The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-17
SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD
IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF KANSAS INTO
THE UNION.
Senate cfhe United States, april 9, 1856.


domains, and salute especially the Senate in the
most august of all its manifold characters, itself
a Congress of thirty-one free, equal, sovereign
States, assembled to decide whether the majestic
and fraternal circle shall be opened TO receive
yet another free, equal, and sovereign State.
The Constitution prescribes only two qualifca-
tons for new States, namely substantial civil
community, and republican Government. Kan
sas has both of these.
The circumstances Of Kansas, and her relations
towards the Union, are peculiar, anomalous and
deeply interesting. The United States acquired
the province of Louisiana, (which included the
present Territory of kansas,) from France, in
1903, by treaty, in which they agreed that its
inhabitants should be Incorporated into the Fed
eral Union, and admitted as soon as possible &C
cording to the principles OF the Constitution, TO
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and
of citizens of the United States
Nevertheless, Kansas was in 1920 assigned as a
home for an indefinite period to several savage
Indian tribes, and closed against immigration and
all other than aboriginal civilization, but not
without a contempOraneous pledge to the Ameri-
can people and to mankind, that neither Slavery
nor involuntary servitude should be tolerated
therein forever. In 1854, Congress directed reno
val of the Indian tribes, and organized and opened
Kansas to civilization, but by the same act re-
scinded the pledge of perpetual dedication to
I
clared that the future people of Kansas should
be left perfectly free to establish to exclude
Slavery, as they should decide through the action
OF republican Government which Congress
modelled and authorized them to establish, under
the protection of the United States Notwith-
standing this latter pledge, when the newly asso-
ciated people of Kansas, in 1855, were proceed
ing with the machinery Unpopular elections in the
manner prescribed by Congress, to choose legisla-
I iya he of
republican Government, armed bands of invaders
from the State of Missouri entered the Territory
seized the polls, OverpOwered or drove away the
inhabitants, usurped the elective franchise, de-
posted false and spurious ballots without regard
to regularity of qualification or of numbers pro-
cured official certificates of the result by fraud
and force, and thus created and constituted legis-
latiye bodies to act for and in the name of the
people of the Territory. These legislative bodies
afterward assembled, assumed to be a legitimate
Legislature, set forth a code Of municipal laws,
created public offices and filed them with officers
appointed for considerable periods by themselves
and thus established a complete and effective
foreign tyranny over the people of the Territory
These high-handed transactions were consumma-
ted with the expressed purpose Of establishing
African Slavery as permanent institution within
the Territory by force in violation of the natural
rights of the people solemnly guaranteed to them
by the Congress of the United States. The Pres
ident of the United States has been an accessory
to these political transactions with full completely
in regard to the purpose for which they were
committed. lie has adopted the usurpation, and
made it his own, and he is now maintaining it
with the military arm of the Republic. Thus Kan
sas has been revoutionized, and she now lies sub
jugated and PROSTATE at the foot of the President
of the United States, while he through the agency
of foreign tyranny established within her Dor
ders, is forcibly introducing and establishing
Slavery there, in contempt and defiance of the
organic law. Thee extraordinary transactions
have been attended by civil connections, in
which property, life, and liberty, have been ex-
posed to violence, and these connections still con-
nue to threaten not only the Territory itself but
also the adjacent States, with the calamities and
disasters of civil war.
/ am fully aware of the gravity of the charges
against the President Of the United States which
this statement of the condition and relations of
Kansas imports. / shall proceed, without fear
and without reserve, TO make them good The
maxim, that a sacred veil must be drawn over
the beginning of all Governments, does not hold
under our system. ! shall first call the accuser
into the presence of the Senate-then examine
the defences which the President has made-and,
last, submit the evidences 10y which he is con-
victed.
The people of Kansas know whether these
charges are true or false. They have adopted
them, and, on the ground of the high political
necessity which the wrongs they have endured,
and are yet enduring and the dangers through
which they have already passed, and the perils to
which they are yet exposed have created they have
organized themselves as State and
that State is here, by its two chosen Senators
and one Representative, standing outside at the
doors of Congress, applying TO be admitted into
the Union, rs a means of relief indispensable for
the purposes Of peace, freedom, and safety. This
new State is the Presidents responsible accuser
The President of the United States, without
waiting for the appearance of his accuser at the
capital, anticipated the accusations and submitted
his defences against them TO Congress. The frs
one Of these defences was contained in his annual
message, which was communicated to Congress
on the Both OF December, $50. examine it.
You shall see at once that the Presidents mind
was oppressed-was full of something, too large
and burdensome to be concealed, and vet too
critical to be told.
Mark, if you please, the state Of the case a.
that time. So early as August, 1852 the peo-
PIE of Kansas had denounced the Legislature.
They had AT voluntary elections chosen Mr. A. u.
Reeder to represent them in the present Congress
instead of J. w. Whitfield, who held certifcate
Of election under the authority of the Legislature
They had Also on the 23d day Of October 1888,
by similar voluntary elections, constituted at
Topeka an organic Convention, which framed a
for the projected State. They had
also, on the 9Th of December, 1855 at similar
voluntary elections, adopted that Constitution,
and its tenor was fully known. Ii provided for
elections to be held throughout the new State on
the 18th of January, 1886, to fill the Offices
created by it, and it also required the Executive
and Legislative officers, thus TO be chosen, 10
assemble at Topeka on the Attn day of March
1856, to inaugurate the new State Professionally
md to take the necessary means for the appoint
nent Of Senators, who, together with a Repre-
sentative already chosen, should submit the Con
'titution to Congress at an early day, and
apply for the admission of the State of Kan
'as into the Union. All these proceedings had
been based on the grounds that the Territorial
authorities Of Kansas had been established b,,
armed foreign usurpation, and were nevertheless
sustained by the President OF the United States
constitutional obligation required the President
to give to Congress, in his annual message
information of the state Of the Union" Here
S all g the information" which the President
rave to Congress concerning the events in Kansas.
md its relations TO the Union:
In the Territory of Kansas there have been
acts prejudicial to good order, but as yet none
have occurred under circumstances to Justify
the interpositon of the Federal Executive
That could only be in case of obstruction TO
Federal law, or of organized resistance to Terri
torial law, assuming the character of insurrec-
ton, which, if it should occur, it would be NV
duty promptly to overcome and suppress 1
cherish the hope, however, that the occurrence
of any such untoward event will be prevented
By the sound sense of the people of the Terri
tory, who, by its organic law, possessing the
right to determine their own domestic institu-
tons, are entitled, while deporting themselves
peacefully to the free exercise of that right and
must be protected in the enjoyment of it, with
out interference on the part of the citizens of
any of the States"
This information implies, that no invasion.