New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-11-30

TIE accounts from Washington would seem to
show that the Kansas question is likely to come
before Congress in shape that will no longer
admit of tquvocatcn or evasion. 1t is not nov
question of Slssefy or Free Labor; that question
has been for the present superseded and set aside
by smother ard more vital and pressing one-the
ristt Of the people to be consulted as TO the Coz
stituiOD uIder which they axe to live.
II is undoubtedly the fact that in certain mum
her Of instances State Constitutions have been
adopted without being submitted to formal vote
of the people. But there was nothing in any one
Of those cares which bore the slightest resemblance
to the exiiirg state Of things in Kansas, or which
can by any ingenuity be tortured into precedent
for what it is now proposed to do there. In all
tn SO instance, the men by whom the Constitution
vas framed Tad been chosen BY full and free
vote Of the people; they enjoyed the en-
tire confidence of the peoples they fully TmPa-
tbized with the people and the people
with them; and they and tho people we're
fully sgred together, ard had perfect nierstand-
irp as TO the sort of Government 10 b, instituted
10 every ere Of these particulars the case OF the
bogus KansA Constitution stands out distinct and
pecu lar. The men by whom that document has
bee framed were never chosen by the people Of
Kansas. The great bulk of the people of Kansas
repudisted tie authority under which the members
of that Convention were chosen. They declined TO
take any part in that election, not merely because
they did net recognize the authority of the bogus
Legislature, under one of whose acts that election
was held, but becau,e they had been taught by past
experience that any attempt to exercise the elective
franchise only subjected them to violence and in.
.ult-ther votes being either totally rejected, or
outcounted by intrusive votes from Missouri So
far from being chosen by full and free vote Of the
people, the whole number Of votes thrown-even
including fraudulent returns and intruders from
Missouri, WHO voted largely at Lea'enwOrth and
ether border towns, where almost the entire vote
was cast-nss below two thOuraId
Sill sss can it be pretended that these men thus
chosen enjoyed the confidence Of the people Of Kan
sas. So far from that, it would have been imposs-
bic to have picked cut sixty men more thoroughly
hated and despised, and that for the best of rea-
.on, in the entire Territory, even including
as part of it, a. the electors seem to have
dcte, tie adjoining counties Of Missouri.
OF the lager part Of them their private
character aud tsbiis were utterly detestable while
among them were to be found active agents in the
pllssDss, burhngs, robberies, false arrests, muir
GERS ard civil war Of which the Free-S State men had
been made the victims. Surely it cannot be pre-
terdtd that the people Of Kansas had any conf
derce, or could be expected to have any confidence
in c, Institutional Convention composed Of such
material.
As to any sympathy between this body
and the people whom they purported to
represent ard for whom they undertook to
act. what has already been said is quite suifi-
Gent to settle that question. Instead of sympathy,
we find the bitterest and purest hostility. 1t
would be hard to tell which defeated the other the
mOst hestiy-the Convention the people Of Kansas
for whom they had undertaken to make COn.tisu-
top, or the great bulk Of the people Of Kansas the
Convention which had assumed to act for them in
this grave capacity. 1t will, at all events, be safe
to cav that there was no love lost between them.
Tier, .san, a. to the fourth and most important
poin. Of all. So far from there being any agree
usnt or III iesstandirg between the members Of the
Cerveb,ion spi the bCdy of the people Of Kansas