Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-10-09

REpLY To nm PREsInENT.

10 HIS ENcELLENcY, JAMES BUCHANAN,
Preadat Of the LnHed States
Ina July last number of citizens of Con-
necticut addressed to YOU. as Chief Magis-
trate of this nation, a Memorial on the ai-
fairs Of Kansas. To this you replied under
date of Aug. Is, 1857. in manner which
shows that you misunderstood. to some ex-
tent, the ground taken by the Memorialists.
for We would not impute 10 you the intention
to misreprosent them. As you have thought
proper to lay the Memorial and Reply before
the public, a large part of the Mcmorialists
have conferred on the subject. and have felt
themselves compelled again to address YOU
We would remark, then, that the main tacts
oHeged u, Hat Memorial are either passed ouer
Cdbom deHai or arc explicitly 1Uoieed IN your
rPB
These facts arc two First. " that the fun
damental principle Of the Constitution of the
United States and of our political institutions
is that the people shall make their olgn ia,rs
and elect thar oicn ruiors' Secondly, that
Gev. Walker of Kansas openly represents
and proclaims, that the President of the Uni-
ted States is employing through him Walk
or,) an army one purpose of which is to force
the people of Kansas to obey laws which are
not their own, nor of the United States but
laws which, it is notorious. and established
upon evidence, they necer made and rulers
they Hcrer eiecfcd' As to these two facts, the
material facts alleged by your Memorialsts,
and which chiefly require vindication from
you, they say that they find no DENIAL of them
in your reply. They do not say that you have
attempted no vindication of your acts and
doings through Gov. Walker, but only that
they can find in your reply no plain or expli-
cit denial of the facts referred to--not even
what they consider the shadow of denial
These facts stand in the Memorial, then, an
contradicted, by what you evidently consider a
triumphant reply. Why is this; Arc these
assertions, on which the whole subject at is
sue depends, untrue--and yet no denial of
them-not a word to prone them untrue p
Without such denial, what can you expect
your Mcmorialists and the country to believe
and to say What, but that the facts which
they allege, are notorious and undeniable
As to the allegation respecting the funda-
mental principle of the Constitution, your
Memorialists hope That the time is remote
when the enlightened citizens of this country
will deny that principle ; though party zeal,
in its intatuation, may one day trample it in
the dust, when, in sight of the ruin, Liberty
and Religion in exile will together weep over
the dosecration.
Your FORMAL vGNDTcAT1oN next demands
notice.
OF this your Memorialsts are compelled to
say that, in their view, it is entirely ground
less and unsatisfactory
Resting it solely on what you call the
plainest and most palpabe historical facts,
you say, that at the time of your inaugural
ton, you found, in fact, the government of
Kansas as well established as that of any
other Territory" You then ask was it not
my duty to sustain this goyernment-to pre-
vent it from being overturned by force in
the language of the Constitution, to take
care that the laws be faithfully executed.
You then add 1t was for this purpose that
ordered military force to Kansas to act as
posse comitatps in aiding the civil magistrates
to carry the laws into execution Here,
then, is the distinct admission and deolara-
ton on your part, that you ordered military
force TO Kansas for the purpose of sustaining
its Territorial Government and of enforcing
its Territorial Laws. So far. then, in respect
to one matter OF fact, you admit the assertion
of your Memoralists
Your yindication, therefore, rests upon the
assertion that there was, in fact, Govern
rnent in Kansas-such government as it was
on which the whole controversy turns. is thus
raised it is simply this Vas there Cor
ernneat, or Were there iai0s. m KdHsas. iH The
Just, proper, and authorized meaning Of the lam
guago 4" when you entered upon the duties
of the Presidential office on the 4th of March
last ~
If this can be proved to be true your Me
morialists viii know something which they
hos IN, - l. .I
be true, it win present memorable oxam-
pie Of the truth, that political prejudice is
blind even to the existence of the plainest
aud most palpabe of historical facts" Nor
is this all. 1t will show that YOU ordered an
army 20 Kansas to sustain a so-called govern
ment which is not a Government, and laws
which are not laws
Here your Memorialists take the position,
that NOTHING CAN BE TRULY GovERNMENr
on LAW wHIcH HAS NO AUTHORITY; and
that NOTHING sHoUlD DE TnEATED AS COW
ERNMENr OR LAW WHICH PRESENTS NO Eyf-
DENoE or AUTHORITY.
Can anything which trampes under foot all
human rights, and is a known outrage upon
our Constitution and our political institutions,
whatever be its name, or form, be justly re-
garded as government or law having authori-
ty under our Constitution Can such an out
rage be clothed with authority by the Presi-
dent, Senate, Congress, or whole Congress
Of Presidentsi Can usurpation beget valid
government or law, or impart that right to
govern which implies an obligation to obey?
Its might make it matter of prudence
to avoidits wrath by submission,b but can usur-
patton create an obligation to obey when none
exists
Suppose the Great Mogul, or any other ty-
rant, had established the same so-called gov
ernment and laws of Kansas by the same
means by which, as all the world knows, they