Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-07-24

his masters written pass III order to leave the
plantation.
With the shout Of law and order You lav in
ashes the houses of peacable citizens, destroy
their printing presses, and with cannon batter
down their public buildings With the shout
81 law and order you diSarm the citizen, while
the Constitution Of his country declares that
the right to keep and bear arms shall not be
inirnged" With the shout Of law and order
YOU search aud take from the houses and per-
sons Of the citizens, without legal process, their
papers and effects. when the Constitution of
the country declares that the right of the
people to be secure in their persons, papers
and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated :" and no search
shall in any case be made without warrant
issued on oath, describing the place to be search
ed or the person or thing to be seized. With
the shout Of law and order you seize law-abid-
ing citizens, and by mob law exile them from
their homes for declaring that slavery is an
evil, and ought to be prohibited by law, while
the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech
and of the press. With the shout of law and
order you arrest and put in chains order-loving
citizens, on charge of a high treason, for
pcacably assembling and petitieuing the Gov
crnment for redress of grieyanccs-thuS
trampling upon all law and the most sacred
guarantees Of the Constitution of your country
Law and order is the excuse of despotism,
the world over for all its enormitieS 1t was
10 preserve law and order that Poland was
blotted from the map Of nations, and the dun
geOn and the rack siencad the voice of patrio-
tism in Hungary. 20 preserve law and order,
the streets Of Naples arc crowded with chain
ed gangs. and its quarries are covered with gal
Iey-SlaveS, guilty of no offence save that they
hate oppression and love liberty. For the
same reason, some of the n0blest SONS of France
are to-day pining in hopeless exile, and Sibe-
ria is full of hearts too large 10 be contained
by their native land
The law and order that roigns over the
graves Of crushed humanity is more to be dread
ed than all else it is the order of death Or
der regns in deselation-reguS every where,
when you close the mouths Of men, either by
brute force or under the sanction of law. The
scaffuld sends its victim to quiet rest, and
order regns over his grave The order of
Kansas is the order that reigned in Warsaw
on the 18th of September, 1881, when with
It's streets red with the best blood of its citi-
zenS, and the shrieks of liberty stifed as her
last votary fell, Paskiewith sent to the Gar
his memorable dispatch, Order reigns in
Warsaw The satrap Of this Administration
in Kansas exhibits like love of law and or
der with his prototype. whose example, with
becoming pr0priety, he might well initiate, if
he succeeds in crushing out in Kansas the spir-
it of liberty, by sending like dispatch to his
superior g Order reigns in Kansas"
Law and order enlist in the service of any
master who, for the ime being, chances to
hold the sceptre Of power They are just as
efficient for oppression and wrong as for free
dom and right. When enlisted in behalf Of
dcspOtism, / pay no homage at their shrine
But liberty and law are the twin dynities
who guard the rights of man, and watch over
his happiness. At their altar, all good men
will lay their offerings But the law and or
der of dcspotism is TO he eXecratcd the world
over and the day has passed away when out
rage and wrong are to be yindicated by the
cry of law and order
In view Of the wrongs and outrages perpc-
trated upon the people of Kansas, the patriot
may we'll exclaim, in the language Of Madame
Roland on ascending the scaffold Oh, lib
crty' what crimes have been committed in thv
name ~
Mr.. Speaker, were there no precedent for
the admission of State under like circumStan-
ccS, those surrounding this case would, of them
selves, be sufficient to establish one, Truth,
Justice and humanity, n0eI no preuedents
they make them, 1t is old abuses and time
sanctioned wrongs that entrench themselves
behind formulas
Why should an American legislator hesitate
IN the performance of any act that his judg-
ment approves, for want Of precedent? The
existence of the Republic, and its whole bis
tory, is in violation Of all precedent
There is not one Of the universally recog-
nized truths of to-day, but what was the rank
est hcrcSy when first proclaimed, and the fagOt
and the rack dripped with the blood Of its mar
tyrS. The words conservatism trembled when
hfty-siX bold merchants, farmers and mechan
les proclaimed the inalienable rights of man.
As for myself, there is but one book of prece-
dents that can III any way control my action
as legislator and that written upon my heart
by the finger Of Him who made it,
L" Let the dead past bury its dead
Act, act, in the living present,
Heart within and God o'erhcad."
One word here, in answer to the gentleman
from Georgia, Mr. STEPHENS, who thought
these troubles the result of other causes than
the repeal of The Missouri Compromise The
wrongs Of Kansas date from the day that the
Missouri Compromise was repealed. On the
heads Of its repealcrs rest the blood she'd in
Kansas, and the wrongs and the outrageS which
have been hcaped upon it. The repeal was
Tor the purpose of making Kansas slave
State. 1t Was conspiracy from the start
and il has been carried out with violence and
brute force. Without that repeal, Slavery
could never have gone there. There would
have been no effort to force it into the Terri
tory, Without it, Kansas would have been
saved from civil war, and the repose and har-
mOny Of the Republic would have continued
undisturbed. On the heads, then, of the re-
pcalcrs rests the responsibility for all these