The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-04-26

Legislative bodies was appointed by the Gov
ernor to be held on the 30th Of March, 1855 !;
and. the Cd day Of July, 1855, was desig-
mated for the organization of the Legislative
Assembly. The only civilized community
that was in contact with the new Territory
was Missouri, slave-holding State, at
whose instance the prohibition of Slavery
within the Territory had been abrogated, SO
that she might attempt to colonize 1t with
slaves. Immigrants were invited not only
from all parts of the United States, but also
from all other parts of the world, with
pledge that the people OF the new Territory
should be left perfectly free 10 establish or
prohibit slavery. Aspecial election, howev-
er, was held within the Territory on the 18th
day of November, 1854, without any prelm-
mary census of the inhabitants, for the pur-
pose of choosing "a Delegate who might sit
without u right to vote in Congress, during
the second session of the Thirty third Con-
gress, which was to begin on the first Mon
day of December, 1854, and to end on the
third day of March, 1855. Mr.. j. w. Whit
field was certified to be elected. There were
vehement complaints of illegality in tn cleo
ton, but his title was nevertheless not con-
tested, for the palpable reasons, that an in
vestigation under the circ lmstances of the
Territory, during so short a session of Con-
gress, would be impossible, and that the
question was of inconsiderable magnitude
let the President laments that the Governor
neglected to order the first election for the
Legislative bodies of the new Territory TO be
held simultaneously with that hurried Con-
gressional election. He assigns his reasons !:
Any question appertaining TO the qualih-
cations Of persons voting as the people Of the
Territory would Tin that case, incidentally
have necessarily passed under the supervision
Of Congress, (meaning the House of Repre-
sentatives,) and would haye:been determined
before conflicting passions had been infamed
by time, and before an opportunity would
have been afforded for. systematic interfer-
ence by the people of the individual States"
Could the President, in any explicit arrange
ment Of words, more distinctly have confess
ed his disappointment in failing to secure n
merely formal election of Legislative bodies
within the Territory, in fraud of the organic
law, of the people of Kansas, and of the
cause of natural justice and humanity 2.
THE PRESIDENT pENoUSCEs.
The President then proceeds to launch Sc
we're denunciations against what he calls u
propagandist attempt to colonize the Terri
tory with opponents of Slavery. The whole
American continent has been undergoing a
process of colonization, in many forms,
throughout period of three hundred and
fifty years. The only common element of all
those forms was propagandism. We're not
the voyages of Columbus propagandist ex
petitions under the auspices of the Pope of
Rome? Was not the wide occupation of
Spanish America propagandism of the
Catholic Church? The settlement of Mas
sachusetts by the Pilgrims Of the New
MI Il 4. L.. Al a I'll
the later plantations of the Mohawk Valley
By the Palatines; the establishment of Penn
sylyania by the Friends the mission of the
Moravans at Bethlehem, in the same State ;
the foundation Of Maryland by Lord Balti-
more and his colony of British Catholics !;
the settlement of jamestown by the Caya-
lers and Churchmen of England; that OF
South Carolina by the Huguenots were not
all these propagandist colonizatons? Was
not Texas settled bya colony of Slavehold-
ers, and California by companies Of Freemcnf
Yet never before did any Prince, King, En-
peror or President denounce such COLOMBIA
tons. Does any law of nature and nations
forbid? Does any public authority quaran-
tine. on the ground of opinion, thei ships
which are continually pouring into the gates
of New York whole religious associations
from Ireland, Wales, Germany, and Norway,
with their pastors, their clerks, and their
choirs
THE PRESIDENT CHARGES
But the President charges that the propa-
gandists entered Kansas with a design to
''anticipate and force the determination Of
the Slavery question within the Territory"
Tin favor of Freedom), forgetting, neverthe-
less, that he has only just before deplored
failure of his own to anticipate and force n
determination of that question in favor of
Slavery, by a coup de.main, in advance even
of their departure from the Atlantic States
and Europe. He charges, moreover, that
the propagandists designed to s'pr event the
free and natural action Of the inhabitants in
the intended organization of the Territory"
when, IN fact, they were pursuing the only
free and natural course to organize it, bv
immlgrating and becoming permanent inhab-
itants, citizens, and electors, of Kansas
Not one unlawful or turbulent act has been
hitherto charged against any one of the pro-
pagandists of Freedom. Mark. now, an ex-
traordinary inconsistency of the President
On the 29th of June, 1854, only twenty nine
days after the opening Of the Territory, and
before one OF these emigrants had reached
Kansas or even Missouri, propaganda as
ISOLATION, but not of emigrants, named the
idttt SOuubS oelI- DeIcuSfNe ASSOciutlOn,
assembled at Weston, on the Western borber
of Missouri, in the interest of Slavery and
it published, through the organ of the Presl-
dent of the United States at that place, q
resolution, that 'swhen called upon by any
citizens of Kansas, its members would hold
themselves in readiness to assist in removing
any and all emigrants who should 20 there
under the aid of the Northern Emigrant So
cieties." This association afterward often
made good its atrocous threats, by violence
against the property, peace, and lives Of un-
offending citizens of Kansas. But the
President Of the United States, so far from
denouncing it, does not even note its exis-
tenee.
THE ANSWER.
The majority of the Committee on Terri