Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-10-01
Replv TO Presidept Buchanan.

ietIer, III WHICH tney SNOW Inc SOpniStfy
monstrosities of the former document in
a mastery and seathing manner. The let
ter occupies over three columns in the
Tribune, and we find that its length makes
it impossible for us to give it entire to-day.
We extract the following as containing the
gist of the whole:
'.Your memorialists again ask whether
case can well be imagined, to which the
name of authorative government could be
applied with more improperly and untruth,
than to the Territorial Government of Kan
sas! Might not even political shameless
ness blush to call it by such name? Was
not the true and only character of this
Government known to you and the whole
country before your Inauguration, and dur
ing the Presidential canvass? Did you
not, with the full knowledge of it, accept
your nomination when you were free to
decline, and thus avoid the responsibility
of executing those nefarous laws, or did
you suppose that the oath of Office would
exempt you from this responsibility! You
admit the Constitutional duty of the Pres
ident to "take cale that the laws are faith
! fully executed" And now, without hold
ing you responsible for any acts of your
predecessor, for which you are not willing
to be responsible and have not fully sane
toned, your memorialists would ask, was
there no law to be taken care of by pre-
venting well known projected invasion Of
the political rights of the people of Kan
sas? no law to be taken care Of afteward
by expelling the invaders from the Terri
tory? no law to be taken care of in respect
to the thefts, the robberies, the incendiar
ism and murders that were perpctrated !?
no law to be taken care of in The mode of
civil administration adopted by the federal
officers? no laws 10 be taken care of in
not appointing officials whose hands were
red with innocent blood, or in removing
bribed and perjured judges! no law to b.
taken care Of by securing to the people of
the Territory that the fundamental right
of the Constitution-the "right to make
their own laws and elect their own rulers!"
no law to be taken care of in giving to
Congress information at least of the state
ofthe Union, and especially in recommending
necessary and expedient measures for the
relief of the people of Kansas from the in
justice, the oppression and the barbarities
to which they were subjected! Had then
Great Britain any such1aws to take care
of in France, when the present Emperor
was enthroned by usurpation, as those
which our .Government-our President
was bound to take care of in our own Ter
ritory? In utter neglect of these laws,
have you not, with a full knowledge of the
nature of this usurpation, its origin, its
progress, its violation of the Constitution
and of fundamental rights, its violence, its
rapine, its massacres, its conhagrations and
its shame, sustained at every step its au-
thors and abetters to this hour? Have
You not sanctioned such conduct by pla-
cling or retaining prominent leaders therein
in official stations!
Again, are the troubles and calamities
of Kansas the legitimate results of the wise
administration-of true and right working
in such an exigency-of our national gov
ernment ?-the most perfect specimen of
human government the world has seen
to our own admiration, the perfection OF
excellence. Surely, such results bespeak
some arrangement, some disturbing ele
ment in the evolutions of machinery so
fitted to do good, SO powerful in high
design.
But if your example in administration,
and that Of your predecessor in office, are
to be followed in future, whenever similar
cases shall occur-if every usurpation of
power, when it has gained temporary
success, is thenceforth to be backed by the
whole power of the federal government,
and forced upon the indignant people on
whom, by fraud or violence, it had impos-
ed itself, where will the end be? How Of
ten will such crises actually occur, result
ing from the very nature of our govern
ment, with such principal in its admins
tration to originate and foster them? What
a temptatation TO party-spirit, thus unre
strained, emboldened, upheld by the govern
ment of the Nation, would be furnished to
carry out its schemes and itstriumphs in yio-
lence and bloodshed! What shall hinder?
Let the administration of the Government
change laSls-Spd such changes must be
surely would the same con-
tests be re-enaefed by way of reprisals for
past injuries andsoppressions? How would
such contests be repeated in Territories and
in States till, in your own mind, would be
revealed, in the very principal which you
assume, weakness in our Government
oretelling its speedy dissolution?
Of the particular considerations by
which you have endeavored to support the
principal of your reply, the
first which demands notice is that, when
you entered upon your official duties,
Congress had recognized the Legisla-
:ure (of Kansas) in different forms, and by |
liferent enactments." Had you informed
your Memorialists what these different
were they might have been
made the subject of distinct examination.
As it is, they can only say that they know
If no forms or enactments of Congess
which could be binding on you as authori-
ative, or which you had reason even
@ regard as evidence Of the validity of
hat Legislature. Do you refer to the act
y which the usual appropriations from
he Treasury were made? Every one
Known in what manner and for what rea-
on that act was passed, and that many
Who voted for it regarded, and still regard
he Territorial Legislature as downright
nor had they any suspicion
hat they were recognizing its validity
low this bill can invest an act of usurpa-