The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-01-06
Gov. Reeder,s Address.

meet the approval Of every well-disposed
citizen; nothing could be more injurious
| to the infant Territory than the preva
lenee of violence or injustice:
/ thank you, sir, and those whom You
represent on this occasion, for the cordial
manner In which you have welcomed
me to your Territory, and for the enco-
miums which you have so eloquently be-
| stowed-encomiums which ! must be
allowed to say are attributable more to
your own courtesy and Partially than to
any merits of mine. Coming as / do In
to position of high and solemn respon-
sibility in strange land, to exercise
most important functions among men who
as yet know me not, you may well mag
inc that am checrcd and encouraged by
the foreshadowin9 OF confidence and
kindness exhibited in this, our first inter-
view. | am sensible of the difficulties
that may beset my official career, and |
must rely on the friendship and kindly
feelings which you have professed, for
indulgences to my deficiencies. But whilst
| shall now claim in advance your len
iency for my inexperience of your coun-
try. and OF your people. for my shortcom-
ings 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.
L shall be my pride and pleasure al
ways to keep i'll view that single end,
despite alike sinister considerations. or
adverse circumstances. Our Territory
is indeed a land of great interest, and of
glorious promise, and although now a
frontier country, demanding atour hands
strong continued effort and no small pri-
ya.ion, vet We are cheered ON by the con-
riction that another frontier is approach
ing US from the Pacific, and that when
the inevitable destiny of this Union shall
have filed up its limits with civilized
population and thrifty enterprise, Kansas
will be territorially the very heart of the
Republic, and in the highway of its trade.
Much of It's progress, prosperity, and its
future destiny, will depend upon lis ear
ly developments. That we shall have
difficulties to meet and overcome, varied
in their character, and formidable in their
number and extent, it were worse ti.an
folly to deny and conceal. Whatever
they may be, however, there is no fear
that they cannot all be solved by prudent
care-by tolerance and charity for differ
enee of opinion among ourselves-by a
calm but tranquilizing moral courage in
asserting our own rights ofaetion or opin-
ion-and by the most scrupulous care to
avoid encroachment on the rights of 9th
ers.
First of all, Kansas must, and with
Gods help, it shall be, a country of Law
and order. No man must be allowed to
cast contempt upon the law-to unsettle
the foundation of society, to mar our flu
ture deslinies-tO cause us to be Stunned
and avoided by good citizens-and to
turn US upon the retrograde path toward
barbarism by substituting his own un-
bridled passion for the administration of
justice, and by redressing his real and
imaginary wrongs by the red and cow
ardly hand of assassination or the ruffian-
ism 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 Ev-
ery one of our millions of fellow-citizens
who may choose to exercise his unques-
tionable right to plant himself, his family,
and his property on our soil, to swell Its
strength, and develope its resources,
must feel that the broad egis of the law
shelters him and his from outrage, and
that its sword is keen and ready to pun
ish him summarily and unfailingly for
outrage of the rights of others.
We must do our duty in cementing
and preserving our glorious Union, by
the strictest adherence to our cOnstitu-
tional and legal obligations, and con-
STINT 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 management of their own
affairs, whilst at the same time we must,
with the most vigorous aud determined
firmness, preserve unimpaired and un-
questioned, to every citizen of our Terri
tory, freedom of opinion in the re3ula-
ton of our own. The principle of the
bill for erectin. our Territory, need
scarcely tell you, has my hearty approval.
FierceIy as it has been assailed. it has It's
foundation deep in the doctrine of true
Republicanism.
Under these doctrines the whole Union,
North, South, East, and West, has invited
us to come here and mould our own in
stitutions, as to us il shall seem good.
We have accepted the invitation, and
with "Populi Ioee N,aa" on our banner,
we are prepared TO give one more proof
of the ability of our people for self-gos-
ernment, by going 20 the ballet-box-
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 prejudiees,
whatever question may be involved in
che decision. Thus, and thus only, can
we discharge our du'y TO ourselves
show our appreciation of the principle of
our territorial bill, and contribute To its
permanency as means of easy solution,
for all future time, of dangerous and
exciting question in our National Coun-
els.
Thus with Law AID order reigning in
our midst, mutual tolerance strengthen
ing our hands and aceelcrating our prog
ress-fsna.icism disaTmed and the Union
sustained by cheerful and determined
observance of the Constitution that binds
it together--by preserving unimpaired
the purity of the ballot-box, aud deciding
there, as freenen should, the questions
which the Nation has properly referred to
it, each man calmly. feariess!y, aud dis
passionately expressing his opinion, and