Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-12-19

And here l wish to call attention to a dlstinc-
ton, which will appear in my inaugural address,
in reference to those counties where the voters
were fairly registered and did not vote. In such
countless where full and free opportunity was Civ
to register and vote and they did not please to
exercise such privilege, the question is very diff
ferent from those counties where there no CEN
sus registry, and vote was given, or could be
given, however anxious the people might be to
participate in the election of delegates to the
vention
Nor could it be said that these counties aequi.
esced for wherever they truly endeayored, by q
subsequent census registry Of their own, to sup
ply this defect occasioned by previous neglect OF
the territorial officers, the delegates thus chosen
were rejected by the convention. [ repeat that in
nineteen counties out of thirty-four, there nc
census. In fifteen counties out of thirty-tour,
there was no registry and not solitary vote was
given could be given, for delegates to the CON
| Yention in any of these cases. Surely then, it
cannot be said that such convention, chosen by
scarcely than one-tenth of the present voters
of Kanzas represented the people of that territo-
ry, and could rightly impose constitution upon
! them without their consent.
These nineteen countless of which there was no
| census, constituted majority of the counties of
the territory; and these fifteen counties, in which
there was no registry, gave much larger vote at
the October election, even with the six months
| qualification, than the whole vote given at the
! Lecompton Constitutional Convention, on the 18th
| of November last. If the sovereignty can be dell
egated and the convention as such are sovereign,
which deny, surely it must be only in such cases
/ as when such conventions are chosen by the peo-
1 pie, which we have seen was not the case as re-
| CARDS the late Lecompton convention.
| II was for this and other reasons, that, in my
| inaugural and other addresses, insisted that the
constitution should be submitted to the people by
convention, as the only means of curing this vital
1 defect its 1t therefore
| among other reasons, that when, as you know, the
| organization called the Topeka State government
was made, and consequence an inevitable civil
| war and conflict must have ensued, these results
were prevented by my assuring, not "the aboli-
tionists" as has been enormously stated, fer my
address was not to them but to the people of Kan
zas, that, in my judgment, the constitution would
be submitted fairly and freely for ratification
rejection by their vote; and that, if this was not
| done, l would unite with them (the people, as l
now do, in lawful opposition to such procedure
The power and responsiblity being devolved ex-
clusiyely upon me by the President, of using the
federal army in Kanzas to suppress instruction,
the alternative was distinctly presented to me by
questions propounded at Topeka, Of arresting the
revolution by the slaughter of the people, or of
preventing it, together with that civil war which
must have extended throughout the Union, by
solemn then given, that the right of the
people to frame their own government so far as
my power extended, should be maintained
But for this assurance it is conceded fact that
the Topeka State government then assembled in
legislative session, would have been put into inn
mediate actual operation, and that a sanguinary
collision with the federal army, and civil war must
have ensued, extending, it is feared, throughout
the Union. Indeed the whole idea of an inaugu-
raj address originated in the alarming intelligence
which had reached Washington city, of rebellion
in KanZas.
This insurrection was rendered still more formi-
dable, on my reaching the territory, by the near
approach of the assembling eff the revolutionary
State legislature and the very numerous mass con
yentions by which 1t was sustained. In truth, L
had to choose between arresting that instruction,
at whatever cost of American blood, by the feder-
al army or to prevent the terrible catastrophe as
did, by my pledges to the people of the exertion
of all my power to obtain fair election and a
submission of the constitution to the vote of the
people for ratification or rejection My inaugural
and other addresses were therefore really in the
nature of proclamations, so often issued by the
presidents and governors, with view to prevent,
as they did in this case, civil war and instruction.
Now by my oath of office, l was sworn to sup
port the constitution of the U. States which have
shown, in my Judgment, required the submission of
the constitution to the vote Of the people. I was
sworn, also, TO take that the KaBzas-N Nebraska
bill should be faithfully executed, which BILL in
my Judgment, as heretofore stated, required that
| the constitution should be submitted to the vote
OF the people, and was therefore, only perform
| ing solemn duty, when governor Of the terri
tory, to whose people my first obligations were
DUE endeavored to secure them these results. The
idea entertained by some, that Should the fed
eral Constitution and the Kanzas Nebraska bill ov-
erthrown and distegarded, and that, playing the
part of mute in pantomime Of ruin, should ac-
quiesce, by my silence in such result, especially
where such acquiescence involved, as an imnedi-
ate consequence, disastrous and sanguinary civil
war, seems to me preposterous Not q drop of
blood has been shed by federal troops in Kanzas
during my administration, but instruction and
civil war extending, fear, throughout the coun-
try, were alone prevented by the course pursued
by me on those occasions, and the whole people
abandoning revolutionary violence, were induced
by me to go for the first time into general and
peaceful election.
These important results constitute sufficient con.
ISOLATION for all the assaults made upon me on this
subject | do not understand that these assaults
received the slightest countenance from the Presi-
dent On the contrary, his message clearly indi-
Gates an approval of my course up to the present
most unfortunate difference about the so-caIled
Lecompton constitution. Inasmuch however as
the difference is upon vital question, involving
practical results and new Instructions it is Ger
tainly much more respectful to the President on
my part to resign the Office of governor and give
under the constitution, with one who concurs with
him in his present opinions, rather than go to
Kanzas, and force him to remove me by disobedi-
ence to his instructions.
This latter course, in my Judgment, would be
incompatible with proper respect for the chief
magistrate of the Uuion-inconsistent with the
rules Of moral rectitude or propriety and could be
accompanied with no other view than to force the
President to remove me from office.
Such course, it is alleged, would present me to
the public as political martyr in the defence eff
the great principle of self-goyernment; but to 90
to Kanzas with any such purpose, or with cer-
tain knowledge that such result must follow
would be alike unjust and improper. MY only
alternative, then, is thisof respectful resi- ena-
| ton, in the hope that Kanzas and our beloved
country may be shielded from that civil war with
| which 1 fear both are threatened by any attompt
to force the so-caled Lecompton constitution upon
| the people Of Kanzas
L state it as fact, based on long and infinite
association with the people of Kanzas, that an
overwhelming majority of that people are opposed
to that instrument, and my letters state that but
one out of twenty of the presses of kanas sustain
it. Some oppose it because counties were dis
| franchised and unrepresented in that convention
| Some who are opposed to paper money, because it
authorizes a bank of enormous capital for Kan
zas nearly unlimited in its issues and in the denom
nation of its notes, from one dollar up and down
some because of what they consider Know
| Nothing clause, by requiring that the governor
shall have been twenty years citizen of the
United States; some because the elective fran
chise is not free, as they cannot vote against tho
| Constitution but only the single issue whether
| any more slaves may be imported and then only
upon that issue by voting for the Constitution to
/ which they are oDposed, and thew ragard this as