The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-07-19
The Senate Kansas Bill.

tuo NePuoACdHS III COHSfeSS lOr opposing III
last.biH Of Senator Douglas, to admit Kar
sas as State after the Free State men ar
all driven out at the point of the bayonet
we have concluded to give below the minor
ity report Of Senator Collamer, from tn
Committee on Territories, upon this bill.
is short and to the point, and is perfect an
, swer to all which has beer said in favor O
the insidious measure
Il 1t is now proposed to pass bill to enabl
the present inhabitants of Kansas to choos,
delegates to form State Constitution. /
is well understood that the only topic of diff
: fculty there, is the subject of domesti,
slavery. As there is not the number of in
; habitants there to entitle them to a repre-
sentative, according to the present appor
tionment, it is entirely matter Of Congress
sional discretion whether state shall be
formed at this time.
If the state Of circumstances there be
such as to furnish well-founded expectation
that a fair, just and impartial expression o
the opinions and wishes of the actual bona
fde inhabitants of the Territory cannot now
be obtained, then this experiment should not
be attempted at this juncture of their affairs
A succinct statement of recent events in
relation to that Territory, it's present un-
happy and unsettled condition, and the
causes which have produced it, will fully show
that no fair election of delegates, no just ex-
preston of opinion, can, at present be there
obtained.
In 1854, when the bill establishing the
territorial governments of Kansas and Ne
braska was passed. it was enacted that they
should, when admitted as states, be admit
ted "with or without slavery, as their con-
stitutions should provide"
| This, however, was not satisfactory to
the slayeholding states, and, therefore,
that provision of the Missouri Compromise
which forbids slavery forever north of 30
pose for which the slaveholding states had
| received and secured for ever their conside-
ration, and which had been sanctioned by
thirty years of acquescence, was repealed,
and the novel experiment was professedly
instituted Of submitting the subject to the
people who should come into the Territory.
This was done to admit slavery into the ter
ritory which that compromise forbade.
This breach of faith was effected by max
ing another plight of faith, that is, by pro-
viding that the settlers of Kansas " should
be perfectly free to form and regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way"
Relying on this last national assurance,
many people from free states as well as from
slave states, settled in Kansus and how
has that assurance been kept? Neither the
Executive or Congress has redeemed that
plighted faith or executed that law.
| state, from information which I regard
as entirely reliable, and as facts which, be-
lieye capable of the most unquestionable
proof, which can at any time be presented,
that of the 6,33l votes cast in March, 1855,
for the election of the Legislative Assembly
of Kansas, 1921 of them We're cast by arm
ed bands of the inhabitants of Missouri,
who invaded Kansas for that purpose on that
occasion that only l 1,4lO legal votes were
cast, and a majority of those were cast for
the Free State candidates, though most of
the Free State voters were driven away from
the-polls.
This invasion extended to all the Council
Districts, and 10 all the Representative Dis
tricts but one, and elected and controlled
a large majority of both Houses.
The people of the territory have not been
left free, but have been invaded and subu-
gated, and they are, and their institutions
have been controlled by the people of Mis-
souri,, through and by the tyrannic laws en-
acted by that Assembly, and more tyranni-
cally enforced by the officers by them ap-
pointed.
These laws, so made by usurpation, the
Executive of this Government has aided to
enforce, and in Congress no relief has been
granted. The complaints and representa-
tious of this usurpation and perversion of the
organic act have been represented here as
complaints of mere irregularity, and been
treated by the Senate with apparent indiffer-
ence and neglect, as no measure even of in
quiry into their truth has been instituted.
The people of Kansas, thus oppressed and
subiugated, have complained and struggled
in vain. They have done as they understood
the people of other Territories had done be-
fore them: that is, formed State Constitu-
ton, inviting all to participate therein, and
presented the same to Congress for adnira-
ton. All such attempts have brought down
ON them the reproach Of being traitors and
subverters of authority.
Abandoned to their oppressors, the Free
State people of Kansas have been pursued by
them in the same spirit which made the in
vasion. The acts of said Assembly have by
their off GERS been made the color for all forms
of political persecution and oppression. In
dictments for constructive treason and pre-
tended nuisanccs deprive them of liberty
and destroy their property. Under the form
of Sheriff's posses, armed bands of people
from without the Territory prowl over it and
take and destroy property and lives, and in
timidate and drive off the Free State people.
These people have thus for several months
past, been harrassed and scattered, and
any attempt at selfdefence has been re-
| pressed by the army of the United States, or
| been declared constructive treason and
treated accordingly. The settlers have thus
| in large numbers been driven from their set
Elements and from the Territory. This is
but brief and feeble statement of the facts.
| A full picture of the public atrocities and
private violence which have been committed
with impunity upon the Free State people of
Kansas would excite and arouse the deepest
sentiment of Indignation:
| 1t would seem to be demanded by a sense
of common justice, and by what this nation
! owes as well to the cause of truth as to its
own character and self-respect, that inquiry
should be made, and usurpatlon be subdued
and the public faith be redeemed, by re-
dressing all the wrongs produced by such
means This is not proposed, nor is the law
Of repose to be restored. or the Constitution
already formed to be allowed. -
: But, instead of this, it is now proposed to
consummate the whole by leaving usurpation
in possession of its power, and provide nc
security for those they imprison, Cypress, and
l Il L Al