The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-10-31
The Kansas Election.

is so, the whole country has substantial
reason for satisfaction. No one at all IA
miliar with the facts has doubted, for some
months past, that at least tour,fttts OF the
people of Kansas were in favor of making
It Free State. Those who desired
different result, could only hope TO secure
it, therefore, by defraudiDg the people OF
the Territory of their right to regulate
their domestic institutions for themselves.
They could not possibly prevent major
ity of the inhabitants from excluding
slavery, If such was their desire, except
bv disfranchising them, by cheating them
in counting the votes, or by introducing
alien voters to overbear their suffrages.
a victory, secured by either of these de-
vices, could only be short-lired, and would
carry with it more of dishonor than of
substantial advantage. Kansas, sooner or
later, must have become free State: and
those who desired it to be otherwise would
have gained but little by victory at the
present election. The great mass of the
people in the Northern States, of all par
ties, have abundant reason for rejoicing at
the result. The Republicans see in it the
prominent benefit which they hoped to
derive from the election of Fremont; the
Northern Democrats can point to it as
fulfllment of their prediction that Kansas
would not be slave State, even if FIRE.
mont should be defeated; and candid men
of all parties, as well as that very large
portion of the people who never allow
themselves TO be lashed into fever of
passion, for the benefit of any party, will
rejoice at the prospect which this result
J holds out, that Kansas will speedily cease
to be field of national contention, and
that its affairs will be regulated by its own
people, and cease to enter into the party
politics of the country at large.
The result is due mainly 10 the moral
effect of the immense Republican vote of
the last Presidential contest, upon the Ad-
ministration which achieved power in spite
of it. That vote admonished the Presi-
. dent that the experience of President
Pierce'S administration in Kansas could
not safely be repeated, that the people of
Kansas must be allowed fair play, and a
free vote, that they must be protected
from invasion and from fraud as well as
force at the ballot-box, and that the guar
antees of the Nebraska bill must be full
! filed. And it is only just to Mr.. Buchan-
an to say that the course he has pursued
in this matter has been such as must COM
mand the approval of all just and candid
men. He sent to Kansas as Governor, a
man of ability, ofsagacity, and gilmore po-
: litical reputation as well as ambition than
, he could afford to sacrifice Ill a hopeless
crusade for slavery; and he sustained him
in policy just to all parties and calculated.
as well as designed, to secure for the ma
jority of the people, sovereignty over their
, own affairs. The result vindicates the
Administration and Governor Walker
, from the reproaches which were so freely
cast upon them from opposite quarters, fol
) alleged designs of the most opposite char
acter By the ultra pro-slavery men ol
the South they were charged with favor
ing the designs of the abolitionists: while
the anti-slavery press of the Northern
States asserted with equal emphasis that
; they were in league with the slavery pro-
paganda and pledged to carry out its pur-
poses and plans. They seem now to have
been anxious only to secure for the people
of Kansas the right to decide for them
| selves what should be the character OF
, their domestic institutions.
And this result, moreover, if it be such
as is reported, must be especially gratify-
ing to those who have insisted, from the
t outset, that the free State men ought to
r go to the polls and do everything in theiI
power, in the face of all obstacles, to wreSt
, the political sway of the Territory from
| the hands of those by whom it had been
usurped. We need not remind our read
ers that the Times has, from the begin
ming, been of this number, and that for a
long time it stood alone in that position
among journals with whose general pollti-
cal tenor it substantially concurred. 1t
was urged by the leaders of the free State
party in Kansas, and by all the leading
Republican journals outside. that 1t would
: be folly to vote, that their votes would be
rejected by corrupt judges or beaten back
7 by invading Missourians, that Governor
4 Walker and the Administration at Wash
5 ington were certain to connive at, If moi
t openly aid, these endeayors to deprive
: them of their rights, and that, by attempt
E ing to vote, they would only hand them
: selves over, bound hand and foot, to the
spurious authority of the Territorial Gov
e ernment In common with those who
: took different view of the case, we urg
ed that it was the duty of the free State
e men to attempt to give effect TO their prin.
: ciples at the ballot-box, that if defeated
S it was important that they should have
S the means of proving fraud and violence
j if these should be the means by which
: their defeat should be effected, and tha
r everything would be hopelessly lost by
e their supine refusal to take any part IN the
:, only kind of warfare by which, under ou
r Constitution, political rights are ever Sc
!, cured or political wrongs redressed. The
! free State party finally yielded to the forc'
b of these remonstrances, and at the Grass
e hopper Falls Convention, at late day IL
: the canvass, resolved to vote; but they &C
q companied their resolutions with iachry
NOSE predictions of their own defeat, anC
from that day to this some of our Easter
Journals have teemed with prophecies o
disaster and ruin to the free State cause
We have upon our table scores of letter
It from Jealous free State correspondents il
e Lawrence, deploring the decision of thei
- PdAef ~ 81 ~ tAlO POitos tiIOAiCAtHS III
mored invasions of thousands of voter
{ from Missouri. denouncing Gov. Wake
: for refusing to send troops swhere the,
d would be wanted, and predicting, with th,
/. utmost confidence, the utter overthrow o
: the free State party. We have not PLACED
% these epistles before our readers becaus,
o we saw clearly that they were dictated b,
: party passion and prejudice, and not b!
e the cool Judgment of candid spectators
. and that they could, therefore, only mis-
lead the public which should depend up
e on them for information. The result af
IS fords, we think, the best comment upol
h the wisdom and expediency of the cours
!, which was finally resolved upon by tn
mass of the free State party: and tn
whole country has reason to rejoice in tn
1t belief that hereafter Kansas politics vii