The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-09-16
FROM WISCONSIN.

! and defence. -....
FROM WISCONSIN.
! The annexed extract from the Governors
Message, as delivered before the Wiscon-
sin Legislature, touching Kansas affairs, is
worthy of notice. We give the language
of Gov. Bashford, simply that our readers
may learn the opinion of the Executive of
Wisconsin on a subject of great Importance
to the South.
! If such representations are presented
in the extract are endorsed by the people of
Wisconsin, the people of the South ought
to move promptly, and energetically to
counteract the movements of those from
Abolitionized Wisconsin.
Extra Session Of the Northumberland Bash
ford on Kansas Affairs
kansas is now in a state of civil war,
growing out of the NAL administration of
the Government of that Territory, and the
| determination to force Slavery upon it
not by the people of the Territory, but by
the people of Missouri and other slave hold
ing States. For that purpose they have
| controlled the elections in that Territory,
! by mobs and at the point of the bayonet-
its Legislature has been elected by the peo-
! pie of Missouri--laws have been enacted
that are disgraceful to the American cha
racter-the property of the actual settlers
has been destroyed without authority or
law, and the people themselves in many
eases brutally murdered. At this very time,
the free settlers of the Territory are being
driven from it by the people of Missouri
and other slave-holding States; while the
National Administration is apparently ac-
cessory to this subversion of their rights,
or unwilling to protect the people of that
! Territory from these outrages. The course
to be pursued by the State of WISCONSIN,
in this emergency will leave to your
| Judgment to determine. | am well satisfied
that the only way to maintain harmony
among the States, both North and South,
is to restrict slavery to it's present limits.
This was evidently foreseen by the found
ers of this Republic, who by the Ordinance
of 1887, dedicated to Freedom all the ter
ritory then belong to the United States and
prohibited Slavery or involuntary servitude
therein; intending thereby to place it be-
yond the power Of Congress to extend the
| bounds of Slavery, and forever to stop its
agitation. Since your adjournment it has
come to my knowledge, from reliable sour
ces, that many of our citizens of this State,
who have expatriated themselves, and who
consequently still remain citizens of this
State, while going to Kansas Territory. for
| lawful purposes, and while upon the rivers
of the United States, made public highways
! by the laws of the United States, have been
seized. their property taken from them, and
they imprisoned and their lives put in jeo-
pardy by the people of Missouri and other
| slaveholding States. These outrages have
| become so frequent, that have felt it to be
my duty to call your attention to them,
that you may devise some legal and con-
stitutional way, if within your power, to
protect our citizens and redress their griev-
ances; the General Government being i'm
potent for that purpose, or wilfully neglect
ing to do it. AS lovers of freedom and the
union of these States, it is our duty to OPP
pose the further increase of Slave Terri
tory, prev venting Slavery thereby from ours
ing new territory; from making dishOnOr-
able free labor. as it inevitably must where
| it comes in competition with it; from
| strengthening a system which threatens to
| destroy the fraternal feeling among the
| States, and the Union itself; which disgra-
ces US among the nations of the earth; and
which begets an evil and domineering spir-
1t among those connected with it, inconsist-
ent with republican form of government.
1t Is absurd to suppose that Slavery and
Freedom can exist together harmoniously,
| while the Congress of the United States is
continually charging the rights of Slavery,
and repeating sacred compromises for the
| purpose of forcing it into Free Terrific
| ry. The only way to maintain friendly
! feeling among the several States Of the
! Union, is to dedicate Territories to Free
| dom, and when that becomes the settled
no ho itofi Of
! the question of Slavery will cease. Slavery
| is the direct cause of the present exasperat-
| ed state of feeling between the different
! portions of the Union; it is the only brand
| OF dIssention which threatens permanently
| the peace OF the country, and endangers
| the perpetuity of our republican institu-
tions> Peace and safety can never result
from magnifying and aggrandizing the
source of all this disturbance and danger;
but, on the contrary, must be sought by
restricting it and diminishing its power, to
| prevent sectional strife and bitterness
The extension of slavery is not only antag-
onistlcal to the policy of the founders of
| of our Government, but to the very spirit
| OF our institutions; it tends to subveft them,
| by putting Slavery and Freedom on an
equality, to compete with each other for
the possession of our territorial domain
Every dictate of patriotism and enlighten-
ed craftsmanship bids us confne that bale
fui institution within its present limits, and
preserve the Territories for the triumphs of
free labor and the benefcent agencies that
accompany it-free schools, free press,
and the enterprise and greatness which are
their infallible attendants. If this policy
shall obtain, the day is not distant when
the broad domain lying between the Miss
! issipPi and the Pacific Ocean viii be studd-
ed with constellation of States, all free,
crowned with the blessings that follow in the
footsteps of freedom, and so many pledges
of the perpetuity of the Union and the free