The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-11-28

sumo that Kansas is at length freed from
the Border Ruffian rule, and fairly within
control Of the Free State Party. The
decisive action of the Governor and the
Secretary, in rejecting the spurious re-
turns for the precinct of Oxford in John
son county, gives a death blow to the
fraudulent contrivanees by means of
which alone Border Rufian ascendency
could be maintained. Defeat for the
occasion, and consequent exposure OF the
machinery and manner of the fraud, dis
arm it as well for the future, and the
course is clear for the Free State men, if
they viii but continue united in counsels
and purposes as they have shown them
selves in the late contest.
It would seem to be the dictate of COM
mon justice and simple candor to accord
to Governor Walker the need Of unquali-
fed praise for the manful fairness and
promptitude- of his official conduct in re-
jecting the Oxford returns which takes the
victory from his own party and gives it,
with all its gigantic consequences in flu
ture control of the embryo State, to the
antagonistic party-the Free State men.
All selfish considerations, recognizing him
as Southern man and a jealous propa-
gandist of slavery, must have weighed
against his interference to defeat the fraud
ulent returns. Whatever temptations
surrounded him to influence his official
conduct invoked cooperation with the
Pro-slavery party. A purpose to play
false with the high prerogatives of his
position, could have been accomplished
without complication with fraud. The
mastery inactivity" so often vaunted
as on occasion the prime policy in diplo-
macy and party leadership, would have
sufficed to sustain any furtive design
Governor Walker might have cherished
to give the victory to slavery at the cost
of fraud on the ballot-box. He needs but
to stand still, and see no wrong where
fraud was charged. He chose, however,
the nanly and honorable part, and in obe-
dience to his pledge towards fair dealing,
has rejected returns which would have
made slavery triumphant.
We are ready to take Governor Wal
ker's conduct in relation to the late cleo
ton in Kansas as the test and proof of
fidelity to the higher duties of his Office,
and honest keeping of the pledges made
to the country when he consented to ac-
cept it. We accord him all honor for
upright dealing with duty under circum-
stances of difficulty. and perhaps of ex-
posure to danger, which would have be-
trayed a feebler man into acqQiescenee in
the wrong.
1t is greatly to be regretted, we think,
that the conduct of Governor Walker in
this recent manifestation, receives so little
of due acknowledgment and commenda-
ton from the presses of our own party.
As general thing the Republican press
augured nothing but evil from his admins
tration of the affairs of Kansas. They
inferred, reasonably enough, that his Off
cial influence would be cast in favor of
making Kansas a Slave State. But as it
was apparent that no fair exercise of his
official powers could suffice to defeat the
preponderant Free State sentiment, they
augured that every dishonorable and dis
honoring artifce would be employed by
Governor Walker to force slavery upon
Kansas. The sequal has shown them
how egregiously they misjudged the man.
The question, we take it, is definitively
settled. Kansas is secure against Slave
Constitution.
Yet how rarely do we meet with COM
mendation of Gov. Walkers course from
the opposite press 1t is interesting, in
deed, if not instructive, to note how con-
trariously his motives are arranged and
interpreted, to afford escape from the
sheer necessity of awarding praise to his
conduct.
In one quarter we shall find where he is
stripped of all credit for magnanimity to-
wards the Free State men on the ground
of pusillanimous fear of Free State bay
onets. In another quarter he is denied
praise for doing justice to the Free State
voters on the ground of interest in gigan-
tic land speculations which would prove
to be worthless in the event of slavery
gaining foothold in Kansas to repel emf
grafton. Elsewhere his sincerity is inn
peached on the hypothesis that he rejec-
ted this Oxford return in contemplation of
Judge Cato's writ of mandamus, COM
manding what he would be found ready
to execute, the issue of certificates of
election to the fraudulently returned can
didates.
More generally, and with rather more
show of plausibility, the recent conclusive
demonstration of justice towards the
Free State men on the part of Governor
Walker, is stripped of all claim to APP
plause, because antecedent instances of
injustice can be cited on the strength OF
rumor
How discreditable is all this, how un-
worthy of great party, and how injuri-
Gus to noble cause which, if it proposes
anything for Freedom, cannot safely &C.
cept service from detraction, and practi-
cal falsehood. If, at any time, We have
felt the rising sense of disgust at the tao
tics of portion of the representatives of
our own party, it has been when we have
seen the disreputable and unmanly tenn
per in which members of the Republican
press have greeted the act of an opponent.
which gives Kansas to Freedom.
How flimsy are the pretexts on which
Governor Walker is denied due acknowl-
edgment.
Free State Bayonets! When war was
actually waging in Kansas, the meek sur
render of whole forests of Sharp's rifles,
aud the constant giving back of the Free
State men, and their final loss of the field,
gave US no reliable assurance that force
was to expel slavery from Kansas. Gov.
Walker, with federal army at his COM
mand, and the laws in his hands, must
have been pusillanimous indeed, to take
counsel of his fears, rather than his con-
science, and reject the Oxford return to
assure the safety of his person. Stuff.
Land speculations Where is the proof
that he has acquired so large an interest
in the soil, that he is suddenly converted
to Free State opinions This is be-
meath grave inquiry.
Judge Cato's mandamus That is al
ready disposed of by Walkers refusal to
receive the writ or recognize the officer
presenting it, treating the whole affair
with contempt.
So with the last class of directors. The
charges of fragrant abuse of his preroga-
cos1ar1a Ifprr = ,-o2, u.