The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-12-18
nrTbe Kansas auestion has risen IN

now involves the most sacred right oil
freeman; the right Of people to frame
their own fundamental laws and form
their institutions. 1t is the right-not
Of rebellion against just powers OF the
General Government-but OF revolution
arainst an outrageous domestic usurpa-
ton and tyranny. The people Of Kan
sas rebel not against the Constitutional
powers Of the Union, but against Terri
torial usurpers who are attempting to
delraud them OF their inalienable rights,
with whom some Of the Federal author
tiles are in collision. The crisis in
wolves the same questions that arose be-
tween the parties in the Rhode Island
rebellion in 1913, when the Federal Gov
eminent in all its branches, decided the
difficulty was one in which it had no
right to interfere. The contest was a
matter to be determined by its own is
sue-by the voice Of the people who
formed the parties to it.
The people of a Territory when FORM
ing the Government for an incipen,
State, are endowed with and assume all
sovereign and independent powers ofthe
people of State, and are no more
amenable to Federal authority, for the
character and form OF the institutions
they may frame-or the manner in which
they shall adopt them, th,n the people
of a sovereign State are for any changes
they may make in their Constitutions
and institutions. Nor has the General
Cover Inent any more right to interfere
between two parties in Territory con-
tending for different form Of a Consti-
tuition, than it has to intermeddle with
parties in an old and sovereign State
differing in opinion in regard to the
changes in their fundamental laws. So
long as they do not arrest or oppose
the authority Of the Federal Govern
ment, in its proper Constitutional sphere,
it is barred from any interference; or at
least till the safety and peace Of other
States are endangered by their conflicts.
These doctrines were settled i'm the
Rhode Island Rebellion, and they are ap-
plicable to the present crisis in Kansas
1t is no longer a question of free or slave
Territory the people are contending for,
but for the great principles Of State and
Territorial rights-Of popular sovereign
ty-against the encroaching power and
unconstitutional interference Of the Gen.
eral Government in local and domestic
affairs and institutions. In this contro
yersy the Administration will find par
ties to be differently arrayed from what
they have been upon the inferior question
Of negro slavery. 1t is aquest,on Of the
slavery of the Territories and States and
their citizens to the growing and inordi-
nate powers Of the Federal Executive,
which the people are beginning to per-
ceive is insinualing itselI-by the cor
rupting power Of appointments to Off e
into all. their State affairs and local con
Germs. me king the States and Territories
but provinces, ruled by its corrupted and
dependent satraps. State honOrs and
offices are but subsidiaries, to those who
control the honors and patronage OF the
central Government. The decay o
State influence and power is daily visi
BILE, while the. Federal Government j:
virtually absorbing the chief politica
power Of the Union, and the Execuliv;
is concentrating the whole within it
grasp. The one man power is far NOR
potent and obvious in the rule will
which the President sways the country
than it is in the royal prerosauves O
Queen Victoria.
The KinsIs contest is giving a.
alarming illustration of the growth G
Executive influence. when We see tn
President by almost his single will at
tempting to mould and dictate the form
and character OF the institutions OF
new State. The spirit Of the contest
that of power against the will of the CHI
zens-is so repugnant to every sentimen
and principle of Democracy, that it can
not find any support among the people
True Democracy will repudate it as
base counterfeit Of its principles.
The Krn>as constitution is objection
able;- shcn its slavery clause shall be ex
punsel--not only for its indirect sane
ton Of slavery, but for other extremel
obnoxious provisions. 1t precudes al
alterations till 1864, whatever mayi b
the necessities Of the people, and its wan
Of adaptation to their circumstances.
establishes an odious monopoly in
mammoth hank which can under its au
thority, he fastened upon the State 70
generations. 1t interposes almost insu
perable difficulties to the dis ision of coun
ties and the formation Of new one.
which in new and rapidly grown
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