The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-24
Mr.. GIDDINGS UPON TIE PRESIDENTS
LETTER,
UEDIelRIED EVASION.

Professor Slllmjn and tOrty-two other dis
tinguished men o. Connecticut recently ad-
dressed letter to President Buchanan, upon
the subject of the fficulties in Kansas
Promising that nhe right of the people to
enact their own lars and elect their own off.
GERS constitutes I; fundamental principle in our
Government, they selicstely and appropriately
expressed their girls that the President, through
Governor Walker, should now employ the army
of the United STAGES to compel the people Of
Kansas TO obey ls.ss enacted by residents of
Missouri, and TO respect Territorial officers in
whose election they had no voice,
To these charges Mr. Bnchauan was, from
his position, undet no obligation to reply; vet
he appears to have been i'm Dressed with belief
that be could so answer as to render his guilt
at least doubtful in the mads of the more un-
thinking portion of the coD'mU nifty; and, after
mature deliberatioa, he re piled, admitting. if
the charges be correct, hii name shO,tld be
consigned TO infd",y' To his the whole coun.
try will respond hearty srlen.
But our wonder and astonshment is excited
when we read the whole Of Mr. Buchanan's
answer, and fud that he tacitly and fully ad
mits every charge r.rd averment made against
him by Professor Siliman and his friends. He
does not deny a single fact OF averment ad-
yanced by them. Nor could he do So as those
facts have become matters Of official record
and have already passed into history Bot ad.
hitting these facts and charges, he attempts
TO justify his conduct by sayirg, that when he
came into office as President, he found the la Wa
complained of in force, and the officers in the
exercise of their functoDs, snd then urges that
it was his duty to Continue that, state of things
In this assertion be falsi6es the whole history
of the Kansas difficulty. The Free State men,
comprising three fourths of The population, had
never acknowledged nor obeyed those laws
They had withstood all attempts to enforce
them; and now, at ibis moment Mr.. Buchanan
is, by his officers and by the army, endeavoring
to enforce ensctments Of thofe Border Ru ffi ans,
which have ever beenregsrde4 and treated by the
Free State men of Kansas as the enactments Of
foreign usurpers without either moral or legal
force, and insulting to the sefrespect of Amer,
lean freemen.
But, suppose Mr. Pierce had, by the power
of the army, compelled the Free State men to
obey those laws, enacted be the Border Ruff
fans of Missouri and the men appointed to Of
fee by them, would that fact Justify Mr.. Bu
chanan in committing the same outrage upon
the fundamental doctrine referred to by Profes
sor Silliman?
Had this argument of M. Buchanan been
advanced by some pettifogging attorney, or
tyro IN morals, or bsr-room politician, we should
have regarded it as unworthy of notice. But
we are mortified at reading such an article
from the pen Of President of the United
States. Does Mr.. Buchanan, or do the leaders
of his party, suppose the people of the free
States so ignorant as not TO hold him, who
sustains and enforces these infamous laws of
Kansas, and carries out TIE despotsm and
usurpation of the Border Rufians, guilty to the
same extent, and Justly liable to the same pen.
atty, as those who enacted them2 Every in.
telhgent citizen of Ohio would say that the man
who advised, aided, encouraged, sustained. or
sanctioned, the invasion of Kansas, is lust as
guilty as were those usurpers who, with force
and arms, invaded the Territory, and seized
upon its Government
At the time of that invasion, Pierce, and
Cass, and Douglas, looked on in silence, saw
the outrage, and then assuming all the respon.
siollty OF the invasion and usurpatioD, they
took upon themselves the infamy which attach.
es to the laws and to those who enacted them.
and openly attempted to Justify all these wrongs
by charging Northern men with having gone
into the Territory in great numbers to vote.
and thereby exert an improper influence in
favor OF liberty and justice. Thus did they
publicly aud shameessly before the country
admit the facts, and then attempt to Justify this
torcible usurpatiop, this revolving despotisu.
by charging others with intent to do wrong,
In this subterfuge, this miserable effort to waive
responsib ihty, Mr.. BGchanan united, approred
the outrage, and ran for the Office of President
upon the express understanding and expecta-
ton that he would pussue the same course. and
carry out the objects q the invaders and usurp-
ers All his appointments ia Kansas have
been made with that object. His whole infu.
ence has been exertNd for its attainment, and
he now stands before the world involved in all
the moral and politicyl guilt and crime of tha,
INVASION, and of the enactment of thoas infa.
nous laws, and stained with all the blood that
has been shed to enforce them. But the Pres
ldent, assuming the invasion of Kansas tn have
been just, the Infamous ensctments of those
Border Rnffians to have been legitimate and
constitutional, and the men appointed to Office
by them to be duly authorized to rule the neo.
pie of Kansas, proceeds to denounce the Free
State men of that Territory as rebels. insurrec.
tionists, and traitors in about as good set terms
As George III and his associates denounced
Jefferson and Hancock and Adams and their
associates, for resisting the Stamp Act and the
minions whom he appointed to Office, and
threatens to send an army to serve the Free
state men of Kansas Just as the British King
cent Lord Howe to serve the people of New
| England.
| We have in times past awarded to Mr.. Blu.
ca Ansn talents far above those possessed by
| mf. Flerce; but it is certain that Pierce. nor
aay other President of the United States. ever
| Pat forth such shallow sophisAry "a thSt which
! characterizes the answ Or of Mr.. Buchanan