The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-11-08
1mnortant from Kansas.

Important from Kansas.
The St. Louis Republican has cor
respondent at Lawrence, (kansas) who
Owes us sketch of Gov. Reeder's speech,
at Free State meeting at Lawrence on
the 9th ult.
The room in which the audience as
sembled was decorated with number OF
transnarencies-suc as the following,
which serve to show the spirit of the as
semblage =
"The eve of our disenthrallment."
"Reeder and Freedom"
"God Speed the Right"
Remember the 30th of March !"
"Freemen to the Polls
Liberty or Death !"
Gov. REEDER's SPEECH.
Ladies and Gentlemen Il thank you
with full heart for these repeated evl-
aences of your confidence and partiality
Missouri, in violation of every right
instinct, by brute force robs US of the on
ly right which distinguishes freemen from
slayes-not only US. her partners and G.
quals in great enterprise-but the sons
of her own soil-not only does she seek
to disfranchise and enslave the children
of the keystone State-the descendants
of the Pilgrims-tbe sons of the Empire
State--thc men who learned their lessons
of Freedom amid the hallowed spots of
Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and Trenton,
and Princeton, and Germantown-not
only the brave and hardy pioneers of the
West who have ever been in the front
rank of progress on its way to the Pa
cifc, and thus opened up the road thro
which Missouri herself has been founded
and built up; but worse than this, like an
unnatural mother she robs her sons, many
of whom | see around me, who have come
forth from her own bosom-of the rights
she gave them at their birth, and would
cnslaye them also.
We proclaim by our platform of prin-
ciples, that we demand the right of free
speech, free suffrage, and free government
that We desire to build up here anoth-
er great republic, by free white labor,
and to exclude, as we have the right to
do, the institution Of slavery, which we
believe would blight our progress, and
our prosperity. We say to our brctherp
of the Union, who differ from us, that al
though We might deny their right to
hold slaves in the Territory, yet, in the
spirit of liberaity, we will fud no fault
that they bring their slaves along, when
they come to enter into fraternal contest
at the ballot box, for determining the
character of our institutions, and will rec
ommend that their slaves be in the mean
time unmoested; and We declare that
when free institutions shall be established
the right of property which they claim in
the slave, within our bounds, shall be
treated with that moderation and chari-
ty which should exist between brethren
of great republic who differ in opinion,
| (Applause.)
This is our position, and now let US con-
trast it with the opposition we have to
meet, as exhibited in the pro-slavery leg
islation Of the Territory. That legisla-
ton represents our opponents, but [ will
not libel the pro-slavery men of the ter
ritory, by saying that it represents only
those of our Missouri neighbors, who e.
lected them, and who must be regarded
as ourRrincipal, almost our only oppo-
nents.
This Legislature have essayed to per-
| petuate the power they usurped-have
taken away from us the ballot-box, or
surrounded it with odious qualifications
and restrictions-have brought officers
froul foreign state to govern us-and,
in the omnipotcnce of their self-esteem
have repealed the pre-emption laws, the
naturalization laws, the Kansas Nebras-
ka bill, and have ended by invading the
Constitution of the United States.
But need not enumerate to you the
series of deep and bitter wrongs that burn
into the very soul of every man who has
head to think and heart to feel, or
who is qualified to live under the banner
of the Union or the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. l need say nothing to rouse
you to a sense of the barbarian oppres-
sion which has far outstripped all that
have ever tended to disgrace our nation
and its parts or to tarnish the escutcheon
of Republicanism. As l have said, you
have returned good for evil, liberality for
oppression, and have shown that your
principles are unchanged and that you
are determined to have all the wrong up
on the one side-all the right upon the
other But how mistaken the man who
shall deduce from this disposition tame
ly to wear the yoke of Slavery You
have sounded the first note of resistance
By bold and stern defiance of the ty-
ranny of the Kansas Missouri Legislature,
and you now await, in calm deiberation,
the issue of Congress ional action to learn
if peaceful remedies are to be had; and
when all these fail and our ballot-box is
again opened for the choice of another
Legislation with no protection but our
OWN arms-with what bitter scorn would
you curse the man that would not rather
coolly spill the hearts best blood by its