The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1855-06-02
MiseeIi
Gov. Reader. of Kansas

he made! Does he stand for anything
Has he a function? responsibility? an
authority? Jurisdiction? Ishe really
a bearer of Office? Is there spark Of
gubernatorial life in or about him ? Or
is he man of straw, thing tricked out
in official garb, but with broom stick for
a backbone and chaff for brains? 1t is
high time for those whose handy-work
he is to give an account of him, to tell US
what manner of creature he is. If Gov.
Reeder is not sham, so made and so
kept up. he ought to know it. Either he
himself is an imposition, or. he is most
outrageously imposed upon.
One thing is certain-Governor Reed
er practically counts as nothing in the
administration of Kansas The Territory
is at the mercy of most abandoned set
of vagabonds-the most abandoned that
ever polluted the sod of "a free country.
There is actually neither Governor nor
Government. Brute force is the only rule
Men have talked of the Nebraska iniqui-
ty; but that iniquity is spotlessness itself
in comparison with the abuse which has
been made of it. The pledge-breaking
was bad enough, but it was done in the
name of a principle; it is now the prin-
ciple itself that is set at defiance, and, in
every conceivable way, outraged. The
destroyers of the Compromise invoked
the right of popular self-goyernment asa
justification ftheir bad faith, and there
with alone they carried their case. The
Compromise disposed of, it is now the
turn of the popular right itself, and its
trustees, to suffer. The agreement of
1920 was superseded for the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty; the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty is superseded by IN
yasion and violence. 1t is absolutely
certain-as certain as full and uncontra-
dicted testimony can make it-that the
election in Kansas for delegates to Con-
gress, and the recent election for MEM
bers of the Territorial Legislature, were
both controlled by armed intruders from
Missouri. The real settlers of the coun-
try were outnumbered by men who took
possession of the polls with the strong
hand, and voted without right. The
Missourians themselves who engaged in
this business not only admit it, but they
boast of it. The journals of western
Missouri not only furnish accounts of the
departures and returns of the different
detachments, but make grand fourishes
over the success achieved. The only
coloring they seek to put upon their base
ness is pretension that the errand of the
invaders was to battle like inyasions from
the eastern States. 1t is a transparent
mockery, which only adds insult to i5u-
ry. The use of it by a journal of this
city, which claims to be a respectable,
and has, from the outset, done all sort of
work for the Nebraska swindle, will not
help the matter in the least. The apology
is as false as the offence is vile. The
people who have emigrated to. Kansas
from the eastern States have gone there to
settle, to buy land and cultivate it, to cast
in their lots with the fortunes of the rising
State. They go to make the Territory
their home-a home for themselves and
their children. They are in general,
men of Observation-Disclosures, enterpri-
sing, order-loving. They have taken the
minister and the schoolmaster with them.
There is nota State or Territory west of
Ohio, whose pioneers had, in the main,
so respectable character as those who
have gone and are still going from the
East to Kansas. IF they choose to 90 out
in companies, if they see fit to avail them
selves of any agencies, organized or un-
organized, in order to produce concert of
action and secure common ends, they
have a perfect right to do so.- No ar
rangement of this sort can, In the slight
est degree, affect their character as set
tiers; and from this character alone,
under the law of Congress, do they de-
rive the right to vote. The people of
Missouri, who have taken possession of
the ballot boxes, for the most part, are not
settlers. They are sheer interlopers-
riding into the country for a bad purpose
and out of it the next. Their abode,
both present and prospective, is in Mis-
souri,, and all their civil rights lie there.
They have no more right to veto in
Kansas than they have to vote in llli-
noisr or Iowa. They are in no sense
squatters, because they are in no sense
settlers, and they therefore have nothing
to do in squatter sovereignty. Their Ia
king part in it, as they have, is a fiagi-
tons usurpation. If they do not like the
Northern Anti-slayery emigration socie-
ties, let them counterfeit these with pro-
slavery emigration societies. The way IS
as open en:the one side, as on the other.
1t is nobody's business how the emigra-
ton is effected, provided it be real. The
actual settlement is the only point in law;
the actual settlers the only parties IN IN
terest.
The wrong has been committed. The
question now is, shall-it stand ? Is this
usurped election to hold good? Gov.
Reeder is witness against it, but what
is Gov. Reeder without the support OF the
Federal Government ? He has not a
man at his command. So far from being
in situation to extend protection to 9TH
ers, be has been covered with obloquy.
been visited with the deadiiest threats,
he has been obliged to repair to WASH
ington to make hisextrenity betterknown,
and upon his heels comes . proclamation
that his powers at an end. and a demand
is made upon the President OF the Uni
ted States that governor shall be desig-
mated in the same way as the Legislature
was chosen-in other words, that the
original viIIainy shall be carried out with
! fl instrument. The President has but
one Inc Of duty. He is bound to make
the Federal law respected. He IS bound