The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-10-24
Official Report Of tbs Meeting held At Lsecmpton
TO Protest against the Bogus Constitutional
Convention.

The free State people of Kansas, hav-
ing determined to hold meeting in Le-
compton for the purpose of repudiating
the action and agency of the bogus Con-
stitutional Convention, the citizens from
the several portions of the Territory, to
the number of Eve or six hundred, assem-
bled at that place on Mondaxthe 10th in
slant
At two O'Clock, P. ~, the Convention
was organized by the election of Judge
Schuyler as President, with Messrs. Root,
DeitzIer, Richie, Gilpatrick, Walker,
Shore, and Whitman, as Vice Presidents;
and Richard Realf, of Lawrence, and 0.
E. Leonard, of Burlingtsn, Secretaries.
Judge Schuyler, on taking the chair,
entered into calm, dispassionate and
philosophic review of the principles which
had been staked in this contest, and ap-
pealed to the manliness of the pro-slavery
party, whether they would not. now that
they were so fairly and so unmistakably
defeated, submit to their discontinue with
graceful resignation, and accept the con-
sequences in the spirit of wise men and
loyal citizens.
A Committee on Resolutions was then
appointed, consisting of the following
gentlemen VIM. Hutchinson, Z. B.
Whitman, G. F. Warren, G. w. Deitzler,
]. B. Abbott, O. E. Leonard, and DR.. j.
P. Root.
These gentlemen having retired, Gen.
James II. Lane, being loudly called for,
came forward and addressed the Conven-
ton.
After the cheering which greeted his
appearance had subsidized, he said, this
was the first time he had ever addressed
free State meeting in Lecompton; they
had come there now to set the ball IN mo-
ton, and they intended to keep it rolling
till it had gathered strength and majesty
and grandeur, the glory of which should
fill the whole earth. Two years and-a-
half ago the Slave oligarchy had estab-
lished the usurping despotism, but the
people of the Territory had spat upon
them and it until now. Without consult
ing the citizens of Kansas, the Territorial
Legislature had authorized a Convention
to frame State Constitution, in view of
which, now that the balance of power had
changed, and the people had declared their
preference for free institutions, it was in
cumbent upon them, as matter of cour-
tesy to the defeated faction, TO request, in
all kindness of feeling, that they would
adjourn the usurpation, misS-called Con-
vention, sine die. In making this request
the people did but retain their old defen-
sive position. 1t was their duty to give
notice to those who had dumped the
claim" of their liberties, to remove them
selves forthwith; and he hoped the intru-
ders would make an actual virtue of an
existing moral necessity, by accepting
and adopting the advice which he, then
rendered.
He then adverted to the election frauds
at Doniphan, Atchison, kickapoo, Marys-
vile and Oxford, and made mastery
eyposc of the subStatum of villainy on
which they rested. Abiding to the vote
cast by the U. S. troops at Kickapoo and
Marysville, he cited the case of contest
ted election in Virginia, wherein, it being
proven that several U. S. soldiers had par
tieipated in the election, the otherwise
elected member was rejected by Congress,
and his opponent admitted to seat; the
action of Congress being based upon the
opinion that soldier in the service of the
Federal Government, has not the power of
locomotion, but is the creature of thewill
of his commander.
VIM. Hutchinson, Chairman of Com
mittee on Business here returned, and re-
ported the following resolutions:
Whereas, the rights of the people to
make their own laws and to elect their
own rulers has become fundamental
maxim with all Democratic governments,
that has constituted the cohesive power by
which they have been held in existence
since the days of the Roman Confedera-
ton: And, arhereas, all alliances and COM
paets, and amenability between the peo-
pie and their rulers are nugatory and in
operative whenever and wherever there is
a violation of this supreme inherent right:
And, sohereas, Congress passed law for
the establishment of a free government in
this Territory, with formal provision that
the people be left free to make their own
laws and regulate their institutions in their
own way: And, a0hereaS, under that act
this Territory has been peopled with an
unparalleled rapidity by population high
ly sensitive to their civil rights: And.
achereaS, at the first election under this
law of Congress, for a Territorial Legisla-
ture, the most shameless and high-handed
frauds were committed by an invading
force from Missouri, with arms and muni-
tions of war, thereby disfranchising the
true citizen and supplanting freedom by
an arbitrary usurpation that would have
disgraced the Draconian age: And, sChere-
as, since that hour there has been no re-
cognized authoritative government in
Kansas, but bloody tyrannizers have been
foisted by the Federal Government to
high places in power, to trample down
our rights, while pretended government,
the fondiing of miserable minority"
has been struggling against tide of num-
bers with barely sickly existence: And,
.Ulereas, one of the offspring of this
usurped Government has been known as
a Constitutional Generation, purportins to
act for the people of Kansas in that most
odCI6Q QulS VI udutiuS OOuStituIlOu Tor
their mutual peace and security, which
must reflect the will of majority, or else
bear upon its surface the evidence of its
own impeachment: And, since it is be-
lieved and fully proved, that more than
seven-eights of the bona fide settlers in
Kansas are zealously opposed to both the
men and the measures combined in that
Convention
: By the people now at Lecompton as
sembled, be it
Rssolvei, That we utterly and forever
protest against the assembling of any body
ofmen at Lecompton, On this day or here
after, claiming the right to act as our
agents in making a Constitution for our
common observance; that we delegate to
no finite power the high responsibility of
Representatives, unless the people are first
The free instruments of their election; and
hat it is the duty Of "the whole people,
% feryently repudiate and spurn any at
;empt to force upon them so contemplate
IN imposition as the profeEsed work of
hat mis-named Convention, and to set