The Kanzas news., 1857-12-19
Message of Gov. Stanton to the Terri
torial Legislature.

Message of Gov. Stanton to the Terri
torial Legislature.
Il LEcoNPFos, Dec. eth, 1851.
Fe1o10-Citiz of tie Council
and House Of Representatives.;
| In the absence of the Governor, who, by leave
of the President, has gone for short time tG
Washington, important public business, and
while thus temporarily clothed, by the Organic
Act, with all the powers and duties Of the Chlei
Executive Office of the Territory, find myself
compelled, by sense of duty, to call You togeth'
er, in order that you may adopt prompt legisia
tive measures, to avert the ealamities which imml
nently threaten the public peace Prom the repre-,
sentations of majority of your own bodies, as well
from other information of authentic character
have to know, that recent events have pro-
duced a profound agitation of the public mind,
and that sense of wrong and INJUSTICE, whether
well ill-foundedi and an apprehension of great
er evils to arise therefrom, have aroused the peo-
J pie of the Territory to condition of dangerous
exeitement- The proceedings of the late Constr
tutional Convention are the immediate cause OF
this trouble and alarm
The law passed at the last session of the Leg
isative Assembly, providing for the organization
of Convention to frame a Constitution for the
government of Kanzas as one OF the States OF the
Union, was adopted at period, when, untortu.
nately the people of the Territory were divided
by bitter hostility, resulting from the previous
state of commotion and civil war In consequence
of this embittered feeling, and the mutual DIS
trust naturally thereby engendered, one OF the
parties, constituting large majority OF the Peo-
pie, refrained almost entirely from any parhcipa-
ton in the proceedings instituted under the law
aforesaid. The census therein provided for was
imperfectly obtained from an unwilling people.
in nineteen counties of the Territory while the
remaining counties, being also nineteen IN num-
Der, from various causes, no attempt was made 70
comply with the law In some instances, people
and officers alike ayerse to the proceeding
in Others the officers neglected or refused to act and
A. .iakfD r.
organization, enabling the people to secure rep
resentation in the Convention Under the opera
ton of all theee causes combined, census list
was obtained of only nine thousand two hundred
one-half the counties of the Territory, though
these, undoubtedly, contained much the larger
part of the population.
At the election which followed in pursuance of
the law, only two thousand two hundred persons,
being less than onefourth of the registered voters
participated in nv manner, in the choice of del
egates either by voting for those elected, or for
other persons. The average aggregate vote, IN IA
vOr of the successful candidates was about eight
cen hundred:
It thus appears, that in the election of the 18th
June last, for delegates to the Convention, the
great mass of the people purposely refralned
from voting, and left the whole proceeding, with
all its important consequences, to the active NIL
nority, under whose auspices the law had been
enacted and also executed, SO far as that could be
| done by the executive officers, without the con-
] currenee of a majority of the people.
| That the refusal of the majority to go into the
election for delegates was unfortunate Is now too
apparent to be denied. 1t has produced all the
evils and dangers of the present critical hour--
1t has enabled a body of men, not actually repre-
senting the opinions of the people, though regu-
larly and legitimately clothed with their authOri
ty, 20 prepare for them form of government, and
to Withhold the greater part of its most important
provisions from the test of popular judgment and
sanction. 1t has created the present profound
excitement, consequent upon the apprehension
that Congress may admit the State under this
Constitution, and that the people of Kanzas may
be thus forced to submit to the operation OF
| fun ndamentaI law in the adoption of which they
have had no actual participation.
1t is not my purpose, nor is it necessary; to in
qure how far either of the parties into which the
people were unhappily divided upon the proceed
ings in question, was justifable in the course
pursued. The only important question which
seems now to concern the people, or their repre-
sentatives, is rs to the legal and political effect
of the facts as stated-whether they do. or do not
impose upon the whole people an obligation to
accept the work of the Convention, and to acqybl
esce in its plan of adopting the Constitution, tbo
sending it up to Congress for the admisS~ VIZ VIZ
kanzas as State into the Union cot
If Convention organized as this was, can bts
considered embodying in itself e-sover. ignty
of the people, the difficulty is. is.undoubt,dly insu
perable, and the omission of the majority to vote
last June, is past all prasent remedy. But, in
my judgment, such position cannot be success
fully maintained. The fundamental principle of
popular selfgovernment, and especially of that
Republican fOrm," which the Constitution of the
United States guarantees to every member of the
COnfederacy, excludes the possibility Of the dele
CATION or transfer of their sovereignty, by the
people, to any authority whatever. In its very
nature, that sovereignty which erects governments
and endows them with their legitimate powers,
can be exercised only by the people themselves
1t is incapable of alienation and is inseparably
inherent In the body of the people, as are person
al identity and Independent will, in each individ
ual. The people cannot divest themselves of it,
any more than an individual can divest himself
of his own moral responsibility. Any other theo-
ry would involve the absurdIty of the possible
objection of the sovereignty to ts delegated agent
For if the sovereignty be actually delegated or
transferred, it may evidently be used to ensave
the sovereign people themselves If the Conven-
ton could enact Constitution, and put 1t In
force of their authority, 1t could readily adopt
and perPetuate the most tyrannIcai provisions
for if the Constitution, as Iii this Case may be
made permanent until 1865, it might equally be
made perpetul and unalterable.
In its essential character, when about to frame
a State Government, the sovereignty OF the peo
pie of Territory is identical with that of the
people of State. 1t must necessarily be equally
as plenary and Independent: otherwise, the new
State would not stand upon equality with the
old ones. The perfect equality OF all the mem-
bers of the Confederacy is the very basis of the
Federal Constitution. 1t is true that Territory
cannot become State of the Union without the
consent of Congress. But this discretion on the
part Of Congress, does not imply the power to die
tate institutions the people of the Territory, or
in any way TO restrain, limit; force their
ereignty in the exercise of its high function of
framing its own State Government The only
rightful power which Congress has in the prem
ises is, to determine when the community is
sufficiently mature to assume independent gov |
ernment and to recognize the identity of the peo-
pie in their new form of State That clause of
the Constitution guaranteeing to the States ''re
publican form of Government imposes the obi |
CATION to protect the people in their sovereignty,
and to prevent its alienation, if that possible,
as departure from the true republican FORM
Congress, therefore, has no rghtful power to ac-
eept State Government, which has not received /
the sanction of :he people who are to live under