The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1856-07-12
The Kansas CUES ton in Congress.


The Kansas Question in Congress.
The house of Representatives at Washing
ton, which on Wednesday Of last week, b,
one majority, had voted down the bill to ad
NIT Kansas into the Union as a state will
the Topeka constitution, next day reconsi
dcred the vote, and passed the bill. This i
the constitution which Judge Douglas provet
in the Senate had bee N changed and mutt
lated since it left Kansas-tha, it embrace,
in the boundaries it describes third NOR,
territory than the Ne braska bill gives t.
Kansas, &C., &c. OF course the bill cal
never pass the Senate, and the only objec
the House have in persisting in its support
is to defeat any bill that will have tenden
cy to settle the Difficult ties in Kansas before
the next Presidential election.
Meantime the Senate has gone to work ant
passed bill providing for the pacificatior
of Kansas and its ultimate admission into
! the Union which is SO fair and reasonable ir
/ all its features that the fusionists are put te
the seyerest straits to invent plausible rea
sons for opposing it. The following is sy
nopsis of the bill:
The new bill provides for the appointment
of five Commissioners to be selected (by the
PrcsidcnD from different sections of the
Union, to represent fairly, all political parties:
They shall take census of all the legal voters
in the Territory, and make fair appOrtion-
ment of delegates to be elected by each
county to form Constitution and institute a
State Government When the appointment
shall be made the Commissioners are to re-
main in session every day except Sunday,
at the place most convenient for the Inhabit-
ants Of said Territory, to hear all complaints,
examine witnesses and correct all errors in
said list of voters; which list shall be previ-
ously printed and generally circulated thro'
the Territory and posted in at least three of
the most public places OF each election dis
trict, and, so soon as all Che errors have been
thus corrected in said lists, the Commission
s-s are requested to cause correct list Of
the legal voters to be printed and copies fur
Eishcd to each Judge of election, to be put
up at the places of voting aud circulated in
every county in the Territory before the day
of elcc;ion-no person to be allowed to vote
whose name does not appear on the list as
legal voter the election for delegates to take
and the Convention 10 assemble on the first
Monday in December, to decide first whether
il be cXpedient for Kansas to come into the
Union at that time, and if 20 decided, to pro-
coed TO form 4 Constitution and State Go
vernmcnt, which shall be OF republican
form; Kansas then to be admitted under
such Constitution on an equal footing With
the original States The bill provides fur
. 10 10, L.1i l.. in, N
Territory infringing the liberty Of speech or
OF the press, or the right o! the people to
bear arms, &c 1t also provides punishment
for illegal voting or fraud and violence at
elections, and authorizes the use Of the mill
tary for that purpose. The main point il
that the person designated 10y the census as
the present inhabitants Of the Territory shall
decide all points in dispute, at fair election,
without fraud or violence, or any other i'm
proper influence. All the white male inha-
bitants over , years Of age are 10 be allow
ed to vote, if they have res dcd in the Terri
tory three months previous TO the day Of
election, and no other test $hall be required,
no oath to support the Fugitive Slave Law,
or any other law, nor any other condition
whatever.
The only objection the fusion Senator's
offered to tie bill was that it confined the
right of voting to those who were in the
territory on the 18th of July inst, and thus
excluded all hose alleged 10 have been driven
out by the disturbances 10 avoid this OBJ
lection, just before the final vote, Judge
Douglas offered al amcud4 lcnt, whicE. was
adopted unanimously, prlyid.ng that a..
such who have bccu at AMY time since the