The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-11-19
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF
KANSAS.


will endeavor to carry it through before the
people by force or fraud, or, what is nearly GER
tain, will refer it directly to Congress-. hoping
that that body will ratify their villainous work.
The Convention has determined to insure the
life of Slavery in Kansas by their Constitution,
if it can be got through Congress. That our
readers may Judge of the men who compose
the Convention, and their work, we quote a few
paragraphs from report of their doings. The
date is October So
"The report on Slavery was called up. Mr..
Chilee, of johnson, moved an additional section
to the report, making it obligatory on the first
Legislature to pass laws making the presence
of free negroes in the State al act of felony,
punishable by Imprisonment in the penitentia-
ry and also, if slaves shall be freed, and shall
persist in remaining in the State, that their
conduct shall be felony, punishable by the pen
itentisry.
"On motion of Mr.. Boiling to change the
power given to the Legislature. to pass law
preventing slaves being brought here to sell,
Mr.. Randolph got up, and said the object of the
provision was to prevent nigger-traders from
bringing here the whole scrapiDgs of the
Southern Confederacy. 1t was not that they
or selling niggers, but it was to prevent every
trader from bringing here all the old, blind, halt
and lame niggers, so that they would get all the
mean nggers. II would be so, if the African
slave trade was opened. The country would
be filled with mean niggers. They would have
| to educate and enighten them for the use of
the North; for whenever they get the niggers
properly educated, they went off on the under
ground railroad. That's the way it would be-
"Mr. Boiling said the object of his amend
ment was merely to reduce it to the position in
which the matter was left by the bred Scott
decision. They had decided that negroes were
property, Just the same as a horse or any other
property. If property, the owners should have
a perfect and untrammeled right to take it
where they pleased, and sell it when they
pleased. 1t was merely making it property.
The speaker alluded ironically to the 'isother-
NAL line.'
"Mr. jenkins spoke. He, too, took the
ground that the decision of the bred Scott
case settled the Slavery question. Men could
take their slaves verywhere-could sell them
! ereryaohere. That was the true spirit and mean
ing of it, and it would soon receive its practical
force. It was therefore the Black Republicans
who had howled over that decision. Two mem
bers of that court were Black Republicans, and
OF course, decided against the others. But the
majority of the court were good National Dem
ocrats, and therefore decided as they did.
Jenkins spoke disparagingly of Squstter
Sovereignty He had always thought it hum
bug.
= Mr.. Moore, chairman of the committee, did
not object to the amendment of Boiling on the
principle that it was surplusage, for the very
reasons given by the speaker. The Dred Scott
decision had settled it irrevocably, and it were
better not to re-legislate on such a subject.
Here Mr.. Boiling rose and said:
"' would ask the gentleman from Geor-
gia-I beg his pardon, from Leavenworth-if
there is such provision by law in Georgia.
Mr.. Moore said there was. There were
just such provisions in Georgia, and it was to
prevent imposition on negrc-owners. The
speaker here went eff in an eloquent burst
about State Rights. A State had the right to
exclude rotten beef, wooden nutmegs, or other
nuisance, or to establish Slavery, as they
pleased. Having established State Rights
thus, the speaker came back to the bred Scott
decision. That decision was merely mandate,
decree, final decision, that had gone forth
to the country, and was irrevocable. The Con-
vention had no power to interfere with the
terms Of that decision. 1t had gone forth, and
no State authority can touch it.
Mr. Little got up. He was in favor of the
amendment. The law Of Georgia was merely
means by which the State could speculate upon
the poor. The rich had all the negro trading.
They could sell out their negroes at an advance
of 30 per cent, aud then go out to another
State buy lot of negroes, bring them back,
keep them a month or two, and then sell them.
He knew how it was. He had been in Georgia
when the law was passed. he had five negroes
that he could not sell before for 81 900, and
after it he had sold them for 1900 apiece.
La, - 81 \ L Al l..
the bred Scott decision had put matters on
their true ground. Before that decision, slaves
had been regarded as property, it was true, but
it was sort of property only. They were, by
general opinion and State laws, allowed to have
some sort of rights, but that decision had taken
the broad ground that slaves were property
neither less nor more This was the true
ground for the South. This was the right po-
sition they had got at last, and no Southern
man should be found calling it in question. 1t
was enough for the Republicans to do that. He
was for the amendment"
The report alluded to was adopted. After
which a Mr.. Danforth moved the following
amendment to the first section:
"The right of property is before and higher
than any constitutional sanction, and the right
of the owner of slave to such slave and its in.
right of the owner of any property whatever"
This amendment was adopted by vote Of
40 to 3!
Mr.. Calhoun, the President Of the Conven-
ton, said he {" would prefer the preamble as it
is, as a substitute for the whole report, leaving
the Constitution silent on the subject of Slave
ry, and such property simply under the decision
of the bred Scott case. His wish, which he
will here express, is to submit the report as it
now stands, together with proposition for
free State, to a vote of the people. Should such
a proposal not prevail, in the right time, when
the case again comes up for final action, will
move to amend the Constitution so as to strike
out the clause now under consideration"
The preamble and sections on Slavery adopt.
ed, read as follows
PREAMBLE.-The right of property is before
and higher than any constitutional sanction.
and the right of the owner of a slave to such
slave and It's increase is the same and as invio-
liable as the right to any property whatever.
"SEC. l. The Legislature shall have 10 power
to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves,
without the consent of their owners or without
paying their owners, previous to their emanci.
patton, full equivalent in money for the slaves
so emancipated. They shall have no power to
prevent emigrants to this State from bringing
with them such persons as are deemed slaves
by the laws Of any one of the United States or
Territories, 80 long as any person of the same
age or description shall be continued in Sla-
very by the laws of this State provided that
such person or slave be the bona Jfde property
of such emigrant; and provided, also, that laws
NAV be passed to prohibit the introduction into