The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-06-03

Sir. am no spologist for Governor Reeder. There
sad reason to believe that he went to Kansas orr
gnally as the tool Of the President but his simple
nature nurtured In the atmosphere Of Pennsylvania,
revoted at the service required and he turned from
his patron to duty. Grievously did he err in yield
ngt0 the Legislature any act Of authentication but
be has in some measure answered for this error, by
determined efforts since to expose the utter Illegal
| " OF that body, which he now repudstes entirely.
II was said of certain Roman Enperors, who did In
Unite mischief in their beginnings, and infinite good
towards their ends that they should never have
been born or never died; and would apply the same
tG the official life OF this Kansas Governor. At
ali events, dlsml-s the apology founded on his
acts, as the utterance OF tyranny by the voice OF
law, tlanscending the declaration OF the pedantic
judge in the British Parliament on the eve of our
Revolution, that our fathers, notwithstanding their
! complaints, were in reality represented in Parlia-
| Dlent, nasmuch as their lands under the original
| charters. were held lin common socage as Of the
| manor of Greenwich in Kent" which being duly
represented carried with il all tie colonies Thus
| in other ages has tyranny assumed the voice
| of law.
| Next comes the apology imbecile, which ia
founded On the alleged want Of power in the Pre-
sldent TO arrest the crime. 1t is openly asserted
that, under the existing laws of the United States
the chief magistrate had authority 10 interfere
| in Kansas for this purpose. Such is the broad
| statement, which, even if correct, furnishes no
apology for any proposed ratification of the crime
but which Is in reality untrue; and this call the
| apology of imbecility.
| In other matters no such ostentatious imbeciIty
| appears. Only lately vessel OF in the Pacific
has chasted the canDibas of the Fejee Islands for
alleged ontrages on American citizens But no per.
son OF ordinary intelligence will pretend that Anne
rican citizens in the Pacific have received wrongs
from these cannbals comparable in atrocity to those
| received by American citizens in Kansas. All sir,
the interests Of slavery not touched by any chas-
| tisemeDt OF the Fejees.
Constantly we are informed Of efforts at New
| York. through the agency of the government. and
sometimes only on the breath Of suspicion. to arrest
vessels about to sail foreign voyages in violation
OF our neutrality laws or treaty stpulations Now,
| no nan familiar with these cases will presume to
suggest that the urgency for these arrests was equal
to the urgency for interpolation against these sue
cfssive inyas!ons from Missouri But the slave
power Is not disturbed by such arrests at New York
At this moment the President exults in the vigi
lance with which he has prevented the enlistment
OF few soldiers, to be carried OF to Halifax, in vo
latiOn OF our territorial sovereignty, and England is
BRAY ely threatened to the extent of rupture
| OF diplomatic relations, for her endeavor though
unsuccessful and at once abandoned. But no man in
his senses will urge that the act was anything but
trivial by the side Of the crime against Kansas But
the slave power is not concerned in this controversy
Thus where the slave power is Indifferent, the
| President will see that the laws faithfully exc
cuted; but in other cases. where the interests of
slavery at stake, he is controlled absolutely by
this tyranny, ready at all times to do or not to do
precisely as it dictates. Therefore it is that Kan
sas IS left prey to the propagapdists of slavery,
while the whole treasury, the army and navy Of
the United States, are lavshed to hunt single
slave through the streets of Boston. You have not
forgotten the latter instance; but choose to re.
| fresh It in your minds,
I AS long ago rs 1851, the War Department and
Navy Department concurred in placing the forces
| of the United States near Boston, ut the command
Of the Marshal if needed for the enforcement of an
Act of Congress. which hai no support in the public
conscience, as l believe it has no support in the
constitution and thus these forces were degraded to
the l0athsOIne work Of slave hunters. More than
three years afterwards, an occasion arose for their
intervention. A fugitive from Virginia, who for
some days had trod the streets Of Bost as free
man, was seized as slave. The whole community
! was aroused, while Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall
quaked with responsive Indignation. Then, sir, the
President. anxious that no title Of slavery should
suffer- was curously eager in the enforcement OF the
statute. The dispatches between him and his agents
in Boston attest his zeal. Here are some Of them:
Bosroy. May q, 1854
To THE PRESIDENT OF THR UNITED STATR-In c1nse
quence OF attack uoon rhs Cou; las night, tor
ire purpose Of rescupg 'ugi i've slave under arAsst,
and In which one Of my own guards WAS killed, ! havs
Avsiltd my self OF he OF the United Aes,
paced under my control BY 1te from tire navy
departments, In 1851 and no. asve wo c'm'aniss Of
| HUE. Everything h now qusl The attack
pulsed by my o.n guard. WATSON FREEaAN,
United S.stss Earshsl B ston Mass.
! WASHINGTON Nav q, 1854.
To WATSON FREEMAN United aes Marshal, Boston,
Mass : Your coneuct is apprsv.d. The law must be
| executed. FRANKLIN PIERCE
WASHINGTON, May 80 1854.
To Hon. B. F. BALLET, B ,stGn, Msss.:-Nhat is the
state the case Burns' SIDNEY WEBSTER,
! Piivats Secreiary Of the President.
/ WASHINGTON May 81, 1854.
! To F HALIETr United States Attorney Boston,
Mass. Incur any expense deemed necessary oy the
Ma shall and yourself for city mi iA,y othsrw
| insure the execution of the law. FRANKLIN PERL
But the President was not content with such
| forces as were then on hand in the neghborhood.
| Other poets also were put under requisitiOn Two
York, were kept under arms, ready at any moment
to proceed to Boston; and the Adjutant General Of
the army was directed to repair 70 the scene, there
to superintend the, execution the statute All
this was done for the sake of 61apery; but during
long months of suspended over the tree soil
of Kansas breaking forth in successive invasions,
the President has folded his hands in complete list
essness or if he has moved at all it has been only
to encourage the robber propagandsts.
And now the intelligence of the country is insulted
by the apology that the President had no power to
Interfere. Why, sir to make this confession is to
TESS government to be practical failure, which
will never do, except, indeed as it is administered
| now. No, sir, the imbecility OF the Chief Magis-
trate shall not be charged upon our American nsti-
tutions. Where there is will there Is way; and in
his case, had the will existed there would have been
q way, easy and triumphant, to guard against the
| crime we now depl0re. His powers were in every
respect ample, and this ] will prove by the statute
it is enacted "That whenever the laws Of the United
States shall be opposed or the execution thereof OBJ
structed in any State, by combinations too powerful
to be suppressed by the ordinary course Of Judicial
! proceedings, or Dy the powers vested IN the mar.
shals," the President may call forth the militia
By the supplementary act of Sd March, 1907, in all
cases where he IS authorized to call forth the militia
"for the purpose Of causing the laws to be duly
cuted, the President is further empowered, in any
State or Territory, ito employ for the same
purposes such part Of the land naval force of the
United States as shall be judged necessary" There
is the letter of the law; and you will please to mark
the power conferred. In no case where the laws o.
! the United States are opposed, or their execution
INSTRUCTED is the President constrained TO wait fo
the requsition OF Governor, even the petition o.
| a citizen. Just 80 soon as he learns the fact NJ
| matter by what channel he is invested by la will
full power to counteract it. True it is, that when
the laws of State are INSTRUCTED he can interfere
only on the application of the Legislature OF
such State, or of the Executive, when the Legisa-
ture cannot be convened but when the federal laws
are obstlucted, no such preliminary application is
necessary. 1t is his high duty, under his oath Of
Office to that they are executed, and, if need be-
by the federal forces.