Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-07-15

the Territory, and controlled the elections for
members of the Legislature held in March,
1855 that the Free-State men had been driven
from the polls; that the government had been
usurped by mere brute force; that the laws of
Kansas were not valid laws; that the people
would and should resist them; that anarchy
reigned in Kansas that arsons and murders
were invoked to serve the ends of slavery !;
that finally Kansas and liberty lay bleeding
at the feet OF the border ruffans, and that the
whole country was on the verge OF civil war
Here is picture; cow what remedy did the
Republican representatives In Congress pro-
pose. Did they ask a legal and just measure
OF reform? BY no means, fellow-citizens; but
with denunciation against the lawless authori-
ties Of Kansas still fresh on their lips, they be-
came the advocates Of the Topeka Convention
and the State Constitution framed by that body,
movement admittedly without law, and IN
contravenlion of law and in menace of the
Government With all their seeming reyer-
ence for the law, they could advocate a revolu-
tionary step taken in defiance of the Govern
ment. We were told that the admission OF
Kansas as State, was the only remedy for her
evils-the only mode Of quieting the public
mind and averting civil war in the Territory.
swell, gentlemen, it had become apparent TO
all, that some effective and final measure oil
pachcation was demanded by the best interest,
rot only of Kansas, but of the whole nation
that whilst the laws of the local Legislature
were technically legal, the right Of suffrage
had been abused in selecting the members,
and that many of the statutes we're oppressive
and unjust and in conflict with the Constltu-
ton, and the original Kansas Nebraska act.
with view to meet these difficulties, Mr..
Ioombs, Southern Senator, about ten days
since, introduced bill providing for the prompt
admission of Kansas as a State His PROPOSE
ton was referred to the Territorial Committee,
and reported to the Senate on Monday last, by
Mr.. Douglas, and Wednesday fixed for final
vote.
"That bill provides that the present inhabi-
tants may elect delegates to q Convention to
meet in November next, to form a constitution,
preparatory to admission as a State; that
board OF five commissioners should be appoint
ed by the President, to repair to the Territory,
to superintend the election of delegates; to
make an enumeration of the legal voters; and
put up list of voters at every district; and
that only those who are now in the Territory,
and those who may have left on business or
because Of the sad state OF the society, shall
vote. The law throws ample guards about the
ballot-box, by heavy penalties against illegal
voting or violent efforts to interfere with the
right of suffrage; it also annuls all the Terri
torial statutes subversive of the liberty OF
speech and the freedom of the press, and those
requiring an oath of fidelity to the Fugitive
Slave law as qualification for voter and
other absurd provisions. These statutes being
inconsistent with the Constitution and the
organic law, are clearly within the scope of the
Congressional correction, without interfering
with the doctrine of non-intervention, for the
Kansas law provides that the action of the
Territorial Legislature shall be confined to
rightful subjects of legislation" Here, then,
measure of peace and law, the prompt
admission of Kansas as State, irrespective Of
her decision on the slavery question. Its vital
objects being to terminate at once all motive
on the part of outsiders to force temporary
population into the Territory, with the view to
control its policy on the slavery question.
"Wbat followed? Did the Republican Sena.
tors support this measure? Did they accept
this proposition to bring Kansas in as State?
BY no means; to my amazement it met their
violent resistance The first demonstration
came from the Senator from Massachusetts,
Mr.. Wilson, who proposed to strike out the
entire bill and insert q section simply repeating
all the laws of Kansas substituting anarchy
for the admission of the Territory as State
The Senator from New York, Mr. Seward, the
leader and the intellect of that. party, still in
sisted upon the Topeka constitution. In the
face of all his anathemas against the 1awless
authorities in Kansas, he voted TO sanction
measure wanting in the slightest coloring of
authority, and which had been brought forth in
defiance Of the law and its officers and what
is surprising, in addition, his course seems to
be sanctioned by the entire Republican press,
headed by that common fountain of fanalicisms,
falsehoods, and vagaries, the New York Tribune
The Senator from New Hampshire, Mr.. Hale
proposed to strike out the fourth of July, 1856.
as the time that the law should take effect, and
insert July, 1857, so that the strife in Kansas
might last a year longer; that bleeding Kan
sas, for whose people so many crockadlle tears
has been shed, might bleed on. They first oh
jected that the local laws forbid and punished
free discussion, and thus the slavery men had
the advantage then the bill was amended, AS
had been agreed upon by the Committee, so as
to annul all snch laws. The next objection
was, that the Free State men had been driven
from the Territory, and the friends of slavery
would have things all their own way then the
bill was so amended as to give all former citi-
zens the opportunity to return and participate
in the election. The next plea was that the
intention and effect was to bring Kansas in as
a slave State. The answer was no it provides
that the unrestrained will Of the bona tde citi-
zens shall settle that question, and that the
objection could not properly come from the
Republican side, because they had uniformly
claimed that very large majority of the real
settlers are against slavery, and that all they
sought was a fair expression of popular will.
But reason was poweress. They resisted to
the end, and finally the bill passed at the end
of session of twenty one hours, by vote of
33 to IL.
"Within few hours after, the House passed
bill admitting Kansas under the Topeka con-
stitution, and thus the issue is fairly made up.
The Democrats are for bringing in Kansas by
the straight way and under the auspices of the
law; the Republicans insist upon her admis-
sion by the crooked way, a way furnished by
violence and revolution. The Democrats con-
tend for Constitution to be made by the whole
people, through pure ballot box; the Repub.
leans, for one made by party without the
agency of law or of the ballot.box. Judge ye