The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-05-15
PASsAGE or THE REPORT or THE CDNFERRNCE
# gGTB tCOMM7TTEE tf
(From the jackson MissIssipplan. |

Contrary to the impressions which have entertained
since the unexpected detection Of Douglas the Kansas
difficulty in Congress has been settled upon terms which
fully accord with the southern constitutional and only
proper view Of the subject
We learn by telegraph that the 3lst ult. the bill
reported by the committee OF conference passed the
House by vote of 12 to 103, and the action of the
House concurTed in by the Senate by vote of 81
to o.. BY due of mail have received an au
thentic copy of this bill, much distorted and un-
satisfactorily explained by telegraphic reporters and
have printed it below in the exact form in which it
adopted. <tsI, t4 kE.
Upon examining the BILL it will be seen that, in ac-
cortance with the position assumed by the President and
conended for by the South and that portion of the
North which has stood by the South in the long and
fierce struggle just terminated it fully recognises and
acknowledges the legality and validity OF the Lecomp
ton constitution.
The fundamental principle Of the Kansas Nebraska bill
of lS54that principle which commended it to the a-
yor of the South-was that which imboded in the
declaration that he people of the Territory should de-
termine their domestic institutions in their way
Acting upon this doctrine, the law-abidng people of
Kansas elected delegates to convention to frame State
constitution and upon that instrument the convention
engrafted clause establishing slavery This clause the
convention submitted to popular vote but the follow
of Lane refused to attend the polls and the election
went for slavery by default The black republicans In
Congress assumed that the constitution void because
the convention which framed it not regularly called
and further because the whole instrument had not been
referred to the people, But above and beyond all these
republican opposition to the admission Of Kansas Ad
herring to the execrable dogma that slave constitution
should be received by Congress that the proceedings of
no territorial convention looking to the establishment of
State government should be tolerated by the federal
head recognised and established the institution
slavery the black republicans in and out of Congress-
demanded that Kansas should be driven from the door Of
the Union and remanded to her territorial condition
This unconstitutional and insulting dogma has been
cmphatcally repudated the validity of the Lecompton
constitution has been amply acknowledged and the
right of tho people to determine their domestic nstitu
tions in their way has been affirmed Kansas is
admitted into the Union precisely she has applied
far relates TO her domestic institutions Upon these
subjects the force of her constitution is in manner
weakened, is it changed to the extent Of dottng
crossing The only condition precedent to the full
contamination Of the act Of admission the acceptance
of certain important propositions in regard to the public
lands belonging to the United States within the bouna
ries of the State. These propositions accord in
principle and substance with provisions which heretofore
have been made in every case of the admission of new
States Mississippi among the number--as will be
by the act OF arch L, 1917 Sce revised Code, p 21)
The past policy of the government upon this point is
clearly stated by contemporary in the following para
graphs which have taken the liberty OF transferring
to our own columns
"The public lands in all thc new States held and
disposed of under compact between the United States and
each new State, made at the time of admission, and
made by ordinance Of the State part and law
of Congress the other In most the law preceded
the ordinance and dictated the terms but where the
ordinance preceded the law Congress has sometimes al
lowed It, and at least made the assent OF the State
the alteration of the ordinance condition for the ad
mission Of the State. ~ sA G0 . ptf
The conditions reciprocal. The States
quired to admit the proprietary rights Of the United
States in all tho public lands to exempt them pepctu
ally from taxation, and to exempt thcm when sold,
from taxation for five years in the hands of purchasers
not to tax residents higher than residents and TO
admit the freedom of all the navgabe waters the
State, without toll or tax BY the State as public high
C. ~ thnT
States their part agreed TO make the reservations Of
the school sections and for similar educational purposes