Eastern times., 1855-09-20
The President and Kansas.

The President and Kansas.
The course of events in Kansas continues to
be godsend to the abolitionists. The law
establishing this territory, and the Nebraska
territory, contemplated free action by the bona
fide settlers of those two territories it is based
on the idea that the people settling them might
be trusted with the control of their local af
fairs, with as much safety as were those Of
California or Arkansas, or of Massachusetts,
and every movement designed to prevent such
independent action by the settlers is as contra
nv TO and violative of the LAW under which
they act as it is to common sense and repub-
lcan government This will apply as well to
the forced action of abolitionists as to the
outrageous course of the Missourians. Both
have been against the spirit of the law.
And it cannot be denied that the Missouri
ans are proceeding from bad to worse; that
the laws they are passing are as absurd and
ridiculous as their election proceedings were
illegal Their act, for instance, making free
discussion penal offence is simply ridiculous.
Do the men that passed it call themselves JEFF
fersonian republcansa Let them recur to the
great lessons of the sage of Monticello-his
own treatment of the slavery question-and
see how whitening is his condemnation of their
proceedings. The very suggestion that Thonl-
as Jefferson would approve of such laws as
the Kansas Legislature have passed is libel
on his memory.
But what do the abolitonsts, and men even
who would dsclaim the epithet, say as to a
remedy1 They denounce the course of nom
action of the President. They say he was
prompt to act in the rendition of Anthony
Burns, but has not moved finger to stay back
the nroad of the Missourians into Kansas, or
to rebuke their legislation and then they fall
to and heap upon him denunciation upon de-
nuneiation. Now let US see what this camor
means let us see exactly what these abol-
tionists demand let us test their political
soundness.
And first, what these aboltionists demand,
what they virtually ask, is that the President
shall despatch military force into Kansas to
control its local affairs; to act exactly as
Louis Napoleon would act as 10 a disloyal
prefecture, or local council IT, under French
Capitalization, local board on the outskirts of
France gets into trouble, it is the simplest of
operations to remedy it. The despot has but
10 detach regiment; turn out the project and
the council, and install others. These clamor-
ers for executive Intervention in the case of
Kansas are asking just this: that the Pres-
dent would send file of troops to dissolve the
rump parliament
The searching question may be here asked,
what right has the President to make or med
die with the local legislature of Kansas! He
is made, by the constitution, the executor of
the laws of the land he is bound to govern
himself by these laws: and the law establishing
Kansas expressly provides that its intent and
meaning is "to leave the people thereof per-
fectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to
the constitution of the United States" And
again sThe consultation and all laws of the
United States, which are not locally lnapplia-
BILE, are to have the same farce and effect in
Kansas as elsewhere within the United States"
Here, then, is the rule of action for the Presi-
dent. The law actually prohibits him from
meddling with the proceedings of the Kansas
legislature 1t is evident that the same oath
which obiges him to execute the law in the
case of the rendition of fugitive, obliges him
| to refrain from meddling with the internal af-
fairs of the Kansas territory. The abolition
camor, then, amounts to denunciaton of the
President for obeying the laws of the land
Nothing could be more senseless than the
abolition camor because of the Presidents
non-acton as to the Kansas elections and the
action of that Kansas Legislature. And the
whole outside interference with the local af
fairs of Kansas is entirely uncalled for. 1t is
no new thing for ntruders TO interfere in the
| incipient stages of our territorial governments.
| Great confusion, for years, existed in Califor-
mia, before the regular action of government
commenced hordes of intruders threatened
the peace of the country on the discovery of
the placers vessels were deserted by their
crews foreigners of every description iocked
into the country; Indian horse thieves abound
ed and there was no end TO the confusion
that existed, up to the verge Of civil war
President Taylor, in his message to congress,
January 2lst, 1850, states that the instructions
given to the government officers were, ''thdt
all measures of domestic policy adopted by the
people Of California, must originate solely Nth
themselues;;" and that his aim had been to
avoid any interference with the election of del
egates. The abolitionists, now, would seem
to want the President to exercise a guardian
ship over the people to station a military
force in Kansas; and act the part Of dictator
10 its Legislature When a case arises of re-
sistance to the laws Of the United States, and
the President is called upon to act under the
law of congress of 1875, the past shows that
he will be the last to shrink from the perform
ance of duty.
The abolitionists making the most out
of the state of things in Kansas and the men
who have usurped the control of the territory,
and inaugurated all but mob law, are playing
completely into their hands. But every other
people Of every other state, in its incipient
stages, happily at length instituted its local
government. 1t was SO with Illinois, Indiana,
Arkansas, California; and in due time the
people of Kansas will initiate their example.
Boston Post.