Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-12-04
The Representation Of Kansas.

and guarding it, seens to meet with favor among
the more conservative Of Northern journals, -
We object to this procedure the ground that
II would be national judgment against the VA
lidity and authenticity Of the Kansas Leeisln-
ture-a result which would better subserve the
purposes Of the freesoers than the adms ion Of
Reeder to seat in Congress.
II the Legislature Of Kansas had any righ'in'
power Of action as law making body II haa
authority to appoint day of elect'on-and II
on that day polls were opened. and ei'eio'' can
daa,cs voted for, and the legal formaliiies were
ob.e-yeo facts VII ch cannot be denied. there
can No no doubt that an election was made. Ad-
hitting even that the names Of men were record
ed who had no right TO sote-thls would not
yitiate the election. but woull only render ne
cesssry purgation of the polls. If after this
was done, and all the Illegal votes had been
stricken off, i, should appear, 'hnt Whitfield had
more votes than any other candidate, his right TO
n sea, would be unquestionable. For Congress
10 ignore the election altogether. as Is proposet
would he te inpeach the authority of the Legs
lature, and tn render migratory and void al its
acts. Will Congress take upcn itself such re-
spon-iblty as this After organizing terrific.
rial government for Kansas viii il refuse To that
government the exercise of the just powers to
which il is enttled-,he powers hitherto exer
cised, without impeachment or hlndranee, 10y all
territorial governments! We should deplore
such measure. and look with little less than
CONSERVATION for its results.
The proposition TO remand both the con'es.
A.. he, la
10 Reeder and his party. for. MS the Louisville
Journal remarks: Under no circumstances
can Reeder be entitled To a seat in Congress
Hi, election was without form,and can he regard
ed only the act at an organized mob-of
body of men who, II not acting against law,
were at least acting without the sanction OF law.
The conduct Of Reeder and his confederates in
this matte, has been wholly noonsis tent with
their own principles and pretensions Reeder
and his party in Kapsas contend TIM, because
the Legislature of Kansas removed the scene of
its deliberations from Pnwnee TO Shawnee Mis-
zion, i, thereby became ipso facto an illegal body;
and assuming to decd. this question. Reeder as
Governor Withdrew from all official connection
with the legislative body. The prctrnce for his
hghbanded act was. thot the Kansas law
prescribed that the Governor should de-
signate where the fr.t Legislature should
c onvene, aud as Reedcr had designated
Pa,cnee, therefore the Legislature could not
legally hol its ee ssiUn any where else. 1t can
be- easily shown that this assumption of Reeder's
is erroneous. In the inception of governmental
was necessary to lodge the power 10 designat"
the place of meeting in some person. Ii could
not be given to the Legislature itself because, it
could not come into existence as l. body that could
act. until it had met an organized Somewhere.
Uni, then il was not Legislature. Hence
the power was by the law conferred on the Gov
ernor to designate the place Of meeting But
when it had met and organized it then became
fully invested as legislative body with all tho
attributes of sovereignty. one of which land
subordinate one tool was the power to adjourn
to a more convenient place for transacting the
business i, had to perform. The place where
the Legislature called to meet, il is said, was
a mere fo,rn site an not town in fact; it was
destitute Of houses of all sorts and there were no
convenient room in which body Of men could
meet to transact business; to deny that the Leg
islature did possess the poor power of remov-
ing to some other locality is perfectly prcpos,e-
rous. But for the sake Of argument suppose we
admit that the Legislature Of Arkansas ceased
to be a legal body when it removed from Paw
nee; does that make the proceedings of the fac
tion that organized and elected Reeder dele
gate to Congress legal! II the election IF Whit
field is illegal. that of Reeder is none tho less
so. We recognize the right of the people to elect
their own delegates to Congress, hut il must be-
done under the forms oflaw We do not believe
that tits competent for public meetings. or mpbs
to decide what is or is not law, but that this is Il
prerogative Of the courts. We are perfectly sure
tina. under aspect of the case can Reeder he
entitled to seat in the next Congress Us u dele
gate from Kansas, and the case is so plain tina, il
is not worthy of being made the subject Of agitu-
ton; it ought to be decided promptly and dec,s-
lively.
The New York Tribune has an article on THE
RAILROAD INTEREST in which il insists that while.
as an Investment. the immense outlay of money in
New England TO reach the traffic of the great
lakes by the circutous routes through New
Hampshire and Vermont, seems money almost
thrown away, yet. every one of these roads,
built at so much cost. has enriched the agricultu.
raj sections through which they pass much more
than the whole cost Of the whole New England
network of railroads!
That there is hai div to be found a railroad in
the whole country which the land owners. to,