The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-06

in the arms OF his distracted Wife, another sacri-
fee to the dark spirit of slave propagandism.
To-day, sir, unless they are on their march,
there is arming and organizing in Western Mis-
souri, in the Blue Lodges, in the secret camps,
hosts of men for another invasion. Sleepless
eyes are upon these movements, organized by
Atchison and his subalterns. General Lane and
General Robinson sent to the President, on the
2lst of January, a telegraphic dispatch. Colonel
Lame man who trod the battlefield of Buena
VISTA man who knows something of what
war is, who knows something of the threats
that have been made, and the preparations that
are now making, on the borders of Western Mis-
souri,, for another lawiess invasion of Kansas-has
appealed to the President for protection He is
no fanatic Sir, you cannot call him an Adolf
ZIONIST, at least not yet
Mr. HALE. He will be one soon
Mr. WILSON. The Senator from New Hamp-
shire says he will be soon. The scenes
through which he is passing are calculated to
abolitionize men made of the hardest natures
John Quincy Adams once said that man I" has
the right to be an Abolitionist, and in being an
Abolitionst he violates no law human or divine"
General Lane may be Abolitionst but, sir,
he is not one now. On the 2lst of January he
asked the President to send the military force
stationed at Fort Leavenworth to protect the peo-
pie of Kansas against an invasion which is Or
ganizing on our border, amply supplied with
tillery, for the avowed purpose of invading our
Territory, demolishing our towns and butchering
our unofending Free State citizens"
Two days after, on January 23d, General Lane
and General Robinson asked the President to
issue his proclamation forbdding this lawless in
vasion of their Territory. The Senator from Con-
necticut hatters himself that those of us who do
not approve the course of the Administration
will be greatly disappointed to find that the lead
ers of the Free State movement in Kansas have
implored the Executive to issue his proclamation.
Let not the Senator from Connecticut lay the
hattering JUNCTION to his soul, that we are cha
grined by the disclosure of this correspondence.
Robinson and Lane, in behalf of the mperiled
people of Kansas, asked the President to issue
"his proclamation Immediately forbidding the
invasion, which, if carried out as planned, will
stand forth without parallel in the worlds his
tory" They did not ask the President for his
proclamation against the wronged and oppressed
people of Kansas. They asked for bread-the
President gave them a stone. They asked for
ish-the President gave them a serpent
The President sir, has issued his proclamation,
but that proclamation is chiefly and mainly di-
rected against Lane and Robinson, and the liber-
ty-loving, law-abiding Free State men of Kansas
Like his annual message, in which he softly spoke
of the long series of outrages you will scarcely
find paralleled in the history of Christian States
as irregularities like that special message in
which the aggressive acts of the Missouri inva-
phrases, and the defensive measures of the actual
settlers treated as insurrectonary acts demanding
Executive censure, this proclamation will be re-
ceived the Western borders by the men who,
by their votes and by their resolves, have dicta
ted law to Kansas, with shouts of approval. Sir
this proclamation will carry no terror into the
Blue Lodges and secret clubs of Western Mis-
souri,.
But, sir, we were congratulated yesterday by
n hat thal
to be executed and order preserved. l call the
attention of the Senate and of the country to the
order of the Secretary of War; What does this
order say to Colonel Sumner? Does it clearly
and expressly command him to arrest, at all haz-
| ards, any aggressive movement upon Kansas,
from Missouri? The Secretary of War informs
Colonel Sumner that
"The President has by proclamation warned all per-
sons combined for tnsureetion or inrasre aggression
against the organized Government of the Territory of
Kansas associated TO resist the due execution of the
laws therein, to abstain from such revolutionary and
lawless proceedings
Does the Secretary, then, direct Colonel Sum-
ner to defend Kansas against " invasive aggres-
sion 2" No, sir, no The Secretary then issues
the orders of the Government to Colonel Sum-
ner in these terms:
off therefore, the Governor of the Territory finding
the ordinary course Judicial procee ding and the powers
vested in the United States marshas inadequate the
sstance the reenton Of the iar should make requsiron
upon you to furnish military force 10 aid him in the per
Torrance of that official duty you hereby dir ected TO
employ for that purpose the forces under your
Sir, this is not a direction to Colonel Sumner
to use his forces against the armed Missouri in
vaders. The Secretary tells the Colonel that the
President has sent out his proclamation against
those movements; but when he comes to direct
the commander of the force of the United States
what to do, he does not order him to use that
force, if there shall be an invasion from the State
n afaru OH ip be
ting himself against the lawless men who rep
resent Power in this country that sustains
them In their aggressive acts Sir, the Secretary
bends to that Power he bows to these men who
have no "qualms of conscience as to violating
laws, State or NATIONAL" and we have had moth
ing but bows to these men for the last eighteen
months, from the other end of the avenue
The reason why the Government has not used
its proper legitimate influences in Kansas, for
peace for ORDER and for liberty is the reason
which originally snatched that four hundred and
fifty thousand square miles of free soil-conse-
Grated forever to the laboring millions of this
country-and flung it open to the STRENGTHENING
interests.
Sir, know that men in the confidence of the
Administration have expressed the idea that the
Administration intends, if the Peoples Legisla-
ture meets on the 4th of March, to arrest the
members the moment they take the oaths of office
1t is well-known fact, sir-known by those who
know anything about affairs in Kansas-that
they do not intend to pass laws, or interfere in
any way with the legislation of the country
that they intend merely to assemble state their
grievances to the country, and choose Senators
to come here, to implore u.s. in Gods name, to
carry out the wishes of the people, and allow
Kansas to take her place in this Union of free
Commonwealth. l understand these to be the
intentions of the tried and trusted leaders of the
Free State men in Kansas. You may arrest Gov
ernor Robinson and the leaders of the Free State
party; you may imprison them if you will you
may shed the blood of the actual settlers of Kan
sas but you cannot break their spirits, or crush
out their hopes. The people of Kansas are for
free State and if it is made a slave State il
will be by the criminal remissness or direct in
terposition of this Administration. Leave the
people of Kansas free, uninfuenced by your Slave
State officials you have thrust upon them, unn- |
fuenced by foreign interposition, and they will
bring her here clothed in the white robes of Free
dom.
The Senator from Missouri said to us the other
day. that the colonists from the East wished to
keep others out; that they wished to get possess
sion of the Territory. Armed men, he said, had
crossed from Missouri to protect the ballot-bores
against the armed colonists sent there by the
Rmigrant Aid Society Did they protect the bal
lot-boxes on the 10Th of November, 1854 when
they went over and gave fifteen hundred votes
Did they protect the ballot-boxes when they
marched into Kansas on the 30th of March with
cannon, with revolver, and with rife displaced
the election of officers, and delivered their hum
dreds of votes, and, in place where there were
but hfty-three voters casting over six hundred
Did they protect the ballot-boxes when they went
there on the 10Th OF December, and broke up the
meeting at Leavenworth Did they protect the
ballot-boxes on the 18th of January. when Brown
was murdered in revenge for standing by the
ballot-boxes, and protecting it against themp