The true Democrat., 1856-12-16

tlonality, could have no effect to Obstruct or tC promote the propagation of conflicting views oi political or social institu .ions When the ac, organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebras- ka was passed, the inherent effect upon that portion of the public domain thus opened to legal settlement, was to admit settlers from all the States of the Union alike, each with his convictions of public policy and private interest there to found in their discretion, subject to such limitation as the constitution and acts o Congress might prescribe, new States hereafter l to be admitted into the Union. It was free field, open alike to all, whether the statute line of assumed restriction were repealed or not 1 That repeal did not oIen to free competition ol the divers opinions and domestic institutions a | field, which, without such repeal, would have | been closed against them; it found that field of competition already opened, ill fact and in law
 book of an objectionable enactment, unconsti- l tutional in effect, and injurious in terms to a large portion of the States.
 l Is it the fact, that the unsettled regions of the United States, if emigration be left free to act in this respect for itself, without legal pro- hibitons on either side slave labor will sponta- neously go everywhere, in preference 10 free labor? Is it the fact, that the peculiar domes tic institutions of the southern States possesses relatively so much of vigor, that wheresoever an avenue is freely open to all the world, they | will penetrate to the exclusion of those of the Northern States? Is it the fact, that the for mer enjoy, compared with the latter, such ire sistably superior vitality, independent of eli mate, soil, and all other accidental crcumstan ces, as to be able to produce the supposed re- suit, in spite of the assumed moral and natu- ral obstacles to its accomplishment, and of the more numerous population of the northern States?
 The argument of those wto advocate the enactment of new laws of restriction, and con- demn the repeal of old ones, in effect ayers that their particular views of government have nc self extending or self-sustaining power of their own, and will go no where unless forced by act of Congress. And if Congress do but pause for a moment in the policy of stern coercion; if 1t venture to try the experiment of leaving men to judge for themselves what institutions will best suit them if it be constrained up to per petual legislative exertion this point; if Con- gress proceed thus to act in the very spirit ol liberty, it is at once charged with aiming to extend slave labor into all the new territories of the United States.
 Of course, these imputations on the inten- tions of Congress in this respect conceived a. they were in prejudice, and disseminated ir passion, are utterly destitute of any justifica- ton in the nature of things, and contrary to all the fundamental doctrines and principles of civil liberty and self-sovernment
 While, therefore, in general the people of the northern States have never at any time arroga- ted for the federal government the power to in terfere directly with the domestic condition ol persons in the southern States, but on the con- trary have disavowed all such intentions, and have shrunk from conspicuous affiliton with those few who pursue their fanatical objects avowedly through the contemplated means of revolutionary change of the government, and with acceptance of the necessary consequences "a civil and servile war-yet many citizens have suffered themselves to be drawn into one evanescent political issue of agitation after another, appertaning to the same set of opin. ions, and which subsided as rapidly as they arose when 1t came to be seen, as 1t uniformly did, that they were incompatible with the con- pacts of the constitution and the existence Of the Union. Thus, when the acts of some of the States to nullfy the existing extradition law imposed upon Congress the duty of passing a new one, the country was invited by agitators to enter into party organization for its repeal; but that agitation speedily ceased by reason of the impractcabilty of its object. So, when the statute restriction upon the institutions of new States, by geographical line, had been repealed, the country was urged to demand its restoration, and that project also died almost in its birth. Then followed the cry of alarm from the North against imputed suothern encroach- ments; which cry sprang in reality from the spirit of revolutionary attack, on the domestic institutions of the South, and after troubled existence of 2 few months has been rebuked by the voice of a patriotic people.
 Of this last agitation, one lamentable feature was, that It was carried on at the immediate ex- pense of the peace and happiness of the people of the territory of Kansas. That was made the battle held, not so much of opposing factions or interests within itself, as of tAe conflicting pas slons of the whole people of the United States Revolutionary disorder in Kansas had its origin Tn projects of intervation deliberately arranged by certain members of that Congress which enacted the law for the organization of the ter rltory. And when propagandst colonization of Kansas has thus been undertaken in one sec ton ot the Union, for the systematic promotion oi its peculiar view of policy, there ensued, as a matter of course, a counteraction with oppo site views in other sections of the Union.
 In consequence of those and other incidents,
 
 been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional interruption, rather than the permanent sus- pension of regular government. A sgressive and most rcprehensble incursions into the territory were undertaken, both in the North and in the South, and entered it on it's northern border by the way of Iowa, as well as on the eastern by way of Missouri; and there has existed within 1t state of instruction against the constituted n with considerate persons in each of the great sections of the Union. Brt the difficulties in that ter. rltory have been extravagantly exaggerated for purposes of political agitation elsewhere The number and gravity of the acts of violence have been magDi6ed partly by statements entirely untrue, and partly by reiterated accounts of the same rumors of facts. Thus the territory has been seemingly filled with extreme violence, when the whole amount of such acts has not been greater than what occasionally passes be- fore us in single citizens to the regret of all good citizens, but without being regarded as of general or permanent political consequence
 Imputed Irregularities in the elections had in Kansas like occasional irregularities of the same descriptions In the States, were beyond the sphere of action of the Executive. But incl dents ot actual violence or of organized obstruc- tion or law, pertlnaclously renewed from time to tune, have been met they occurred by such means as were available and as the cir cumstance required, and nothing of this charac- ter now remains to affect the general peace of the Union. The attempt of part of the ip- hab!tants of the Territory to erect revolution ary government, though seduloasly encouraged and supplied with pecuniary aid from active agents of disorder in some of the States, has completely failed. Bodies of armed men, for eign to the Territory, have been prevented from entering or compelled to leave it. Predatory bands; engaged in acts of rapine, under cover of the existing political disturbances have been arrested or dispersed. And every we'll dispos- ed person is now enabled once more to devote himself Tn peace to the pursuits of prosperous industry, for the prosecution of which he un- aertook to participate in the settlement of the Territory.
 1t effords me unmingled satisfaction thus to announce the peaceful condition of thin.s in Kansas, especially considering the means to which It was necessary to have recourse for tho