The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-04-30

against tyranny and domestic violence Are
we prepared SO soon TO relinquish our simple
and beautiful systems of republican, govern
ment, and to substitute IN their place the ma
chinery of usurpation and despotlsm
The Congress Of the United States can re-
fuse admission to Kansas only on the ground
that it will not rclinquish the hope Of carry
ing African Slavery into that new Territory.
7 If Won are prepared to assume that ground
why not do il manfully and consistently. and
I establish Slavery there by direct and ex
/ nlicit act of Congress? But have we come
I to th,te stage Of Generalization and degen-
eracy so soon We, who commenced our
political existence and gained the sympathies
Of the world by proclaiming to other nations
that we held ''these truths to be sef-eyident:
That all men are born equal, and have GER
tain inalienable rights; and that among
those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit
Of happiness ~ we, who In the spirit of that
declaration have assumed TO teach and to IL
lustrate, for the benefit Of mankind, higher
and better civilization than they have hlthcr-
to known?
If the Congress of the United States shall
persist in this attempt, then they shall at
least allow me 10 predict its results. Either
YOU will not establish African Slavery in
Kansas, or you will do it at the cost of the
sacrifice of all the existing Liberties of the
American people. Even If Slavery were,
what it is not, boon TO the people of Kan
sas, they would reject it if forced upon their
acceptance BY Federal bayonets. The at
tempt is in conflict with all the tendencies of
the age. African Slavery has, for the last
fiftv wears. been giving way, as we'll in this
country as in the islands and on the main
lands throughout this hemisphere. The po-
litical power and prestige of Slavery in the
United States are passing away. The Slave
States practically governed the Union direct
~ for fifty years. They govern il now only
Indirectly, through the agency OF Northern
hands. temporarily enlisted in their support.
SO much, owing 10 the decline OF their pow
cr, they have already conceded to the Free
States. The next step, if they persist in
their present course, will be the resumption
and exercise by the Free States Of the con
troll Of the Government, without such con-
cessions as they have hitherto made to OBJ
tain it. Throughout a period of nearly
twenty years, the defenders OF Slavery
screened it from discussion in the national
councils. Now they practically confess to
the necessity Of defending it here, by initial
/ ing discussion themselves. They have nj
once thrown away their most successful
weapon, compromise, and worn out that one
which was next in effectiveness, threats Of
secession from the Union. 1t is under such
unpropitious circumstances that they begin
} the new experiment Of extending Slavery
into free territory by force of the armed
power of the Federal Government You
viii need many votes from Free States in
the House of Representatives, and even some
votes from those States in this House, to
send an army with retinue Of slaves in its
train into Kansas. Have YOU counted up
your votes in the two Houses Have YOU
calculated how long those who shall cast
such votes will retain their places in the Ma
! toaal Legislature?
FORCE, DIsUNIoN.
But will grant, for the sake IF argument,
that with Federal battalions You can carry
Slavery into Kansas aud maintain it there
Are you quite confident that this republican
form of government can then be upheld and
prcseryedY lou will then yourselves have
introduced the Trojan horse. No republican
i government ever has endured, with standing
armies maintained in its bosom to enforce
/ submission to its laws. A people who have
once learned TO relinguish their rights, un-
( der compulson, viii not be long in forget
/ ting that they ever had any. In extending
Slavery into Kansas, therefore, bv arms,
you will subvort the liberties of the people
Senators Of the Free States, appeal to
yoI. Believe We the prophets Z? / know
YOU do. You know, then, that Slavery nei-
ther works mines and quarries, nor POUNDS
cities, nor builds ships, nor leyes armies,
nor mans nayies. Why, then, will you in
sist on closing up this new Territory Of
Kansas against all enriching streams of emil
grafton, while you pour into 1.-THE turbid and
poisonous waters of African Slavery Which
one Of you ali, whether of Connecticut, or
of Pennsy lvana, or Of Illinois, or Of Michi-
gan. would consent thus to extingush the
chef light of civilization within the State
IN which your own fortunes are cast, and in
which your own posterity are TO live? Why
will you pursue II policy so unkind, SO I'M
generous and 80 unjust towards the helpless
defeneeless, struggling Territory Of Kansas,
inhabited as 1t IS by your own brethren, de-
peadmg on YOU for protection and safety ?
VIII Slavery in Kansas add TO the wealth or
power of your own States, or to the wealth,
power. or glory of the Republic? You know
that it will diminish all of these. You pro-
fess a desire to end this national debate
about Slavery, which has become, for you,
intolerable. lsit not time to relinqush that
hope? You have exhausted the virtue. for
that purpose, that resided III compacts and
platforms in the suppression Of the right of
petition, ana in arbitrary parliamentary
laws, and in abnegation Of Federal authori-
ty over the subject of Slavery within the
National Territories. VIII you even then
end the debate, by binding Kansas with
chains, for the safety of Slavery in Missou-
II? Even then you must give over Utah to
Slavery, 10 make it secure and permanent in
Kansas and you must give over Oregon
and Washington TO both Polygamy and slay-
cry, so as to guarantee equally the one and
the other of those peculiar domestic institu-
tons in Utah and 50 you must go on sacri-
hclng on the shrine of peace Territory after
freedom and of virtue shall be lost, and the
rieinns annmalies which Won have hitherto