Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-02-01

had been perfected by the Governor so that
the election for members of the Legislasive
Assembly might be held in the several pre-
cincts at the same time as for Delegates to
Congress, any question appertaining to the
qualification of the person voting as people
of the Territory would have passed necessa-
rily and at once under the supervision Of
Congress, as the Judge of tho validity of the
return of the Delegate and would have been
determined before conflicting passions had
become inhamed by time and before oppor-
tunity could have been afforded for system
attic interference of the people of individual
States.
This interference, in so far as concerns its
primary causes and its simmcdiatecommence-
ment, was one of the incidents of that per-
nicious agitation on the subject of the con-
dition of the eolored persons held to ser
vice in some of the States which has so long
disturbed the repose of our country, and
excited individuals otherwise patriotic and
law-abiding, to toll with misdirected zeal
in the attempt to propagate their social the
ories by the perversiOn and abuse of the
powers of Congress.
The persons and parties whom the tenor
of the act to organize the Territories of
Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the en-
deavor to impose, through the agency of
Congress their particular views of social Or
ganization on the people Of the future new
States, now preceiving that tho 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
pursuits of their general object, to the extra
ordinary measure of propagandist coloniza-
ton of the Territory of Kansas, to prevent
the free and natural action of its inhabi-
tants in its internal organization, and thus
or to force the determination of
of that question in this inchoate State.
With such views associations were organ
lied in some of the States, and their pur-
pose was proclaimed through the press in
language extremely irritating and offensive
to those of whom the colonists were to be-
come the neighbors. Those designs and
acts had the necessary consequence to awak-
en- 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
directly endangered; but they are far from
lustifying the illegal and reprehensible coun-
which ensued.
Under these inauspicious circumstances
the primary elections for members of the
Legislative Assembly were held, in most if
not all the precincts, at the time and the
places and by the persons designated and
by the Governor, according to
law.
Angry accusations that illegal votes had
been polled abounded on all sides, and i'm
were made both of fraud and VI
olence. But the Governor, in the exer-
else of the power and the discharge of the
duty conferred and imposed by law on him
alone, officially received and considered the
declared large majority of the
members of the Council and the House of
"duly elected" withheld
certificates from others because Of alledged
of votes; appointed new election
to supply the place Of the persons not certi-
fed; and thus at length, in all the forms of
and with his own official authenti-
cation, complete legality was given to the
first Legislative Assembly of the Territory.
Those decisions of the returning officers,
and of the Governor are final, except that,
by the parliamentary usage of the country
applied to the organic law, it may be con-
ceded that each House of the Assembly
must have been competent to determine, in
the last resort, the qualifications and the
election of its members. The subject was,
by its nature, one appertaining exclusively
to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of
the Territory. Whatever irregularities may
have occurred in the elections, it seems too
late now to raise that question as to which,
neither now nor at any previous time, has
the least possible legal authority been pos
sesscd by the President of the United States.
For all present purposes the Legislative
body, thus constituted and elected, was the
legitimate Assembly of the Territory.
Accordingly, the Governor, by proclama-
tion, convened the Assembly thus elected to
meet at place called Pawnee city. The
two Houses met and were duly organized in
the ordinary parliamentary form; each sent
to and received from the Governor official
usual on such occasions; an
elaborate message opening the session was
by the Governor; and the
general business of legislation was entered
upon by the Legislative Assembly.
But, after a few days, the Assembly re-
solved to adjourn to another place in the
Territory. A law was accordingly passed,
against the consent of the Governor, but in
due form otherwise, to remove the seat Of
government temporarily to the "Shawnec
Manual Labor School" Tor mission), and
thither the Assembly proceeded. After
this, receiving a bill for the establishment of
a ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the Gov
ernor refused to sign it, and, byspecial mes
sage, assignged for reason of refusal, not
anything Objectionable in the bill itself, nor
any pretence of the illegality or incompe-
tency of the Assembly as such, but only the
fact that the Assembly had by its act trans
ferred the seat of Government temporarily
from Pawnee City to Shawnee Mission
For the same reason he refused to sign 9TH
er bills, until, in the course of few days,
he, by official message communicated to the
Assembly the fact that he had received off
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