The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-12-24

these assaults have ever received the slightest
countenance from the President; on the con
trary, his message clearly indicates an approval
of my course up to the present most unfortu.
nate difference about the so-called Lecou,pton
Constitution. Inasmuch, however, as this diff
ference is upon a vital question, involving prac
teal results and new instructions, it ia certainly
much more respectful to the President on nv
part to resign the office of Governor, and give
him an opportunity of filing it, as is his right
under the Constitution, with one who concurs
with him in his present opinions, rather than
go to Kansas, and force him to remove me BY
disobedience to his instructions. This latter
course, in my judgment, would be incompatible
with proper respect for the Chief Magistrate of
the Union, inconsistent with the rules of moral
rectitude or propriety, and could be adopted
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 a
political martyr in the defence of the great
principle of selfgovernment; but to go to Kan
sas with any such purpose, or with a certain
knowledge that such result must follow.
would be alike unjust and improper. NY only
alternative, then, is that of respectful resig-
nation, in the hope that Kansas and our beloved
country may be shielded from that civil war
with which fear both are threatened, by any
attempt to force the so-cslled Lecompton Con-
stitution upon the people of Kansas.
/ state it as fact, based on a long and init.
mate association with the people of Kansas,
that an overwhelming majority of that people
are opposed to that instrument, and my letters
state that but one out of twenty of the press of
Kansas sustains it. Some oppose it because
30 many counties were disfranchised and unrep.
resented in the Convention. Some who are
opposed to paper money, because it authorizes
a bank of enormous capital for Kansas, nearly
unlimited in its issues, and in the denomination
of Its notes, from one dollar up and down.
Some because of what they consider a Know
Nothing clause, by requiring that the Governor
shall have been twenty years a citizen of the
United States. Some because the elective
franchise is not free, as they cannot vote against
the Constitution, but only on 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 opposed. They
regard this as but mockery of the elective
franchise, and q perilous sporting with the sa-
cred rights of the people. Some oppose be-
cause the Constitution distinctly recognises
and adopts the Oxford fraud, in apportioning
Legislative members for johnson county, upon
the fraudulent and fictitious returns, 80 falsely
called, from that precinct, which recognition of
that fraud in the Constitution is abhorrent to
the moral sense of the people. Others oppose
because, although in other cases the Presidents
Of Conventions have been authorized to issue
writs of election to the regular Territorial
or State officers with the usual judges, with the
established precincts and adjudication Of re-
turns, in this case unprecedented and vice regal
powers are given to the President of the Con-
vention to make the precincts, the judges, and
to decide finally upon the returns
From the grant of these unusual and enor.
nous powers and from other reasons connect.
ed with the fraudulent returns of Oxford and
MCGEE, an overwhelming majority of the PEG.
pie of Kansas have no faith in the validity
of these returns, and therefore will not vote.
Indeed, disguise 1t as we may to ourselves, I'M
der the influence of the present excitement, the
facts will demonstrate that any ATTEMPT by
Congress to force this Constitution upon the
people of Kansas, will be an effort to substitute
the will of a small minority for that of an over.
whelming majority of the people of Kansas :;
that 1t will not settle the Kansas question or
localize the issue that it will, fear, be attend
ed by civil war, extending, perhaps, throughout
the Union; thus bringing this question back
again upon Congress and before the people in
its most dangerous and alarming aspect.
The President takes different view of the
subject in his message; and, from the events
occurring in Kansas as we'll as here, it is evil
dent that the question is passing from theories
into practice; and that, as Governor of Kansas,
| should be compelled to carry out new instruc-
tons, differing, on vital question, from those
received at the date of my appointment Such
instructions | could not execute, consistently
with my views of the Federal Constitution, Of
the Kansas and Nebraska bill, or with my
pledges to the people of Kansas. Under these
circumstances, no alternative is left me but to
resign the Office of Governor of the Territory
of Kansas.
No one can more deeply regret than myself
this necessity; but it arises from no change of
opinion on my part. On the contrary, should
most cheerfully have returned to Kansas to
carry out my original instructions, and thus pre-
the peace of the Territory and finally settle
the Kansas question by redeeming my pledges
to the people. 1t is not my intention to discuss.
at this time, the peculiar circumstances and
unexpected events which have modified the
opinions Of the President upon point so vital
as the submission of the Constitution for rati
ication or rejection by the vote of the people
much less do | desire any controversy with the
President on this subject; yet, however widely
my views may differ from those entertained by
him on this question-views which have held
all my life, and which, as involving fundamental
ton, are unchangeable-yet, as regards all
those great Democratic measures which. l trust
will constitute the policy of his Administration
in other respects, it will give me pleasure. az g.
private citizen, to yield my cordial support.
l have said that the Slavery question as a
practical issue had disappeared from Kansas
long before my arrival there, ard the question
| of selfgoyernment had been substituted in its
place. On some future occasion, l shall dssi.
pate the delusion which has prevailed moon
this subject, and show that, after three years'
| experiment. when [ arrived in Kansas, there
were less than three hundred slaves there, and
the number constantly diminishing; that, as
proved By the official records of Congress. pub.
llshed and authenticated by those distinguished
Southern statesmen, John C. Calhoun and JEFF
serson Davis, the winter climate, even of East
ern Kansas, Is colder than that even of New
England, and that the Pro-Slavery Territorial
Convention of Kansas, consolidated with the
Pro Slavery Territorial Legislature, on the 4th
OF January, 1857, nearly five months before my
arrival there, did distinctly abandon the Slavery
issue, because, as set forth by one of their num-
Der, " the Pro-Slavery party was in a small and
admitted minority" and the cooperation of
the Free State Democrats was invited, as the
only hope OF success, not to make Kansas
slave State, which was conceded to be impossi
BILE, but to make it a conservative Democratic
free State"
Even as late as the Sd of July, 1857, when
the Democratic Territorial Convention assem-.
bled at Lecompton, in consequence of the laws
OF climate and the well-known will of the peo-
pie, none contended that Slavery could be es-
tablished there. Nor was it until my Southern
opponents interfered in the affairs of Kansas.
and by denunciation, menace, and otherwise,
aided at critical period by several Federal
oftice-hoders of Kansas including the Surveyor
General, 1.-THE President of the Convention. J