Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-12-05


greSs do but pause for moment in the pol
icy of stern coercion, if it venture to try the
experiment of leaving men to judge fol
themselves what institutions will best suit
them if it be not strained up to perpetual
Legislative exertion on this point. If Con-
gress proceed thus to act in the very spirit
of Liberty, it is at once charged with aiming
to extend slave labor into all new Terrific
ries of the United States.
Of course these imputations of theinten-
tons of Congress in this repect, conceived
as they were in prejudice, and disseminated
in passion, are utterly destitute of any JUS
! tification in the nature of things, and con
trary to all the fundamental doctrines and
principles of civil liberty and self govern
ment. While therefore in general TIE peo-
pie of the Northern States have never al
any time arTogated for the federal govern
mont the power to interfere dirctly with the
domestic condition of persons in the South
ern states, but on the contrary, have disa-
vowed all such intentions and have shrunk
from conspicuous afihation with those few
who pursue their fanatical objects avowedly
through the contemplated means of revolu-
tionary change of good, and with acceptance
of the necessary consequences, civil and
servile war; yet many citizens have suffer
ed themselves to be drawn into one evanes-
cert political issue of agitation, after anoth-
er appertaining to the same set of opinions
and which subsidized as rapidly as they arose,
when it came to be seen, as it uniformly
did, that they were incompatible with the
compacts of the Constitution and the exis-
tence of the Union.
Thus when the acts of some Of the States
to multiply the existing extradition law
imposed upon Congress the duty of passing
a new one the country was invited by
agitators to enter into party organization
for its repeal but that agitation speedily
ceased by reason of the impracticability of
its object So when the statute restriction
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geographical line had been repealed the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 en-
eroachments which cry sprang in reality
from the spirit of revolutionary attack on
the domestic institutions of the South, and
after troubled existence of few months
has been rebuked by the voice of a patriotic
people.
Ofthis last agitation, one lamentable fea-
ture was that it was carried on at the I'M
mediate expense of the peace and happi-
ness of the people of the Territory of Kansas.
That was made the battlefield not so much
of opposing factions or inherent within it
self as of the conflicting passions of the
whole people of the United States. Revo-
disorder in Kansas had its origin
IN projects of Intervention deliberately ar
-anged by certain members of that Cong
-ess which enacted the law for the organi-
,ation of the Territory, and when propa-
yandist colonization of Kansas had thus
oeen undertaken in one section of the I'm
on for the systematic promotion of its pecu-
lar views of policy, then ensued as matter
# course a counter action with opposite
,iews in other sections of the Union.
In consequence of these and other Incl /
lents many acts of disorder, it is undeniable
lave been perpetrated in Kansas, to the oc-
asional interruption rather than the perm
nent suspension of regular government.
Aggressive and most reprehensible incur
ions into the Territory were undertaken
9th in the North and South and entered it
n its Northern border, by the way of Iowa
S well as on the Eastern by way of Miss
uri,and there has existed within it state
f insurrection against the constituted au- t
lorities, not without contenance from in '
persons in each of the great sec 8
ions of the Union, but the difficulties in that S
erritory have been extravagantly exagger- {
ted for purposes Of political agitation else c
here. 1
The number and gravity of the acts of t
olence have been magnifed, partly by 7
.atements entirely untrue, and partly by
,iterated accounts of the same rumors or e
cts. Thus the Territory has been SEEM d
gly filed with extreme violence, when t
le whole amount of such facts has not been y
reater than what occasionally passes before I
) in single cities, to the regret of all good il
tizens but without being regarded as of a
eneraI or permanent political consequence. Y
Imputed irregularities in the election had Il
Kansas, like occasional irregularities of
e same description in the States, were be- Fl
md the sphere af action of the Executive; Il
1t incidents of actual violence, or oforgan- s.
ed obstruction of Law, pertinaciously re- a
wed from time to time, have been met as ifi
ley occurred by such means as were avaiIa- h
e and as the circumstances required, r,
ID nothing OF this character now remains t,
effect the general peace of the Union. Al
The attempts ola part of the inhabitants c:
the Territory to erect a revolutionary IL
,vernment, though sedulously encouraged e,
ID supplied with pecuniary aid from active Ii
.ents Of disorder in some of the States, has Id
mpletely failed. Bodies of armed men d
reign to the Territory, have been prevent la
from entering or compelled to leave it. al
-edatory bands engaged in acts of rapine nj
der cover of the existing political distur- az
nces, have been arrested or dispersed, and Sc
d every we'll disposed person is now ena-4t tt
ed once more to devote himself in peace A
the pursuit of prosperous industry, for Ii,
e prosecution of which he undertook to al
rtieipate in the settlement of the Terrific Il
It affords me unmingled satisfaction thus la
announce the peaceful condition of things az
Kansas especially considering the means pl