Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-12-03

NIT Its work fairly to the citizens of Kan
sas. There is no honest submission of the
new Constitution to the action of the people.
1t is provided that they may vote for 'sthe
Constitution with slavery" or for "the Con-
stitution without slavery" but they caunot
vote against the Constitution no matter
how much they may be opposed to its
provisions. they are not allowed an op-
portunity of saying whether they do or do
not desire the document framed by this
Convention to be their fundamental law,
and by the abnegation of this privilege they
are deprived of the full exercise of that
right of forming their own institutions to
which they are entitled by every consider
alton of justice and right
The proposed election is in a less COM
plete and more offensive form than that by
which Louis Napoleon obtained the con-
firmation of his assumption of the position
of Emperor from the French people
While he refused to give them an oppor-
tunlty to vote for such candidates as they
preferred, he still submitted the PROPOSE
tion whether he should not be placed up
on the throne. He at least gave them a
chance to vote him down if they desired to
do SO. This right the Kansas Constitu
tlonal Convention has refused to the peo-
pie of that Territory. The pervading idea
of Democratic government is, that all pub
lic representatives and officials are mere
servants, whose highest duty is to guard
the interests and carry out the will of a
higher power-that of the people, the on
ly true sovereigns. The Convention has
acted as though it was the master instead
of the servant-as though it was deter
mined to fasten and make binding its ac
ton upon its constituency. This strange
and unjust proceeding necessitates the
convietion-that it was afraid of popular
condemnation, afraid to trust its work to
the free action of the people-afraid to do
its duty, and to place the power of final
Judgment upon its proceedings where ii be-
longed-in the hands Of those most deeply
interested in them.'
The Columbus Statesman, in speaking OF
The Constitution, SAYS:
"Take it altogether, il its provisions be
rs represented, it is the worst and most
lmpudent document ever adopted by leg
islatiye or constitutional body, in this
country, so far as we know. 1t is not on
ly tyranical but absurd: yea! impossible,
in one of its provisions. 1t undertakes to
provide, that the property in slaves already
in the Territory shall neper be interfered
with. We shall comment upon this nota-
Bile provision alone because it is sufficient
to demonstrate the knavery and incapacity
of the convention, and the absolute neces-
sity for the unceremonious rejection of its
work. True it is, that in the instrument
the members have adopted, and which they
ask Congress to aid them to fasten upon
the people of Kansas, they have graciousIy
provided the means TO alter some of their
devices.
They must, however, all be endured for
ten years; for the machinery necessary to
an amendment is not to be put in motion
until after 1864, and it will take another
three years to complete the process, though
all the people earnestly desire speedy re-
vision. Calhoun & Co., modestly ask
Congress to help them to bind the people,
hand and foot for ten years, and to cripple
them In one particular forever. When the
period has elapsed after which these high
dictators will consent that the people should
amend their own government, they will
still interdict any interference with proper
ty in slaves. Twenty years may pass, but
Kansas must reman under the tuition of
this Convention. Calhoun may have been
gathered to his fathers, and his coadiutors
have gone to Arkansas or Texas, or, as is
more likely, have turned brawling aboli-
tionists, and set up as shiekers for liberty
in Missouri: but Kansas must remain bound
by project of law, conceived and adopted
in 1857, by these individuals. They can
not undo it themselves, nor can all the
people that may ever inhabit Kansas, by
and with the advice and consent of all the
Congresses and Presidents that may ever
exist. 1t is that palpable absurdity, an ir-
revocable law, whoever attempts to enact
which, deserves the contempt of all man.
kind.
= i < 4
The form of republican government is
embraced in the Kansas Constitution, but
the spirit is absent. The Convention
keeps the word of promise to the ear, but
breaks it to the hope. The members of
the Convention could hardly be convicted
of treason to republicanism, for the corpus
deliciti, king or dictator, is not provided for
in the instrument they have presented
There is, however, no doubt about their in
tention. In, effect King Calhoun and his
Joint sovereigns, for their natural lives, and
after them their ghosts, are to reign abso-
utely over Kansas, so far as the restriction
goes, limiting and destroying its sovereign
ty, and establishing an eternal dictatorship
over posterity. With Lycurgean rigor,
there is a simplicity, or rather stolidity,
in the doings of the Convention which re-
minds us of Stephano and the drunken
Boatswain in Prosperos Island. The sum
and substance of the Constitution framed
by the members is just this, 'we will in
herit here!"
And the pretense they make of having
submitted the Constitution to the people,
when only one clause is submitted, insults
The popular understanding, and will de-
grade the whole country, if it is content.
We contend, then, that there is ample
'eason for the rejection of the Kansas Con-
'titution upon its own merits, even though |
he necessity of its submission to the people
lad never been acknowledged. The op-
oonents of its admission will present an
case, in either aspect. Not