Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-09-17

Constitution, to stake care that the laws be
faithfully executedw It was for this pur-
pose, and this alone, that ordered mill
tary force to Kansas, to act as posse COM
itatus in aiding the civil magistrate to carry
the laws into execution.
s The condition of the Territory at the
time, which need not portray, rendered
this precaution absolutely necessary. In
this state of affairs, would [ not have been
justly condemned had left the marshal and
other officers of like character impotent to
execute the process and judgments of the
courts of justice established by Congress, or
by the Territorial Legislature under the ex-
press authority, and thus have suffered the
Government itself to become an object of
contempt in the eyes of the people? And
yet this is what you designate as forcing
people of Kansas to obey laws not their
own, nor of the United States" and for do
ing which you denounced me as having vio-
lated my solemn oath. ask. what else
could [ have done, or ought to have done?
Would you have desired that [ should a.
bandon the Territorial Government, sane
toned as it had been by Congress, to illegal
violence and thus renew the scenes of civil
war and bloodshed which every patriot in
the country had deplored? This would, in
deed, have been to violate my oath of Office,
and to fix damning blot Oh the character
Of my administration.
[ most cheerfully admit that the necessi-
ty for sending a military force to Kansas to
aid in the execution of the civil law reflects
no credit upon the character of our country.
But let the blame fall upon the heads Of the
guilty. Whence did this necessity arise :?
A portion of the people of Kansas, unwill-
ing to trust to the ballot box-the certain
American remedy for the redress Of all
grievances-undertook to create an indie
pendent government for themselves. Had
this attempt proved successful, it would, Of
course. have subverted the existing Govern
ment, prescribed and recognized by Con-
gress, and substituted a revolutionary gov
eminent in it's stead This was usurpa-
ton Of the same character as it would be for
a portion of the people Of Connecticut to un-
dertake to establish a separate government
within its chartered limits, for the purpose
of redressing any grievance, real or imagi-
nary, of which they might have complained,
against the legitimate State Government
Such principle, if carried into execution,
would destroy all lawful authority, and pro-
duee universal anarchy.
[ ought to specify more particularly con-
dition of affairs which [ have embraced on
iy in general, terms, requiring the presence
Of military force in Kansas The Con-
gress Of the United States had most wisely
declared it to be s'the true intent and mean
ing Of this act (the act organizing the Ter
ritory) not to legislate slavery into any Ter
ritory or State, nor to exclude it threrefrom,
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
lions in their own way, subject only to the
Constitutitution of the United States" AS
a natural consequence, Congress has also
prescribed by the same act, that when the
Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as
State, it "shall be received into the Union,
with or without slavery, as their constitu-
ton may prescribe at the time of their ad-
mission"
Slavery existed at that period, and still ex-
lists, in Kansas, under the Constitution of the
United States. This point has at last been
finally decided by the highest tribunal known
to our laws How it could ever have been
seriously doubted is mystery. If con-
federation of sovereign States acquire new
territory at the expense of their common
blood and treasure, surely one set of the
partners can have no right to exclude the
other from its enjoyment, by prohibiting
them from taking into it whatsoever is re-.
cognized to be property by the common
Constitution. But when the people-the
bona fde residents of such territory-pro-
coed to frame State constitution, then it is
their right to decide the important question
for themselves whether they will continue,
modify, or abolish slavery. To them, and
to them alone, does the question belong, free
from all foreign interference
In the opinion of the Territorial Legisla-
ture of Kansas, the time had arrived for en-
tering into the Union, and they accordingly
passed a law to elect delegates for the pur-
pose of framing State constitution. This
law was fair and just in it's provisions. It
conferred the right of suffrage on ''every
bona fde inhabitant of the Territory" and,
for the purpose of preventing fraud, and the
intrusion of citizens of near or distant States,
most properly confined this right to those
who resided therein three months previous
to the election. Here fair opportunity
was presented for all the qualified resident
citizens of the Territory, to whatever organ
ization they might have previously belong
ed, to participate in the election, and to ex-
press their opinions at the ballot-box on the
question of slavery. But numbers of law
less men still continue to resist the regular
Territorial Government. They refused eth
er to be registered or to vote and members
of the convention were elected, legally and
properly, without their intervention. The
convention will soon assemble to perform