The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-09-15
The Occidental Messenger.

posed penalties out OF ali proportion u
the crimes, and made the discussion o
the slave question penitentiary ofiense
when by the organic law of Congress, j
was left an open question. The laws o
the Territory have not yet been publish.
ed and we are unable TO judge of The
truth of these assertions; but granting
that the Legislature have done all that j:
charged, still the people of the Territory
have remedy without resorting to rev
olulion. The Courts, which are not elect
ed by the Legislature, have power to pass
upon and set aside all laws thatare either
unconstitutional or contrary to the or.
ganic law of the Territory. In view of
these facts, it i'll becomes people who
profess to be guided by Republican prin-
ciples, to resort to revolutionary and trea-
sonable measures to effect that which
they have failed to do lawfully
Has our neighbor diyested himself oi
prejudice, and looked at this matter from
a proper standpoint ? We fear not
Is he aware of the fact that the Courts
are formed by the Legislature ? that
they have elected judges, sherifs. and
prosecuting attorneys without consulting
the wishes of the people, and made pro-
visions that jurors shall entertain certain
opinions which disquali6es them from
arriving at the facts in any case where
slave property, or slave institutions are
concerned? Does he know that two oi
the Judges of our District and Supreme
Court, were so anxious to show their
subseryiency to the behests of the slave
power that they disgraced the Judicial
ermine with which they were clothed,
and without hearing an argument, or
even giving an opportunity for argu-
ment, pronounced the acts of that body
of men, assuming the authority of the
Legislative Assembly of Kansas, to be
constitutional ia advance, and thus put
it out of our power to hope for any re-
dress through the Courts
They have surrounded their hellish
with all the devices which
the ingenuity of devils could invent,
with the view of depriving us of any
chance for relief. The ballot-box is
shut up, and our enslayement-if We
would submit to their damnable usurpa-
tions-is complete. There is but one
hope left US aside from Congress, and
that lays through regolution. We are
few in numbers So were the heroes of
rs. We are without arms or the mu-
nitions of war, but Patrick Henry told
his compeers that 'God would raise up
armies for their defence - Will he not
do so for those who have a thousand
times greater reason for relying upon the
strong arm and steady nerve to redress
their greviences
We are no advocate for revolution, and
would deprecate the commencement of a
contest which would array State against
State, and only end long after the Union
had ceased to be; but who would not
prefer to see these States belligerent, fra
ternal blood flowing from every vein,
yea his own wife and children inundated
upon the altar of freedom, and finally
fill sanguinary grave himself, than to
submit to personal aud political enslave-
ment the most complete which was ever
attempted to be fastened upon any peo-
pie.
But says the Messenger
cit cannot be that any rejecting and
sane minded person, either in or out of
Kansas, can believe that the circumstan-
ces that surround this matter, justify the
resort to so fatal an expedient they can
not believe that the dire alternative has
arrived, when the laws and government
of their country have become so odious,
unjust and oppressive, that they feel JUS
tilted in resorting to those measures
which viii result only in bloodshed,
civil war and dissolution of the Union. -
Rejecting and sane minded men have
come to just such conclusion. They
have weighed all the consequences well,
and are no longer frightened with the
bugbear dissolution. If slavery pro-
pagandists are prepared for dissolution
let it come, and time shall tell which is
the greatest sufferer. II Missouri wishes
her plains to constitute the Ozark and
Bloody ground she has only to en-
dorse the action which her renegade sons
have been pursuing for months past.
eff they cannot tolerate the laws OF
the country which they have voluntary
chosen for their homes, it is a duty they
owe to their country. to leave the Terri
tory"
Such was not the course pursured by
our fathers. They petitioned for a re-
dress of their wrongs-they resorted to
every honorable expedient to secure their
rights, and when all else failed they
plunged the country intoa revolution
We shall not expatriate ourselves at the
dictation of those who have attempted to
enslaye us. Weare conscious that those
oppressive enaetments were passed to de-
ter men from coming here from the
North and East, and with the expecta-
ton that We would be induced to beat an
|inglorious retreat.
.'AFe they willing that the majority
shall rule, and that the form of govern.
ment shall still remain that of a republic!
The kind of laws to be made must be de.
;ermined by the people of the Territory.
and If they are unwilling to submit te
them, they should either have not come
10 Kansas, or being there, should peace
ably remove to where the laws are mort