Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1856-12-10

1900 Ms 4veaee&s 10y No "a II ~
having - = jsd1S ~ aIemaelyGd ~ flssi.|
up 10 perpetual exests06 % iris p0is.
n Congfess proceed thus ID oct ID the very spirit
Of Eberty, Il il ~ once charged With shining 70
extend Saaye Labor into I'll she new Territories
OF the United Stat<s s.a
OF course these imp0Essioss Of the Intentions
Of Congress in this rsspecs, conceived as they
were 10 prejudice, and disseminated in passion,
are utterly destitute Of any justification in the
nature Of things, and contrary to all the fundA-
mental doctrines and principles of civil liberty
and self government. While, therefore, in gem
erai, the people Of the Northern States have new
er at any time arrogsted Tor the federal govern
ment, the power 10 interiors directly with the
domestic condition Of pensons in the Southern
States, but ON the contrary have disAvowed all
such lntelEaions, and have shrunk from conspic-
nous afiliation With those few who pursue their
fanatical objects avowediy through the contem-
plated means of revolutionary change Of the
government, and with acceptance OF the neces-
sary consequences, civil and servile war, yet
many citizens have suffered themselves to be
drawn into ono evanescent political issue Of agi-
tation after another, appertaining TO the same
vet OF opinions, and which subsidized as rapidly as
they arose, when it came to be seen, as it uni
formy did, that they were incompatible with the
oflhe Union. s4st
/ OF this last agitation, one lamentable feature
was, that It was carried on at the immediate ex.
pense Of the peace and happiness of the people
of the Territory of Kansas, That was made the
battle field, not SO much OF opposing factions and
interests within ITSELF as of The conflicting pas
sions Of the whole people of the United States.
Revolutionary disorder in Kansas had its origin
in projects of intervention deliberately arranged
by certain members OF that Congress which en-
acted the law for the organization of the Terri
tory, and when propagandist colonization OF.
Kansas had thus been undertaken in one sec
ton of the Union for the systematic promotion
of its peculiar views of policy, then ensued as
matter of course, u counter action with opposite
views in other sections ofthe Union.
Thus, when the acts Of some of the States to
multiply the existing extradtion laws, imposed
upon Congress the duty OF passing new one, the
country was invited by agitators to enter into
party organization for its repeal but that aglta-
ton speedily ceased by reason of the impracti-
cabty of its object. So when the statute re-
strictlon upon the institutions of new States, by
a geographical line, had been repealed, the
country was urged to demand its restoration,
and that project also died, almost with its birth
then followed the cry of alarm from the North
against imputed Southern encroachments, which
cry sprang in reality from the spirit of revolu-
tionary attack on the domestic institutions of the
South, and after a troubled existence eff few
months, has been rebuked by the voice of q pa
triotic people.
In consequence of these and other Incidents,
many acts Of disorder, it is undeniable, have
been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional in
terruptlon rather than the permanent suppress
sion of regular government. Aggressive and
most reprehensible incursions into the territory
were undertaken both in the north and the south
and entered it on the northern border by the
way of Iowa, as well as on the eastern by the
way of Missouri, and there has existed within
it state of ins1rrectiOn against the constituted
authorities, not witout countenance from incon-
siderate persons in each of the great sections
of the Union; but the difficulties in that terri
tory have been extravagantly exaggerated for
purposes of political agitation elsewhere.
The number and gravity Of the acts of vio
lence have been magn6ed. partly by statements
entirely untrue, and partly by reiterated &C.
counts of the same rumors or facts. Thus the
territory has been seemingly filled with extreme
violence, when the whole amount of such acts
has not been greater than what occasionally
passes before US in single cities, to the regret
OF all good citizens, but without being regarded
as OF general or permanent political Importance.
Imputed irregularities in the elections had
in Kansas, like occasional irregularities of the
same description in the States were beyond the
sphere of action OF the Executive; but incidents
OF actual violence, or of organized obstruction
OF Law, pertinaciously reviewed from time to
time, have been met as they occurred by such
means as were available and as the circumstan-
ces required, and nothing OF this character now
remains to affect the general peace OF the I'm
ion. 81
The attempts Of a part of the inhabitants of
the Territory to erect revolutionary govern
ment though sedulonsy encouraged and sup
piled with pecuniary aid from active agents of
disorder i'll some of the States, has completely
failed. Bodies ofarmed men foreign 10 the Ter
rltory, have been prevented from entering, or
compeIled.to leave it. Predatory bands enga-
sed in acts of rapine, under cover of the exist
ing political disturbances, have been arrested
or dispersed, and every well disposed person
is now enabled once more to devote himself in
peace to the pursuit of prosperous industry, for
the prosecution (which he undertook TO partic-
ipate in the settlement of the Territory.
1t affords me unminsled satisfaction thus to
announce the peaceful condition of things in
Kansas, especially considering the means to
which it was necessary to have recourse to the
attainment of the end, namely: the employ
ment of part of the military force the Uni
ted States. The withdrawal of that force from
its proper duty o. defending the country against
foreign toes or the savages of the frontier, to
employ for the suppression of domestic insur-
recLOn is when the eXigency occurs matter
of the most earnest solictude. On this occa.
sion of imperative necessity it has been done
with the best results, and my satisfaction in the
attainment OF such results by such means is
greatly enhanced by the consideration that
through the wisdom and energy of the present
f,f Ia
ness and vigilance eff the military officers on du-
ty there, tranquility has been restored without
one drop of blood having been shed in its &C.
complishmeut by the forces of the United States
The restoration of comparative tranquility in
that erritory, furnishes the Ineaus of observing
calmly and approaching at their just value the
events which have occurred there and the dis
cussions of which the Government of the Terri
tory has been the sub ect. We perceive that
controversy, concerning its future domestic in
situations, was inevltable-that no h:man pru-
dence-no form of legislation-no wisdom on
the part of Congress could have prevented this
It is idle to suppose that the particular provis-
ions of their organic law were the cause of agi-
tation. These provisions were but the occasion
or pretext OF an agitation which was inherent in
the nature OF things. Congress legislated upon
the subject IN such terms as were most conso-
nant with the principle of our popular sovereign.
ty which underlies our government
1t could not have legislated otherwise without
doing violence to another great principle of the
institutions the imprescriptible right of equality
of the several States. We here perceive also
that sectional interests and party passions have
been the great impeachment to the salutary one.
ration of the organic principles adopted, and the
chief cause OF the successive disturbances in
Kansas, the assumption that because in the or
CARNATIONS OF the Territories of Nebraska, and
Kansas, Congress abstained from imposing re.
strictions upon them to which certain other ter
ritories had been subject, therefore disorders &C
cured IN the latter Territory, is emptatically
contradicted by the fact that none have occur
red i'll the former. The disorders were not the
consequence in Kansas of the freedom of self.
government conceded to that Territory by Con.
gress, but OF unjust interference on the part of
persons not inhabitants OF the Territory. Such
wherever it has exhibited itself by
acts OF insurrectonary character or of the OBJ |
structlon to the process OF law, has been repell-
ed or suppressed by all the means which the t
Constitution and the laws place in the hands OF
the Executive
In these parts of the United States, where by
reason ofthe infamed state OF the public mind,
false rumors and misrepresentation have the
49,