The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-17
THIRTY-f 0URTH CONGRESS.
First Session.
Tuesday, april 8, 1856.
SEN ATE

CITsC pess1On.
Tuesday, april 8, 1856.
SENATE.
Mr. Weller presented petition from large
number of the most influential citizens of W ASH
ington, representing the location of the present
Jail IN the very heart of the city as so fragrant
and unmitigable an evil as to require the at
tention of Congress.
The proposition to extend the provisions of
the bounty land bill, SO as to embrace those who
had rendered military duty for the required
time, though not actually mustered into service,
was debated in the affirmative by Mr.. Iverson
of Georgia, and in the negative by MIR. Stuart
of Michigan and Mr.. Adams of Mississippi,
when, on the arrival of the hour for the special
order, the subject was postponed until to-day.
Mr.. Geyer, of Missouri, then proceeded with the
remarks which he had commenced on the pre-
ceding day, relative to Kansas affairs, aud, after
briefly recapitulating the points of his speech
on the day before, he entered into an examina-
ton of the act organizing the Territories of
Kansas and Nebraska, the provision in which
repeating the Missouri Compromise he regarded
as both right and proper after the legislation
of the year 1850 relative to our Mexican &C.
QUESTIONS.
Mr.. G. passed in review the agency of EHi-
grant Aid Societies in the settlement of Kan
sas, and gave many reasons why he believed
Kansas would have become free State, with
out contest, if no Southern antagonism had been
raised by what he regarded as the undue efforts
made at the North to prevent the possibility
even of the introduction of Slavery in that Ter
ritory. Mr.. G. then proceeded to account for
the disparity between the Territorial census and
the votes actually thrown in the first election,
which disparity he explained by referring it to
the difficulty of enumerating the population in
sparsely settled country, and proceeded to de-
fend the Missourians who voted in Kansas from
the charge of perjury at the polls. The legal
ity of the Kansas Legislature was then assert
ed, and the peculiarly of some of its acts was
offset by equal "curiosities of legislation
quoted from the early penal codes of Vermont,
New York, and Massachusetts. Mr.. G.. next
commented on the hostile and revolutionary
purposes avowed by the Free State party" in
Kansas, as represented in the meeting at Big
Springs, and as organized in the "Kansas Lee
gion."
Mr.. Seward obtained the floor, and the Senate
adjourned.
On motion of Mr. Cox of K entucky, the House
then went into Committee of the Whole on the
state of the Union, Mr.. Stanton, of Ohio, in the
chair,) and resumed the consideration of the
bill to supply deficiencies in the appropriations
for the service of the fiscal year ending June 80,
1856, the question being on the amendments OF
the Senate thereto.
Mr.. Zollicofer, of Tennessee, replied to that
portion of the remarks made few days since by
his colleague, Mr.. Smith, which had reference
to his own political action. 1t was fatal error
to concede that the Federal Government pos
sessed the power to pass the Wimot Proviso
and to divide the Territories, declaring that in
any portion or all of them Slavery should not
exist forever. When he saw such man as Mr..
Buchanan, in letter recently published in the
Washington Union, relying upon his association
with Southern men to justify his having assumed
that ground, he thought it strengthened the po
sition he took in February last that it had done
| more damage to the South, and was more dan
gerous than the open efforts of Abolitionists, who
did not respect the constitutional rights of the
section which he in part represented. When
| Southern men conceded the right of the Federal
| Government to prevent the extension of Slavery
in the Territories, they left the Northern men
almost all of whom regarded that institution as
a social and political evil-nothing but a CUES
ton of expediency.
| Mr.. Hughston argued against the extension
of Slavery. He thought the men who were
seeking to enlarge the limits of involuntary ser
vitude more obnoxious to the charge of Black
Democracy than those who seek to restrain il
are to the appellation of Black Republicans.
| Mr.. Waldron justified the proceedings of the
| Free State party in Kansas, by reference to the
case OF Michigan, referring to the records to
show that that State had applied for admission
| Into the Union, under circumstances similar to
those under which Kanaas made like request
| to the present Congress, and was admitted by
vote of 1853 to As in the House, President
1 II. IL l.. d.. L
| voting in the negative in the Senate.
Mr.. Jones, of Tennessee, understood the
gentleman from Michigan to have assumed thai
Michigan had formed State Constitution and
| asked for admission, and was received into the
Union, without any authority of law from Con.
gress. To show that the gentleman was en-
| tirely mistaken in his assumption, he read from
the fifth article Of the Ordinance of 1877, to
prove that each of the FIVE States to be formed
! CIT CIT of the Northwestern Territory had the
right to form permanent " ..:Cn aicc
State Government " whenever any of the said
States should have sixty thousand free inhabit
ants therein"
Mr.. Waldron replied that the people Of
| Michigan based their right to form a perma
nent Constitution and State Government, moi
only upon the provisions of the Ordinance Of
1851, but also upon the Constitution of the
| United States
| Mr. Jones rejoined, that the Constitution wa,
not formed when the Ordinance of 1887 was
adopted. That Ordinance was in force before
| a Constitution had been formed.
| Mr.. Boyce, of South Carolina, then delivered
his views upon the subject of our relations with
| Great Britain.
| And, at ten minutes to four o'clock, the
House adjourned,
| IVoInpcdn,J 1Dr,J @ IQ6e