The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-20

and those who might first become the inhabit-
ants thereof were authorized to make laws for
its establishment and perpetuation.
Tho Invasion Of Kansas and Action of the General
Government.
Nor did the slaveholding interest stop here
in its crusade of injustice and wrong. The first
election of members for the Territorial Legisla-
ture of Kansas was fixed for the Both of March,
1855, and the law of Congress prescribed that
at that election none but "actnsl residents of
the Territory" should be allowed to vote. Yet,
to prevent people of the Territory themselves
from exercising the right to prohibit Slavery,
which-the act of Congress had conferred upon
them, the slaveholding interest sent armed
bands of men from the neighboring State of
Missouri, who entered the Territory on the day
of election, took possession of the polls, exclu-
ded the legal voters, and proceeded themselves
to elect members Of the Legislature, without the
slightest regard to the qualifications prescribed
by law. The judges of election, appointed un.
der authority of the Administration at Wash
ington, aided and abetted in the preparation
of the outrages upon the rights of the people
of Kansas, and the President of the United
States removed from Office the Governor whom
he had himself appointed, but who refused to
acknowledge the Legislature which the slave
holding invaders from Missouri had thus i'm
posed upon the Territory.
That Legislature met on the I'd of July, 1855.
Its first act was to exclude those members, duly
elected, who would not consent to the enact
ment of laws for the admission of Slavery into
the Territory. Having thus silenced all oppo.
sition to its behests, the Legislature proceeded
to the enactment of laws for the government of
Kansas upon the subject of Slavery The laws
of Missouri in regard to it were at first extend
ed over the Territory. 1t was then enacted,
that every person who should raise an insur-
rection or rebellion of negroes in the Territory !;
every person who should entice away slave,
with intent to procure his freedom; every per-
son who should aid or assist in so enticing away
a slave within the Territory; and every person
who should entice or carry away a slave from
any other State or Territory of the Union, and
bring him within the Territory of Kansas, with
the intent to effect or procure his freedom, upon
the conviction thereof should suffer DEATH.
1t was further enacted, that if any person shond
write, print, or publish, any book, paper, argu-
ment, opinion, advice, or inuendo, calculated
to produce disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious
dsaffection among the slaves in the Territory,
or to induce them to escape from their masters,
he should be deemed guilty of FELONY, and
be punished by Imprisonment at hard labor for
a term not less than FIVE YEARS and that if
any free person, by speaking or writing, should
assert or maintain that persons have not the
right to hold slaves in that Territory; or should
introduce or circulate any book, paper, pamph
let, or circular, containing any such denial of
the right of persons to hold slaves in that Ter
ratory, he should be deemed guilty of felony,
and be punished by IMPRISONMENT at hard labor
for term not less than TWO YEARS. 1t was
still further enacted, by the same Legislature,
that every free white male citizen of the United
States, and inhabitant of the Territory, who
should pay tax Of one dollar, and take an oath
to support the Constitution of the United States,
the act organizing the Territory of Kansas, the
Territorial law, and the act for the recapture
of fugitive slaves, should be entitled to vote at
any election in said Territory-thus making
citizens of Missouri, or of any other State, legal
voters in Kansas, upon their presentation at
the polls, upon taking the oaths prescribed, and
upon payment of one dollar-in direct violation
of the spirit of the act of Congress, and in open
of the rights of the people of the Ter
ritory. And having made these enactments
for the establishment of Slavery, the Legisla-
ture appointed Sherifs, Judges, and other off,
GERS of the Territory, for their Enforcement
thus depriving the people of all power over the
enactment of their own laws, and the choice of
officers for their execution.
That these despotic acts, even if they had
been passed by Legislature duly elected by
the people of the Territory, would have been
null and void, inasmuch IA they are plainly in
violation of the Federal Constitution, is too
clear for argument. Congress itself is express
ly forbidden by the Constitution of the United
States to make any laws abridging the freedom
of speech and of the press and it is absurd to
suppose that Territorial Legislature, deriving
all its power from Congress, should not be sub
ject to the same restrictions. But these laws
were not enacted by the people of Kansas.
They were imposed upon them by an armed
force. Yet the President of the Uuite@ States,
in special message sent to Congress on the
Oath of January, 1856, declares that they have
been enacted by the dulyconstituted authori-
ties of the Territory, and that they are Of bind
ing obligation upon the people thereof And
on the 18th of February, 1856, he issued his
Proclamation, denouncing any attempt to re-
sist or subvert these barbarous and void enact
ments, and warning all persons engaged in such
attempts, that they will be opposed, net only
by the local militia, but by any available forces
belonging TO the regular army OF the United
States. Thus has the Federal Government
sOlemnly recognised the usurpation set up in
Kansas by invaders from Missouri, and pledged
all the power of the United States to its sup
port. American history furnishes no parallel
to the cruelty and tyranny of these acts Of the
present Administration The expulsion of sliens,
and the penalties inflicted upon citizens for ex-
ercising freedom of speech and of the press,
under the alien and sedition laws, which were
overthrown by the Republican party of has,
were lenient and mild when compared with the
outrages perpetrated upon the people of Kan
sas, under color of law, by the usurping inva.
ders sustained by the Federal Government.
With full sense of the Importance OF the
declaration, we affirm that the execution of
these threats by the President of the United
States, upon the people of Kansas, would be an
unconstitutional exercise of Executive power,
presenting case of intolerabe tyranny; that
American citizens cannot submit to it, and re-
main free; and that if blood shall be shed in
the prosecution of so unlawful purpose, those
by whose agency it may be split will be held to
a strict and stem account by the ireemen of
the Republic. So plain, palpable, and delibe-
rate violation of the Constitution, would lust
ify the interposition of the States, whose daty
1t would be, by all the constitutional means i'm
their power, to vindicate the rights and liberties
OF the citizen against the power of the Federal
Government; and we take this occasion to ex-
press to our fellow citizens in Kansas, against
whom these unconstitutional acts are directed,
our profound sympathy with them in the resist
ance which it is their right and their duty to
make to them, and our determination to make
that sympathy efficient by all the means which
we may lawfully employ.
Thus, for period of twenty-five years, has
Slavery been eoItending, under various pre-
texts, but with constant success, against the
tendencies of civilization and the spirit of our
institutions, for the extension and perpetuatiou
of its power. The degree in which the Gen
eral Government has aided its efforts NAV be
traced in the successive steps it has taken. In
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