The Washington union., 1857-11-20

general collecting agcn, for the Western states and Texas by
wnuAS TnoxAs Tnos ~ JANIS, DR. A. L. cnirs
and acHAKp IxAK Receipts Of either viii be good
ss-Mr. BRAY authorized collect due the
Union once for subscriptions aud advertisements in the District Of
Columbia,
.---------------------
THE so-cALLED PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF
KANSAS
The whole country will, we believe, bear witness
to the loose, inaccurate and not unfrequently false
and fraudulent manner in which the political news
dispatches, as general rule, are prepared for the
press of our large cities. Much good has been eff
fected by the careful and systematic arrangements
of the agents Of the Associated Press :; but their
field of operations takes in nearly whole continent
they are necessarily compelled, in very many I'M
stances look precarous and unreliable for
small share of their intelligence. In the eastern
and western States il would seem that telegraph
porting is almost exclusively confined to enemies
Of the democratic party for, not content with send
ing deceptive election returns these reporters freely
indulge their political animosities by manufacturing
giving currency to, statements and reports calcu
lated to damage the prospects or good name Of the
democracy
1t was but the other day that telegraphic des-
patch from ST. Louis appeared in the daily papers Of
Boston, New York. PhiIadclphia, Baltimore, and this
city, with the startling announcement that provis-
ional government had been established in Kansas to
go into operation Immediately, with Gen. Calhoun
as governor. This statement appeared in the tee-
graphic column of this paper, as in the telegraphc
column of all the journals which obtain their news
from the agents of the Associated Press. The state
ment was SO absurd, and bore upon its face such
mistakable evidences of the malicious mendacity of
backrepublicanism, that we did not at tho time
conceive it to be worthy of serious comment or con-
tradiction.
But, unfortunately, many Of our cotemporaries,
again and again as they have been deceived by tel
egraphic reports, have ndulgcd in structures the
action of the constitutional convention of Kansas
based on the assumption that provisional govern
ment had really been established in that Territory.
1t does not come within the range Of probability that
tho convention would undertake to re-enact the
black-republican farce at Topeka, for if tho at.
tempt had been made it would have met with
the indignant condemnation of not simply the
entire democracy of the Territory, but of the
entire democracy Of the whole Union. We con.
ceive it to be an insult to the intelligence and pa
triotism of the convention to suppose its members
guilty of harboring such Enthusiastically wick
design against the rights and liberties of their
constituents and fellow-citizens.
Instead of playing the part of rebels revolution
sts the members of the convention have simply dis
charged their duty and discharged it in accordance
with long. established usage. The warrant, we pre-
sumo, for the statement that provisional govern
ment had been established in Kansas by the conven
ton is to be found in the following extract from the
lth section Of the schedule of the constitution just
adopted by that body:
.ssEc H. Before this constitution shall be sent to Con-
grcss for admission into the Union State, it shall be
submitted to all the white male inhabitants Of this Ter
rory for approval OF disapprova as follows The pres
dent of this convention shall, by proclamation declare
that on the 2st day of December 1861, at the different
election precincts established by law which may
be established herein provided in the Territory Of
Kansas election shall be held, over which shall pre-
side three Judges majority of three to be appointed
as follows The president Of this ion shall appoint
three commissioners in each county in the Territory,
whose duty it shall be to appoint three judges Of election
in the several precincts Of their respective counties at
which election the constitution framed by this conven
ton shall be submitted to all the white male inhabitants
of the Territory Of Kansas in the said Territory upon that
day and the age Of tweny-onc years, for mica-
tion rejection, In the following manner end form The
voting shall be by ballot
From a perusal of the above it will be seen that
the reported revolution dwindles down into tho
adoption ON the part of the convention Of the Gus
tomary preliminary measures in order to give legal
constitutional force to the sovereign will Of tho peo
pie Of Kansas In making provision for holding the
election as set forth i'll the section quoted from, the
members of the convention are clearly in the safe
line Of safe precedents. To have acted otherwise
would not only have been neglect of known duty,
but their negligence would have rendered their pre-
vious labors imperative.
We have spoken Of cafe precedents. The same
election provision which appears in the Kansas con-
stitntion appears in the constitutions of Ohio, Ind
ana, Louisiana, Mississippi Illinois, Alabama Mis-
souri, Michigan and we believe in every State con
stitution which has been adopted since 1902, viii
be seen from the following extracts from such Of tho
constitutions as are immediately within reach:
OHIO CONSTITUTION
The president Of he convention shall issue wits of cleo
tion TO the sherifs Of the several counties, requ-
ring them to proceed to the election Of governor
bers OF the general assembly, shers and coroners at
the respective election districts in each county, the
second Tuesday Of January next which elections shall
be conducted In the prescribed by the existing
election laws of this Territory and the members of the
general assembly shers and then elected shall
continue to exercise the duties of their respective offices
until the next annual biennial election thereafter os
prescribed in this constitution, and no longer