St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-12-18

PEELED to leave it. Predatory bands,
engaged in acts of rapine, under cover
of the present political disturbances,
have been arrestedOr dispersed. And
every well disposed person is en-
abled once more to devote. himself in
peace to the pursuits of prosperous in
dustry, for the prosecution of which
he undertook to participate in the set
Element of the Territory.
1t affords me unmingled satisfaction
thus to announce the peaceful condi-
ton of things in Kansas, especially
considering the means to which it was
necessary to have recourse for the at
tainment of the end, namely, the en-
ployment of a part of the military force
of the United States. The withdrawal
of that force from it's proper duty of
defending the country against foreign
foes or the savages of the frontier, to
employ it for the suppression of do
mestic instruction, is, when the ext
gency occurs, a matter of the most
earnest solicitude. On this occasion
of imperative necessity it has been
done with the best results, and my
satisfaction in the attainment of such
results by such means is greatly en-
HANGED by the consideration, that,
through the wisdom and energy of the
present Executive Of Kansas, and the
prudence, firmness and vigilance OF
the military officers on duty there, tran
|quility has been restored without one
drop of blood having been shed in it's
accomplishment by the forces of the
United States.
The restoration Of comparative tran.
guilty in that Territory furnishes the
means of observing calmly, and appre
ciating at their just value, the events
which have occurred there, and the
discussions of which the government OF
the territory has been made the subject
We perceive that controversy con
corning it's domestic institutions was
inevitable that no human prudence,
no form of Legislation, no wisdom on
the part of Congress, could have pre-.
vented it.
1t is idle to suppose that the partic-
ular provisions of their organic law
were the cause of agitation. Those
provisions were but the occasion, or
the prctext of an agitation, which was
inherent in the nature of things. Con-
gress legislated upon the subject in
such terms as were most consonant
with the principle of popular sovereign
ty which underlies our government.
It could not have legislated otherwise
without doing violence to another
great principle of our institutions, the
inprescriptible right Of equality of the
several States.
: We perceive, also, that sectional in
terests and party passions, have been
the great impeachment to the salutary
Operation of the organic principles
adopted, and the chief cause of the dis.
turbances in Kansas. The assumption
that, because in the organization of the
TERRITORIES of Nebraska and Kansas,
Congress abstained from imposing re-
straints upon them to which certain
other Territories had been subject,
therefore disorders occurred in the lat
ter Territories, is emphatically contra
dicted by the fact that none have &C.
Cured in the former Those disorders
were not the consequence, in Kansas,
of the freedom of self-government con-
ceded to that Territory by Congress,
but of unjust interference on the part
of persons not inhabitants Of the Ter
ritory. Such interference, wherever
it has exhibited itself, by acts of insur-
rectionary character, or Of obstruction
to processes of law, has been repelled
or suppressed, by all the means which
the Constitution and the laws place in
the hands of the Executive.
In those parts of the United States
where, by reason of the inflamed state
of the public mind, false rumors and
Misrepresentation have the greatest
currency, it has been assumed that it
was the duty of the Executive not on
ly to suppress insurrectionary move
ments in Kansas, but also to see to the
regularity Of local elections. 1t needs
little argument to show that the Pres
ident has no such power. All govern
ment in the United States rests sub
stantially upon popular election. The
freedom of elections is liable to be inn
paired by the intrusion of unlawful
votes, or the exclusion of lawful ones,
by improper inf uences, by violence,
or by fraud.
But the people of the United States
are themselves the all-sufficicnt guar
dams of their own rights and to sup
pose they will not remedy in due sea-
son, any such incidents of civil free
dom, is to suppose them to have ceas-
ed the capacity Of self-government.
The President Of the United States has
not power to interpose in elections, to
see their freedom, to canvass their
votes, or pass upon their legality, in
the Territories any more than in the
States. If he had such power the gov
eminent might be republican in form,
but it would be monarchy in fact and
if he had undertaken to exercise it in
the case of Kansas, he would have
been Justly subject to the charge Of
usurpation, and of violation OF the dear
est rights Of the people of the United
States.
Unwise laws equally with irregulari-
ties at elections, are, in periods OF