The Washington union., 1857-11-24


No fairlninded man can read the foregoing and then
deny that the cons euon has securedt TO people Of
Kansas the right to have free or slave State Its
contemplate quibble TO say that If majority vote
for the constitution without slavery 1t viii still be
a slave State, because ''the right Of property IN
slaves now in the Territory shall in no manner be
interfered with The convention could not have in
terfered with the right of property in the slaves now
in Kansas. That right is fixed and declared TO be
valid by the highest Judicial authority, and no pow
existed in the convention to do otherwise than re-
spect it, To all ntents and purposes, therefore, Kan
sas will be free State if majority vote for the
constitution without slavery, and the true intent
meaning and spirit of the Kansas act viii have been
fulfilled.
But those Of our democratic cotemporaries who
object to the action Of the convention insist that the
whole constitution should have been submitted to
popular vote and because that not done they
denounce the convention as vioators of the princi
pie of the Kansas law. Will any of our object
ing contemporaries pretend that when the Kansas bill
was pending it ever was contemplated by anybody
that the popular clause had reference to
any other subject than that of slavery Surely not
Then it is sticking in the bark to say that
the convention has failed to carry out the great OBJ
ject and the true spirit of the Kansas law.
The question however, recurs, why did the con-
vention determine to submit only the slavery clause
to the popular judgment? Was it because the peo-
pie ought not have the privilege Of passing judg
ment on their fundamental law9 This could not be
the reason, because the only question about which
the popular mind was known to be agitated and di-
vided was submitted There had been no agitation
or division any other subject than slavery and in
submitting this the convention showed that il was
not designed to impose constitution on the people
containing any provision which they had indicated
a desire to express their judgment Still the inter-
rogatory may be pressed-if the convention were
willing to submit the slavery clause to the people,
why not submit the residue Of the constitution We
answer what suppose to be the true reason The
convention wished Kansas TO be admitted as State.
They wished it to be admitted either as free or
slave State, as the people might choose, and they
wished it to be admitted promptly that there might
be an end Of the agitation and trouble which had
long disturbed the peace of the country The only
way to attain this important object to submit for
popular judgment the only subject which had caused
the agitation and the disturbance of the national
peace. 1t was well known that those who would
vote against the slavery clause would also vote
against every other clause in the constitution
not because they objected to any other than the
slavery clause, but because they denied the legal
authority of the convention to sit and make legal
constitution, and because they were all the time in
ssting that they had already made legal constit,l
ton at Topeka. TO submit the whole constitution,
therefore, was to endanger the fate Of the whole
and to prolong the agitation of the slavery question
II was known that the advocates of the Topeka con-
stitution would vote against any constitution made
bv the legally constituted convention. 1t was not
simply that they were opposed to slavery, but they
were factousy bent on having no constitution that
was made by body organized in pursuance OF the
laws of Kansas and none but that illegally made at
Topeka Under such circumstances, the conyen-
ton determined to tender compromise that would
show to the whole country that they were sincerely
anxious to restore peace and quiet to the country
They determined to carry out the spirit of the Kan
sas law by securing to the people the right to have
a free or a slave State We think the deliberate
Judgment of the country will sustain the action Of
the conventions whilst the opposition to its action
fiercaly manifested by the black republicans, con-
cusively shows that continued agitation is the real
object they have in view. We repeat our deep re-
gret that any of our democratic coemporares should
be found cooperating with them in course calcu-
lated to prolong agitation. We repeat our earnest
hope that when they that the true issue is be-
tween the Topeka and the Lecompton organizations
they will no longer be found cooperating with the
black republicans.
GOVERNMENT PAPER MONEY.
There are a few who wish our government to en-