The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-01-30

rial Legislature an election of Delegate
to Congress had been held in the Ter
ritory on the Goth day of November,
1854, and the Delegate took his seat in
the House of Representatives without
challenge. If arrangements had been
perfected by the Governor SO that the
election for members of the Legislative
Assembly might be held in the several
precints at the same time as for Dele
gate to Congress, any question apper-
tanning to the qualification of the per-
sons voting as people of the Territory
would have passed necessarily and at
once under the supervision of Congress,
as the judge of the validity OF the re-
turn of the Delegate, and would have
been determined before conflicting pas
sions had become infamed by time and
before opportunity could have been af-
forded for systematic Interference of
the people of individual States.
This Interference, in so far as con-
Germs its primary causes and its imme
date commencement, was one of the in
cidents of that pernicious agitation on
the subject of the condition of the col
ored persons held to service in some of
the States which has so long disturbed
the repose of our country, and excited
individuals otherwise patriotic and law
abiding, to toll with misdirected zeal
in the attempt to propagate their social
theories by the perversion and abuse of
=. the powers of Congress.
The persons and parties whom the
tenor of the act to organize the Terrific
ries of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted
in the cndeavor to impose, through the
agency: of Congress. their particular
views of social organization on the PEG,
pie of the future new States, now per-
ceiviug that the policy of leaving the
inhabitants of each State to judge for
themselves in this respect was ineradi-
cably rooted in the convictions of the
people of the Union, then had a~recourse
in the pursuit of their general object,
to the extraordinary measure of propa-
gandist colonization of the Territory OF
Kansas, to prevent the free and natur-
al action of its inhabitants in its int.r
nal organization, and thus to anticipate
or to force the determination of that
question in this inehoate State.
With such views associations were or.
ganized in some of the States, and their
purpose was proclaimed through the
press in language extremely irritating
and offensive to those of whom the col
onists we're to become the n~eighbors.
Those designs and acts had the neces-
sary consequence to awaken emotions of
intense Indignation in States near to
the territory of Kansas, and especially
in the adjoining State of Missouri, whose
domestic peace was thus the most di-
rectly endangered but they are far
from justifying the illegal and repre-
hensible counter movements which en-
sued.
Under these inauspicious circumstan-
ces the primary elections for Members
of the Legislative Assembly were held
in most if not all the preeints at the
time and the places and by the persons
designated and appointed by the Gov
ernor, according to law.
Angry accusations that illegal votes
had been polled ubounded on all sides,
aud imputatIons were made both of
fraud and violence. But the Governor,
in the exercise Of the power aud the dis
charge of the duty conferred aud i'm
posed by the law on him alone, official
ly received and considered the returns
declared a large majority of the menu
bers of the Council and the House OF
Representatives =" duly elected" with
held certificates from others because OF
alleged illegality of votes; appointed a
new election to supply the place of the
persons not certified and thus at length,
in all the forms of statute, and with his
own official authentication, complete le-
gality was given to the first Legislative
Assembly of the Territory.
Those decisions of the returning off
GERS, and of the Governor are final, ex-
cept that, by the parliamentary usage
of the country applied to the org mic
law, it may be conceded that each
House of the Assembly must have been
competent to determine, in the last re-
sort, the qualifications and the election
of its members. The subject was, by
its nature, one appertaining exclusively
to the jurisdiction of the local authori-
ties of the Territory. Whatever irreg-
ularities may have occurred in the cleo
tious, it seems too late now to raise that
question as to which, neither now nor at
any previous time, has the least posi-.
VIC iOSdi duenOiEeJ UCSu pooSSSSSU W
the President OF the United States. For
all present purposes the Legislative
body, thus constituted and elected, was
the Legitimate assembly of the Terrific
~.
Accordingly, the Governor, by proc
lamation, convened the Assembly thus
elected to meet at a place called Paw
nee City. The two Houses met and
were duly organized Iii tie ordinary
parliamentary t.Srm each sent to AMI
cccolved from the Governor the off
cial communications usual on such occa-
%sions; an elaborate message opening
the session was communicated by the
Governor; ard the general business OIL
legislation was entered upon by the
Legislative Assembly.
But, after a few days, the Assembly
resolved TO adjoarn to another place il
the Territory. A law was accordingly
+ passed, against the consent of the Gov.
ernor, but in due form otherwise. to re
move the seat of Government temporal
rily to the Shawnee Manual Labor
School " (or mission,) and thither the
f Assembly proceeded. After this, re
ceiving a bill for the establishment of 8
!. ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the Gov
ernor refused to sign it, and, by speciaI
message, assigned for reason of refusal
not anything Objectionable in the bill
: itself, nor any pretense of tho Illegally
f or incompetency of the Assembly al
Z such Int on1v the fact thai the Assem-