The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-01-09
KANSAS MATTERS.

KANSAS MATTERS.
We published yesterday the account of public
meeting in Lawrence which nominated full ticket
for State officers under the Lecompton constitution.
1t will be seen from the extract from the Leavenworth
Times, which we publish to-day, that similar
meeting has been held in Leavenworth, and that the
action Of the Lawrence meeting has been thoroughly
endorsed. The conservative men Of Kansas, without
distinction of party evidently in favor of the vo-
ting policy, and prefer to appeal to the ballot box
rather than to arms Lane and his reckless follow
ers are on the other side, but even they will hesitate
to pursue their conduct to its logical consequences
Whether they do, however not it is quite clear
that the great majority of the Kansas people are
ready to take the management of their own affairs
into their own hands. They ought all to have voted
for delegates to the Lecompton convention They
ought all to have voted the 2lst December the
question Of slavery They were mised on both
these occasions and they just begin to see their err
ror We look to see the returns of large vote on
4th instant. u
But, whatever may have been the conduct Of the
Topeka men on the 4th, there are two things quite
evident, from the information from Kansas which we
possess u
majority Of the population there, chat the State will
be admitted under the Lecompton constitution. I'd.
The people of Kansas understand perfectly well that,
in that event. they will have control of their own al
fairs and change their constitution at their own
pleasure. We might repeat third proposition, viz:
that, but for outside encouragement, there would
now be no agitation in Kansas, and that all parties
there would be acquiescent in the policy of its adj
mission az State under the Lecompton consti-
tuition At present, however, we pass this
point. Hereafter, they who oppose the pacifca-
ton of Kansas, or who hare opposed it, will be
held to strict account by the American peo-
po. We are contented to await the Judgment
of that tribunal, feeling certain that these malcon-
tents, however high able, will be efectualy re-
buked by the obvious consequences of their
acts Mere tochnicalities yet outweighed, be-
fore the people of the United States, the substantial
merits of great question. The Kansas controversy
was controversy about slavery. The slavery ques-
ton submitted to the people in Kansas. Every
body understands thai and they who declare, in
BREATH that slavery is impossibility in Kansas,
and in the next breath seek to keep alive or reani
mate the old excitement in the North about Kansas
VIII ma they nave fnaue hopeless mistake. Ihey
tread on Serbonian bog and they will sink at last
beyond extrication. Nothing remains for the
settlement Of the Kansas question but that Congress
should admit the Territory as State. Shall Lane
and his ultra adherents defeat this object? Shall
they do 90. even with, the aid Of presidential
prants in the Sates2 There is no other question in
the case than these. Admit the State, and the con-
troversy is at once and ecctually closed. 1t will no
longer agitate the Union. No senator will find it in
his State. No representative will meet it in his dis
trict It will to interfere with the progress of
congressional aAaira But if alter with it, if we
delay IF we hesitate upon trifing techncaties to
admit the State, who does not that the agitation
must still continue, and that il must be met in every
State aud district in the Union Let democrat be
deceived by the loud cries which come from the ex-
piring shrekers in Kansas Their vocation is nearly
Ietno democrat hesitate, either, because these
cries echoed in the States for the first time
by those who could not hear them when they
sounded much loudly through the telegraph and
the press The Kansas question has had it's day. 1t
is the mission Of the present Congress to settle it
forever.