Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1856-02-28

Governors views are treated with out ntte
ceremony. The burthen of the Journal
editors lolg article is that the question at
issue is no longer one between the citizens
of Kansas themselves, but between the cit
/ liens of Kansas on the one side, and the
Missourians on the other, and that there
fore it is right and proper that the citizens
of the northern states should interfere in
behalf of the people of Kansas against the
threatened INVASION Of the Missourians.
We have seen great many articles III re-
publican papers about this anticipated in
vasion Of Kansas. and a great deal Of pre-
tended indignation and frothy defamation
expended thereon, but We have never yet
seen in any of these papers statement of
the causes which would probably lead to
this raid of the Missourians. Were they
to give this information their readers would
probably be better able to judge of the val
ue of their intense sympathy for Lane, Ro-
binson IL Co. We propose to supply from
memory this deficiency and if we are wrong
in any particular we would take it as ia
vor to be corrected
We take it to be a correct axiom in poll
ties as well as in morals, that 1.-TWO wrongs
do not make right" and however uni ust-
ifable the interference of the Missourlan5
in the Kansas elections may have been, the
evil then done can not and ought not to be
remcdied BY still more outrageous and UNI
lawful proceedings Oh the other side; pro-
ceedings which have already been initiated
and the consummation of which is fixed by
the Free State men of Kansas for the 4th of
March What are these proceedings? 1t
is known that the first Legislature Of Kan
sas was largely pro-slavery, having been
chosen, as was said, by voters from Mis-
souri,; bnt the members of this Legislature
were commissioned with few exceptions)
bv Gov Reeder, and their acts were recoG
nized by him as the acts If the Legislature
IF Kansas, they chose to remove to what
they considered more convenient point
for the transaction of business. After this,
Coy Reeder vetoed the bills of the Lcgis
lature, but they were passed over his head
and became laws Notwithstanding. One of
these laws fixed IL time for the election of a
Delegate to Congress, and under that law
Gen. Whitfield was elected. At subse-
quent period and without authority of law,
Gov Reeder (having been removed from
the position of Governor of the Territory
was voted for by a portion, perhaps nearly
all, of the Free State men, as Delegate, and
upon this irregular election claims a seat in
the House.
Having gone thus far in the work of rev
olution, the leaders of the Free State party
were determined not to stop. Without au-
thority from Congress, or even from the
Territorial Legislature, they proceeded, as
party, and upon the ipse dixit of the in
furiated leaders, to elect delegates to Il con
vention TO form a constitution preparatory
to the admission Of Kansas into the Union
as State. These delegates assembled
James III. Lane being president of the con-
venton, and in due time framed constitu-
ton, which was to be submitted to the peo-
pie and adopted-none but Free State men
veting. Under its provisions Governor
and other State officers have been chosen,
and these individuals propose TO take pos
session Of the Government on the 4th of
March and exercise the functions prescrib-
ed in their constitution.
Now it should be remembered that these
acts are all the doings of party in the
Territory of Kansas, and without any au-
thority Of law or prec ,hcnt. We presume
the most violent Republican will Tot deny
that there are some legal pro slavery voters
/ in Kansas; indeed, we have every reason 10
believe that they are nearly if not quite as
numerous as their opponents But they
stood aloof from all these transactions, and
from the first to the last regarded them as
unlawful and treated them as a nullity-
That they were unlawful, illegal, and there
/ fore void, we think there cannot be shad-
ow of doubt The law requires that be-
fore Territory makes application to come
into the Union as a State, an act shall be
passed by Congress authorizing her to
make application; and although this law was
not complied with in the case of Michigan
and perhaps one or two other States, yet it
is the law and should not be set aside with
out good and sufficient cause. But no por-
ton of the people of Michigan ever went
to tho extreme Of Cverturning the lawful
territorial government before their admiss-
ion into the Union, as the Free State men
of Kansas threaten to do, and will probably
attempt TO do, and to accomplish which
purpose they are now asking for assistance
from abroad. We think there2 can be no
question whatever as to the correctness OF
u