St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-06-11
WHY we do not Vote.

1t is assumed by these would-oe
guardians of Kansas politics, that our
own oft-repeated protestatlons OF SUI
periority in numbers, and OF desire
to settle the whole question amlcably
at the ballot box, as well as proper
regard for the reputation of our friends
in the States require us to pursue
different course, but we do not so re-
gard it. Our duty to ourselves and
to our country is plain. We repeat
with a full knowledge of the past, that
we are overwhelmingly in the MAORI
ty-evidenced by the recent election
in Leavenworth, the only place of i'm
portancc in the Territory, beside Lee
compton, where the pro-slavery men
have ever claimed a majority-wit-
messed also by the recent heavy immi-
grafton, which is universally acknowl-
edged to have been Free State men ten
to one. We protest, also, that we are
yet, as heretofore ready and anxious
to submit the question, under proper
safeguards, to the arbitrament of the
ballot box, authorized by FEDERAL
LAW. We must have higher author
ity for SO proceeding than the ambigu-
Gus enactment of mock Legislature,
imposed upon us by mob violence, at
time when. the hands of the Free
State party were comparatively weak
and the law itself, under which we
are required to act, Astounding in reg
ulations of the grossest injustice and
spccious duplicity, and from which
there is no appeal. No guarantee is
given for the submission of the Con-
stitution to the People, after it is
framed, and none ,riii be by the Terrific
rial authorities. Indeed, it would avail
nothing if it should be submitted, as
the law provides that none can vote in
either case whose names are not con.
tanned in the census returns as actual
residents on the 18th day of April
and it is notorious fact that not one
in ten of the known Free State settlers
is contained in those lists-and it is al
equally notorious fact that thousands
OF actual residents of the Stale of Ms
souri, are named in those lists, and will
be here to vote on the day of our cleo
ton.
Put this and that together, and ther
calculate the chances for fair, unbi
ased vote. Add to them the fact, also
that the whole bogus machinery, from
Governor down to Constable, is in tn,
hands Of set of men who have beef
} appointed to their respective positions
for the purpose of making this slav,
: State, and who have heretofore mani
tested no compunctions about tn,
means employed for that purpose, ane
some idea can be formed of the degree.
Of fairness with which the canvass
; will be conducted.
Indeed, in many portions of the Ter
ritory where there is a manifest pre-
ponderence Of Free State settlers n,
enumeration whaterer has been attempted
and consequently, by the provisions
Of the census act, no pail can be held.
The Slave party in Kansas are as
anxious as any of their apologists in
the North, that we shall 60 to the polls
with them. But they have good and
valid reason therefor. They well know
that in the event, if beaten, as we Ger
tainly should be, under the systemat
ic fraud which is to control the cleo
ton, the Free State party, having un
derstandingly, and in the most explic
it manner, acknowledged the validit,
of the Territorial organization, woul'
in future be effectually debarred iron
further opposition to it on the groun'
Of the illegality which it is inheren
! with.
Their invitation is very seductive
but it favors very much of the petit,
allegory of "The Spider and the Fly,
and the moral is too instructive to bt
lost sight of, especially in politics.
Topeka Tribune.