The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1856-02-08

We puDitbu DSiuW VA shos ~ sA'l 'os W
the Presidents Message on Kansas Affairs
communicated to Congress the oath ult., a
synopsis Of which was published by us last
week. After speaking of the Kansas and
Nebraska acts and their provisions, the Presi-
dent says:
While, by this act, the principle Of con-
stitution for each Of the territories was one
and the same, and the details oforganic leg
islation regarding both were as nearly ~
could DO identical, and while the territory Of
Nebraska was TRANQUILITY and successfully or
nnized IN the due course Of law, and its FIRST
legislative assembly met on the 10th Of JAN
uary, 1855, the organization Of Kansas was
long DELAYED. and has been attended with
serious difficulties and emb, rrassments, part
| ly the consequence of local mal-administn-
ton, and partly Of the unjustifable interior
cncc of the inhabitants of some Of the states,
foreign by residence, interests, and rights to
the territory.
The governor Of the territory of Kansas,
commissioned. US before stated, on the Goth
of June, 1854, did not reach the designated
scat of his government until the 9TH of the
ensuing October and even then failed to
make the first step in its legal organization
that of ordering the census or enumeration
of its inhabitants-until 30 late day that
the election of the members of the legislative
assembly did not take place until the 30th Of
March, 1855, nor its meeting until the Cd of
July, 1856 so that for year after the ter
ritory was constituted by the act of Con-
gress, and the officers to be appointed by
the federal executive had been commission
ed, il was without complete government,
without any legislative authority, without
: lOca law, and of course without the ordi-
nary guarantees of peace and public order.
In other respects the governor, instead OF
exercising constant vigilance and putting
forth all his energies to prevent or counter
act the tendencies to illegality which are
prone to exist in all imperfectly-organizel
and newly-associated communities, allowed
his attention to be diverted from Official OBJ
legation by other objects, and himself set an
example of the violation Of law in the
performance of acts which rendered 1t my
duty, in the sequel, to remove him from the
Office of chief executive magistrate OF the
territory.
Before the requisite preparation was ac-
complishcd for the election of q territorial
legislature, an election of delegate to con-
gress had been held in tho territory on the
10Th day of November, 1854, and the dele
gate took his seat in tho house of repre-
sentatiye without challenge. If arrange
mcnts had been perfected by the governor
30 that the election for members of the leg
islative assembly might be held in the sew
eral precincts ut the same time as for dele
gate to congress, any question appertaining
to the qualification of the persons voting as
people of the territory would have passed
necessarily and at once under the supervis-
ion of congress, as the judge of the validity
of the return of the delegate, and would
have been determined before conflicting pas
sions had become inaamed by time, and be-
fore opportunity could have afforded Cor
systematic interference of the people of in
dividual States.
This interference, in so far as concerns its
primary causes and its immediate commence
ment, was one of the incidents of that per-
nicious agitation on the subject of the con-
dtion of the colorcd persons held to service
in some of the States, which has NJ long dis
turbcd the rcpose Of our country, and OK.
cited individuals otherwise patriotic and
law-abiding, to toll with INSTRUCTED zeal in
the attempt to propagate their social thco-
ries by the peryersion and abuse of the pow
ers Of congress.
The persons and parties to whom the ten.
or of the act TO organize the territories OF
Kansas and Nebraska thwarted in the en-
dcayor to impose, through the agency OF
congrcss, their particular views of social
organization on the people of the future
new States, now percciying that the policy
of leaving the inhabitants of each State to
judge for themselves in this respect was in
eradicably rooted in the convictions of the
people of the Union, then had recourse, In
the pursuit Of their general object, to the
extraordinary measure of propagandist colo
nization of the territory of Eansas, to pre-
vent the free and natural action Of its in
habitants in its internal organization, and
thus to anticipate or to force the determine
ton of that question in the inchoate state.
With such views associations were Orga-
nizcd in some of the States, and their pur-
pose was proclaimed through the press in
language extremely irritating and offensive
to thUse Of whom the colonists were to be-
come the neighbors. Those designs and acts
had the necessary consequence to awaken
emotions of intense indignation in States
near to the territory Of Kansas, and espec-
tally in the adjoining State of Missouri,
whose domestic peace was thus the most d.
rectly endangered; but they are far from
justiiying the illegal and reprehensible coun-
ter movements which ensued
Under these inauspicious circumstances
the primary elections for members of the
legislative assembly were held in most, il
not all Of the precincts ut the time and the
places and by the persons designated and
appointed by the Governor, according to
law.
Angry accusations that illegal votes had
been polled, abounded on all sides, and inn
putations were made both of fraud and vio-
lence. But the Governor, in the exercise of
the power and the discharge of the duty
conferred and imposed by law on him alone,
officially received and considered the returns (;
declared large majority of the members of
the council and the House of representatives
"duly elected !" withheld certificates from
othcir pVoausVo VI uhcSVu ihcSahty va 'os'D '
appointed n new election tosupply the place
OF the persons not certified; and thus at
length, in all the forms of statute, and with
his own official authorization, complete lc-
gality was given to the first legislative as
sembly of the territory.
Those decisions of tho returning officers
and of the governor are final, except that,
by tho parliamentary usage Of the country
applied to the organic law, 1t may be con-
lceded that each house of the assembly must
have been competent to determine, in the
last resort, the qualifications and elections Of
it, members. The subject was, by It's ma
turc, one appertaining exclusively to the
jurisdiction of the local authorities OF che
territory. Whatever Irregularities may
have occurred in the elections, it seems too
late now to raise that question Us to which,
neither now, nor at any previous time, has
the least possible legal authority been pos
sessed by the President Of the United States.
For all present purposes the Legislative body
thus constituted and elected, was the legiti-
mate assembly of the territory.
After having concluded that the Bogus
Il