Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-12-24


put it into operation without submitting it to
the people, providing in the instrument that
IT Should take effect from and after the date
oI It's ratification, and not before showing
! the constitution derives its vitality. in their
estimation, not frem the authority of the
convention, bat from that vote Of the people
to which 1t was to be submitted for their free
acceptance or rejection. How is it to be SUBJ
mitted 1t shall be submitted in this form :;
Constitution with Slavery or Constitution
with no Slavery" All men must vote for the
constitution, whether they like it or not. in
order to be permitted to vote for or against
slavery. Thns constitution made by Con
Yentlon that had authority to assemble and
petition for redress of grievances, but not
TO establish governmental constitution
made dnder pledge of honor that it should
| be submitted to the people before it took eff.
iect; constitution which provides, on its
lace, that 1T shall have no validity except what
1T derives from such submission-is submitted
to the people at an election where all men are
at liberty to come forward freely without him
drance and vote for it, but no man is pepmit-
| ted to record vote against it. That would
be as talr an election as some of the enemies
OF Napoleon attributed to him when he was
| elected First Consul. He is said to have call
ed out his troops and had them reviewed by
his officers with speech, patriotic and fair in
Its professions, in which he said to them -
Now my soldiers, you are to go to the elec
ton and vote freely just as you please If
you vote for Napoleon, ah is we'll; vote against
nm, and yeu are sure to be shot" That was
far election. Laughter. This election
is to be equally fair. All men in favor of the
constitution may vote for it-all men against
1t shall not vote at all. Why not let them
net / I. i
many man this question. / have asked a
very large number of the gentlemen who
framed the constitution, quite a number of
delegates, and still larger number of persons
who are their friends, and have received the
same answer from every one of them. Iney-
er received any other answer. What is
that! They say if they allow negative vote
the constitution would have been voted down
by an overwhelming majority, and hence the
fellows shall net be allowed to vote at ALL
Laughter
Mr.. President, that may be true 1t is no
part OF my purpose to deny the proposition
that that constitution would have been voted
down If submitted to the people. | believe it
would have been voted down by majority of
four to one. | am informed by men we'll
posted there-Democrats it would be
voted down by ten to one; some say by twen-
ty to one. But is it good reason why you
should declare it in force, without being sub
mltted to the people, merely because it would
have been voted down by five to one if you
had submitted it? What does that fact prove?
Does it not show undeniably that an ever
whelming majority of the people of Kansas
are unalterably opposed to that constitution
Will you force it on them against their will
simply because they would have voted it down
If you had consulted them? If you will, are
you going to force it upon them under the
plea oi leaving them perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in
their ewn way? Is that the mode in which
l am called upon to carry out the principle
of selfgovernment and popular sovereignty
in the Territories--ts force constitution on
the people against their will, in opposition to
their protest, with a knowledge of the fact,
and then to assign as a reason for my tyranny
that they would be so obstinate and so perverse
as to vote down the constitution if had given
them an opportunity to be consulted about it?
Sir, deny your right or mine to inquire Of
these people what their objections to that con-
stitution are. They have right to Judge for
themselves whether they like or dislike it. 1t
is no answer to tell me that the constitution
is good one and unobjeetionable. 1t is not
satisfactory to me to have the President say
in his message that the constitution is an ad-
mirable one, ike all the constitutions of the
new States that have been recently formed.
Whether good or bad, whether obnoxious or
not is none of my business and none Of yours
1t is their business and not ours.
care not what they have in their constitu-
ten, so that it suits them and does not violate
the Constitution of the United States and the
fundamental principles of liberty upon which
our institutions rest. am not going to argue
the question whether the banking system es-
tablished In that constitution is wise or un-
wise. 1t says there shall be no monopolies.
but there shall be one bank of discount in the
State, with two branches. All l have to say
on that point is, if they want banking sys-
TEN, let them have it ]; if they do not want it,
let them prohibit it. If they want bank
with two branches be it SO; if they want
twenty, it is none of my business and it
matters not to me whether one of them shall
be on the north side and the other on the south
side of Kaw River, or where they shall be.
While have no right to expect to be consult
ed on that point, | do hold that the people of
Kansas have the right to be consulted and to
decide it, and you have no rightful authority
to deprive them of that privilege. 1t is no
justification, in my mind, to say that the pro.
visions for the eligibility for the offices Of
| Governor and Lieutenant Governor require
twenty years citizenship in the United States.
If men think that no person should vote or
hold office until he has been here twenty years,
they have right to think so; and if major
! ity of the people of Kansas think that no man
| of foreign birth should vote or hold efhce un.
| less he has lived there twenty years, It'll their
right to say so, and | have no right to inter
fere with them; it is their business, not mine;
but if lived there should not be willing 10
have that'provision in the constitution without
being heard upon the subject, and allowed tc
record my protest against 1t.
! have nothing to say about their system OF
taxation, in which they have gone back and
reserted to the cid exploded system that W.
tried in Illinois, but abandoned because VIZ
did not like it. If they wish to try it and ge
tired of it and abandon it, be it SO but if
were citizen of Kansas ] would prpft by th,