New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-09-20
then remember his recent ISLANDERS prompted by
ambition for the Presidency.

really sre-how carefully they provide for and iaci'
itate Wholesale corruptions of the bsllot-boA IN
future-how they overbear every right ana put
elections, jury trials the press, discussion, every
thing under the feet Of Slavery readers aireaay
know And herein is the master dlfhcuity WIN
which the Prostate settlers have been called 10
struggle through the last fifteen months ana orc
doomed to struggle on until the Country rises 10
their reef-ty cannot stir one step to''drd oo0'"'
ing the peaceful redress Of any griera"ee or 0H'dg,'
no matter how fragrant or enormous, r'l'o" "''
hitting the legality and binding force q these pre-
knded lars.
Suppose Free-State man ia assaulted or robbed
or bis family abused, by any Of the bands OF his.
souri or Buford's ruffians: his first impulse would
naturally be to appeal to the Territorial or military
authorities for redress. But these uniformly tel
him that they can do nothing for him-that his
remedy is to be found in an action on the case-ha1
he must appeal to the laws" But to appeal 70
the laws is Of course to admit their validity ana
obligations to admit that "Sheri6 Jones ana
his compeers are legal officers-is in short, to
admit that Slavery is already established IN Kansas
by law, and can only be excluded by repeating that
law-that is, by waiting at best till some time IN
1853, when the Legislature next to be chosen VIII
come into power If the Free-State men should I'M
derake to vote out Slavery they can only DO soapar1
from the Free-State movement, by contestlng the
elections ordered or appointed by the bogus Legs
ature, which of course admits the validity OF that
Legislatures acta. To act through Grand Jurles,
or any of the ordinary machinery ofrstice, amounts
to the same thing. Thus the Free-State men are
ensnsred in an Internal network which only the
sword can cut or the American People brush aside
at the pending Presidential election. Other help or
hope for them there is none.
In view of these facts the people are now told
that the supporters Of Buchanan and Fillmore ~'sh<d
to repeal or annm the bogus hrs at the tdte Session
of Congress, bu. The Republicans prsrfnted them.
How utterly at war this pretense is with facts We
shall proceed to show.
The question was first formally raised before the
present Congress by President Pierce in his extra
ordinary Message communicated to both Houses
on Jan. Oath last, prior to the organization of the
House. Mr.. Pierce in this Message went over the
ground, and utterly secuted the annulment or any
repeal of the bogus laws" Hear him
"Those decisions of the returning officers and Of the
Governor are final except that BY the parliamentary
usage Of the country applied to the organic law II may
be conceded that each House of the Assembly must
have been competent to determine in the last resort
the qualifications and the election OF its members. The
subject was, by ts nature one sppeaining exclusive
" to the jurisdiction of the local authorities Of the Ter
ritory Whatever Irregularities may have occurred in
the elections it too late to raise that ques
ton to which, neither now nor at any previous time
has the least possible legal authority been possessed
by the President Of the United States For all present
purposes the legislative body, thus constituted and
elected, was the legitimate assembly Of the Terri
tory
Again:
1t il the duty Of the people of Eensss to dscoun-
tenance every act or purpose of resistance TO Its
laws
From the beginning to the end of this Message,
the reader will search in vain for hint that
Congress should or might set aside those bogus
claws" or that any of them are of such charac-
ter as to render such action expedent if it were
constitutional.
To the same effect, Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, in
his elaborate first Report to the Senate March l2)
on the condition of Kansas, after reviewing and
thoroughly condemnng the Free-Stste movement,
thus treats the pretended claws" of the bogus
Legislature:
Your Committee have no. considered it any part Of
their duty to examine and review each enactment and
provision of the large volume of laws adopted by the
Legislature of Kansas upon almost every rghtiu sub
iect Of legislation and affecting nearly every relation
and interest in life with view either to their approval
or di.approva by Congress for the reason that they
are local laws, confined in their operation to the inter-
nal concerns Of the Territory the control and manage
If uh nv he of
stituon well a. by the very terms OF the Kansas
Nebraska act confded TO the people of the Terri
tory to be determined by Themselves through their
representatives in their local legislature, and not by
Congress in which they have representatives to
give or withhold their assent 10 the laws upon which
their rights and liberties may all depend Under these
laws marriages have taken place, children have been
born deaths have occurred, estates have been dstri-
butcd contracts have been made, and rights have
crued which il not competent for Congress to dvest
If there be adoubt III respect to the validity OF these
laws growing out Of the alleged rregularity OF the
election OF the members of the Legislature, the law
fitness of the place where its sessions held which
il is competent for any tribunal to inquire into with
view 10 its decision at this day, and after the series Of
events which have ensued it must be Judicial qucs
ton over which Congress can have no control, and
which can be determined only by the courts of justice
under the protection and sanction of the Constitu
ton.
"When it was proposed in the last Congress to an
mil the acts of the Legislative Assembly Of Minnesota
incorporating certain railroad companies this commit
tee reported against the proposition. and, instead of
apnullng the local legislation Of the Territory recon-
mended the repeal of that clause of the organic act Of
Minnesota which TO Congress the right to dis
approve its laws. That recommendation was based on
the theory that the people of the Territory, being c
zens of the United States, were entitled to the prlv-
irqe of selfgovernment in obedience to the Consttu
ton: and it. in the exercise of this right, they had
made wise and just laws they ought to be permitted to
.noy all the advantages resulting from them; while,
on the contrary if they had made unwse and unjust
laws they should abide the consequences of their
acts until they discovered acknowledged, and Correct
ed their errors"
Could language be palmer or more peremptory
than this Is not the right and the e1pediency of