The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-11-05

4
of learning what we might pect of him with
reference to the notorious fraud at the Oxford
precinct. The individual alluded to called at
| our residence on his return, and stated /" that
| the Free State party wo1ld have reason to be
| entirely satisfied with the Governors action. -
This you may receive, not as erroneous but as
q statement that may be safely relied upon.
But to your remarks in the Era of October
LIST, following the extract copied from Mr..
Heath's recent letter to you.
La this article, you 60 over the entire ground
OF debate between the roting and nonroting
portions of the Free State party.
La not single instance have Won taken
| issue with the advocates of the voting nol;cv
IN this article. Indeed, had you been here. and
participated in the discussions, aud been ia.
miliar with all that has been said and done.
you could not more correctly have stated the
position OF those who advocated the voting pol
ICY, previous to the party deciding in Conven.
ton 30 to act. And were you the completest
ptdg'drtst. you could not have more perfectly
copied their arguments
But let US particuIarize. After expressing
your qualification at the new position taken by
the Free State voters IF Kansas, you say, +" your
only regret is, that they did not adopt it in re-
gard to the Constitutional Convention" This
we advocated at an election held in Blooming
Il
delegates to the Topeka Convention, soon after
to be held, and which decided not to 90 into
the constitutional election; for this we were
| most thoroughly denounced. So was the Her.
AID OF Freedom, and all others who dared to
give such advice. you then give the reasons
| urged by those who refused to vote, for thus
refusing, but do not give the reasoning of those
who were in favor of voting
Let me briefly state their arguments. Tie
| voters admitted all the premises of the noa-
voters, but did not admit their conclusion !.
Au agreed that the i,ody claiming the right 81
| legislate. had no right from the people; but 4
part claimed, that inasmuch as the FEEDER, i
| Government had ne seen fit to declare Il
Territorial Government a usurpation, the e
| was some reason why.we should bear the usur y
alton as gracefully as possible, until we could
| throw it off, We said to those who dissent-h
from us, in going to tie polls, we admit nota-
| ing with regard to the right of the Legislatu e
to frame laws for US ,sfich you deny. In goi, e
| to the polls, we do Ut go with the aro,oed ,r
secret intention of giving vatidity to their en-
actments, but with tie svowed purpose of rsa.
dering them q nutli y at the earliest practit D.
BILE moment. We 8, ID to them, our position ia
that OF person VIII pays tax under prote t.
rather than suffer sti greater wrong and injl g.
tice. That the only means of escape offered 90
us from our Cypress, r, were through the Ter T.
toriH Legislature snd revolution. For lie
latter we were not I repaired, nor did we dee N
it necessary. 1t ", our duty to come irto
possession of our Ri hts with as little injury 10
ourselves and .frie, Dc, at least, as possik
That if we were VIZ cked at sea, and a pir.te
vessel would carry 70 safely ashore, we shotJd
avail ourselves of th relief thus offered, ne' er
thinking that by so doing we were ENDORSE sg
piracy. But this w nd not do. They W, re
not going to endorsethe bogus Legislature q y
| how" We asked ten what they did propose
to do. Some woull fight but most of them
would only propose aow not to do it," Sof,e
of the "sagacious lea isrs" would plainly enou yh
indicate how to do IT, for themselves, but ,is
did not satisfy the psople, and so they propo,s ed
to vote it out, and, az you have ere this learns ID,
did it.
The next principal point in your article is
with reference to thu practicabilty of holding
party together, with no cohesive power but Il at
of a simple protest.. You say, ono party as
ever held together by such a policy; and if
adopted, in less tina. two years there would be
no Free State orga,i zstion in Kansas" a. re
| again you are susts. ned by those who from he
| first have been in stvor of inducing the ee
| State party to votsesnd faith in the princi lie
here stated was ore of the principal reast.ns
that gave the early advocates of the voting tol-
| icy courage to openly advocate the doctrine,
The next point 3otce is with reference to
paying tax, or committing ourselves tc
wrong, for the purpose of securing real or
supposed good. o., in other words, suffering
a wrong, or doing 9 wrong. We conceive he
difference to be so great as to need no iust "a
ton. Here again tie voting party and the Ira
are in harmony of tpought, and both have 8 20
ken alike upon the Subject.
So@with reference to the course to be ear.
sued should an unconstitutional or test oath be
required as a condition of voting. At the Cen
| tropolis Convention we said, Should any an
reasonable requiem .ents be made as a condition
of voting, reject thttn, but cote" 1t was ASKED
how we proposed t. vote in case the judgesr re-
| fused to receive IT votes. In this instauce
| we might have cop ed from your article, had it
| appeared in time or our Convention, or you
might have copedxrom our speeches and reso.
lutons, had you ev II received a correct report
of the same. But the reporters present chose
rather to charact..t ize it as " o-Szacery,"
Walkerish," &c.
With regard to ansas being admitted as.
slave State, which of course all would regret,
it has been repeate 1lg stated that this would by
no means dishearte q US.
Having the grea majority of the people with
US, we should cleo; all the officers under the
State Government and if we could not at ouce
execute our own W d, we could at least prevent
our enemies from executing THEIRS as they
would have no Officers to do their bidding.
AS you stated in your closing paragraph, so
we have all along stated, that, before we could
come into possesst n of our rights, we must OBJ
tain possession Of .pe polls. Thus We agree to
the end Of the cha ter or, rather, to the begin
ming of the end 4; for, when we have obtained
possession of theST srritorisl Government, the
voters and the no ,.voters (bv which we mean
| those who have been from the beginning in
| favor of voting, atJd those who came into the
measure of the eleventh or rather the t,celtth
hour) again takew ,sue--the voters advising
that we retain pDlsession of the Territorial
| Government, until we are in possession of a
| State Governments recognised as valid By the
Federal Governm INT, (see resolutions passed
at the CentropolisS c convention, held in August,
| in confirm alton {. this statement; j the non.
voters recommending that, should we acquire
the control of tn, Legislature, we at once re-
peal the entire co ,e, and adjourn sine die and
fall back upon the. Topeka Government.
From this doch ne, no one had publicly dis
sented up to the ne of the Grasshopper Falls
Convention, who as known as Topeka man,
but all such had oppressed themselves in favor
of the doctrine luded to above. Some still
expressed themse yes at the last Convention,
held by the Free tate party, as all had before
done, in favor of .aking the question of throw
| ing off the Territ rial Government an issue in
the recent electiot Others thought it unwise
to publicly state nat they intended to do with
the Government, advance of getting control
of it. You will g by this, that as the party
were divided in heir views with reference to
the propriety of l ting, so they are with regard
to what shall be done with the Government
| owl 80 81 Lc~x