The Kanzas news., 1857-10-24
rha Leeompton Meeting.

The Lecompton Meeting.
The following resolutions were adopted at
the Mass Convention of the Free State citi-
zens of Douglas county on Monday last
Judge Schuyler was appointed President,
and Messrs. Root, Shore, Walker, Whitman,
Gilpatrick, Deitzler, Richard Realf, and o.
E. Learned. Secretaries.
Gen. Lane was the only Free State speak
or. Gen. Maelean, Col Saml. Young, of
Westport. and Stewart, of Independence,
No., followed in behalf of the Pro-Slavery
usurpation. We have no space for the
speeches. The resolutions are precise and
to the point, and ought to be ratified in eve
ry district:
WHEREAS The right of the people to make
their own laws and to elect their own rulers
has become fundamental maxim with all
Democratic governments, that has consti-
tuted the cohesive power by which they have
been held in existence since the days OF the
Roman Confederation and whereas all al
liances and compacts, and amenablllty be-
tween the people and their rulers are nuga-
tory and imperative whenever and wherever
there is a violation of this supreme inherent
right; and whereas Congress passed law
for the establishment of a free government
in this Territory, with a formal provision
that the people be left free to make their own
laws and regulate their institutions in their
own way and whereas under that act this
Territory has been peopled with an unpar-
alleled rapidity by population highly sen
r-ha slf
the first election under this law OF Congress
for Territorial Legislature the most shame
less and high handed frauds were committed
by an invading force from Missouri with
arms and munitions of war, thereby DIS
franchisin9 the true citizens and suppiant-
inc freedom by an arbitrary usurpatlon that
would have disgraeed the Draconian age
and whereas since that hour there has been
no recognized authoritative government In
Kanzas, but bloody tyrannizers have been
foisted by the Federal Government to high
places in power, to trample down our rights,
while pretended government, the fondling
of miserable minority" has been strug-
Cling against tide of numbers with barely
siekly existence and whereas one of the
offspring of this usurped Government has
been known as a Constitutional ConUentiOn,
purporting to act for the people of Kanzas
in that most sacred duty of framing Con-
stitution for their mutual peace and security,
or else to bear upon its surface the evidence
of its own impeachment ; and since it Is be-
| lieved and fully proved that more than sew
en-eighths Of the bona ide settlers in Kan
zas are zealously opposed to both the men
and the measures combined in that Conven-
! ton
By the people now at Lecompton assem-
Resolved, That we utterly and forever
protest against the assembling of any body
of men at Lecompton, on this day or here
after, claimin the right to act as our agents
in making Constitution for our common
observance; that we delegate to no finite
power the high responsibility of Represent
| atives, unless the people are first the free
instruments of their election: and that it is
the duty of ''the whole people, to feryent-
" repudiate and spurn any attempt to force
upon them so contemplate an imposition
as the professed work of that misnamed
Convention, and to set at nought whatever
may emanate from them.
| ResoEUed, That said Constitutional Con
vention, representing in no sense the opin-
ions of the people of the Territory, as
shown by the recent popular vote, will, i
they have any respect for themselves, any
regard to the will of the people of this Ter
ritory, or any concern for the peace of the
entire country; if they value the opinions o.
the civilized world, or the impartial decis
ions of posterity, Immediately, on the as
sembling of quorum, adjourn sine die.
ResoIced, That the late frauds in the
election at Oxford, Kickapoo and other pla-
ces, for the purpose of overcoming the po-
tency of aIsovereign people at the ballot-box,
are unparalleled in enormity and imPu-
decnce, and that all who are implicated in
them deserve the lasting execration of eve
ry friend of our common country.
ResOIUed, That We recommend the ap-
pointment of Committee to investigate
and expose the recent frauds upon the elect
i've franchise, and to provide for the sum
mary punishment of all who are implicated
therein.