The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-17
THE NATIONAL ERA WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL II, 1856.

officers until the session of 1853, however much
the inhabitants of the Territory might desire it.
How forcibly do these laws illustrate that old
political maxim of the English nation, that a
, Parliament called by conqueror is itself con-
quered and enslaved Who but foreigners, usurp-
ers, and tyrants, could have made for the people
of Kansas people perfectly free such laws
as these. Anatomists will describe the instru-
ment, and even the force Of the blow, if only you
| show them the wound.
Behold the proofs on which the allegations of
invasion, usurpation, and tyranny, made by the
| new State of Kansas, rest They are, first: the
Presidents own virtual admission, by defences in
direct, irrelevant, ill-tempered, sophistcal, and
evasive; second absolute agreement, con-
| currence and harmony, between the statements
of the conflicting parties who were engaged in
| the transactions involved; third: the consequent
ces of those transactions exactly such as must fol-
low if the accusations be true and such as could
not result if they be false. few words, however,
must be added to bring more distinctly into view
: the Presidents completely in these transactions,
and to establish his responsibility therefor. The
| President openly lent his official influence and
patronage to the Shareholders of Missouri to effect
the abrogation of the prohibition of Slavery in
Kansas, contained in the act of Congress OF 1920.
| He knew their purposes in regard to the elections
| in Kansas. He interfered to prevent, to de-
| feat or to hinder them. He employed his official
patronage to aid them. He now defends and pro-
| tects the usurpation and tyranny, established by
the invaders in Kansas, With all the influence of
| his exalted station, and even with the military
power of the Republic; and he argues the duty OF
the people there to submit to the orcible establish
ment of Slavery, in violation of the national
| pledge, which he concurred in giving, that they
should be left perfectly free to reject and exclude
| that justly obnoxious system. 1t thus appears
that the President of the United States holds the
| people of Kansas PROSTATE and enslaved at his
| feet
To complete the painful account of this great
| crime, it is necessary now to add that there has
| not been one day nor night, since the Government
| of Kansas was constituted and confided to the
President of the United States, in which either
the properties, the liberties, even the lives,
of its citizens have been secure against the vio-
lence and vengeance of the extreme foreign faction
which he uphods and protects. At this day, Kan
4 sas is becoming, more distinctly than before, the
scene of conflict of irreconcilable opinions to be
| determined by brute force. No immigrant goes
there unarmed no citizen dwslls there in safety
| armed armed masses of mon proceeding
into the Territory from various parts of the Uni
| ted States to complete the work of invasion and
| tyranny which he has thus begun, under circum-
stances of fraud and perfdy unworthy of the
character of ruler of free people This gath
ering conflict in Kansas divides the sympathes,
interests passions and preudiees of the people of
| the United States. Whether, under such circum-
stances, it can be circumscribed within the limits
of the Territory of Kansas, must be determined
by statesmen from their knowledge of the courses
of civil connections, which have involved ques-
| tons of moral right and conscientious duty, as
well as balances of political power. Whether,
on the other hand, the people of Kansas, under
| these circumstances, will submit to this tyranny
of citizen of the United States like themselves,
whose term of political power is nearly expired,
can be determined by considering it in the aspect
in which it is viewed by themselves. SPECIFICS
here, as they yet are, give utterance to their
| united voices, and, holding in my hand the ar
raignment of George iii, by the Congress of
| 1776, ! impeach--in the words of that immortal
! text-the President of the United States:
| ale has refused to pass laws for the accom-
mediation of the people, unless they would re-
| linquish the right of representation in their
Legislature right inestimabls to them, and
formidable to tyrants only:
| "He has called together legislative bodies at
a place unusual, uncomfortable, and distant
from the depository of their public records, for
| the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compli-
| ance with his measures:
He has prevented Legislative Houses from
being elected, for no other cause than his con-
| victon that they would "oppose with manly
| frmness his invasions on the rights of the
| people:
| "He has refused for leng time after" spuri-
Gus Legislative Houses were imposed by himself
by usurpation, on the people of Kansas "to cause
others to be elected, whereby the legislative
| powers, incapable of humiliation, have return
ed to the people at large for their exercise, the
State remaining in the mean time exposed to
all the danger of invasion from without, and
| civil war within:
ale has created multitude of new Offices and
sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our
people, and eat out their substance:
ale has kept among u.s. in times of peace,
standing armies, to compel our submission to
foreign" Legislature, I" and has affected to rem
| der the military independent of, and superior
| to, the civil power
"He has combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution
and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his
assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
"For protecting" invaders of Kansas I" from
punishment for any murders which they shall
commit on the inhabitants" of this Territory:
For abolshing the free system of American
law In " this Territory, Establishing therein
an arbitrary Government, 30 as to render it at
| once an example and fit instrument for intro.
| ducing the same absolute rule into" other Ter
ritories:
"For taking away our charter, abolishing our
most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally
the powers of our Government:
"For suspending our own Legislature, and
declaring" an usurping Legislature, constitu-
ted by himself, Invested with power to legisats
for US in all cases whatsoever"
What is wanting here to fill up the complement
of high judicial process2 Is it an accuser?
The youngest born Of the Republic is before you,
imploring you to rescue her from immolation on
the altar of public faction. Is it q crime? Be-
think yourselves what it is that has been sub
verted. 1t is the whole of complete and round
ed-of Republican Government of a Territory
indeed, by name, but, in substance, Civil State.
Consider the effect The People of Kansas pers
perfectly free" They now free only to sub
NIT and obey. Consider whose system that Re-
publican Government was, and the Power that
established it. 1t was one of the Constitutions
of the United States, established by act of the
Congress of the United States. Consider what a
tyranny it is that has been built on that afro
cious usurpation. 1t is not discriminating tyr
amy, that selects and Furnishes one, or few, or
even many, but it DISTINGUISHES all, and reduces
every citizen to abject slavery. Examine the
code created by the Legislature. All the statutes
of the State of Missouri are enacted in gross,
without alteration or amendment, for the gov
eminent of Kansas and then, at the end, the
hasty blunder of misnomer is corrected by an
explanatory act, that wherever the word State
occurs, it means Territory And what code
One that stiles not, indeed, the fruits of the
womb, but the equally important element of
State, the fruits-the immortal fruits-of the
mind; code that puts in peril all rights and
liberties whatsoever, by denying to men the right
to know to utter, and to argue, freely, according
to conscience-a right in itself conservative of all
other rights and liberties Is an offender want
ing? He stands before you, in many respects the
most eminent man in all the world-the Pres-
dent of the United States-the constitutional and
chosen defender and protector of the people who