The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-12-24
MEETING OF THE KANSAS LEGISLATURE

R. j. WALKER.
MEETING OF THE KANSAS LEGISLATURE
The Legislature of Kansas Territory met on
the 9TH instant, but, there being no quorum
present, an adjournment took place to the next
day, when there were present eleven members
in the Council and twentyone in the House.
The Council organized by electing C. w.
Babcock President, j. x. Goodwin Secretary,
and other requisite officers.
In the House, G.. w. Deitzler was elected
President, c. F. Currier Chief Clerk, and full
set of officers.
The following is copy of the message laid
before the Legislature by Acting Governor
Stanton
LECoMProN, December 8, 1857
Fello,o- Citizens Of the Council
and House Of Representatives
In the absence of the Governor, who, by leave
of the President, has gone for a short time to
Washington on important public business, and
while thus temporarily clothed by the organic
act with all the powers and duties of the chief
/ executive Office of the Territory, l find myself
compelled, by sense of duty, to call you to-
gether, in order that you may adopt prompt leg
islative measures to avert the calamities which
imminently threaten the public peace.
From the representations of majority Of
your own bodies, as well as from other inforua.
ton of an authentic character, have reason to
know that recent events have produced pro.
found agitation of the public mind, and that a
sense of wrong and injustice, whether well or
i'll founded, and en- apprehension of greater
evils to arise therefrom, have aroused the peo
pie of the Territory to a condition of dangerous
| excitement. The proceedings of the late Con-
stitutional Convention are the immediate cause
of this trouble and alarm.
The law passed at the last session of the
Legislative Assembly, providing for the organ.
| izstion of Convention to frame Constitution
for the government of Kansas, as one of the
States OF the Union, was adopted at q period
when, unfortunately, 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 distrust naturally thereby en-.
Qendered, one of the parties constituting large
majority of the people, RETAINED almost entirely
from any participation in the proceedings nst-
tuted under the Jaw aforesaid The census
therein provided for was imperfectly obtained
from an unwilling people in nineteen counties
OF the Territory while in the remaining coun-
ties, being also nineteen in number, from vari-
GUS causes, no attempt was made to comply
with the law. In some instances, people and
officers were alike averse to the proceedings ;
| in others, the officers neglected or refused to
act and in some, there was but small pop.
ulation and no efficient organization, enabling
| the people to secure representation in the
| Convention.
Under the operation of all these causes com
bined, census list was obtained of only nine
thousand two hundred and fifty-one legal voters,
confined to precisely onehalf 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 one-fourth of the registered yo
ters, participated in any manner in the choice
OF delegates, either by voting for those elected
or for other persons. The average aggregate
vote in favor of the successful candidates was
about eighteen hundred.
1t thus appears that, in the election of the
| 18th June last for delegates to the Convention,
the great mass of the people refrained from vo.
ting, and left the whole proceeding, with all its
| important consequences, to the active minority,
under whose auspices the law had been er act
ed, and also executed, so far as that could be
done by the executive officers, without the con-
currence of majority of the people.
That the refusal of the majority to 90 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 body of men, pot actu-
ally representing the opinions of the people,
though regularly and legitimately clothed with
| their authority, to prepare for them a form of
| Government, and to withhold the greater part
OF its most important provisions from the test
| of popular judgment and sanction. It has Gre
ated the present profound excitement, conse-
| quent upon the apprehension that Congress
may admit the State under this Constitution,
and that the people of Kansas may be thus
forced to submit to the operation of funda.
mental law in the adoption of which they have
had no actual participation.
1t 10 not my purpose, nor is it necessary. to
inquire how far either of the parties into which
the people were unhappiy divided upon the
proceedings in question was justifable in the
course pursued. The only important question
| which seems now to concern the people, OF
their representatives, is as to the legal and DO.
| litical 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 Con-
vention, and to sequiesce in its plan of adopt
ing the Constitution, and sending it up to Con.
| gress for the admission of Kansas as State
into the Union.
If Convention, organized as this was. can
be considered as embodying in itself the sover.
eighty of the people, the difficulty is undoubted
ly insuperable, and the omission of the majority
to vote last June is past all present remedy.
| But, IN my Judgment, such a position cannot
| be successfully maintained. The Fundamental
| principle of popular selfgovernment, and espe
| cially of that republican form A" which the Con
stitution of the United States guarantees to
every member Of the Confederacy, excludes the
possibility of the delegation or transfer of their
sovereignty by the people to any authority what
| ever. 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 as inseparably inherent in the body of
| the people as are personal identity and indie
pendent will in each individual. The people
cannot divest themselves of it, any more than
| an individual can dvest himself of his own
moral responsibility. Any other theory would
involve the absurdity of the possible subsection
of the sovereign to it's delegated agent. For if
the sovereignty be actually delegated or trans
ferred, it may evidently be used to enslave the
sovereign people themselves. IF the Conven.
ton could enact a Constitution, and put it in
force of its own authority, it could readily adopt
and perpetuate the most tyrannical provisions /;
for If the Constitution, as in this case, may be
made permanent until 1863, it might equally
be made perpetual 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 equal.
| ly as plenary and independent; otherwise, the
new State would not stand upon an equality
with the old ones. The perfect equality of all
the members of the Confederacy is the very
basis OF the Federal Constitution. 1t is true
that Territory cannot become State of the
| U mon without the consent of Congress. Bat