New-York daily tribune., 1856-03-17
FROM WASHINGTON.
THE KANSAS DEBATE OF THURSDAY.

dsy. refting the newest prete1ts for shroudlng III
darkness the giant villsnies which chained Kansas
At least rOminally to the car OF Human bohdage
for a season. Mr.. Purviance was very strong Oh
the precedents sorded by the history OF the House.
showing that its right to Unseat and admit members
or delegates as il should judge just has ever oeen
held complete and untrameled. was IN tue oen-
ate when Mr. Todd spOke, but his remarks were
highly appreciated on cur side.
The speakers for Whitfield and Slavery to-day
were TAYLOR of Louisiana, HARRIS of Illinois, and
LETcHFR of Virginia. The argument of the first
named was very lawyer-ike and unremarkabie.
Major Harris has earned the unenyiable distinction
of being the first Member from Free State who,
in this long debate has risen to pettltog the lame
cause of Slavery and Border Rufiiansm. | ex-
pected doughface to assail the Free-State men OF
Kansas with more bitterness and less candor than
any STAKEHOLDER, and was not disappointed. Ma
ior Harris gave his hearers to understand that he
did not approve the manner in which The TRI-
BuNE is conducted. especially with reference to
Kansas and her delegate contest. My sorrow over
this exhibition Of bad taste on the part OF the hon
Member is considerably alleviated by the knowledge
that several thousands of his constituents are much
better Judges of good newspapers than their repre-
sentative. From first to last, he eyinced total
Inconsistencies of the magnitude and majesty o
this contest, arguing as if it were plea in abate-
ment or an action for tyesspass before Justices
court.
Mr.. JOHN LETCHER of Virginia closed the
dsy's discussion. Mr. L. is accounted unusually
shrewd. good tactician. and most unsparng
partisan-all which may be true, but he made an
unwise speech to-day First he assailed Reeder
immeasurably, and Insisted that nobody justified his
course; the truth being that the friends OF Free
Kansas refuse to be drawn off from the mOmentous
public issues involved in this contest into purely
personal controversy. Their uniform language has
been. Blacken ReedeTs reputation as you Will,
we demaud that Kansas shall not be subjugated
to Slavery by such audaciOus frauds as were
committed BY the Border Ruffians at her LegiS-
latiYe Election last March, And because OF
this steady refusal to be led away on false issue,
our friends are accused of abandoning the defense
of Reeder!
Mr.. Letcher proiessed the same fearessness and
practiced that same avoidance of investigation
with all his predecessors on the Whitfield side
Reduced to plain English, his logic ran thus;
1--WE Pro-Slavery men have got you down IN Kan
sas, no matter how and We will push our ad-
vantage TO the utmost, if not on one pretext,
then on another Evidently, Mr.. l.. did not
care how Whitfield was elected, nor whether he
was or was not elected at all: it suficed him that
Whitfield lad the regular return, and to that he
would hold fast, taking care that none should go
behind it. Thus resolved he had only to ladie out
surfeit OF partisan slang, inud President
Pierce, and threaten Secession in case the
Republicans should obtain control of the
Government, and three.fourths of his political
brethren would fail to see that he had made shall
low and for his party mischieyous speech. When
he closed, MI |. WAsHBURN got the floor and gave
way for motion to ad Ourn. 1t is understood that
he will close by moving the Previous Question, but
doubt the Houses sustaining it tomorrow, unless
the temper of the House cOos considerably; for
Letcher succeeded in arOusiDg the true spirit
amoung our Free. State Members. Hitherto their
speeches seem to me mainly pitched in too low
a key-tOO defensive, exculpatOry apOlogetlc.
You might infer from their general drift that to
hate and resist Slavery is an Ofense, which only
some fragrant provocation, like the repeal of the
Missouri Compact, could excuse They have cited
precedents to show that Congress may go behind
the acts of the BOrder.Iuffan Legislature, and at
tempt to prove that BODY sham and swindle,
Just as if it would not be the duty of the House, in
the absence of any such precedent, to make one.
An outrage so unique and gigantic as that BY which
Kansas was put under the feet of her invaders
should be redressed in the readiest and most etfec
tive way, no matter though no such outrage had
ever before demanded redress | have waited to
hear some one speak in this vein: "You, MesSrs.
Shareholders have repudiated the solemn compact
by which your fathers conceded what is now
Kansas to Free labor forever; aud YOU their sons,
have proved recreant to that principle of Popular
Sovereignty which you lauded to the skies but
few years ago. BY conspiracy, terror and fraud,
you have seized upon the machinery of elections,
and perverted it into an instrument of the most
atrociOts usurpation and wrong. Your minions
have assumed 70 establish Slavery in Kansas; we
scout the assumption, and laugh to scOrn your
clumsy contriyances for sitting the public voice.
The vital question now at issue concerns the
legality or ilegaity Of SlavehOldiDg in Kansas we
declare that it has not, deserves not, and shall not
have legal existence there. In sustaining Whit
feld, you vote to sustain the bloody Pro-Slavery
enactments of the Shawnee Mission Legislature.
Dare you, Messrs Fullers and Whitney, Wheeler
and Broome, Vail and Whitney, Millward and