Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-07-30
TooMBs,s KANSAS BILL p1ssEcTEp.


SIR: Your note asking my opinion, rs
Democrat and as citizen and friend of Kan
sas, in relation to the Senate bill, entitled: ga
bill to authorize the people s'ot the Territory
of Kansas to form Constitution sand State
Government, &c" which passed the Senate
on the I'd inst, is to hand.
In reply, would say that my objections to
the bill are not confined to its details only
they may be amended-but attach also TO the
principles upon which it rests.
l. The bill proposes to repeal and amend
certain Territorial laws, and TO leave others in
force, and hence assumes the position that
the Legislative Assembly was valid authority
and affixes the seal of Congressional sanction
and appreciation upon body elected by rule
utterly subversive of that government and in
sodoing. the Senate has sanctioned and legal
lied, as far as it can, the work of an armed
mob, in open violation of the laws and consti-
tuition of the United States, in violating the
great fundamental principle upon which rests
our whole political fabric, popular sovereignty
or Self-goyernment.
tits not necessary to weary your readers by
inserting here the proof of this proposition,
and shall only refer them to the testimony
taken by the Kansas Investigating Committee,
reported to the House of Repres entatives on
the 1st inst. In this report the above ailega-
tion is proven by testimony the most positive
and incontrovertble.
II. But my objections to the bill do not stop
here after thus acknowledging, the validity
of the Territorial Legislature, the bill proceeds
TO repeal sundry laws and parts of laws enacted
by that body, by the singular process of reen-
acting certain important provisions of the Con-
stitution of the United States. (See bill, sec.
lS). 1t also enaets a new election law-aS-
snming the power OF Congress to legislate for
the Territory on the most important subject
OF legislation, that of the elective franchise,
while it has, in the opinion of the Senate, in
full vitality, local Legislature of its own:
thus utterly abandoning the whole theory OF
the Democratic creed in relation to the gov
ernment of the Territories; aud, as Demo-
crat must be allowed to enter my protest a
gainst this, abandonment of the faith partc-
ularly in an instance when that abandonment
is made necessary by assuming former false
hypothesis.
LII. The bill further provides for the cleo
tion and organization of a convention 'sto form
constitution and State government" and,
without submitting the constitution thus form
ed to a vote Of the people or future action of
Congress, admits the State into the Union son
an equal footing with the original States"
| and makes the action Of that convention
fnality, and denies to the people the inyalua-
Ole privilege of acting in their primary and in
diydual capacity upon the organic law of the
land, ga right iara!Habie TO ''fhem and .fo7mt-
dable only 10 tyrants.
". To give to a Board of Commissioners,
mine who shall vote for delegates to a Conven-
! ton, and to be the sole Judges of Election
and qualifications of said delegates, and to
make the action of that Convention final, in
| matter so important as the formation OF Con-
] stitution and State Government, is to erect
| power dangerous to popular rights, power ir-
| responsible to the people, despotisn and
/ is assuming the power of Congress to do that
| for which there is no warrant in the Constitu-
ton, and whichis subvcrsive of the great prin-
cples of popular government.
| V. One effect Of refusing to submit the Con-
| stitutiOn to vote of the people, would be to
| obvate the necessity Of retaining in the Ter
| ritory large body of men during the Winter,
in order to vote on the Constitution in the
! Spring. as it would be impossible to frame a
| Constitution, publish it and give the people
! time to discuss its provisions, in order to give
an intelligent vote upon its ratification, before,
| probably, the 1st of March. | am aware that
it would be exceedingly inconvenient to these
| people to stay in our Territory during the Vim
| ter 1cithOHt houses, and that houses and proyiS-
! ions are very expensive things; nevertheless,
as citizen of Kansas | cannot consent that
| they should be allowed to finish their work by
| the 18th of November and return TO their homes,
leaving the people to enjoy q a government
established against their own Will and wishes ;
and hence, as citizen and friend Of Kansas,
must most so!emnly protest against this fea-
! ture of the bill.
VI. The bill further provides that the ratio
Of representation and the appointment of del
egates shall be determined 10y the number of
voters, and not the number Of inhabitants in
| the Territory and the respective districts; /;
| thus giving to the mere adyenturcr, the 'Fsol-
dicr of Fortunes upon the border, the same
representative strength with the regular citi-
zen permanently located with his wife and fam
| lily of five or ten minor children. The injuS-
tice of this provision is too garing to need
comment, and its object too plain to be misun-
derStood.
! VII. The enumeration of voters is fixed at
time when many of our citizens have been
driven from their homes and from the Territo-
| ry, and when an armed mob, unrebuked by
Government, has bloclladed all the avenues to
the country, not only preventing the return Of
the few who might be able, and who might
feel an inclination to return from doing so,
but robbing and driving back all new emf
grants from the Free States who are seeking
homes in the Territory. Thus forcing upon
| the people fnalty at most inauspicous
| time, and proposing to establish the institu-
! tions of a State when the country is under the
| government of an armed and irresponsible
| mob. W hat a -mockery of popular rights
And what fraud upon a people who were in
| daced to emigrate to the Territory under a
pledge from the Government that they should
be left ssperJecf.y free to establish their in
stitutioRs."
VIII. In addition to this, the BILL as far as
it is intended ''to authorize the people of the
Territory of Kansas to form Constitution
and State Government is gratuitous. We
have asked for no such authority. We con-
| tend as Democrats, that we have authority
| whenever majority of the people may so de-
termine to cali Convention, form q Constitu-
| tion and State Government, and to apply for
| admission into the Union as a Free and sover-
eign State. We hold that the people are bet
| ter judges of when this shall be done, than
Congress can be, and that to judge of, aud to
do this is one of the rights expressly reserved