Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-22
Governor Shannon at Westport.
TFrom the Evening Post.1

,o view we had already taken OF the removal
.f Governor Reeder of Kansas. The new
Governor, Shannon, was received with marks
of honor by the friends. of slavery in that
,i.cp He regrets that the people of Kansas
r. NOT submit quietly to the fraud which has
Loon nractised upon them. For his part, he
considers the assembly held at the Shawnee
MISSION as a true Legislature, and whether the
reonIe of Kansas are willing to recognise its
aartbority or not, he is prepared to enforce its
"rdipauces as the genuine laws of the terri
.ary lie is in favor of introducing the insti-
tption of slavery.
Making all allowances for the occasional ex-
ocaorotjons of the telegraph, we see no reason
- doubt that Governor Shannon said some
,Tinr Of the nature ascribed to him. He was
'crr1aded at Westport by the friends of the
oytpnsion of slavery, who were, of course, we'll
alarmed of his sentiments, and desired to give
him an opportunity of expressing them. He
saved the occasion, and gratifed them with the
declaration that he was with them, and meant,
in his capacity of Governor, to finish the work
which the Missouri adventures, acting as a le-
oiJaturc. had so nobly begun. Since Shannon
ToeJ for the Nebraska bill with the certainty
of offending his constituents, but with the
rrom;sc that Mr.. Pierce would take care of
him if they dropped him at the next election,
there can of course be no work too dirty or
shameful for him to do.
Those who in thir simplicity thought that
Governor Reeder was removed from his Office
on account of certain speculations in wild lands,
which he never made, but only asked Mr..
Percc's permission to make, will, we think,
l;,l TIo Enrra, lo;I 4,no
could not Get on with him. He was retained
in Office long after his offer to speculate, until
il was clear that he could not be relied upon as
a confederate of Atchison and Stringfellow {;
hut the moment he began to refuse its sigma
turc to their laws and deny their validity, he
was summarily dismissed. His place was first
offered to one who it was well known would
rot accept it-so well known, that the tele-
graphic dispatch which brought from Wash
ington the news Of his appointment brought
also the intelligence that he would certainly
refuse it. Shannon, however, has no such
s~cruples he accepted the offer with a~lacrity,
and set ont Immediately on the errand of ell
forcing the DEGREES Of the adventures as
,mblcd at the Shawnee Mission, and introduc-
Ing slavery into Kansas.
But will Governor Shannon he able to per-
form his promise ? There are two objections
entertained by the people of Kansas to the
ui0uS rcscriptS which Governor Shannon calls
laws in the first place, that the c~onclave
br whom they were adopted had no authority
to act as a legislature ; and in the second
place, that they are of so tyrannicai a nature,
50 r~cpagnant to all our notions of a free govern
mont that their execution cannot be endured.
VIII Governor Shannon, for example, be able
to exact of the settlers of Kansas the oath to
support the Fugitive Slave law, before they
are allowed 10 vote? Does he imagine himself
able to execute the decree issued by the same
u>Grped authority, which makes it a crime to
speak Or publish a word against the introduce
ton Of slavery into Kansas? BY what sort Of
process does he expect to fulfil another decree
by which the man who shelters in his flight a
brother man escaping from bondage is to be
muiShed with death ? The settlers will laugh
his law to scorn, and throw their defiance in
his teeth.
VIII Mr.. Pierce, to second his creature and
aStrument in the effort he is about to make,
resort to the military arm of the government ?
Will he order out the federal troops as he did
to enforce the Fugitive Slave law at Boston,
and as he would rot do to protect the rights Of
rsidcnts of Kansas against the outrages OF
the invaders from Missouri ? If he takes that
step, be plunCcS the country into a civil war
at once. Ordinances like those passed by the
USurping legislature at the Shawnee Mission
arc not laws for a free people to obey, and all
the power at the disposal of the federal govern
ment could not enforce them. Let Mr.. Pierce
make the experiment let him try the effect
Of ordering ont a regiment of the government
troops to aid in imposing slavery upon Kansas
against the will of its colonists. 1t was not
ieng since that we saw crowds of eager adj
VGturers on our coasts, our own couutrymen,
preparing for a descent upon Cuba to deliver
the islanders from the yoke Of Spain. Would
there he nobody to 90 up to the struggle for
liberty in Kansas, when the cry of hclpshOuld
be raised by our cOuntrymen in their extremity,
Cur old friends and neighborS, who, in fixing
their residence there, vainly imagined that they
were still in a free country =? Our word for it
lie protest against tyranny worse than that of
SPAN would not be unrcgarded. Thousands
VI the young men of the North, already too
inpatient Of the dull calmness of a peaceful
lie, would throng uron the ground in such
AlAoerS as to elbow the comparative handful
o >o.iery ont Of the territory, and even to
'nSte the whole army Of United States
users, governors, judges and marshals over
the frontier.
Let no man deny, then, that the introduction
VI slavery into Kansas, as the consummation
y one more object Of the Nebraska bill, is
Tue great question of the day. Almost every
# ~@A from the West informs Us Of a new step