Quasqueton guardian. (Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1856-1858, 1857-12-17

require tnat we Snouiu auopt Sucn meas
ures as will be effectual in restricting onr
citizens from committing such outrages.
Citizens of the United States, who are
established in business in Panama have
had their property seized and taken from
them, and have otherwise beeu treated
by the authorities in an insulting and ar
bitrary manner, which requires demand
for these purposes that will be made in
firm but conciliatory spirit.
This will the more probably be grant
ed if the executive shall have authority
to use other means in the event of refu-
sal. This is accordingly recommended.
The President next cor siders the Kan
sas question at length, saFing that under
the Kansas Nebraska act, the convention
was not bound to submit any other portion
Of the instrument to an election except
that which relates to the domestic insti
tuition Of slavery.
This will be rendered clear by a sim
pie reference to its language. AT this
election every citizen will have an oppor-
tunity of expressing his opinion by his
vote whether Kansas shall be received
into the Union with or without slavery"
and thus the exciting question may be
peacefully settled, in the very mode re-
quired by the organic law. The election
will be held under the Legitimate author
ity, and if any portion of the inhabitants
refuse to vote, a fair opportunity to do so
having been presented, this will be their
own voluntary act, and they alone will be
responsible for the consequences.
Whether Kansas shall be free or a
slave state, must eventually, under some
authority, be decided by an election, and
the question can never be more clearly
or distinctly presented to the people than
it is at the present moment.
Should this opportunity be rejected,
she may be involved for years in domes-
tic discord, and possibly in civil war, be-
fore she can again make an issue now SO
fortunately rendered, and gain the point
she has already attained. Kansas has for
some years occupied too much public at
tention. 1t is high time this should be
directed for more important objects. If
once admitted in the Union, whether
with or without slavery, the excitement
beyond her own limits, will speedily pass
away, and she will then, for the first time
be left as she ought to have been long
since, to manage her own affairs in her
way. If her constitution on the subject
of slavery, or any other subject, be dis
pleasing to a majority of the people, no
human power can prevent them from
changing it. Within brief period un-
der these circumstances it may we'll be
questioned whether the peace and quiet of
the whole country, are not Of greater i'm
portance than mere temporary triumph
of either of the political powers in Kan
sas. Should the constitution, without
slavery, be adopted by the votes of a ma
jority, the rights of property in slaves
now in the territory, are secured. The
number of these is very small, but if it
were greater, the provision would be
equally just and reasonable. These
slaves were brought into the territory un-
der the constitution of the United States,
and are now the property of their mas
ters. This point has been finally decided
by the highest judicial tribunal of the
country, and this on the plain principle
that when confederacy of sovereign
States acquire new territory at their
joint expense, equality and justice de-
mand that the citizens of one and all of
them shall have the right to take into it
whatever is recognizable as property by
the common constitution. To have sum
mariy con6scated the property in slaves
already in the territory, would have been
an act of gross injustice, and contrary to
the practice of the older States of the
Union which have abolished slavery.
Il Utah next claims the attention of the
President. This is the first rebellion that
has existed in our Territories, and shu-
manity itself requires that we should put
it down in such manner that it shall be
the last. To otrihe with it would be to en-
courage it, and render it formidable
We ought to go there with such an impo-
sing force as TO convince those deluded
people that resistance would be vain, and
thus spare the effusion of blood. We
can in this manner convince them that
we are their friends, not their enemies.-
In order to accomplish this object it will
be necessary. according to the estimate
. of the War Department, to raise four