The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1855-05-05
Kansas and Gov. Rccder.

wherever he has been in Intercepted on the
subject of all the northern press have stated
in reference to the outrages committed by
armed Mssoulians at the late Kansas cleo
ton, is drawing an amount Of attention to
this subject and exciting such q degree of
Indignation throughout the country, that
will certainly secure Kansas against the rep
ition Of the outrage, and defeat hopclcssly
the accomplishment of the objects that
prompted its commission. In a speech few
days ago, at Easton, Pa, his home, Gov.
Rceder said he had gone to Kansas full
believer in the doctrine Unpopular sovereign
ty, and his opinions had undergone no
change; but that the conduct of the people
of the border counties Of Missouri had as
tonished and amazed him, and that, if their
conduct was not condemned and disavowcd
by Missouri and the south, it would then
devolvc upon the north to take the matter
up, and see that the rights Of her sons who
have settled in Kansas on the faith Of SOL
emn compacts shall be yindcatci and sus
tanned.
In reference to the character Of those out
rages, they have already been given so fully
and infinitely by the public press, that it
will be sufficient here to say, briefly that on
the day of the late Kansas election some ten
to1500 Missourians, armed to the teeth, and
with banners flying, crossed over into Kan
sas, and driving away the judges of election
appointed by Gov. Rcedcr, took possession
of the polls in all the districts but one, and
discarding the oath prescribed by the Gov.
to be administered according to law to the
voters, elected their men, and then returned
in triumph to Missouri. Settlers in Kansas
who undertook to resist these outrageous pro-
cccdings, wcre driven from the ground by
force; and the cditor of the Parkvilc (Mo.)
LuminaTy, who boldly ccnsured these pre-
ceedings, was seized by the mob, and would
have been killed but that his wife clung to
him and saved him, his press and types were
thrown into the river, and printing Office de-
stroyed.
The only apology offered for these out.
RACES is, that the people of Now England
had, by their Emigrant Aid Societies, under
taken to colonizc Kansas with abolitionists,
and that they had boosted that they would,
by means of popular sovereignty" place
another Canada on the Western borders of
Missouri, that should make the south sick Of
the doctrine That such boasts were made
is doubtless true, for we heard them per.
sonally on the floor Of the senate and SEN
sitive as the south is on this subject it was
easy to foresee that they would lead to I'M
pleasant consequences. We have never had
u good opinion of these Emigrant Aid move
mcnts to colonizc Kansas, and are well CON
WINGED that if they had never been thought
Of, Kansas would have been easily and peace
ably secured to Freedom. They afford,
however, no apology for the lawless proceed
ings of the Missourians. The emigrants sent
out became bona file settlers, and had per-
feet right there, and the only way to meet
them, was for the south to send cmigrants,
equally in good faith, from the slave states
This the south had also right to do, and
then the race would have been an open and
fair one on both sides.
But tits not apparent, from anything we
have seen, that the object of the Missourians
was necessarily to make a slave state of Kan
sas. Their opposition seems to be directed
against abolitionism only-against making a
Canada of Kansas. We have at least the
concurrent testimony Of the Kansas HeraM
Of Freedom, and Of correspondents of the
journal Of Commerce. and of the New York
Tribune, writing from Kansas for the state
mcnt that there are very few, if any slaves
IN Kansas that the settlers from tho south
take none with them, and that the settlers
from Missouri and the south generally ex-
press themselves unlirmly in favor of max
ing Kansas free, provided free negroes are
excluded, as they are in Indiana, Illinois,
and other western states. They want no
slaves, but at the same time, they also OPP
pose making it a harboring place for runa-
way slaves from Missouri and other south
crn states.
Nor can we find, in these Kansas outragcs,
that strong argument against the doctrine of
popular sovereignty, which the abolition
press claim to draw from them. As the
Chicago Times well remarks, ''rhc Mis-
sourians did that illegal act under no author
ity, nor pretencc ofauthori,y, of the Nebras-
ka and Kansas law. They could have done
the same act whether the Missouri rcstric-
ton had been repealed or not lfthey voted
illegally they voted in defiance Of all law,
and voting in defiance of all law they could
have done the same act in any Of the coun-
ties of Illinois or Iowa bordering on their
State, as we'll as they could have done it in
Kansas. The Kansas and Nebraska act
gave no right or authority to any man to do
an illegal act; if illegal acts have been COM
mittcd, it is no fault OF the law but of the
law breakers" There are few slaves in
Kansas nowhere irere a few there before
the compromise was repealed, and with or
without the compromise, the state Of Kansas
may alike be slave or free
AS to the course to be pursued in view Of
these Missouri outrages, there can obviously
be but one. II the election was illegal, the
Governor must refuse TO give certificates to
the member elect, and if necessary, order
new election; and then, il an attempt is
made to repeat the outragcs, the President
must stand by the Governor. He must see
that the real settlers Of Kansas elect their
own legislature, and if they are disturbed
aud hindered by bands of ruilinns from any
ofthe states, the disturbcrs must be put
down by the strong arm Of the government,
And il the President refuses to interfere,
congress must DO it. Kansas must govern
Kansas.
But we have no fears that violent meas
ures will be necessary TO secure to the people