Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-12-19
MESSAGE OF GOV. STANTON TO THE
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.
LEcoMPToN, December 9th, 1857.
FeIloaC-eitizens of Me Council


and House Of Representatives.:
In the absence of the Governor, who, by leave
of the President, has gone for 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, I find myself
compelled, by sense of duty, to call you togeth-
er, in order that you may adopt prompt legislative
measures, to avert the calamities which imminent
ly threaten the public peace. From the represen
tations OF majority of your own bodies as well as
from other information of an authentic character
have reason to know, that recent events have pro-
duced profound agitation Of the public mind, and
that sense OF wrong and injustice, whether well
or ill-iounded, and apprehension of greater
evils to arise therefrom, have aroused the people of
the Territory to a condition of dangerous excite
meDt The proceedings of the late Constitutional
Convention the immediate cause of this trouble
and alarm.
The law passed at the last session of the Legs
latVe Assembly, providing for the organization Of
a Convention TO frame a Constitution for the gov
eminent Of Kansas one of the States of the
Union, adopted at period when, unfortu-
natey the people of the Territory were divided by
bitter hostility, resulting from the previous state
OF cCmmoion and civil war. In consequence of
this embtered feeling, and the mutual distrust
naturally thereby engeudeTed, one of the parties
constituting a lsrge majority Of the people, re-
Trained almost entirely from any participation in
the proceedings instituted under the law aforesaid
r e census therein provided for was imperf city
obtained from unwilling people, in nineteen
counties of the Territory; while in the remaining
counties, being also nineteen in number, from va
rous causes no attempt was made to comply with
the law. In some instance, people and officers
alike averse to the proceeding; in others, the
officers neglected or refused to act; and in some
there was but small population, and no efficient
organization, enabling the people 10 secure a rep
reseutation in the Convention. Under the opera
Of all Lat
was obtained Of only nine thousand two hundred
and fifty-one legal voters, confined TO precisely
one-half the counties of the Territory, though
these, undoubtedly, contained much tue larger
part Of the population.
At the election which followed in pursuance of
the law, only two thousand two hundred persons,
being less tban onefourth of the registered voters
participated, in any manner in the choice of dele
gatee, either by voting for those elected, or for
other persons The average aggregate vote, in
favor Of the successful candidates. about eigh-
teen hundred.
It thus appears, that in the election of the 18th
June last for delegates to the Convention, the
great mass of the people retrained from voting,
and left the whole proceeding, with ali its mPor
tant consequences, to the active minority, under
whose auspices the law had been enacted, and also
executed, 20 FIR that could be done by the exec
utive officers, without the concurrence OF major
ity of the people.
That the r,fusal 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. Ii
has enabled body of men, not actually represent
ing the opinions Of the people, though regularly
and legitimat,y clothed with their authority, to
prepare for them form Of government, and to
withhold the greater part of its most important
provisions from the test Of popular judgment and
sanction. It has Grated the present profound ex~
element, consequent upon the appFe hensiOn that
Congress may admit the State under this COusti-
tuition, and that the people Of Karsas may be thus
forced to submit to the operation Of fundamental
law in the adoption OF which they have had no &C
tual participation.
1t Is not my purpose, nor is II necessary, to in
quire how far either of the parties into which the
people were unhappily divided upon the proceed
lugs IN gu stOn, WIS justifable in the course puT
sued. The only important question which seems
now to concern the people, or their representa-
lives, s, to the legal and political effect of the
facts stated-wEether they 90, do not i'm
pose upon the whole people obligation to
cept the work Of the Convention, and 70 acquicsce
IN its plan OF adopting the Constitution and send
ding it up to Congress for the admission Of Kansas
as State into the Union.
If a Convention, organized as this was can be
considered as embOdying in itself the sovereignty
of the people, the difficulty is undoubtedly insup-
cradle, and the omission Of the m jorty to vote
last June, is past all present remedy But, in my
judgment, such position cannot be successfully
maintained. The fundamental principle Of popu-
lar selEgOvernment, and especially of that "repub-
lican FORM" which the Constitution of the Uni
ted States guarantees to every member of the Con-
tederacy, excludes the possibility OF the deega-
ton or transfer of their sovereignty, by the peO-
pie, to any authority whatever. II its very
ture, that sovereignty which erects governments
and endows them with their legitimate powers,
can be exercised only by the people themselves.
n is incapable of alienation, and is person
al identity and ind pendent WILL in each individual
The people cannot dive.t themselves of IT, any
more than an individual can dvost himself of his
own moral responsibility. ANY other theory would
involve the absurdity Of the possible subsection Of
the sovereign to its delegated agent. For if the
sovereignty he actually delegated or transferred,
it may evidently be used to eusl We the sovereign
people themselves. If the Convention could enact
a Constitution, and put il in force Of its au-
thorty it could readily adopt and prrpetuate the
most tyranUical provisions; for if the Constitution,
as in this case, may be made permanent until IS68
It might equally be made perpetual and uualtera-
bic.
In its essential character, when about to frame
a State Government, the sovereignty of the people
of a Territory is identical with that of the people
of a State. It must necessarily be equally as
plenary and independent: otherwise the new State
would not stand upon 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 a Territory cannot
become q
of Congress. But this discretion on the part Of
Congress, does not imply the power to dictate in
situations to the people Of the Territory or in any
way to restrain, or limit or force their sovereignty
in the exercise Of its high function OF frlmiug its
own State Government The only righuui power
which Congress has in the premises l., 70 deter
mine when the new community is sufficiently ma
ture to assume an independent government, and
TO recognize the identity Of the people in their
form of a State.
That clause Of the constitution guaranteeing to
the States a ''r,pubcan form Of Government"
imposes the obligation 10 protect the people IN
their sovereignty. and to prevent its alienation, il
that possible, a plrture from the true r.
publican form. Congress, therefore, has no right
full power 10 accept a State Government, which has
not received the sanction of the people who are TO
live under il. The attempt TO exercise such a
power would be a plain violation of the cousttu-
ton. Il would be none the less a usurpatioD, be-
cause the people might afterwards regain their
violated sovereignty.
The instances in which Congress has recognized
and received new States, without the actual sub
mission Of their constitutions TO the vote Of the
people, are not necessarily in conflict with the
principle now asserted. Doubtless If the people
of a territory should quietly acquesce In the adop-
ton OF "A Constitution passed for them, they mig
thus give very satisfactory evidence of their APP
probation. But no instance can be found on re-
cord, of a Constitution accepted by COugr So
against the will Of a majority OF the peopls, eI-
pressed ia any distinct manner whatever.
Il is not intended therein to assume, that the
psoVie OF the Territory are opposed 10 the Consti-
tuition which is 20 BE- submitted. in certain form
ON she 2lst instant l, is sufficient Tor the sion
which nov eonvenes the Legislative Assembly,
and for the purpose Of this communication, that
there l. vide spread diss .ctiou threatening 20
disturb the tranquility OF the people. II Their be
any means Of preventing the tisrord ami possible
yiniapce which are 80 gsriously apuFrheudei- "a