The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-01-06

BEG leave TO remind YOU that y0n are
recurring even more than this, and, with
signal modesty, demand that should
surrender my judgment to yours, and If
you should be of opinion that the meeting
who sent you was composed of "citizens
of Kansas - / should take for granted
that you are infallible, adopt your conclu-
sions, and consider it unnecessary TO
Judge for myself. Doubtless this would
save vast deal of trouble; and if Icould
take your infallibility for granted, it
would leave me little to do but to regis
ter your DEGREES. That, however, is not
nv mode of doing business and al
though / seek the opinions and sugges-
tons of others, prefer to judge for my
self. There is another very singular as
pect of this reason of yours. Without
inquiriug of me what intended to do in
relation to an election of members of the
Legislature, you attract public attention
BY assembling meeting, and after a
speech appropriate to the design of the
meeting, committee is formally appoint
ed to prepare a grave and diplomatic me-
mortal to quicken me in the performance
of my official duty and when you have
made the affair thus public, precise, and
ceremonious, as far as it is calculated to
east censure on my Judgment and fidelity,
you modestly insist that all the residue
of the proceedings shall be as informal as
yost choose to make them, and that whilst
You, by your actions, are censuring me,
| shall be required in the same transae-
ton to recognize yoa as men who cannot
possibly err in motive or Judgment
These rules of logic and equity l have
never learned; and ] think, gentlemen,
that to. you belongs the merit of their
discovery. n.
Your reasons being thus disposed of,
allow me to repeat; you come to me as
the agent of others, who You allege are
citizens of Kansas, and therefore entitled
to reply. | ask for copy of the pro-
ceedings, in order that l may be satisfied
as to that fact. You peremptorily refuse
to give them. By all the rules of com
mon sense, common courtesy, and COM
mon justice, would be justified in re-
fusing to notice your communication, as
| had once resolved to do. | have, how
ever, changed my mind, and viii proceed
to state some facts within the knowledge
of the whole public in this vicinity-who
viii decide between us, if We disagree
and which | should have proven almost
entirely by your own evidence, had you
not, from the pinching exigencies of the
ease, been compelled to refuse copy of
the proceedings.
The meeting pas not of the "citizenS
of Kansas" as your proceedings will
show, if you viii produce them 1t was
a meeting composed mainly of citizens of
Missouri; and few of the citizens of
Kansas. Your own body, whom l am
now addressing, contains two undoubted
residents of Missouri, one Of whom is
your chairman, who resides with his fam
lily in the town of Liberty, Mo-, as he
has done for years, and whose only at
tempt at a residence in Kansas consists
of card nailed to tree, upon ground
long since occupied by other settlers who
have built and live upon the claim. The
President of your meeting was Maj. John
Dougherty, resident and large land
holder in Clay county, Missouri, as he
Las stated to me since the meeting, and
will not hesitate to state again, as he
is high minded and honorable man,
above all concealment or disguise. The
gentlemen principally composing your
meeting came from across the river,
thronging the road from the ferry to the
town, on horseback and in wagons, in
numbers yarionsly estimated by different
persons at from 200 to 800 and after the
meeting was over they returned to their
homes in the State of Missouri These
are facts as notorious here as any public
occurrence can be and every man who
had eyes to see and ears to hear, is cog
infant to them. .a
They were the subject of much remark
and the cause of deep dissatisfaction; and
even on the ground, in the meeting, and
in reply to the speech of your chairman,
who was chief spokesman of the occasion,
this invasion of our Territory was loudly
of by some of the outnum-
bered citizens of Kansas, and has fire.
quently since been made the subject of
indignant complaint to me. Such is the
meeting from which you derive your au-
thority, and such the title by which you
assume to interfere in the regulation of
our affairs. Few men, with all the facts
before them, would be hardy enough to
say that the assumption is entitled to any
respect The law guarantees to us the
right to manage our own affairs. tits the
great, much discussed feature of our
territorial government, and one which our
people highly prize-under the pledges
of which the inhabitants of the Territory
have come and staked their future for
tunes on our own soil. sI
!, The pledges of that law must be re-
deemed and it were a poor and pitiless
boon to have escaped from the domina-
ton of Congress, if we are only to pass
under the hands of another set of self
constituted rulers, foreign to our soil, and
sharing none of our burdens/ mo matter
what may be their virtues or their worth
as men and citizens at home 1t may be
very desirable for gentlemen to live
among the comforts of the States, with
all the accumulated eonveniences and lux
uries of an old home, and make an occa-
sional expedition into our Territory, to
arrange our affairs-instruct our people
and public officers, and control our gov
ernment but it does not suit us, and /
much mistake the people. of this Territory
if they submit to it. One thing | am
certain of, that having sworn to perform
the duties of the office of Governor with
fidelity, ] shall denounce and resist it in
friend or foe, and without regard to the
locality, the party, the faction, or the ism
from which it comes.
Thus much the citizens of Kansas have
a right to demand at my hands, and to
Gail IN If uould ha tho haldasf dprelietiou