Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1856-07-11

IL ought TO be of course that the Senate bill
will not pass the House, but, when the oppos-
ing forces are so nearly balanced, there is
no knowing what corruption will accomplish.
The Majority Report Of thu Investigating Com
mittee
We would be glad if we could publish in
our columns tho report Of Mcssrs. Howard
and sherman, tho maiDrity Of the committee
appointed by the House Of Representatives to
investigate the doings in Kansas but its
length makes it impossible. 1t will be found
in the large New York Journals. The report
with the accompanying documents will be
published by the House in few days we sup
pose, and we hope it will be widely circulat-
ed. 1t will be read with most painful inter
est by all who have not sacrificed their love
Of honor, justice, humanity and liberty to a
mad determination to extend slavery at all
hazards and by whatever means shall be nee
essary for that end, or to sustain IL political
party merely because it bears na,ac which
they have been wont to delight in The
enormties perpetratcd daring the year past
TO force slavery into Kansas have been such
as almost to Si,n, the public miud-to create
the feeling in many that the statements, even
when reported by eyc-witnesses aud sufferers
themselves, must be exaggerated that in
professedly free country, where the rulers are
chosen by the people, such unheard of viola
tions Of law in the name Of - law and order"
such fragrant outrages on the rights OF
bn f law
ty,"-such scandalous acts Of official delin-
quency and crime, couH not take place.
Appalling however as the fact is, it is un-
douiable that the half was not told US. The
more the matter has been examined the great
er the outrages are shown to have been
Even the New York Ierald-a most thorough
going pro- slavery Journal and earnest to have
Kansas come into the Union as a slave state,
SO that the slave states may be equal in num-
her to the free states, speaks thus forcibly Of
the case as established by the commission -
"Our readers doubtless, without a solitary
exception, have risen from the perusal OF this
astounding report. this historical document,
with the most painful emotions and convic-
tions The names, dates, figures, facts and
all doubts and all preyarications as to the
doings OF the border runians' Explanations,
apologies and denials may be piled mountains
high upon each other but here are the acts facts,
dates, names and places, all the materials of
legal testimony as before court of Justice,
and they cannot be displaced Upon such
evidence the President Of the lnited States
before an honest Jury could hardly escape i'm
prisonment for life.
What IL picture We have read with in
crcdulity, atrocities of English civil wars,
Irish rebellons and French revolutions, from
shrinking disinclination to believe in the
possibility of such examples Of human depra
witty; but we are incredulous no longer
When any portion Of people belonging to
the most civilized, enlightened, and law and
order loving race under the sun, can descend
to such scenes of systematic ruttanlsm as
those which are set forth IN this CongreSsion-
al report, we are reduced to the conclusion
that the general repngnance Of mankind to
pirates and highway robbers, TO burglars and
: midnight assassns, is but mockcry and
dclusiOn-that the securities which the laws
! of the land and the usnges OF civilized soc, ty
throw around and over US, like strong
shield, are subject like Kansas to the law Of
rulIansm and the chances Of the hour-that
man, after all, is but a savage cannibal, and
that his social, political, moral and religious
elevation is but humbug and a cheat. Up
on one point there can be no mistake-the
unanswerable facts of the Kansas report es-
tabish it beyond the possibility of dispute
/ and the point is this that squattcr sDyer-
eighty is rufhan sovereignty-that the Kan
sas-Nebraska law, leaving the people OF the
Territory free to regulate their own domestic
affairs in their own way, under the auspices
Of MesSrs. Douglas and Pierce, means organ
lied rutlianism, whisky, spoliation, robbery,
murder, fire and sword.
The committee avoid going into an arsu-
ment but sum up the facts established by
them as follows
" Your Committee report the following
facts and conclusions as established by the
testimony
FirN.-Ihat each election IN The Territory
held under the organic or alleged Territorial
law has been carried by organized invasions
from the State Of Missouri, by which the pco-
pie Of the Territory have been prevented from
exercising the rights secured to them by the
organic law.
Second. THAT the alleged Territorial Leg
slature was an illegally constituted body,
and had no power to pass valid laws, and
their enactments are, therefore null and void.
Ihrd. That these alleged laws have not,
as general thing, been used to protect per-
sons and property and to punish wrong, but
for unlawful purposes
fowth-That the election under which
the sitting Delegate, John W Whitfield,
holds his seat, was not held in pursuance of
anv valid law. and that it should be regarded
only as the expression of the choice of those