Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-07-04
The Washington Union and Kansas.


We confess are at . loss to understand the po-
sition of the Washington Union in regard to Kan
sas. In one of its issues it says:
The country at large have been advised through
the mails and by telegraph of studied determine
ton on the part of those deluded citizens of Kansas
who still madly cling to the so-caed Topeka const
tuition to take no part in the pending election con-
test in that Territory. Friends of law and order,
men who are actuated by the purest and most patri
delegates to convention to frame State consttu
ton there is nothing left but to express regret for
their folly, and to leave them to the consequences
which are likely to follow their mischievous, if not
dangerous obstinacy
The position of the Democratic party, and, it is
scarcely necessary to add, the position of the admin
istraton, in regard to existing difficulties in Kansas
cannot be misunderstood 1t is that the people of
the Territory have the right to settle the character
OF their institutions. If considerable inconsd-
cradle portion of their number conceive that they
can impair and ultimately destroy that right by
atng difficulties and disturbances, by taking no
part in the elections, they labor under of
which they cannot be too soon disabused; for the
Democratic conservative portion of the country
will regard the people of Kansas only such as
dance with the provisions oflaw, and not those who
are seeking to parayze the popular will by illegal
subterfuges and the bubbles of lanaticism.
Whatever the Constitution may 6e-sohether re-
cognising or excluding slarery silent in regard
to the instituton-it aoiU be pieaoed as the erpres-
SION OF the oiU Of the people Of Kansas, those
aoho frame 1t a0iW act ander the federal constitution,
and IN manner recognized By The organic lao.
The administration, we are quite sure, stands on
the doctrine of non-ntervention, in the strictest
sense of the term and will insist to the extent of its
constitutional power that the people of that Terrific
ry shall manage their own affairs in their own way"
In another issue it uses the following language:
6rek cfo &c <bo of To n
convention, who shall fairly represent the voice of
the people. This has been provided for in the law
of the territorial legislature, by which representa-
ton has been duly proportional to the different
counties. fair election has also been provided for
by requiring a certain length of residence and by
throwing around the voters every protection against
fraud and violence. The required residence of sew
eral months necessary to prevent the influx of
such persons as might be induced to 60 to Kansas
to control her elections, but with idea of becom
ing permanent citizens of the Territory or State
1t was wise and just provision, and has received
the sanction of every who desired to see fair
and honest expression of opinion by the bona tide
citizens of Kansas. When the delegates thus cho-
sen shall have completed the business for which
they shall have assembled-to wit: the formation of
a constitution-there will be but one question for
further division and distraction, and that question
will be- Is the constitution thus formed approved by
the people of Kansas and does it reflect their will
the question, not only of slavery, but upon all
others? II it does, every one will say that with
that constitution, whether slave, Free silent
that point, she should be admitted as State If it
does not, then will pretend for moment that
a constitution condemned by majority of the peo-
Pile should be forced upon them, matter under
what forms and by what authority adopted. Grant
ing the correctness of the proposition just stated
ask how can that fact so important to be known, be
ascertained? We will not say that there is no 9TH
mode of ascertaining it. but aoiU sag that the
most satisfactory and conclusive eyidence that the
constitution approved By the people aciN be the rat
itfcation of 1t By them at the polls"
The above extracts are sufficient to show the in
consistency, it seems to US, of the Union We are
of the opinion that the submission of the Constu-
ton to the people, after its formation by the Con-
vention, will result in civil and boodshed, and
in a repetition of the scenes of violence and out
rage that have already been enacted in that Terrific
ry. It will be but invitation to the anti. slavery
and pro slavery men Of the North and of the South
to meet in battle on the soil of Kansas Perhaps
the Constitution, after all the strife, would be
jected and then the affairs of the Territory would
all be at sea again; and in this way years might
elapse and much blood be She'd before the affairs of
Kansas could be reduced to order.
1t is time this Kansas matter was settled. Black
Republicans do not desire it settled. They live and
move and have their being in its agitation Let the
Constitution, formed by Convention elected by the
people, be regarded " fnality," and peace and Or
der will reign Why is not this sufficient express
sion of the will of the people? The delegates go
fresh from the people, and must be regarded as en-
bodying the sentiments of the people. If they form
Constitution recognizing slavery. we shall be glad
Of it; if otherwise, we shall cheerfuy acquiesce-
Let the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska act pre-
vail and there will be an end to strife, and no one
will have just cause to complain, and black Repub-
licanism will have shreked its last over bleeding
Kansas"