Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-11-21
.Ahairs in Kansas

on the 7th instant, having prepared Constitution
for the State and also adopted the following sections
on the subject Of slavery, which are to be submit.
ted separately to the people for their approval or
rejection. These sections sanctioning slavery, were
adopted in Convention by vote Of forty to tsoo,
thus showinga strong proslavery feeling. If we
may judge of the opinions Of the people by this ac
ton Of their delegates we may safely assume that
the sections referred to will be approved at the polls.
1t is also stated that provisional government for
the Territory had been formed with Gen. Calhoun
at its head Some of the papers insist that this is
So and that the object of this provisional govern
ment is to supersede Gov. Walker; while the Wash
ington Star maintains that no such government has
been formed, but that Gen. Calhoun has been ap-
pointed with Others by the Convention, to discharge
certain duties connected with submitting the slavery
sections to the people, and laying the Constitution
of the new State before Congress.
The Constitution, it seems is not to be unlimited
to the people, but only the sections on slavery. 1t
is no easy matter at any time to gather the facts
about affairs in Kansas and there maybe some mis-
take in this respect The sections referred to are as
follows: -.
PREAMBLE.-The right of property is before and
higher than any constitutional sanction and the right
of the owners of slave to such slave and its in
is the same and as invioable the right of
the owners of any property whatever
Sec. l. The Legislature shall have power to
pass laws for the emancipation of slaves without the
consent of their owners, or without paying their
owners previous to their emancipation full equiv
alent in money for the slaves emancpated. They
shall have no power to prevent emigrants to the
State from bringing with them such persons as are
deemed slaves by the laws Of any one of the United
States or Territories so long any person of the
same age or description shall be continued in slave
ry by the laws of this State; provided that such
person or slave be the bona 1sle property of such
emigrant and provided also that laws may be pass
ed to prohibit the introduction into this State Of
slaves who have committed high crimes in other
States or Territories. They shall have power to
pass laws to permit the owners of slaves to emaRc
pate them saving the rights of creditors, and pre-
venting them from becoming public charge They
shall have power to obfge the owners of slaves to
treat them with humanity, to provide for them nee
essary food and clothing, to abstain from all injuries
Ito them) extending to life limb and in case of
their neglect refusal to comply with the direction
of such laws, to have such slave slaves sold for
the benefit Of the owner or owners.
SEC. 2. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of
higher grade than petit larceny, the Legislature shall
have no power to deprive them of an impartial trial
by petit jury.
SEC 8. Any person who shall maliciously dis
member or deprive q slave of life shall suffer such
offence had been committed free white person,
and on the like proof except in case of nsurrection
of such slave"
If this preamble and these sections should be rat
flied by the people of Kansas, all that Southern men
have asked, and more than many of them expected,
will have been obtained.
The latest news from Washington, BY telegraph,
to the Petersburg papers, is as follows: "The Admin
istration received the schedule and outline of the
Constitution of Kansas and will sustain the action
of the Convention"
Gov. Walker, of Kansas, was expected to reach
Washington on Saturday or Monday last He was
on his way there
The New York Tribune is furious on Kansas af-
fairs, as the following from that paper of Tuesday
last will show:
"KANsAs.-The gseat fraud by which an alien and
odious government is sought to be permanently i'm
posed the People of Kansas, approaches its finale
The bogus Constitutional Convention closed its la
bors on Saturday, the 9TH inst, having completed
its State Constitution and decided not to submit 1T to
the People. There is pretense of submitting the
question of Slavery or No Slavery by itself but the
overwhelming VOTE yet Slavery continue to exist in
Kansas if this Constitution is her supreme law No
provision is made in it for abolshing expelling
Slavery, and the bare rejection of the Commuters
contrary by expressly and fully confirming and per-
petuatng the claws" Of the bogus Legislature, the
Convention has provided for the perpetuaon of Slav
cry at all events. The pretense of submission is
fraud and the refusal to submit the Constitution it.
self is outrage fifty perfecng the frauds whereof
Kansas has been for three years the victim
But the bogus Convention did not stop here It
actually constituted Prooisional Government for
Kansas whereof its President, .. s. Surveyor Gen.
eral John Calhoun, is made Gooernor This bold
= ii wv
Secretary Stanton on. the one hand, and the new
Territorial Legislature on the other Thus the victory
Just won by the Free-State mens.is to be nullfed
and the power once more snatched from their hands
by usurpation, and vested in the master spirits of
Border Ruffianism. The calculation evidently is to
rush this Constitution through our new Democratic
Congress forthwith, and thus turn Mr.. Parrot out
of his seat as Delegate and have State Election
under the auspices of the new Provisions! Govern
ment. which will provide the judges. superintend
the polls and count the votes In that case Oxford
Kickapoo and MCGEE County may be relied on to
Guido all their past achievements, and to have adj
miring competitors all along the Missouri line.
Kansas never seemed in greater peril than now,
yet We do not doubt her ultimate triumph. But
there is doubtless to be rush made to put this Off
spring of villany and usurpation through Congress
once and it indispensable that the people Of the
Free States should forthwith be made fully acquain.
ted with its origin character and purpose The chief
danger lies in the fact that majority of the journ-
ais, especially those Of the great cities, habtually
conceal the important occurrences from day to day
Transporting in Kansas, where they cannot be dis
torted to the prejudice of the FreeSate party Not
one single democratic" or National American
paper issued throughout the Free States has reeu
lar correspondent in Kansas pretends to give
full accounts of what takes place there. This sys.
temate suppression is, even more than the simuta
neous distortion, treason to the cause of Free Labor
1t reveals guilty consciousness that what is called
Democracy" in this quarter is only to be upheld
by smotherng the truth. And for this we see no
present remedy"