Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-03-13
The State of Affairs in Kansas.
SPEECH OF HENRY WILSON


Mr.. Wilson. Mr.. President, the Senator
from Connecticut TMr Touceyl closes his speech
with the assumptions that there may be those
in the country who do net wish the President
to preserve order and he is pleased to say that,
ii the Executive does So their q vocation - Will
be gone. Let nae say to the Senator from Con-
necticut. that the 60 vocation +" of those to whom
he alludes is not fawning, abject serYility to
power. No, sir, they do not
-"bend to power, and lap its milk"
If tho Senator from Connecticut alludes to
those who have opposed the uncalled-for and
wauton repeal of the Missouri prohibition II
he aIudes to those who condemn the policy OF
the Administration in Kansas if he intends to
charge the intelligent, patriotic men who sym
pathize with the wronged and outraged people
of Kansas, bravely struggling to preserve their
firesides and affairs, their property ana iiVes'
against the armed aggressions OF lawless inva-
sons from Missouri with disposition to Vlo-
late Or resist the laws of the country, OF 10
cherish sectional animosity and strife, ne makes
a charge unsupported by even SHADOW OF
truth and here. and now to his face, ana be-
fore the Senate of the country, pronounce the
charge utterly unlounded. 1t he intends, sir,
to insinuate a charge of that character against
me, promptly meet it, and here and now be-
! fore the Senate brand it as it deserves.
The Senator from Connecticut, with an air OF
confident assurance, calls for facts. Evidently
possessed with the vast knowledge embodied i'll
these documents sent here by the Executive,
the Senator assumes the air and tone OF one
entitled IL speak by authority, and he invites
US to deal in facts. Sir, he shall have facts
| for it so happens that the friends of those who
are struggling in Kansas to protect their lives,
| their property, their all, against unauthorized
power and iawess violence, know something OF
the facts which have TRANSFERRED there. All
knowledge, sir, Of affairs in Kansas is not In
| the keeping of the Executive and his Senator
| from Connecticut. The tree OF knowledge, Sir,
was not planted in the Executive garden and
| sometimes think if it had been, its forbidden
fruits would have been more secure than were
the fruits of that tree plucked by our first
parents.
The Senator from Connecticut commends us
to the consideration of this correspondence
and the Senator from California Mr.. Weller
asks us to print ten thousand copies OF it, to be
scattered broadcast over the land. now say
and can establish what say before any com
mittee Of investigation, so that no man can
question the acclaration this correspond
ence utterly and totally misstates and mlsrep
resents the state of affairs in Kansas. These
documents, sir, are made up of telegraphic dis
patches of letters, of statements, Of orders
written by Gov Shannon and Others, on The
rumors OF the hour, in u large Territory, at a
time when the people were deeply agitated BY
all sorts of reports that flew over the land IL
rapid succession. We are called upon now tt
publish these rumors-rumors that turned on
to be exaggerated Or false--rumors Recognised
and admitted to be false by the Governor OF th'
Territory, in his conversation and in his treat,
with the citizens of Lawrence. Yes, sir, thu
Senate is now called upon to print and SEND owe
the country, as Official documents, these stu
pendous Misrepresentation Of facts. These
will carry gigantic lalschood to the American
people. He who reads only these documents
has nc accurate knowledge, no true conception
of the actual condition of afairsin Kansas a
the time covered by them.
The year 1854 opened upon vast territory
l@ing in the heart of the continent, extending
from thirty-six degrees thirty minutes on tn
south, to the possessions OF the British Queer
on the north from the borders of Missouri
Iowa, and Minnesota, on the east, to the sum
mits Of the Rocky Mountains on the vest
Over that territory larger than the empire 0
Napoleon when, at the head Of the grand army
he gazed upon that 90 ocean OF flame tina
wrapt the minarets, turrets and towers, OF th
ancient capitfl of the Cars, the Republic, OIL
the 9th or MAch, 1920, engraved in letters o
living light the sacred words, " Slavery shall b
and is forever prohibited - Slavery, witt
hungry gaze, glared upon the forest aud prairie
hill and mountain, lake and river. Of that mag
nifcent region it was forever forbidden to enter
Fixing its glittcring eye upon that paradise
consecratcd by the mutton to Freedom and fire
institutions for all, halowed forever to free mel
and free labor, the Slave Power, in the perso
of the late President of the Senate, the soul O
these border aggressions, demanded that tbi
heritage of free labor should be opened to th
whitening footsteps of the bondman. Sir, wit
hot haste you grasped this domain of Freedom
and flung it to the Slave Propaganda. Sir
YOUR Administrations in answer to the ster
protest of the free laboring men of the country
whose heritage it was, Knocked them with tn
delusiye promise that the actual settlers wer
to shape, mould, and fashion the institutions o
Kansas and Nebraska. Sir, two years hay
passed, and your "squatter sovereignty
proved a delusiou and cheat. Laws, NOR
inhuman than the code oil Draco, forced upo
the actual settlers of Kansas by armed Invading
hosts from Missouri, are now to be enforced b.
United States dragons The Constitution
framed by a Convention Of the people, isspurn
ed from the halls of Congress the Convention
that formed it is pronounced "spurious" b.
the Senator from Connecticut; and the peopi
who ratified it are branded as traitors by th
Administration and its sabllterns.
By the theory Of the Kansas Nebraska act
Mr.. President, the actual settlers were to dccid
the transcendent question, whether Freedom
should bless, or Slavery curse the virgin soil @
those vast Territories lying in the central re
giops Of the continent. The sons Of the fire.
States-of Puritan New England, of the grea
central States, and of the Northwest VIII
call no man master, and who wish to make n
man slave, were invited to plant upon til
soil of Kansas those institutions that have bless
ed, bcauftied and adorned the homes OF thel
chiIdhood The sons Of the SOath-from It
gions once teeming with the rich fruits Of field,
now blasted, blighted, and withered by til
sweat of untutored and unrewarded toil--wel
invited to plant, if they could, the institution
JDuU Uuu uiSIlOUOlCu ihpOi * eiSii ohh '"ti
States. upon the unbroken soil Of Kansas. Si
the poop of the North and the people of til
South had u legal and moral right to 60 ther
when they pleased, how they pleased, and wit
whom they pleased; in companies or in sing
families under their own direction, or und,
the auspices Of the Emigrant Aid Societies,
the North or South
Sir, the honorable Senator from Missour
Mr.. Geyer, in his remarks the other day upo
the resolution of inquiry submitted by me, mac
the extraordinary declaration that the " di
orders F." which he admits have existed on tt
borders, "arc to be attributed to an extrao
binary organiza ion, called an Emigrant Al
Society the first attempt in the history
this country to take possession of an organic
Territory, and to exclude from it the in6abi
ants of other portions of the Union | al
amazed that the Senator from Missouri shoul
make such declaration on the floor OF the Ser
ate. When and how did the . Emigrant Al
Soeintv ;, 90 atteInpt to tako possession OF an o.