDER, OF KANSAS.

l
| GOVERNOR REEDER, OF KANSAS.
When Governor Reeder arrived at Fort
Leavenworth, the present capital of the Kansas
| Territory, many of The inhabitants of the place
and Of the adjacent country waited on him
DR.. Charles Leib addressed the Governor, wei
coming him to the Territory, and the Governor
made the following reply.
~ thank you, sir, and those whom you re-
! present on this occasion for the cordial manner
| in which you have welcomed me to your terri
| tory and for the encomiums which you have
SO eloquently acknowledgements which /
must be allowed to say are attributable more
| to your own courtesy and Partially than to
| any merits of mine. Coming, as l do come,
| into position OF high and solemn RESPONSE
| bility in strange land, to exercise most i'm
| portant functions among men who as yet
know me not, you may well imagine that am
cheered and encouraged by the foreshadowng
Of confidence and kindness exhibited in this
our first interview. / am sensible Of the diff.
culties that may beset my official career, and
must rely on the friendship and kindly feeling
which you have professed, for indulgence to
| my deficiencies. But whilst shall now claim
in advance your leniency for my inexperience
OF your country, and your people, for my short
comings in wisdom and ability, claim no
margin, and ask for no indulgence, in respect
to the earnestness and sincerity of my efforts,
to make the great good Of the territory, and
the advancement of its substantial prosperity
and welfare, the chief end of my official action.
1t shall be my pride and pleasure always to
keep in view that single end, despite all SIMS
ter considerations, or adverse circumstances.
Our territory is indeed land Of great interest,
and of glorious promise, and although now
frontier country demanding at our hands strong
continued effort and no small privation, yet
we are cheered on by the conviction that an
other frontier is approaching us from the Pa
cihc, and that when the inevitable destiny of
this Onion shall have filled up its limits with
civilized population and thrifty enterprise, Kan
sas will be territorially the very heart Of the
republic, and in the highway of its trade.
Much of its progress, its prosperity, and its
future destiny, will depend upon the impress
that we shall make upon its early develop
ments. That we shall have difficulties to meet
and overcome, varied in their character and
formidable in their number and extent, it were
worse than folly to deny and conceal. What
ever they may be, however, there is no fear
that they cannot all be solved by prudent
care-by tolerance and charity for difference
of opinion among ourseves-by calm but un-
quailing moral courage in asserting our own
rights of action or opinion-and by the most
scrupulous care to avoid encroachmeuts on the
rights of others.
First of all Kansas must, and with Gods
help it shall be, country of law and order.
No man must be allowed to cast contempt upon
the law--to unsettle the foundations of society,
to mar our future destinies--to cause us to be
Stunned and avoided by good citizens--and to
turn us upon the retrograde path toward bar
barism, by substituting his own unbridled pas
sions for the administration of justice, and by
redressing his real and imaginary wrongs by
the red and cowardly hand of assassination, or
the ruffianism of the outlaw. So far as it shall
come within my province to deal with this
spirit, pledge you that will crush it out, or
sacrifice myself in the effort. Every one of
our millions of fellow-citizens who may choose
to exercise his unquestionable right to plant
himself, his family, and his property on our
soil, to swell its strength and develop its re-
sources, must feel that the broad egis of the
law shelters him and his from outrage, and
that its sword is keen and ready to punish him
summary and unfailingly, for outrage of the
rights of others. We must, too, do our duty
in cementing and preserving our glorious
| Union, by the strictest adherence TO our con-
stitutional and legal obligations, and con.
slant readiness to aid our fellow-citizens of
other States, in securing to them all the rights
which that Constitution and those laws have
sacredly guaranteed to them for the manage
ment Of their own affairs, whilst at the same
time we must with the most vigorous and de.
termincd frmness, preserve unimpaired and
unquestioned to every citizen Of our Territory,
freedom Of opinion in the regulation Of our
own. The principle Of the bill for erecting our
Territory, need scarcely tell you, has my
hearty approval. Fiercely as it has been as
sailed, it has its foundation deep in the doctrine
of true republicanism. Underthese doctrines the
whole Union, North, South, East, and West
has invited us to come here and mould our
own institutions, as to rs it shall seem good
We have accepted the invitation, and with
Popui Voce Nata on our banner, we are pre-
pared to give one more proof of the ability Of
our people for selfgovernment, by going to the
ballotbox--there conceding to each other the
right of free discussion and opinion which We
claim for ourselves, and sacrificing to the all
powerful will Of the majority all our interests
and feelings, and prejudces, whatever question
may be involved in the decision. Thus, ant
thus only, can we discharge our duty to our
selves--show our appreciation of the principle
Of our territorial bill, and contribute to its per
manency as a means Of easy solution, for al
future time, Of dangerous and exciting ques
ton in our national councils.
Thus, with law aud order reigning in ou
midst, mutual tolerance strengthening on
hands and accelerating our progress-fanati
cism disarmed and the Union sustained by ,
cheerful and determined observance Of tn,
Constitution that binds it together-by pre-
serving unimpaired the purity OF the ballot
box, and deciding there, as freemen should
the questions which the nation has properl.
referred to il, each man calmly, fearlessly, ant
dispassionately expressing his opinion, ant
casting his vote in conformity to the dictate
; of his conscience and understanding, and b
bowling submissively to the will Of the majorit
when properly ascertained, and we shall bav
done our whole duty, and may expect to real
} its pleasant fruits"
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Tonchfu0 Qcems