The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-12-19
Message of Gov. Stanton to the Terrific.
rial LEGISLATURE.

Message of Gov. Stanton to the Terrific.
rial Legislature.
LEcoMProS, December 9Th, 1857.
| Felloao-citizens Of the Council and House of
| Representatives:
| In the absence of the Governor, who, by
leave of the President, has gone for a short
time to Washington, on important public
business, and while thus temporarily cloth
ed by the Organic act and with all the pow
ers and duties Of the Chief Executive office
! of the Territory, find myself compelled, by
a sense of duty, to call you together, in or
der that you may adopt prompt legislative
measures, to avert the calamities which i'm
mipently threaten the public peace, From
the representations of a majority OF your
own bodies, as well as from other informa-
ton of an authentic character, have reas-
on to know, that recent events have produ-
ced profound agitation of the public mind,
and that sense of wrong and injustice,
whether well or ill-founded, and an appre-
hensiou of greater evils to arise therefrom,
have aroused the people Of the Territory to
a condition of dangerous excitement. The
proceedings of the late Constitutional Con-
yenton are the immediate cause Of this trou-
bic and alarm.
The law pasred at the last session Of the
Legislative Assembly, providing for the or
! ganiza,ion of 4 Convention to frame Con-
tuition for the government Of Kansas as one
OF the States Of the Union, was adopted at a
period when, unfortunately, the people of
the Territory were divided by bitter hos
tiity, resulting from tue previous state OF
comnoton and civil war. In consequence
of this embittered feeling, and the mutual
distrust naturally thereby engendered, one
| of the parties constituting large majority
of the people, RETAINED a.nos; entirely from
any participation in the proceedings institu-
ted under the law aforesaid. The census
therein provided for Was inperfectly obtain
ed from unwilling people, in nineteen
counties of the Territory; while in the re-
moining counties, being also nineteen in
number, from various causes, no attempt was
made TO comply with the law. Ia some in
stances, poop and officers we're alike averse
. to the proceeding; IN others, the officers
neglected or refused TO act; and in some,
there was but small population, ane no ef-
ficienl organization, enabling the people to
secure a representation in the Convention.
Under the operation Of all these causes com
bined, a census list was obtained Of only
nire thousand two hundred and fifty one
D.. legal voters, confined to precisely one-half
the ccunties of the territory, though these,
I undoubtedly, contained much the larger
part of the population.
At the election which followed in pnrsu-
ance Of the las, only two thousand two hun
dred persons, being less than one fourth OF
the registered voters, participated, in any
manner, in the choice of delegates, either by
voting for those elected, or for other per
sons The average aggregate vote, in favor
Of the successful candidates, was about
eighteen hundred.
1t thus appears that in the election of the
18th June last, for delegates to the Conven-
ton, tn. great mass Of toe people RETAINED
from voting, and left the whole proceeding,
with all its important consequences, TO the
active minority, under wqo,e auspices the
law had been enacted, and also executed, so
far as than could be done by the executive
ctiioers, without the concurrence Of ma
jority of the people.
That the refusal Of the najoritp to 90 in
to the election for delegates, was unfortunate
is now too apparent 10 be denied. IL has
produced ali the evils and dangers of the
present critical hour Ii has enabled body
Of men, not actually representing the Opin-
ions OF the people, though re ,ularly and L.
4 Ultimately clothed with their authority, 10
prepare for them form of government, and
10 withhold the greater wort Of its most i'm
portant provisions from the test Of popular
( Judgment and sanction. II has created the
present profound excitement, consequent up
on the apprehension that Congress may al
init the State under this Constitution, and
that the people Of Kansas may be thus fore
. c. i TO submit to the operation OF q funda-
mental law in the adoption Of which they
had no actual participation.
l, is not my purpose, nor IS 1t necessary
to inquire how far either OF the parties into
=. II =. 30, liz. lIu1d Il
/ upon the proceedings in question, was justl-
fable in the course pursued. The only am
portant question which seems now to con-
Germ the people, or their representatives, IL,
as to the legal and political effects of the
facts as s,a,ed-whethcr they do or DO not
impose upon the whole people an obligation
to accept the work of the Convention, and
TO acquiescc in its plan Of adopting the Con
stitutIon and sending 1t up to Congress for
the admission of Kansas as State into the
Union.
If Convention, organized as this way,
! can be considered erubodying in itself the
{ sovereignty Of the people, the difficulty is
! undoubtedly insuperable, and the omission
/ of the majority to vote last June, is past all
present remedy. But, in my judgement,
I such a position cannot be successfully main
7 tanned. The fundamental principles of pop
/ ular seIfgovernmcnt, and especially OF that
I srepIblican FORM" which the Constitution
of the United States guarantees to every
member Of the Confederacy, excludes the
possibility of the delegation or transfer OF
their sovereignty, by the people, to any au-
thority whatever. In its very nature, that
sovereignty which erects governments and
endowts them with their legitimate powers,
can be exercised only by the people them
selves. |. is incapable of alienation, and is
as inscperab!y inherent in the body OF the
people, as are personal identity and lnoe-
pcndent WILL in each Iodiyiduai.
The people cannot diScst themselves Oft,
any more than an individual can dlvsst him
himself of his own moral responsibility
ANY other theory would invo. We the absurd
ity of the possible subsection o. the sover-
eign TO its delegated agent. For i the SOW
ereignty be actually delegated or Transient
ed, il may evidently be usad to enslaVe the
sovereign people themselves. If the Con-
vention could enact Constitution, and put
it in force of its own authority, 1t could rea-
div adopt and pc, petuate the most tyrann'-
cal provisions; for if the Constitution, as in
this case, may be made permanent until 49,
6s, it might equally be made perpetual and
unalterable.
In its essential character, when about to
frame State Government, the sovereignty
of the people of Territory is identical with
that of the people of State. 1t must nee
essarily be equally as plenary and indepen-
dent; otherwise, the new State would not
stand upon an equality with the old ones.
The perfect equality Of all the members Of
the Confcderacy is the very basis of the Fed
eral Constitution. 1t is true that Terrific
nv cannot become State Of the Union with
out the consent of Congress. But this dis
erection on the part of Congress, does not
imply the power to dictate institutions to the
people of the Territory, or in any way to
restrain, or liimt, or force their sovereignty