The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-12-04

ment of leaving men to Judge for themselves
what institutions will best suit them; if 1t be
not strained up to perpetual legislative eXer-
ton ON this point; if Congress proceed thus
to act in the very spirit Of liberty, it is at
once charged with aiming to extend slave la
Dor into ali the new Territories of the United
States.
Of course, these imputations on the inten
tons Of Congress in this respect, conceived as
they were in prejudice, and disseminated in
passion, are utterly destitute of any justiica-
ton in the nature Of things, and contrary to
all the fundamental doctrines and principles of
civil liberty and selfgoyernmeHt.
While, therefore, in general, the people of
the Northern States have never at any time
arrogated for the federal government the pow
er to interfere directly with the domestic con-
dition of persons in the Southern States, but
on the contrary have disavowed all such in
tentions, and have shrunk from conspicuous
affiliations with those few who pursue their
fanatical objects avowedly through the con-
tempated means Of revolutionary change Of
government, and with acceptance of the ne
ceSSary conSequenceS-a civil and servlle war
vet many citizens have suffered themselves
to be drawn into one evanescent political issue
of agitation after another, appertalnlng to the
same set of opinions, and which subsidized as
rapidly as they arose when it came to be seen,
as it uniformly did, that they were incompatl-
BILE with the c0mpactS Of the Constitution and
the existence of the Union. Thus, when the
acts of some of the States to nullfy the ex-
listing extradition law, imposed upon Congress
the duty Of passing new one, the country
was invited by agitators to enter into party
organization for its repeal; but that agitatlon
speedily ceased by reason Of the impractical
bility Of its object. So, when the statute re-
stricton upon the institutions OF new States,
by geographical line, had been repealed, the
country was urged to demand its restoration,
and that project also died almost in its birth.
Then followed the cry of alarm from the North
against imputed Southern encrOachments;-
which cry sprang in reality from the spirit OF
revolutionary attack on the domestic lnstltu-
tons of the South, and after a troubled exis-
tence Of a few months, has been rebuked by
the voice of patriotic people.
Of this last agitation, one lamentable feature
was, that it was carried on at the immediate
expense of the peace and happiness of the
people Of the Territory Of Kansas That
was made the battle field, not so much of OPP
posing factions or interests within itself, as oil
the conflicting passions of the whole people oil
the United States. Revolutionary disorder in
! Kansas had its origin in projects of interven-
ton, deliberately arranged by certain members
! Of that Congress which enacted the law for
I the organization Of the Territory. And when
prOpagandist colonization of Kansas had thus
been undertaken in one section Of the Union,
for the systematic promotion OF its peculiar
views of policy. there ensued, as a matter oil
course, counter action with opposite views,
in other sections of the Union.
In consequence of those and other Incidents
many acts of disorder, it is undeniable, have
been perpetrated in Kansas, to the occasional
interruption, rather than the permanent sus-
pension of regular government. Aggressive
and most reprehensible incursiOns into the
/ Territory were undertaken, both in the North
and in the South, and entered it on its north
crn border by the way Of Iowa, as we'll as on
the eastern by way of Missouri; and there has
existed within it a state Of inSurrectOn against
the constituted authorities, not without coun-
tenance from nconSideTatc persons in each oil
the great sections of the Union. But the diff
culties in that Territory have been eXtrava-
ganuy exaggerated for purposes OF political
agitation elsewhere. The number and gravity
of the acts Of violence have been magnitied
partly by statements entirely untrue, and
PARTLY by reiterated accounts OF the same ru-
mors of facts. thus the Territory has been
seemingly filled with extreme violence, when
the whole amount of such acts have not been
greater than what occasionally passes before
us in single cities to the regret Of all good
citizens, but without being regarded as Of gen.
eral or permanent political consequence.
Imputed irregularities in the elec5 ions had
, in Kansas, like occasional irregularities of the
same descriptions in the States, were beyond
the sphere of action Of the Executive. But
incidents Of actual violence or organized OBJ
struction Of law, pertinaci0usly renewed from
time to time have been met as they occurred
by such means as were available and as the
circumstances required, and nothing of this
character now remains to affect the general
peace of the Union. The attempt Of part
of the inhabitants of the Territory to erect a
revolutionary government though seduously
encouraged and supplied with pecuniary aid
from active agents Of disorder in some of the
States, has completely failed. Bodies of arm
ed men, foreign to the Territory, have been
prevented from entering or compelled to leave
it. Predatory bands, engaged in acts Of ra-
pine, under cover Of the existing political dis
turbances. have been arrested or DISPERSED
And every well disposed persons is now ena-
bled once more to devote himself in peace tc
the pursuits of prosperous industry, for the
prosecution of which he undertook to partci
pate in the settlement of the Territory.
It affords me unmingled satisfaction thus tc
announce the peaceful condition of things in
Kansas, especially considering the means tC
which it was necessary to have recOuse fol
the attainment of the end, namely, the en-
ployment of part of the military force o
the United States. The withdrawal of that
force from its proper duty of defending the
country against foreign foes or the savages O
the frontier, to employ it for the suppression
of domestic Instruction, is, when the exigen-
cy occurs, matter of the most earnest solicit