The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-04-25

aemble at Topeka, on the 4th day of March,
1856, TO inaugurate the new State provision
Hilv, and to take the necessary means for the
appointment Of Senators, who, together with
a Representative already chosen, should sub
nit the Constitution to Congress ut an early
dav, and apply for the admission Of the
State Of kansts into the Union. All these
proceedings had been based on the grounds
that the Territorial authorities Of Kansas
had been established by armed foreign usur-
pagion, and were nevertheless sustained by
tho President Of the United States.
a CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION.
\ Constitutional obligation required the
President ''to give to Congress- in his am
nual message, Conformation Of the state Of
the Union" Here is all ''the information
which the President gave to Congress con-
corning the events in Kansas, and its rea-
tions to the Union:
In the Territory Of Kansas there have
been acts prejudcai to good order, but Is
yet none have occurred under circumstances
70 Justify the interpositlon of the Federal
Executive. That could only be in case Of
obstruction to Federal law, or Of organized
resistance to Territorial law, assuming the
character Of Instruction, which. if it should
occur, it would be my duty promptly to over
eyer, that the occurrence of any such unto-
ward event will be prevented BIZ the sound
seuse of the people Of the Territory, who,
by its organic law, possessing the right to
determine their own domestic institutions,
are entitled, while deporting themselves
peacefully, TO the free exercise of that right,
and must be protected in the enjoyment of
it, without interference on the part of the
citizens of any Of the States.''
MESACEs.
The information implies that no INVASION,
usnrpatlon or tyranny, has been committed
within the Territory by strangers; and that
the provisional State organization now go
Ing toward is not only unnecessary, but also
preiudlclal to good order, and insurrection-
airy II menaees the people of Kansas with
a threat, that the President will ''overcome
and suppress" them. 1t mocks them with a
promise, that, if they shall hereafter deport
themselves properly, under the control Of
authorities by which they have been disfran-
chised, institutions which have been aleady
forcibly determined for them BY foreign in.
vasion, that then they 1.musr be protected
against interference bv citizens of any of the
States.o
THE PRESIDENTS uSFAIRNEss.
The President, however, not content with
statement so obscure and unfair, deeotes
third part OF the annual message to urgu-
mentatlve speculations bearing on the char
acter OF his accuser. Each State has two
and no more Senators in the Senate OF the
United States. In determining the apportion-
ment Of Representatives in the House Of
Representatives, and in the electoral col
leges among the States, three -fifths of all
tn slaves in any State are enumerated
Tho slaysholding or slayeholdng char-
arter Of State is determined, not at the
time Of its admission into the Union as d
State, but at that earlier period Of It's polit-
ieal life in which, being called a Territory.
Il is politically dependent ON the United
States, or on some foreign sovereign
Slavery IL tolerated in some of the States
andforbidden in others. Affecting industrial
ant economical systems OF tie several
states, as Slavery and Freedom do, this al
Yerstg of practice concerning them, eary
worked out corresponding difference Of
conditions, interests and ambitions among
tAc States, and divided and arrayed them into
two classes. The balance of political pow
eT between these two classes in the Federal
system IL senslby affected by the accession
81 any new State TO either of them. Each
State, therefore, watches jealousy the settle
ment, growth. and nchoate slayehoding and
nom layehoding character Of the Territories,
which may ultimately come into the Union
as States. Ii has resulted from these cir
cuastances, that Slavery in relations purely
political and absolutely Federal. is an ele-
mcnt which enters with more or less activity
into many national questions of finance, OF
revenue. of expenditure, OF protection, Of
free trade, of patronage, Of peace, Of war,
Of annexation, Of defence aud Of CONQUEST.
ani modlhes opinions concerning construc-
tons OF the Constitution, and the distribu-
ton Of powers between the Union and the
several States by which it is constituted
Slavery, under these political and Federal
aspects alone, enters into the transactions in
Kansas, with which the President and Con-
gress are concerned. Nevertheless. he disn-
gennously alludes to those transactions i'm his
defence, as if they were identified with that
moral discussion Of Slavery which he regards
AS odious and alarming, and without any
other claim TO consideration. Thus he al
ludes to the question before US as belonging
to a political agitation concerning mat
ter which consists TO great extent of exag-
geration of inevitable evils, or over zeal in
social improvement, or mere Imagination of
grievance, having but remote connection
with any Of the constitutional functions Of
the Federal Government, and menacing the
stability Of the Constitution and the integrity
Of the Union"
ASSAULT AND STIGMA.
In like manner the President assails and
stgmatzes those who defend and maintain
the cause of Kansas, as '.men Of narrow
views and sectional purposes. engaged in
those wild chimerical schemes of social
change, which are generated one after an
other, in the unstable minds of visionary
sophists and interested agtators," ''mad
men, raising the storm of frenzy and fac
ton, sectional agitators," s'enemies of the
Constitution, who have surrendered them
selves so far to fanatical devotion to the sap
posed interests Of the relatively few Afri-
cans 10 the United States, as totally to aban-
don and disregard the interests Of thetwentv-
five millions Of Americans, and trampie IN