The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-09-04

OF Ireland and Cblna-parhcularly the Iorner-
the present comparative prosperity OF which he
attributed, proximately, to the Increased rate
of wages for the laborer, but primarily to the
thinning of the population by extensive emf
grafton, and consequent decrease in the supply
of the laboring class. And so it was in the
Northern States. IF the new Territory, he con-
tinued were to be dedicated to the profitable
labor of the negro, it would not be so bad. But
it is not that-it is to be given to the South to
be wasted; for there is no State in the South,
the soil of which is not wasted and abused.
This then, is a contest between the laboring
man of the North and the slave of the South.
1t cannot be disguised. Every laboring man
in the North should know and feel that the
people Of Kansas are fighting his battles, and
fighting for whether he shall have right to go
there or not. APplause.] 1t is, in truth and
in fact, a question between white men and
negroes, and nothing else. There are other
aspects in which this thing might be looked
upon. We all look forward to Pacific rail-
road, as one of the great and cherished objects
ofnational progress. Loud applause. There
are few men whose hairs are so gray that they
do not hope to live to see the time when the
iron horse shall be heard upon the shores OF
the Pacific, bearing the men and the trade and
the commerce of the East out on the western
slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and bringing
back the commerce of China and the East In
dies and dropping its riches all along the route,
filling your city with population and enter
prise and wealth and commerce. Well, if Kan
sas be made q slave State, will you ever see
that railroad completed? Cries of Never
In fifteen years, if that country is dedicated to
free white settlers from the North, the Pacific
railroad will be made; dedicated to the negroes
of the South, it will lie waste under their
wretched agriculture. Mr.. REEDER entered at
some length into discussion of the question
as to the probability, in the event of Kansas
becoming slave State, of its ever being made
free. His opinion was very emphatically ex-
pressed, to the effect that such thing was
entirely beyond the range of probability.
"a VOICE. Three cheers for JOHN G. FIRE.
MONT. Loud applause.
"Gov. REEDER. Faith is a very good thing,
but faith without works don't amount to much.
Applause. 1t is very we'll to have faith that
| the stakeholder will not undertake to plant his
institutions on the soil of the North, but the
men who would prevent it must begin to work.
Applause. 1t won't do for a man to say,
Never, never!' and sit down and wait, in the
fullness of his faith, without any works, until
the deed is accomplished, and then undertake
to weed it out. He who would prevent it must
set to work in time. He must see the faint fore
shadowing of the thing in the distance, and
must set himself to use prevention instead of
cure. L have seen, not long since, men in the
North, whose conduct could not reconcile or
explain, except upon the confirmed belief that
| if the South should dictate to them, they would
vote to adopt Slavery into their own midst.
A voice. WILLARD FILLMoRE.'] have seen
men in the House of Congress whose conduct
and whose votes could explain in no other way.
| And am bound to believe that there are men
| in your midst who would be ready, even now, if
the question was raised, to vote to adopt Slave
| ry into the States of New York and Pennsyl-
vania. Cries of mo, mop and Yes, yes Il
and some confusion; Yes, there are such
men to be found, and their conduct can be ex-
planned in no other way. voice. THAT is
it; that is the doctrine followed by applause.
AT one time, believed this to be an impossi-
bility-I would have lent it no ear, and no
faith but that time has gone by, aud the ex-
istence of the fact should put every man on his
guard, and make him exceedingly sensitive as
to the indications of public opinion on this
subject.
"But / am occupying too much time with
| this. l shall pass on to another branch of the
subject, and endeavor to be as brief as possible.
Who is responsible for the state of things now
existing in Kansas?
GA VOICE. The ProSlavery party.
"Gov. REEDER. You have seen outreges com.
mitted in Kansas. You have seen courts of
justice closed. You have seen the arm of the
law invoked as one of the instruments of op-
preston; and every one is aware, that of all
the forms of tyranny that ever disgraced the
earth, Judicial tyranny is the most infamous.
Judicial tyranny has so oppressed our people in
Kansas, that no man ever thinks of legal re-
dress. Murder stalks abroad in the land
man finds his brother stiff and stark on the
ground, with the bullet of the murderer in his
vltals, and the last thing he thinks of is an ap-
peal to a court of justice. The courts of justice
are made the vehicles of oppression, and are in
the hands OF our enemies. Our men are murder
ed at home and abroad, and the highways of the
Territory are unsafe. Military camps are estab-
lished, who take upon themselves the super
vision of every man who passes the limits they
have prescribed. Our people are actually sub
Jugatsd now, and not single right, civil or
political, is left them. Even now a civil war is
raging on the soil. There was a time when the
arm of the Executive of the United States could
have been interposed to prevent this interna.
tional war. There was a time when all this
could have been remedied, and it could have
been remedied if we had had a man of nerve
and integrity in the first Office of the nation.
Loud applause. The brave and gallant men
goons of the United States in Kansas are there
under charge of treason, the first intimation of
which came from the President of the United
States, in his message to the Senate in January,
1855. I voice. Three groans for PIERCE1
One word about these indictments for trea-
| son. There is a strange state of things exist
ing there, and it is remarkable coincidence
that the Chief Justice of the United States in
Kansas, unconsciously, perhaps, to himself. laid
down the same doctrine in regard to these al
legged acts of treason, which made Judge JEFF
fries everlastingly infamous. During the reign
of Charles /, Jeffries laid down those doctrines
which have consigned his name to such ire.
deemable depths of infamy, that no man, poet,
philosopher, statesman, or jurst, has ever raised
his voice to apologize for his conduct. His
bloody assizes, held in the memory of every
citizen of the British Isands-the great crime
of which that man was guilty, and to which he
sacrificed so many men in England, was the
doctrine of constructive treason. He laid down
the law that every man who resisted the process
of the law was guilty of constructive treason.
Judge Lecompte, of the Territory of Kansas,
unconsciously, perhaps, lays down the same
doctrine. He says that every man who resists
the laws of the United States is guilty of con.
structive treason. He had some difficulty in
making out that argument, to be sure, because
1t was the laws of the Territory of Kansas that
were resisted and he undertook to argue, that
because the laws of the Territory of Kansas.
which were made by a Legislature created
under authority of the United States, were
resisted, that therefore the laws of the United
States were resisted. Some of the men he
wanted to reach never had resisted, and so he
was obliged to hold the doctrine that man
might constructively resist. Laughter That
If he was in favor of q State Government he