Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-05-15
Kansas,

1t is announced that at last Mr.. Robert
j. Walker has started for Kansas, where he
is likely to achieve neither glory nor sue
cess. As the Boston Traveller remarks,
" If he cannot do better than Stanton, he
can do nothing, and il he can do better, why
has Stanton been suffered to bully the peo-
pie with threats Of forced submission to the
invading Government, and been sustained in
it by the national Administration and the
Democratic party ~
The following is Mr.. Secretary Stanton's
letter in reply to the proposition Of Gov.
Robinson, the Hutchinsons, Col, Emory,
and other prominent free State men, offering
to so into the delegate election in September
next, provided the plan which they submit
ted and which we have already noticed, for
securing fair election, should be adopted.
They prayed Mr.. Stanton to restore the
ballot box to the people of Kansas in all its
purity at any risk of informality in minor
and non-essential provisions of the election
regulations, and they are answered as fol-
lows
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
LEcoMrToN, X. 7, April 30, lcj7.
GENTLEMEN Yours of the 2jth instant
reached me only by last nights mai
proceed without delay to reply to tie prop
ositions you make in reference to the cleo
tions about to be held for delegates to the
constitutional convention. As take diff
ferent view OF the laws of the Territory from
that which you express, it will be impOssi-
bic for me to consent to any new proceeding
in opposition to that which has been sane
TONED by the Legislative authorities.
did not hear from Gen, Mac,ean any
such admission as you represent him to
have made. The gentleman spoke only of
the individual action in the particular men
toned and whether that action was right
or wrong, or whether it occurred in that
individual instance only, or in thousand
others by men either from Missouri or Mass
achusetts it could not invaidate the laws
which now prevail in the Territory. If !
believed-as | do not believe-your asser-
ton that the laws of Kansas were ''enacted
by Legislature elected by the people of
an adjoining State" it would still be I'M
possible for me to set them aside. The at
tempt to do so would be an act of gross
usurpation, not less Objectionable in its
character and its effects than the fraudulent
interference which you attribute to the peo-
pie Of Missouri. | must therefore say to
you, in the most explicit language, that |
can do nothing which denies the authority
and validity of the laws enacted within this
Territory Congress alone has power to
abrogate them.
! have no authority over the Probate
Judges. 1t is not my province to advise
them in relation to the performance of their
Judicial functions. Yet it will not be i'm
proper for Inc to say that it would be very
ludicious and becoming in them to obtain
every possible information from respectable
men OF both parties in order to enable them
to correct the list of voters. If such i'm.
partial men, of their own will and within
the time limited by law, could take new
census and present it to the Probate Judges,
with sufficient proof of its fairness and ac-
curacy, think the Probate Judges would
be bound to adopt it and return it to the
Governor as the true list, legally corrected.
/ should be sorry to see any Probate Judge
in the Territory refuse TO receive the sworn
testimony Of two respectable men, differing
in politics, as TO any matter within their
knowledge connected with the residence Of
citizens, and their qualifications as voters. |
do not believe such u wrong can possibly have
occurred, and therefore say that if YOU
had been DESTROYS of obtaining a correct list
OF the voters for the coming election you
had it in your power to accomplish that
object in perfect conformity with the law.
IL is not my purpose to reply to your
statement OF facts. l cannot do SO from any
personal knowledge, enabling me either to
admit OF deny them 1 may say, however,
that | have heard statements quite as au-
thentic as your own, and IN some instances
from members Of your own party, to the
effect that your political friends have yery
generally, indeed almost uniyel sally refused
TO participate in the pending proceedings
for registering the names of the legal voters.
In some instances they have given fictitious
names, and in numerous others they have
refused to give any names at all You can
not deny that your party has hitherto re-
solved not to take part in the registration,
and 1t appears to me that without induging
ungenerous suspicious of the integrity Of
officers, YOU might well attribute any
errors and omissions of the sherilfs to the
existence of this well known and controlling
fact. torbear to say anything of the un-
reasonabieness OF your requirement that we
shall set aside the law IN order to accomn-
lsh what you have refused to do in obedl-
ence to its provisions; but | will be most
happy to learn that you, gentlemen, and
your party friends generally, have been at
work In earnest, with the view to enable the
Probate Judges to present true and perfect