Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1856-10-01
Judge Bates on Kansas Affairs.

| ti0n at Baltimore, delivered speech at the clos
of the sc sion, from which we make the follow
ing extracts:
| am asked to give my opinion and judgemen
upon the state OF affairs now existing in tn
| neighborho0d where live, with an intimatiOI
that the judgement is worth something ap
prshend it will be worth very little But her,
will say, that in regard to the newspaper state
nents, sometimes miscalled facts, that we zee il
circulation.I am quite sure that the best of then
that have yet seen ought to be taken will
many grains of allowance. There Is system
tatic method adopted of fslsehood and pefver
sion, solely for the purpose of elsctioneerng, b,
the political parties, and it is my opinion tina
this is the natural and necessary result of the
circumstances under which the two sectiona
parties now stand in reference to each other
That give as my opinion, based upon anxiOn,
and careful observation, knowing that the event
transpirng near me were likely to affect tiros,
near and dear to me; and / say it before God
and my country that. in my opinion, the Who'll,
disturbances upon. that frontier have been com
menced and continued down to this day for tlit
uere purposes of partisan election. (ApplauSe.
1t Is not thing that is capable of judicial proc
nor OF absolute demonstration but it is to be
What is the present condition of atfairs2 j
as been said here again and again by the elo-
luent gentlemen who have instructed and de.
lighted me so much during the sitting of thi,
Convention, that when Mr. Fillmore retired from
the Presidency he left the country quiet, order
" and prosperous ut home and at peace abroad.
that Immediately thereafter the country rushed
into q career of extravaganza and agitation
tti ad fl,a ovI sf,f man in al
sections until the country looked more like O
prospective field Of battle than field of cultiva-
tien. And now what do we see2 Brothers ar
rayed against brothers, fathers against sons, in
hostile parties ready apparently to cut each 9TH
to which the country is brought.
am not here to make a speech, gentlemen,
but have my own opinion about that Nebraska
bill, and will give it. believe that that bill
WIS the foundation and source of all the evils
tme-all the embodiment of angry feeling all
the array of hostile and sectional parties North
and South. In 1860 there were only two great
parties,a and after the passage of the Compromise
measures they endeavored to pledge themselves
in and out of Congress to the preservation Of
peace upon the negro question. All things were
existed heretofore was no more to be stirred
up. There was hardly respectable newspaper
in the whole United States that did not re-echo
the sentiment that was inculcated in every
hamlet and village to the furthest extremity
of the Western frontier. Why was that tran
guilty disturbed? know some little about the
secret history of that bill. and though may not
be able to prove iudicially when, where, by
,In,Y md f,,r hat hat yras
concocted, think can bring probable testi-
mony, at least, to substantiate what say.
1t is we'll known that Mr.. Douglas was for
many years chairman of the committee on Ter
ritories of the Senate, and all who have taken
the trouble to scan the phraseology Of the acts
of Congress establishing Territories, know that
after he was pnt at the head of that committee,
new and different language was used in the ter
ritorial bills from what had been uniformly a
dopted efore. But it is unnecessary to 90 into
the details of that matter at this tiime Certain
it is that down to the time of the introduction
of the Nebraska bill nobody in the whole United
States, in any public meeting or in any public
manner. had asked any change in the settled
policy established by both parties in 1850. A
bill was reported with an elaborate explanation
accompanying it, establishing the Territory OF
Nebraska, saying nothing about the Missouri
compromise. A day was assigned for its consi-
deration; when that day came and Senators
were prepared to discuss it, the chairman of the
cummittee on Territories withdrew it and sub
stituted another bill making two Territories and
assailing the principle of the Missouri com.
promise, to the astonishment of everybody
Now upon the face OF such a proposition as that,
every ingenious man who is in the habit of look
intr init, tha ri stuntia1 avi1nnpp-who can
look into the seeds of time and tell which grain
will grow aud which not--will seq that there
was something hidden there; and what WAS
hidden has since leaked out and been made eyi-
dent by the most unquestion.d testimony.
Stephen a. Douglas was not the originator Of
that bill, but David Il. Atchison was. 1t was
necessary that something OF the kind shonld be
done for his reelection, anG he made speech
on the Western frontier of Missouri. which found
lis way into the newspapers, and revealed the
whole transaction. He then went to Douglas
and told him, ''You are great man; you are
strong ut the North, and if you will just repeal
this odous Missouri Compromise, you will secure
the v,te of tine entire South" Douglas hesitat-
ed-he doubted. Atchison said, "The thing
must be done, and If you don't 60 on with it, |
wil-you MUST resign your place on the COM
mittee and let me be chairman" Douglas asked
twenty-four hours to deliberate upon it, and at
the end Of that time he accepted the proposition
and introduced the bill That is the history OF
it, it was an electioneering scheme for the Presi-
dency. nothing else.
Well, he found it did not work well-it raised
a perfect tornado at the North; it stirred up
everybody there, and a few Of Us elsewhere-for
am neither North nor South repudiate po-
litical geography; Daughter Othere is not an acre
of land in the Mississippi valley from Louisiana
to Missouri that is either North or South, politi-
cally speaking. Douglas and his confederates
found that the rccol was greater than the onset.
and like the fox in the fable, who lost his tail
in the trap, and then went about trying to per-
suade his fellow foxes that it was the best FASH
ion to have no TAIL and they all ought to come
into it, 0aughter,) these men went to work with
great dexterity and pertnacity to foist that nea-
sure upon the Democratic party as doctrine
and dogma; (Applauses)
Mr.. President, believe the existing troubles
in Kansas, consist in unlawful combinations of
very susceptbly jealous MEN from the North
and South. When the government had degrad-
ed its high place, and abandoned its high duties
and held out that territory by false doctrine to
he scrambled for by thuse who should first lay
hands upon it. il was natural enough to suppose.
that the eager and Jealous of both sections would
as quickly Us possible put themselves in con-
dition to scramble for it.
In Massachusetts and in other States they got
up Emigrant Aid Societies. | have no doubt
that, in the first place, they were organized TOR
honest purposes Of helping the poor enllgrants,
who had but little means,t to get homes for them
selves and to secure free State vote and make
a free State upon the western border OF Mis-,
souri,. And Immediately following out the evii
iutent of the admnistration-fo believe II all
comes from their action, we can trace IT oacK "a
that root, these things are but the branches and
the leaves Of that great root-they began IN the
South to form other companies, with an eye 70
'|N"''' - A.. .,I.. ,l,oa thara