New-York daily tribune., 1857-04-27

liberal advertisement from the Buchanan Journals
by urging the Free.State men of Kansas to sue
cumb to the Border. Ruian usurpation, and vote
at the Constitutional Election ordered by the bogus
Legislature Its recent demonstration on that side
is lauded by The Osutgo Palladium as the con-
"scien,ious advice of an honest, practical man.
The following passage from The Era, which Pur-
ports TO quote from and reply to some article found
in our columns, is very generally and exultlngiy
copied by the Administration organs:
1.-THE Free-State men allow them TO do as they
please! Ay, and when the work il done, We SHAH
have an outcry against the frauds of the But
what good will it do hcn' Where will be the proof
Of fraud If the Free-State men allow them to DO
as they please to enter not enter their names and
TO enter spurious ProSlGvery voters and give them
selves no trouble about IT, they may thank them
selves if their rights trampcd upon. We do think
it is h time to give up this policy Of political einas'
CuatiCn.
The issue being thus made upon us, we are con-
strained TO discuss The Era's positions. We will
ask ts attention, then, to the following facts:
|. Tie course which If condemns was never
urged upon the Free-State men Of Kansas by The
TRIBUNE nor, so far as we are aware, by any
other Republican journal outside of their own
limits, We expressly and steadily regarded and
represented the question of voting or not voting at
this Constitutional Election as one which the Peo-
Die of Kansas must decide for themselves, and with
which outsiders should not NEEDLE. Not till the
Free-State party had held their State Convention
and unanimously resolved not to take part in this
bogus Election did We advocate that course. We
followed their lead, and are still following it, All
that is urged against Intermediates and otficous
advisers hits elsewhere than here.
9. We ask The Era TO point out nhat ii IS that
the Free-State men of Kansas might do to promote
their cause but are now neglecting. That paper
talks Of their "entering or not entering their
names" on the bogus registry, as if they had some
choice in the premises. VIII it point us to that
provision of the bogus Convention act which ena-
bes or allows citizen Of Kansas to center his
name" on this registry, or have it entered We
know Of none. The census-takers Gall intensely
Border Ruffian) are empowered to register voters
and the Probate Judges (alsO Pro-Slavery) may
revise the lists; but the voters no wise invited
or authorized to do anything in the premises. The
part assigned them is purely passive one up to the
day ON which the census lists shall be posted.
The census was to have been completed last
month, whcreupOn the act proceeds:
"Slc 4. II shall be- and is hereby made the duty Of
each Probate Judge, upon such returns being made
ufh0ut d,l0y to cause TO be posted at three OF the
most public places in each election precinct in his
county or election district, copy of such list
qualified voters, to the end that every nhabant may
inspect the and apply to said Probate Judge to
correct any he may lind therein IN the manner
hereinafter provided
Our last letter from our correspondent in Law
renee is dated April lG, and up To that day no list
Of rot,rs had been postcd anyrchere in that Douglas
or The adjoining County Of johnson. Our cor
respondent is vigilantly watching for the appear
ance of these lists but yet has obtained trace
Of them. From other parts of Kansas we have
similar adyices, and no tidings of list Of voters
posted ywhere Meantime, weeks are slipping
BY and the Election coming on without chance
being afforded to the Free-Sate to do anything
whatever. How is if, then, that the Free-State
men of Kansas and those in the older States who
Justify their course are asSaed with such terms Of
reproach ss we quote from The Era
g. Adyices from Kansas say that i'll Leaven-
worth, where the Free-State men have just polled
over three hundred votes, under a charter which
confines suffrage to residents of six months or
over, there are but eighty names of Free-State
men on the bogus registry lst-that not half the
Fr,e-State citizens of Lawrence have been listed
that three Thousand MissOurians are listed as resi-
dents of Johnson County, where there yet not
hundred settlers, dc. We do not know that these
statements are true-we cannot know 1t till the lists
shall be- pubshed but we have no doubt that the
thing ia all set-ihat II Pro-Slayery majority will
be- borne on the registry, a Pro-Slavery Convcn-
ti,n elected. and Constitution framed according
". We see no way in which the Free-State men
can escape being beaten by those who deal this
game except by refusing to play.
4 In our view any recognition Of the bogus Ter
ritorial Legislature as a valid and authoritative
b,dy is an admission that SiGrery is ALREADY
LooHy established IN Kansas. This is what We
would avoid. 1t is far easier to keep Slavery cut of
, State than 70 turn il out. We solemnly and con-
fdeu, deny that Slavery has any legal existence in
Kansas To recognize the Territorial Legislature
iu apy wav is to stultfy ourselves and take the
Ground from under our feet. That ground gone,
We do not know when or where We shall touch
terra sr,pa aqap. We choose to stand fast on the
Free state Constitution framed at Topeka, ratified
by the People. sanctioned BY the House of Repre-
sentative and this hour upheld and rejoiced in by
tvo.tbirds Of the settlers of Kansas. That Con-
,titption excludes Slavery-the bogus laws author
ize il. The irregularities attending its formation
sprung directly from BOrder-Ruiiian usurpAtions
and outrages, and were by them rendered unayod-
able. We stand here until We see other ground be-
fore us equally favorable to Freedom.