The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-21

they are executed. i shall draw my next arSu-
ment from the want of constitutional authority,
on the part of the Legislature which enacted
these laws. The report of the Kansas Investi-
eating Committee of the House of Representa-
tives, consisting of the evidence of witnesses,
numbered by hundreds, and BIASED against the
| conclusion at which the House of Representatives
has arrived has established the fact upon which
| ] insisted in opening this debate the 9th OF
| April last, that the Legislature of Kansas was
chosen, not by the people, but by an armed inva-
sion from adjoining States, which seized the
ballot-boxes, usurped the elective franchise, and
| by fraud and force organized a Government;
| thereby subverting the organic law, and the
| authority of the United States. Sir, at another
time, and under different circumstances, single
| invader, after the manner adopted by Colonel
William Walker in Nicaragua, might have
entered the Territory of Kansas with an armed
force, and established q successful usurpation
there. Let me suppose that he had done so, and
had promulgated these identical statutes in the
| name of the Territory of Kansas, would you hold,
| would the Senate hold, would the President of
the United States hold, that such Government,
thus established, was a legal one, and that
statutes thus ordained were valid and oblgato-
ry? That is the present case. 1t differs only
in this: that in the case supposed there is q
single conqueror, only one local and reckless
usurper, while in the case of Kansas an assO-
ciated band are the conquerors and usurpers. The
Territorial Legislature of Kansas stands on the
foundations of fraud and force. 1t attempts to
draw over itself the organic law enacted in 1854,
but it is equally subversive of the liberties OF
the people of Kansas, and of that organic law,
and of the authority of the United States. The
Legislature and Territorial Government of Kan
sas stand no better footing than a coup d'etat,
a revolution. When honorable Senators from the
other side of this Chamber tell me that am
leading the people of Kansas into revolution, l
fearlessly reply to them, that they have stood
idly by, and seen q revolution effected there.
Doubtless, they have acted with sincerity of
purpose and patriotism equal to nay own. They
see the facts and the tendency of events, in a
light different from that in which these facts and
| transactions present themselves to me- They
therefore insist upon maintaining that revolu-
ton, and giving it the sanction of Congress, by
authorizing the standing army of the United
States to execute the laws which that revolution
has promulgated The House of Representatives,
on the contrary, denounces the revolution, and
stands upon the authority of the United States,
and, for the purpose of putting an end to that
revolution and restoring Federal authority, in
sists that these pretended laws shall not be exc
cuted. In this great controversy, leave the ma
jority of the Senate, and take my stand by the
side of the House of Representatives.
You warn me, that if we do not recognise these
revolutionary authorities in Kansas, the Terri
tory will be without an organized State at all,
and will relapse into anarchy. The House OF
Representatives meets you boldly on that issue,
and replies, that If there are not laws in force,
exclusive of these pretended statutes, adequate
to the purposes of civil government in Kansas,
they have invited you, in two separate bills,
which they have sent up here, widely variant in
character, but each adapted to the case, to pro-
vide for the restoration of regular and constitu-
tional authority in Kansas. One bill proposes
to recognise and establish the State of Kansas,
under the Topeka Constitution and the other
proposes to reorganize the Territorial Legisla-
ture, with proper amendments of the organic
law. Thus far, you have practically refused to
accept either of these propositions. If, when
Congress shall have adjourned, the result shall
be that Kansas is left without the protection OF
adequate laws and civil authority, look you to
that. The responsibility will not rest on me, nor
on the House of Representatives.
l desire, Mr.. President, on this great occa-
sion-perhaps the last one of full debate during
the present session of Congress-to deliver my
whole mind upon this important subject / add,
therefore, that the tendency and end-I will not
say object-of the revolution which has been eff
fected in Kansas, which has been effected by her
conquerors, through the countenance and aid OF
the President of the United States, not of such
a character as to reconcile me to that revolution.
That end is the establishment of human slavery
within the Territory of Kansas. If should 60
with you and the majority of the Senate in emas-
culating this army bill, as it came from the House
of Representatives, should thereby show that
was at least Indifferent on so great an issue.
Sir, could never forgive myself hereafter, when
reviewing the course of my public life, if had
assented to infct upon even the present settlers
of Kansas few and poor, and scattered through
its forests and prairies, they are, what deem
the mischiefs and evils of system of compul-
sorry labor, excluding, as we know by experience
| hat foIx fha initial Iohn Of rea
men.
| But it is not merely on to-day and on this
generation that am looking. l cannot restrain
my eyes from the effort, at least, to penetrate
through period of twenty-five years-of fifty
years-of hundred years-of even two hundred
years-so far, at least, as statesman's vision
ought to reach beyond the horizon that screens
the future from common observation. All along
and through that dmly- explored vista, see rising
up before me hundreds of thousands, millions
even tens. of millions, of cosntrymen, receiving
their fortunes and fates, they are being shaped
by the action of the Congress ofthe United States
in this hour of languor, at the close of weary
day, near the end of protracted and tedious ses-
sion. l shall not, indeed, meet them here on the
earth, but shall meet them all on that day when
l shall give up the final account of that steward
ship which my country has confided to me. If
were now to consent to such act, with my
opinions and convictions the fruit of early patriot
ic and Christian teachings, matured by reading
of history by observation in States where Free
dom fourishes, as well as in societies where
Slavery is tolerated; by experience throughout
life which already approaches the climacteric
by travel in my own and foreign lands; by re-
Fiction under the discipline Of conscience and
the responsibilities of duty; by social converse
and by thousand collisions of debate should
be obliged, when that last day shall come to me
Jas it must come to all to call upon the rocks
and the mountains to fall upon me, and crush me
| and my name, detested then by myself into that
endless oblivion which is the most unwecome
of all evils real or imaginary, to the thoughts OF
a generous and illuminated human mind. Pol
; icy forbids me to do it. Justice forhids me to
do it. Humanity forbids me to do it. And the
| Constitution of my country-wisest of all Con.
stitutions-lnost equal of all Constitutions-mos
humane of all Constitutions which the inventive
! genius of man has ever framed-forbids me to
do it.
, have arrived now, Mr. President, at anothe,
| question much debated here namely, whether ths
inhibition which is contained in the bill as i
came from the House of Representatives, and te
which the Senate objects, is germane to the bill j
that inhibition really has the Importance with
which have invested it, then the question whether
it is germane or not is worthless and trivial.
Sir, in an act of such high necessity as the re-
sistance and suppression of revolution subversiv,
of civil government and public liberty, questions
of parliamentary form sink into insignifcance
But the question is germane. 1t is a normal pro-
vision of character identical with the bill itself
+ The bill proposes appropriation to defray tn,
expenses of the army of the United States for ont
year, and necessarily contemplates the character
and nature of the service in which the army is II
be employed. 1t is framed with such foresight a!
the House of Representatives can exercise of thu
places where the army shall be employed, whethe
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