Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-09-10

has witnessed for himself the outrages which
have been there committed. can only say |
that upon the plains Of Kansas, under the shad- |
ow of the stars and stripes, and under the pro-
lection of the Constitution of this model Re- |
public. there is to be found people whose
condition, civil and political, you would i'm
prove if you were to transfer them to the gov
ernment of the Gar of Russia, the Emperor of
Austria or France. [Applausel. Is this true
Why, it is capable of the plainest and surest
demonstration to any man who knows all the
facts in the case, or even few of them 1t is
an admitted, unquestioned, and undenied truth
that the people of that Territory have act
part in their own Government, and they
have no laws of their own making. They have
no taxes of their own levying they have no
officers of their own electing they are slaves,
political slaves, subjugated by foreign power
with no shadow or semblance of self-govern
ment-the complete subjects of the Border
Counties of the State of Missouri, who dictate
20 them their laws, institutions and officers.
Are the subjects of France, Austria or Russia
less free, politically, than these? / tell you
their condition would be improved if You
could spread over them such government as
that of France, Austria or Russia. If you did
that they would at least have security for life,
liberty and property, and they would have
their judicial tribunals to which they could
appeal for redress of their wrongs, for indem-
nifty for property destroyed, houses rifed, and
for punishment for robberies and murders
LawlesSness, outrage, rapine and crime run
riot over the beautiful praires of Kansas, and
there is no arm of law to stay their course
On the contrary. the robbers, ravishers and
murderers of Kansas have in their own hands
the arms of the law, and they are made the
ministers of this awful and horrible system of
civil, political and social oppression. Suppose.
for a moment, that some man, gifted with the
spirit of prophecy, had walked into the hall
where the sages sat who drew your Declara-
tion of Independence, still later into the
hall where were convened those patriots who
framed your glorious Constitution, and had
there undertakento prophecy that before three
quarters of century had passed by, such
state of things would exist as now prevail in
Kansas, what would have been the feelings of
those noble and patriotic men? Let me, in
consideration of the time which | must occupy
to night, come down to something like details,
in the hope at least Of bringing home to you
some sort of a realizing sense of the true state
of things existing in the Territory.
1 shall not undertake Tonight to enter into
details about the outrages there committed
I shall not undertake to give you a catalogue
of the robberies, the ouse-burnings, the plum
derings, the horse -Stealings, the murders and
outrages. that have been perpetrated upon the
soil of Kansas; for, did | undertake such a
task, l should request you to camp here
week. Should undertake even to give you
any portion of the details, where the acts of
our oppressors were stained with blood, and
with every attribute that could disgrace hu
manity, should not know where to begin or
end. must treat them in general way. l
start, then, with the proposition that scheme
has existed there, and has been in progress
since 1854, to make Kansas Slave State by
force-in other words. to force, by violence,
pro-slavery constitution upon an unwilling
people. That is plain, and that scheme has
been progressing, step by step, before the eyes
of this nation, who have allowed it to go un-
checked. That this is SO, l suppose needs We
ry little demonstration. shall, however, trace
the successive steps, of this project as they
have developed themselves, and then with
what ingenuity they have been prosecuted and
carried out. L shall show how the oppressors
have gone on until their work has been almost
completed. 1 shall show that it wants but
few finishing strokes, and then proceed to de-
monstrate the consequences of success in this
scheme to the North. [Cheers.] You know
already that no election has ever been held up
on the soil of that Territory where the men
who have been the originators of this scheme
did not attend in numbers sufficient to control
such elections. In November, 1854, they came
in large numbers from Missouri to elect a del
egate to Congress, and in March, 1865, they
sent in thousands to elect Legislature, which
went on to enact laws for that Territory that
are still in force. You know that on the 3Oth
of March, 1855, one poll after another fell into
| the hands Of those men. You have seen the
report of the Congressional Committee, and
from that you know that these are conceded
| facts. ICheers.] After that election they pro-
ceeded at once to take away from the Terrific
ry of Kansas every vestige Of civil liberty
which they could grasp. In the first place
| they closed every box within their reach, and
refused to allow the people to elect one terri
torial officer. They have in their hands with
the aid of the President of the S in part, the
legislative, executive and judicial powers of
| the Territory, and have secured every office.
from the highest to the lowest. This power
they fondly hope cannot be rescued from them
excepting by revolution. They have left us
nothing but that which they cannot take away
the physical power which we happen to have.
That thank God, is bey ond their reach [cheers)
and the time may come when the laws OF God
| and man, and every consideration that can In
| fluence an honest man, a Republican man, and
a religious man, will dictate to him that ply
steal power must be made the means, the only
means, of recovering the political power which
has been taken from him. TApplause.l The
ballot boxes were closed, and the laws of that
Legislature were most shamefully sought to be
enforced upon the people there, and the OBJ
ject of their oppressors, in assuming the ap-
pointment of every officer in the Territory
was to deprive the people of the right to elect
their own rulers. They declared upon the
floor of the House, that if the people were al
lowed to elect their own officers that all then
lsbors and pains would prove unavalllng, tha
. the money they had invested would be lost
and the result would be, placing IN power iileL ~,
OF wrong political sentiments, and finding the
F numerical power to be in the hands of the mer
they had oppressed. Entertaining such sentl
ments as these. they declared that that numer
, ical power should not govern ltseh. neec
not go into a detailed history oil THESE Things
for you are all familiar with them. You know
that partisan judges were appointed over thes'
nolIs with large discretion, for the purpos'
of enabling them to receive every vote tha
could be procured from Missouri, and to reJec