The Washington union., 1858-02-16

responsibility and duty of Congress has long .yo
begun. Promptness well efficiency of action !.
imperative If forces forwarded te Utah inaJs,
quate to meet the unexpected exigency that h,,
arisen there, Congress alone will have to answer n
the country for the consequences. II the national
legislature does not deem it fit to put down this tre,
son, but on the contrary, determined TO surren
der the question of rebeoa and leave the Territory
TO the rule and possession Of Brigham Young tits
at least proper that they should that fact
in positive terms, and direct our army to be with.
drawn from the possessions OF the Mormon herafch
1t will not suffice to meet this distinct and imper
ative issue by vain repetitions of the old thread
bare cant against standing armies. 1t will not do
TO meet the clear issnc whether most infamous re-
bellion shall be tolerated queed, with stale hon.
lies upon the dangers TO public liberty from an i'm.
peral sodiery. The abstract antipathy of our peo.
pie to historical idea may be strong; but much
stronger, we think would be the real indignation Of
the American people at seeing our troops retiring
from before the army Of Brigham Young unable
through want Of numbers and supplies denied
them by Congress- crush out that impious treason
The effective force of the United States amounts
to less than thirteen Thousand the population
of our country TO thirty millions OF souls. Nicely
strung indeed, must be the nerves of those modern
American statesmen who find in this disproportion
between the military and popular classes ground Of
fear apprehension.
General Davis has demonstrated in his several
speeches in the Senate the necessity for increase
of the army rrespectvely Of the Utah exigency and
the country will expect better reasons from those
who oppose it than the whipped syllabub of foh
and defamation into which the old ontcry against
standing armies and public debt has been kneaded
The Kansas policy of Mr.. Buchanans admnistIa.
ton has been assailed with bitterness scarcely par
alleled in the annals of political warfare. For two
months past all backrepublicandom has resoundcd
with denunciatons of the Lecompton constitution
its friends and supporters 1t has been branded as
an Infamous fraud, a stupendous swindie, a slave
wrought forgery, which MFR. Buchanan and the demo
cratic party endeavoring, by all the means in their
power, to force upon the people Of Kansas. Butt
is little remarkable that in all that has been said
against this instrument Gifts enemies has yet
ry question. That element in it's character has been
ercely assailed but aside from that it has not been
attacked. II is admitted all hands to be repubi.
can in substance and in FORM and allowed to be well
adapted to the wants and necessities Of the people
| for whom it was framed. All that has been said
and done against its acceptance both in and out Of
Congress-, is either directly indirectly attrbua
BILE to the single fact that it recognises and protects
the institution Of slavery No other feature in it,
we repeat has been seriously assaiIed, and nobody
in or out of Kansas has really objected to it upon
any other ground. This being 80, and the people Of
Kansas having had fair opportunity of ratifyingo
rejecting this feature, the question naturally arises
what wrong has been done them by the failure Of the
convention submit for their ratification or rejec
ton the other portions unobjcctionable portion
of the constitution. The real question at issue and
the only one about which there was any serious dif
culty in the formation of the constitution was the
slavery question. This the convention very proper
ly submitted to the people they passed upon it,
and resolved by their votes adopt slavery as one
of their domestic institutions hence the cry of Jim
Lane and his followers, here and in Kansas that the
Lecompton constitution is fraud and swinde
Had the people, the other hand, stricken out the
slavery clause, and resolved to make Kansas free
State, the Lecompton constitution Judging from the
fact that no other objection has been made to it than
the one alluded to, would to-day have been without
an enemy among the republicans in the national Con-
gross, or in the Territory of Kansas. We must con
clude therefore, that all the noise and trouble which
has been raised this matter ia owing far less to
any belief that wrong has been inflicted upon the
people Of Kansas in not having their whole const
tuition submitted to them, than to the fact that they
have chosen to engraf upon it the clause recognising
and protecting the institution of slavery.
PARTY OBLIGATIONS.
| Tho New York Journal Of Commerce. concudess