Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-02-21

u. ROBINSON,
Governor elect of Kansas.
GEO. W DEITzUR, Sec.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, INDIANA,l
indianapolis, Feb 12tb, 1856.

: GEo. W. DEITzUR Sec.
: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, INDIANA,l
indianapolis, Feb. 18th, 1856.
: JAMES II. LANE, G. ROBINSON, and GEO
e w. DEITzUR, Lawrence City, X. IT.
e Gentlemen Your communication of the
2lst Of January, addressed 10 me in an off
cial capacity, and asking that steps may b'
taken to protect your people from the vio
lence of the citizens of Missouri, is now be
fore me.
Ii the Legislature were in session. should
lay your communication before them, no
: with the most remote idea that Indiana
? would deviate from her well known opinion
upon the principle involved, but ont of re-
spect to you as citizens.
| shall certainly not interfere in the domes.
tic institutions of your Territory, nor recon-
mend that our people should take any part
therein
The conduct of the AIssourians, as well as
of those from the free States, who have gone
into your Territory, with the view of control
) ing your elections, and not to become Jona
file citizens, is alike reprehensible and liable
to the severest censure and punishment.
But the remedy for these evils is properly
and constitutonally lodged with the legal
and sovereign power of the Territory and if
this is not sufficient, it is most wisely left to
the action of the Executive OF the Nation,
ana to that of Congress.
Our form of government never eoDtem-
plated for n moment, that in the domestic
troubles SO frequently arising in the different
States and Territories of the Union. Sister
States in the confederacy should take any
part. Whenever this doctrine is assumed
and carried ont, we shall find ourselves APP
preaching a state of things, that will sweep
away all the safe bonds and ties that bind us
together as one people.
We must live faithfully up to all our com
pacis-not ONLY discharging the duties we owe
to our own State or Territory, but those we
owe to the national government. Ana this can
be done most en'ectually by guarding against
the slightest encroachment upon the great
bond OF our Union, which makes us a united
people In the fnrherance Of this object we
should act towards every member of the con-
lederacy alike-to each as equal to equal
While we enjoy the right 10 make our own
form of government rs to all our domestic in
stitulions, the same right We should freely ac.
cord to others.
There is a spirit of Propagandism, which
seems to be increasing in the South and the
North, to which even the law making powers
is invoked This must not be countenancel
or ensouraged. The whole force of the legal
power of the State or Territory, must be
brought into vigorous action to arrest it.
When this fails, the ample power vested
by the Constitution in the Executive, and
Congress of the nation. must be sought
Should all this prove Intellectual, we shall be
not only on the verge of anarchy and rebel
lion, but ready for the worst of all cvils-in-
testine war with all the caamities that must
follow the hostile array of neighbor against
neighbor, brother against brother, son against
sire-war among those Of the same race, the
same name, the same blood.
As a State, we are surrounded by our sis
ters in the confederacy, differing in many do
mestc institutions. In some Of them have
occurred mobs, riots, and destruction of hu
man life: in others the sanctuary of the cleo
tive franchise has been invaded bul the
thought has never occurred to our peaceable
and law-ahding citizens that the sovereign
power in these respective States, in connee-
ton with the strong national arm, was insuif-
cent to bring about the observance of law
and order. -
So long as our people recognize this priEci-
pie, and fully carry it ont, we shall have res
pect for the supremacy of law, and for its adj
ministrators. If we depart from it in the
higher and more delicate relation that we
sustain to the different members of the con-
rederacy, we shall find that, in the same pro-
portion, citizens of the counties and townships
will be engaged in open violation of law
trampling upon those in authority, in the
smaller communities, and there will be no
safety for property, liberty, or life.
The want of confidence, north and south,
in the ability of the people of Kansas TO
mould their own institutions to suit them
selves, aud the consequent aggressive spirit
of interference for the purpose of influencing
their elections seem to originate in a sort of
egutism, both in parties and individual citi-
zens who. while they doubt the integrity and
capacity of the people of Kansas are ready
to assert their own honesty and ability to reg
ulate their institutions for them.
Indiana, as State, has wisely selected her
own domestic policy. She is willing to give
her neighbors the same right, and Ia suppose
them capable of choosing and deciding for
themselves. She has never given any cause
of complaint to any of her sister States oI
Territories. She expects the like exact JUS
hope that none of her citizens will so far for
get the relation they sustain TO their neigh.
boTs, and the national compact, as to take any
part in the strifes and contentious OF other,
who are openly violating the laws of the
land.
4 Notwithstanding it was telegrdphed from
vour Territory TO New York, that L was will.
inc anl ready TO offer the assistance of citi-
zens of this State, in your controversy, LET
me assure you that while | have the honor
to be her Executive Officer | will not II
any manner attempt to bring her down from
/ her present high position, and have her IN
any way mingling in tho domestic strfes OF
her Sister States or Territories.
The sentiment of our people Is to leave
/ the settlement of these questions to the peo-
pie of Kansas, who are actual citizens oi the
/ Territory. If this cannot be brought about
ifinhuences are at work which render this i'm
possible, the remedy is not TO he found by
Others unlawlully interfering; but by the
t constitution and laws, is most properly lodged
/, in the hands Of those who have the power
and ability 10 restore order and peace.
= Appeals are frequently made to our sym
Q pathies to redress grievances and outrage:
{ which occur in many of the relations of life
p and i'm many instances these influences com
4 mand our services. But in the higher and
g more important relations we sustain to eact
: other, as members of our happy form OF gov.
: eminent, the Constitution and the law:
{ should alone be the rule of our action.
t There are those who indulge in the use o
n hard names and sectional phrases, such a
suJserviency to southern interests, dough faces