The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-07
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON D. C, AUGUST T. 1856.

throwing any of her Institutions. Now, however
since the spoier has come, and with him this ne
farious legislation, strife and contention emb'tter
one section of the country against the other, so
that it requires all the GOODNESS of the patriot
to withhold his hand from rushing into the arena
of civil war. Sir, civil war, in fact now exists in
your Territory, and it has been commenced for no
other purpose but to carry Slavery into Kansas In
the face of your specious legislation which was to
leave the people free to legislate as they pleased
on the subject.
wish to know whether there is any party, or
any section, in the Senate of the United States,
that can look with composure at the transactions
now going on in Kansas. / ask every man, no
matter from where he comes, if his blood does
not boil as he contemplates the acts of lawless
violence that are being committed there? Does
any one suppose that these blows of civil war
can be given by one side forever, and never be
retaliated by the other? l know, sir, that the
Northern people are patient, long-sufering, and
very slow to anger; but if these things go on, the
day will come when they will think that forbear-
ance ceases to be virtue. 1t is doubtful whether
their quiet is not shame to-day What have the
Free State settlers of Kansas done to justify the
aggressions of those who are attempting to prop
agate the institution of Slavery.
l ask my colleague, Mr.. PUGH,] the advocate
of Slavery, who stands here, turning his back
coolly upon three fourths OF the Legislature OF
his State, putting them at open defiance; who
has never breathed here the name OF Liberty J;
whose tongue has been employed, since ne mas
had a seat ON this floor, in nothing but the advo-
cacy of abject Slavery; and who, with an industry
worthy of better cause, has hunted up and per-
verted, will say, the musty records OF the early
history of this Government, in the vain hope that
he could Gull there something on which to hang
an argument for eternal Slavery ask him,
preiudiced as he must be, what have the Free
State people of Kansas done, that deserves rob-
berry, and murder, and the burning OF their towns
What have the free smigrants from Ohio done,
that they should be hunted down like wild
beasts in the prairies of Kansas? Have they
raised their hands in ruthless violence against
the institutions of their country? He denounced
them as traitors. Who have they betrayed
What law have they transgressed? What injury
have they done? Echo answers Whatf They
have gone there and taken up their claims for
the honest purpose of settlement. There is not
single act of violence, or BLOOD or inegality, OF
which they can be accused.
am amazed at the facility with which some
men follow in the wake of Slavery. Sometimes
it leads even to hesitate whether am strictly
correct in the idea that all men are born to equal
rights for their conduct seems to contravene this
doctrine. Sometimes / see in some men an alb
jectness, want of that manly independence
which enables man to rely on himself and face
the world on his own principles, that do not
know but that am wrong in advocating Unlver-
sal Liberty. l wish to Heaven all such were OF
the African race.
ask again, Why are these men denounced as
traitors? What have the immigrants from Ohio
done to demand the fate which has been visited
on them? What had Brown done, that he should
be met in the prairies by five or six men, who,
with barbarity worse than that Of the savage,
hewed him in pieces, and, whilst dying from his
CHASTITY wounds, threw him into the presence OF
his wife, to distract her, dethrone her reason and
turn her out upon the world raving maniac
What had Barber done-a man who went from
Preble county, nearer my colleagues home than
mine, who is certified to by all his neighbors as
one of the most inoffensive men in the world,
who went into the Territory in good faith, to
seek an Industrious and honest livelihood? For
no other reason than that he held the principles
which hold-for no reasonable acts, but bare
ly for the avowal that he loved Freedom better
than Slavery-he was hewed in pieces by men
who occupy important positions under this
miserable Administration, who still retain their
places, and who, have no doubt, commended
themselves to the powers that be by the most
deliberate murders
l know, Mr.. President, that this is hard in
dictment; but it can neither be doubted nor de-
MED. Our country has come to crisis which
demands all our wisdom to extricate her. speak
we must understand them before we can apply a
| remedy. believe, before high Heaven, that, In
the history of all men who were ever intrusted
with the welfare of mankind, the acts of none
blacken the pages of history more than those OF
Franklin Pierce, the present President. The
accusations which have made here are beyond
the reach of denial. The record Is made up and
by that record he shall be tried 1t will not do
now to deny it. l impeach him of these crimes,
A. Ill, he, -0ff
still uphold him, are accessories after the fact.
The Free State men of Kansas have done no
wrong Their only crime is, that they loved
Freedom more than Slavery. You cannot escape
by cries against the Aid Society; and yet here is
sophistry thrown into the report of the CONS
mittee and the speech of my colleague, that it is
a wonderful thing that, while Kansas is groan-
ing under all these evils Nebraska is enjoying
peace The Senator from Kentucky, in his argyll
ment yesterday, thought it was a profound mys-
terry how it happened that, although the first bill
proposed to make but one Territory out Of this
great region, it was recommitted, and afterwards
reported as a bill for two Territories. To one
who did not look behind the curtain, that would
seem to be little strange Why did you want
| two great Territories with scarcely white man
in them4 In my judgment, when the first bill
was reported, the idea was to make a slave State
but it was seen that the Territory was so large
free States and that it would not be as likely that
your secret societies for propagating Slavery
would be as successful in the whole of it as by
emitting it in two, and making sure of one at all
| events, and trusting to luck for the other. You
cut it in two, and commenced proceedings to
propagate Slavery in Kansas because it lay along
| side of Missouri, and it was therefore easy to
transport any number of Missourians there, to
control the Territory. You thought you could
| make it slave State much easier thanyou could
| the whole region at first called Nebraska
Why is it that there is no disturbance in the
present Territory of Nebraska? Merely because
your secret society to propagate Slavery by fraud
and force has not been in operation in that Ter
| ritory. Does any man suppose, for one moment
that the Southern States, intent upon making the
| Territories slave States, would willingly adopt
| the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, as
preached by its Northern advocates We know
that they intend to bring Slavery into the Terri
| tories. Can it he supposed for single moment
that it is possible by the vote OF the people, to
make slave State, left perfectly free to the emil
| grafton from the North-a population of fourteen
millions, to compete with a population of six
millions? Southern emigration is not half as
| yigotous as that from the North, to say netting
| of the emigration from abroad. Did any man for
a moment believe that anything could be gained
! to Slavery by the faithful application of this
| principle2 No, sir; they knew it well. South
ern gentlemen do not contend for that kind O,
squatter sovereignty, but they put their faces like
brass against it, knowing that, if carried out in
its true spirit it would deprive them of all new
territory forever. Hence they raise their voices
| against it.
| When they sternly rebuked the advocates Of
this squatter sovereignty, those gentlemen turned
FounQ, end resorted to a miserable absurdity
They do not say, there is no such thing as popu-
lar sovereignty; but, if you consult the first re-