The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-21

tended legislation and Legislature of Kansas, or
declaring them to be already absolutely void.
The greater includes the less. The House of
Representatives may therefore lawfully pass q
bill prohibiting the employment of the army of
the United States in executing laws in Kansas,
which it deems pernicious, no matter by whom
those laws were made
Since the House of Representatives has power
TO pass such bill distinctly, it has power,
also, TO place an equivalent prohibition in any
bill which it has constitutional power to pass.
And so it has a constitutional right to place the
prohibition in the annual army appropriation
bill.
grant that this mode of reaching the object
proposed is in some respects an unusual one,
and in some respects an inconvenient one. 1t
is not therefore, however, unconstitutional
one, or even necessarily wrong one.
II is right one, if it is necessary to effect the
object desired, and if that object is one that
is in itself just, and eminently important to the
peace and happiness of the country, or to the
security of the liberties of the people. The
House of Representatives, moreover, is entitled
to judge and determine, for ITSELF whether the
proceeding is thus necessary, and whether the
object of it is thus important. 1t is true, that
the Senate may dissent from the House. and re-
fuse to concur in the prohibition. In that case,
each OF the two Houses exercises an Independent
| right of its own, and upon its own proper re-
sponsibility to the people. If the conflict shall
continue to the end, and the bill therefore shall
fail, the people will decide between the two
| Houses, in the elections which will follow, and
| they will take care to bring them to agree
ment in harmony with the popular decision.
| The proceeding in the present case is thus ne
cessary, and its object is thus important. Pre-
tended but invalid laws are enacted by usurpa-
ton, and enforced by the President of the United
States in the Territory of Kansas with the terror
of
| arm of the Government. At least, this is the
| case assumed by the House of Representatives.
| The case is altogether new one. 1t has not
occurred before. 1t has never even been sup
| posed possible that such a case could happen in
a Territory of the United States The idea has
| never before entered into the mind of an Ameri-
can statesmen, that citizens of State could
with armed force enter any other State or Ter
ritory, and by fraud or force usurp its govern
ment, and establish a tyranny over It's people,
much less that President of the United States
would be found TO sanction such subverson
of State authority or of Federal authority and
still less, that President thus sanctioning it
would employ the standing army to maintain
the odious usurpation and tyranny.
Sir the mere fact, in this case that the army is
required to be employed to execute alleged laws
in Kansas, Is enough to raise presumption that
those laws either wrong in principle or des-
titute of constitutional authority, and ought not
to be executed.
The Territory of Kansas, although not State,
is or ought to be, nevertheless civil community,
with republican system of government. In
other words, it is de .jure, and ought to be de
facto, a Republic - an American Republic, ex-
listing under and by virtue of the Constitution
Of the United States. If the laws which are to
be executed there are really the statutes of such
a republican government truly existing there,
then those laws were made by the people of Kan
sas by their own voluntary act According to
the theory of our Government these laws will
be acquiesced in by that people, and executed
with their own consent against all offenders, by
| means of merely civil police, without the aid of
| the army of the United States. The army of the
United States is not a institution of domes-
tic police is it a true or proper function of
the army TO execute the domestic laws of the sew
eral States and Territories It's legitimate and
proper functions are to repel foreign invasion,
and suppress instructions of the native Indian
tribes. 1t is only an occasional and incidental
! function of that army, to suppress instructions
Of citizens seldom expected to occur.
This Capitol is surrounded by national me-
tropolis, and its Streets lanes and alleys, are
doubtless filled with misery and guilt, adequate
to the generation of all sorts of crimes. Yet the
laws prescribed for municipal government within
the District Of Columbia are executed without
the aid of the army of the United States. Neither
Washington. nor the Common Council of George
town, nor the President of the United States, nor
the Marshal of tie District of Columbia, nor yet
the Mayors of either of those cities any court
within the District, is attended by any armed
force detachment or protected even by an
armed sentinel.
Why is this so 1t is because the people ac-
quesce, and the laws execute themselves This
case of the District of Columbia is the strongest
VIII no tod no nj
| which contend for the people of the District
| are actually disfranchsed, out of regard to the
| security of the Federal Government
| Look into the States--into Maryland on one side
| of the Federal Capital and into Virginia on the
| other; into Delaware as you ascend northward,
| into North Carolina as you descend southwark,
| into Pennsylvania and into South Carolina, into
New Jersey and into Georgia. even into Maine and
| into Texas; go eastward--go westward, through
out all the States throughout even the Territories,
| Minnesota, Utah, Washington, Oregon, and New
| Mexico-everywher throughout the Republic,
| from the Gulf of st. Lawrence to the Gulf of
| Mexico, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific
| ocean-everywhere except in Kansas, the people
| are dwelling in peaceful submission to the laws
| which they themselves have established, free from
| any intrusion of the army of the United States.
| The time was, and that not long ago. when a
| proposition to employ the standing army of the
| United States as domestic police would have
| been universally denounced as premature reve-
| laton of plot, darby contrived in the chambers
of conspiracy, to subvert the liberties of the peo-
pie, and to overthrow the Republic itself.
The Republic stands upon fundamental
principle, that the people, in the exercise of equal
rights, will establish only just and equal laws
and that their own free and enlightened public
opinion is the only legitimate reliance for the
| maintenance and execution of such laws. This
principle is not even peculiar to ourselves-it lies
at the foundation of the government Of every
free people earth. 1t is public opinion, not
the Imperial army, that executes the laws of the
realm in England, Scotland, and Ireland. When
ever France is free, it is public opinion that
ecutes the laws of her republican legislature.
1t is public opinion that executes the laws in all
the Cantons of Switzerland. The British consti-
tuition is quite as jealous of standing armies as q
police, our own. Government there, indeed
maintains standing armies as it does great naval
force, but it employs the one it does the other
exclusively for defence or for conquest agains
foreign States Fearful lest the armed power o.
the State might be turned against the people tc
enforce obnoxious edicts or statutes, the British
|, constitution forbids that any regular army
whatever shall be tolerated, on any pretence
The considerable military force which is main
. tanned in different and distant parts of tn,
Empire, only exists by suspension of tina
, part of the constitution, which suspension L
, renewed by Parliament from year to year
and never for more than one year at time
, Civil liberty, and standing army for thu
purposes of civil police, have never yet stoot
together, and never can stand together.
|, I am to choose, sir, between upholding laws
in any part of this Republic, which cannot b,
/ maintained without standing army, relin
gushing the laws themselves, give up the law
at once, by whomsoever they are made, and b,
whatever authority for either system 0
I government is radically wrong or such laws ar
| unjust UNEQUAL and perniciouS