The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-03

ture that they erected all the Of1lcerS OF tue
Territory for six years This is without any
Il foundation. They elected no officer for six
years and the only civil officers they retain the
election of that occur to us at present are the
Auditor and Treasurer of State, and the district
attorneys, who hold their offices for four and
not six years. By the organic act, the commits
sions issued by the Governor to the civil officers
of the Territory all expired on the adjournment
t.of the Legislature To prevent failure in the
focal administration, and from necessity, the
Legislature made number of temporary ap-
spointments such as probate judge and two
scounty commissioners and, sheriff for each
scounty The probate judge and county COM
missioners constitute the tribunal for the trans
faction of county business, and are invested with
sthe power to appoint justices of the peace, con-
Gstables county surveyors, recorder, and clerk,
SIC Probate judges, county commissioners,
sheriffs &C., are all temporary appointments,
and are made elective by the people at the first
annual election in 1851"
Now for the facts chapter %, section 4, of the
Kansas Laws, is as follows:
; Every justice of the peace shall hold his office
for the term of five years. and until his successor
{ is duly chosen and qualified"
That is very plain. Justices of the peace are
10 hold their offices for five years, and that is, l
suppose considered but temporarily in Kansas.
Another act, chapter 81 provides for the organ-
cation of Arrapahoe county, and section is
| follows: Allen p. Tibetts is hereby appointed
Judge of the probate court of Arrapahoe county"
Section A declares:
"The said judge of probate shall have power
to appoint such officers of the county as are
specified in this act, and not appointed, and
Justify the same. All such appointments made
: by the judge of probate shall be entered of
record"
Il Section declares:
"The said Judge of probate shall have full
power to appoint justice or justices of the
peace within and for said county. Section 9.
If There shall be appointed by said judge one
sheriff, one treasurer, (who shall be er o6fcio
= assessor,) and one surveyor"
| The Legislature create a Judge, who is author
lied to appoint the sheriff, the treasurer, justices
Of the peace for five years-all the officers and
this is what is denominated the ef-governmeHt,"
and popular sovereignty" guaranteed by the
Kansas-Nebraska act to the people Of those Ter
ritories and these are the laws which are to be
enforced at the point of the bayonet.
| / come now to portion of this report with
which am very much grati6ed, a part of it which
can endorse, as enunciating the true doctrine in
reference to the rights of people in Terri
tory; but it is very much at war with that other
doctrine which has been proclaimed throughout
the land on nearly every stump in the West, that
the people of a Territory possess the power of
self government, and the right of sovereignty.
The question has been asked over and over again,
by every village politician advocating the Kansas
Nebraska act, Why does not a man possess just
as much power to govern himself when he moves
out of State into Territory, as he did when he
lived in State?" The question has been asked
of assembled thousands, " Do you lose your senses
when you go into a Territory that you cannot
govern yourselves 2" The "great principle" of
the Kansas-Nebraska bill was said to be, that it
guaranteed 4" sovereignty" and " self government"
IN IF tha Tba idoo hot
sefgovernmentc could be derived and sovereignty
conferred, was, of course, an absurdity; but
self-government and popular sovereignty" were
captivating terms and well calculated TO mslead.
They have answered their purpose, and now
cast aside. The report says:
"The sovereignty of Territory remains in
allegiance, suspended in the United States, in
trust for the people, until they shall be admitted
into the Union as State"
Never was truer sentiment advanced and
| hope never again to hear of "squatter sover-
eighty" popular sovereignty" and "self-gov-
eminent" as applied to the people of Territory
under Territorial Government; but the very
next sentence of the report has the word self
government" crowded into it, as if it would not
do to omit it altogether. Hence it is asserted
that the people of the Territory care entitled to
enjoy and exercise all the privileges and rights
of selfgou9nment, in subordination to the Con-
stitution of the United States, and in obedience
to their organic law, passed by Congress IA
pursuance of that instrument"
Nobody ever doubted that they had a right TO
exercise all the privileges, not of se!f-government,
but of government, conferred upon them by the
organic act. If the word "self" had been left
out, the sentence would have been complete, and
consistent with the one which precedes it. The
report says:
"These rights and privileges are all derived
from the Constitution, through the act of Con-
gress, and must be exercised and enjoyed in
subsection to all the limitations and restrictions
which that Constitution imposes. Hence it is
clear that the people of the Territory have no
inherent sovereign right under the Constitution
OF the United States to annul the laws and resist
the authority of the Territorial Government
which Congress has established in obedience to
the Constitution.
There is the whole doctrine clearly stated.
The people of Territory have no inherent rights
to pass laws except in accordance with the charter
granted them by Congress. This the doc
trine of the fathers of the Republic; and rejoice
exceedingly that the committee have come to
this conclusion in their report. | hope shall
hear no more about this idea of sovereignty in a
Territory--an idea utterly inconsistent with its
existence part of the Union. Two sovereign |
ties cannot exist within the same dominion. One |
mustbe subject to the other.
The committee attribute the origin of the diff
ctlltles In Kansas to an attempt to violate the |
principle of the organic act What this principle
is, the report does not explain except in the
fused language of the Kansas n ebraska act |
which, as has already been shown, is understood
differently in different parts of the Union.
Sir do not trace these difficulties to violations
of the mongrel principle of the Kansas Nebraska
act. That act contains no definite, fixed, and
certain principle. 1t is admitted in the report
that all the powers of the people of the Territory
are in subordnation to Congress, and are held
in allegiance by Congress so long as the Territory
lasts. There is no principle established by the
Territorial act, which has been violated. That
act professed to throw the whole Territory open |
to competition or rather the authors of the bill
protested to believe and informed the country |
that Slavery not intended to go into Kansas
or Nebraska that nobody expected it. 1t was |
but natural, then, that those persons who were |
opposed to Slavery, and who preferred to live in
a community where Slavery did not exist, should |
have focked to that Territory which they were |
told was to be free. This violated no principle |
of the law.
What, then, sir, is the occasion of the excite |
ment now existing throughout the length and |
breadth OF this land? will tell you. 1t has its |
origin solely in that one fatal mistake made two |
years ago, when the Missouri Compromise was |
repealed. If the policy adopted in 1850, which |
was to leave the question of Slavery in a country,
when organized into Territory, in the condition |
Congress found 1t at the time, had been adhered |
to, there would have been difficulty; we should |
nave had no Slavery agitation and at this time |
there would have been no occasion for procla- |
nations from the President, nor orders from the |
Secretary of War, to enforce the laws in any part
OF the country at the point of the bayonet. The |
policy of 1850 was let-alone policy Congress |
at that time found the territory which we had |