Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-02-01

be the law of the land-it is his duty to
cause it to be executed, or to sustain the
authorities or any State or Territory in ex-
ecuting it in opposition to all insurrectiory
movements.
Our system affords no justification of rev.
olutionary acts, for the constitutional means
of relieving the people Of unjust admins
tration and laws, by change of public
agents and by repeal, are ample, and more
prompt and effective than illegal violence.
These constitutional means must be scrupu-
lously guarded-this great prerogatiye Of
popular sovereignty sacredly respected.
1t is the undoubtod right of the peacea-
bic and orderly people of the Territory Of
Kansas to elect their own Legislative Body,
make their own laws, and regulate their
own social institutions without foreign or
domestic molestation. Interference on one
hand to procure the abolition or prohibition
of slave labor in the Territory, has produced
mischievous interference, on the other for
its maintenance or introduction. One wrong
begets another. Statements entirely un-
founded or grossly exaggerated, concerning
events within the Territory, are sedulously
diffused through remote States to feed the
fame of sectional animosity there; and the
agitators there exert themselves indefatiga-
bly, in return to encourage and stimulate
strife within the Territory.
The inflammatory agitation, of which the
present is but part, has for twenty years
produced nothing save unmitigated evil,
North and South. But for it the character
of the domestic institutions of the future
new State would have been matter of too
little Importance to the inhabitants of the
contiguous States, personally or collectively,
to produce among them any political emo
ton. Climate, soil, production, hopes of
rapid advancement, and the pursuit of hap
piness on the part of settlers themselves,
with good wishes but with no interference
from without, would have quietly determin-
ed the question which is at this time of such
disturbing character.
But we are constrained to turn our atten-
ton to the circumstances of embarrassment
as they now exist. 1t is the duty of the
people of Kansas TO discountenance every
act or purpose of resistance to its laws
Above all, the emergency appeals to the
citizens of the State, and especially of those
contiguous to the Territory, neither by inter-
vention of non-residents in elections, nor by
unauthorized military force to attempt to
encroach upon or usurp the authority of the
inhabitants of the Territory.
No citizen of our country should permit
himself to forget that he is part of its
government, and entitled to be heard in the
determination of its policy and its measures;
and that, therefore, the highest considera-
tions of personal honor and patriotism
require him to maintain, by whatever of
power or influence he may possess, the integ-
rity of the laws of the Republic.
Entertaining these views, it will be my
imperative duty to exert the whole power of
the Federal Executive to support public Or
der in the Territory: to vindicate its laws,
whether Federal or Local, against all attempts
of organized resistance; and so to protect
its people in the establishments of their own
institutions, undisturbed by encroachment
from without, and in the full enjoyment of
the rights of selfgovernment assured to
them by the Constitution and the organic
act of Congress.
Although serious and threatening distur-
Dances in the Territory of Kansas, announced
10 me by the Governor in December last
were speedily quieted without the effusion
of blood, and in a satisfactory manner, there
is, regret to say, reason to apprehend that
disorder will continue to occur there, with
increasing tendency to violate, until some
decisive measures be taken to dispose of the
question itself which constitutes the induce
ment or occasion of internal agitation and
of external interference.
This it seems to me, can best be accom-
plished by providing that when the inhab-
itants of Kansas may desire it, and shall
be of sufficient numbers to constitute a
State, a convention of delegates, duly cleo
ted by the qualified voters, shall assemble
to frame Constitution, and thus to pre-
pare, through regular and lawful means, for
its admission into the Union as a State.
respectfully recommend the enactment
of law to that effect.
1 recommend, also, that special appro-
priation be made to defray any expense
which may become requisit in the execution
of the laws or the maintenance of public
order in the Territory of Kansas.
FRANKLIN PIERCE.