The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-03
WASHINGTON, ID. c..
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
KANSAS AFFAIRS.

morning. The deputy marshal of Douglas
county was on bis way to Lawrence, with up
wards of fifty warrants in his pocket, for the
: arrest of the most prominent of the Free State
men there. No resistance was contemplated.
1t is evident, h wever. that q new era is about
to he ipaugursted. Possibly it will be distin
guished as one praeminently disastrous to the
Territory and the Union. The policy that this
movement indicates, forebodes no good, either
to the settlers or the country. 1t is the despe-
rate struggle of corrupt politician to extricate
himself from selfbegotten difficulty.
Let US briefly review the present state of the
Territory.
There are over seventy thousand inhabitants
in Kansas. Nine-tenths are in favor of free
labor and free soil. The Pro-Slavery party is
an Insignificant minority in point of numbers,
but dominant through fraud and Federal assist
ance.
Both parties have taken the preliminary steps
for the admission of the Territory as State
into the Union. The Topeka Constitution is
the result of the movement of the Free State
men. Nearly three thousand citizens voted for
the delegates who framed that instrument
Seventeen hundred and some odd voted in favor
of 1t, when submitted to the people for ratif.
cation. The causes which produced this d.
unfinished vote are familiar to our readers. Ruf
hsnism was rampant in several districts, and
there the polls were not permitted to be opened
At Leavenworth, which gave four hundred
votes, the balotoox was destroyed by a Platte
county mob, and consequently the opinion OF
the people of that precinct was not recorded
The winter, too, was setting in with unusual
severity, and the squatters who had but recent
ly come from the defence Of Lawrence were
busily engaged in fitting up their winter quar-
tiers.
The Constitution has been again submitted
to the people. Over ten thousand votes have
been recorded in favor of it. The right of
voting was limited, by Governor Robinson's
proclamation, to squatters of six months res
idence. If all the Free State men who favor
the Constitution had been qualified to vote on
1t, there Is every reason to believe that twenty
five thousand men would have ratified it at the
polls.
1t is thus unquestionsbly the choice of the
people of Kansas.
Over seventeen hundred persons-some of
them oD-residents-recentlye elected a Consti-
totionsl ConveIti0n-s Pro-Slavery body. The
delegates thus chosen meet in September
These men have the moral hardhood to claim
that they truly represent the people of the Ter.
ntory! In this villianous pretence they are
sustained by the Government. Douglas, and
o'her aders of the ebo-shin Democracy, whose
God is their nigger,) are preparing the way for
the recognition and adoption of their Constitu.
tion.
This Constitution, if submitted to the people
OF the Territory at a far and free election,
would be voted down BY an overwhelming ma.
jority. The members know it; the nullifers
know 1t; the Administration knows it. They
are trying, tn retore, to avert this inevitable
result. Two plans have been proposed. The
FIRST is. II refuse TO submit the Constitution TO 3
popular vote. The nullifers favor that scheme
The sec0,d IS, 10 sustain the Constitution, ap
parentY 0y the people, but in fact By fraud
nlent spportonmeut and fraudulent returns
The Administration evidently favors this plan.
The necessary steps have been taken to make
this schere Successful. Nineteen counties of
Kansas containing within a fractian of one
halt OF the population, but with hardly bakers
dozen OF National Democrats, or propsgsndists.
have received only three Representatives while
the otter countits, fourteen in number are
kindly allowed thirty-.ix Delegates and Senatorsi
The districts also are so divided as to render
fraud cay of execution and difficult of deec-
ton. Not satisfied with these truly infamous
arranre meu S, they have added still another
pr stationary plan. The returns are to be
made n the county commissioners, who are the
sole and final recorders These men are filter
for a Penitentiary, we are told, as a general
rule, than place on the bench.
s mech for the Constitutions
Equally odious the /" laws of Kansas"
10 the vast IN ,ri'y of thc people. Our readers
are acquainted with the character of these
enactments. They are a disgrace to the men
who framed, the Government which sustains,
and the age which produced them.
Gov. Walker was selected by the Govern
ment as the executor Of its Kansas policy He
went there and spoke soft and soothing words.
If promises had been performances, he would
have deserved, ere this, the gratitude of the
whole country; but as they are not and as be
Is playing, and has been playing, double
game, he deserves the execratons of both Sec
tons CT the Union, and is justly receiving his
due.
He promised the people that all of them
should have vote, at free and fair election,
IN October next, not under the Territorial eff.
Gals, whom the Free State men repudiate, but
by authority Of the Congress of the United
States. he has no intention to fulfill this
promise. He wishes them to vote under the
bogus Statutes and they, as be knows, re
qulre the payment of tax as a qualification
for the right of suffrage. They disfranchise
for all practical purposes onehslf of the peo
pie IN the Southern part of Kansas they dis
franchise the foreign element, which the Ne
brsska bill enfranchised, and which polls twelve
hundred Free State votes; and they provide, as
We have shown, the most Efficient methods for
the penetration of fraud.
The Free State men cannot vote, therefore
without stultiiying and disgracing themselves,
before the world.
Was not this triumph enough?
1t seems not The old system, adopted BY
Shannon, of legal persecution, is to be renewed.
The leaders are to be imprisoned. Walker is
bound to Iule or ruin. We fear the result.
We believe that the mel ority should and will
rule IN Kansas but in obtaining their just au.
thority the country may be involved in ruin.
The Free State men meet in Convention al
Gras shopper Falls, IN two or three weeks, to
deliberate to their future plans and policy
OF course they will refuse to participate in the
approaching cleo ion. Thus the difficulty will
be increased and prolonged.
We appeal to the President, by all his love
of the country and the party, to recall at once
this quarrelsome pscifcator," whom he has
unluckiy Inflicted the people of Kansas.
Let the people rule. l. they want their Tope-
ka toy, In heavens name let them have 1t
Better have 1t Than get a worse! Better &C mi'
Kansas a free Stale than make it an aboli.
ton meDsgerie. Inc prUtracIion of these diff.
culIies is chsrgesbie alone to the Administra
ton. The people there have never commenced
war. 1t Las been IL h:cted On them often and
long enough eiher for their coed or the safety
OF MlstoCri. Tney are exasPerated by the long
continued outrage, aud II CIVIL STRIFE is agaIL
renewed, the consequences may be more dlsas-
trous 10 US, OF Missouri, than even to Kansas
Let Walker be recalled Let the people
rule. LIST Kansas be admitted as free State
LIST US have peace.
he Na.y,or, X kV..Ll, ~.