The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-08
WASHINGTON, D. c..
SPEECH OF HON. SCHUYLER C0lFAK,
OF INDIANA,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 90 1919


MARCH 20, 1858.
Ar Colfax was 30 fortunate, in his vigorous
speech On the Kansas Question, as to present
some views, quite original, and at the same
time remarkably pertinent. We cannot print
the whole speech, but the opening and closing
portions we must find room for.
PARALLEL WITH THE GREAT NEW JERSEY
CASE.
Mr. Chairman, when the gentleman from Mis-
sissippi Mr. BARKsDALE was upon the floor,
little while ago, he put some interrogatories to
me. He wished to know whether, if Kansas came
here with Constitution adopted by her people
recognising Slavery would vote for her admis-
sion snder that Constitution I tell him now,
emphatically, in advance of the speech which
have prepared, that would not. When the Mis-
souri, compromise, that time-honored compact,
was repealed, | declared then, and maintain it
now, that by no vote of mine shall that repeal
be carried out to what feared was intended to
be its result; and therefore, | would refuse to
admit Kansas as a slave State under any contin-
eencv But all who oppose the ratification of
the Lecompton Constitution do not agree on this
point; and pledge myself to the gentleman from
Mississippi, and other members from the South
upon this floor, that if do not prove that there
mand its rejection, that the Leeompton Consti
tuition is not republican in its form, that it does
not speak the voice nor the will of the people of
the Territory of Kansas, then dc not ask any
man. of any party, to join me in voting against it.
Nineteen years ago, the House of Representa-
tives was convulsed with an exciting question,
which threatened to prevent its organization,
which hazarded even the continuance of the
body ITSELF and which, affecting as it did the
political majority of this branch of the National
Councils and thus deciding which party should
WELD its power bafied all attempts at its adjust
ment, until the strong mind of the " old man elo-
quent" brought it from chaos to order once more.
The incidents of that struggle must be fresh in
the minds of every Representative within the
sound of my voice for they were discussed at
every freside throughout this broad land. Five
citizens of New Jersey presented themselves at
the bar of the House, with commissions certify
ing their election as Representatives from that
State. signed by its Chief Magistrate, and attest
ed by the broad seal of the State itself, the SYM
Dol of its sovereignty. These commissions were
in the exact form required by law and the gen.
tlemen thus commissioned demanded that they
should be admitted to seats upon them during
the organization Of the body and till the proper
committee was appointed, before whom their
contestants could present their claims. No other
gentleman claimed to have legal commissions for
the seats on this floor belonging to New Jersey,
except one, whose right was uncontested; but
FIVE other citizens presented certificates signed
BY an inferior officer of State and by two county
clerks asserting that the votes of two townships
had been omitted in the executive computation,
which, if included with the others, would have
entitled them to the commissions given to their
adversaries To this il was replied, by the men,
bers commissioned according to law, that gross
frauds and irregularities existed in the returns OF
these townships, justifying their exclusion, as
they would show at the proper time but that,
meanwhile, they claimed the seats in this body
to which their legal credentials, the signature of
the Governor Of their State, and its broad seal,
entitled them. Such is fair abstract of the
points in controversy in the celebrated New Jer-
sey case. The application which shall make of
them may already be apparent.
Then, a sovereign State, by fulflment of all
the formalities under which members are Off
cally accredited to this body, demanded, under
the signature of its highest functionary, who by
law, had the right thus to speak for his State
that certain citizens thereof should be received
10 membership here But the remaining mem
bers of the American Congress persistenty, and
to the end, despite the excitement which reigned
here for Two long weeks, resolved that they
shoU,4 not be admitted into their midst; bat
that, going behind these credentials, regular
though they were on their face, they could at
all hazards, regardless of broad seals and guber-
material signatures, ascertain what was the act
ual will of the people of New Jersey And the
political majority of this body, with these claim
ants excluded, being adverse to their views, their
credentials, broad seal, executive signature, and
all, were finally thrown back into their faces, and
their uncertifed contestants admitted in their
stead.
Notc, the scene has changed. A Constitution
is before US, not framed by the authority of an
enabling act, the last Congress having failed TO
concur in the passage of Ons-not ratified by the
people interested, at any election in which the
right to choose, the simple power of saying yes
or no, had been conceded-but framed by Con-
vention, elected under imperfect, unfair, dis
franchising, and therefore swindling, census and
registry whose members represented on an av-
erage, exactly thirty votes apiece-who needed
an army TO protect them, while in session, from
the Indignation of the people, whose organic law
they pretended 20 have been commissioned to
make-whO themselves conceded all that have
charged against them, by submitting the Consti-
tuition only to those who were willing to vote
for it, and to swear besides to support it and
whose iu-shapen and illegitimaIe offspring was
repudiated as spurious by the overwhelming
majority of ten thousand, at fair, open election,
authorized by the Governor and Legislature of
the Territory. And yet this fraudulent instru-
ment, which no one here is hardy enough to
claim as the voice of the majority of the people
of the proposed State; which no more speaks
their will than does the Constitution of conquered
and enthralled France speak the will of the free
men of America; and which every one here or
elsewhere, knows full well is loathed and scorned
and repudiated by the people, who are to be
forced, with the bayonet to live under it-this
instrument is pressed upon US for ratification. on
the technical ground that il emanated from q
body which was nominally Convention repre-
sentng the people of Kansas-that it has passed
the ordeal of n pretended, one-sided, submis-
sion; and that we have, therefore, no right TO 20
behind it, and inquire whether it is or is not the
will of the people of that distant Territory.
But, sir, propose to hold up to these defend
ers of the Lecompton Constitution the emphatic
utterances of the leaders, the very magnates of
their party upon this floor during the discussion
of the celebrated New Jersey case to which |
have referred; for, If it right, lift was legal
if il was constitutional to look behind the regular
credentials Of Representatives, and to decide
before admitting them to seats whether those
credentials actually spoke the voice of the people
interested, then are gentlemen the other side
estopped" TO use that favorite term of the
Leeomptonites) from arguing that, when an in
strument of such vital, far-reaching Importance
as a State Constitution, is before us for ratifca-
ton, we may not also 90 behind even the fairest
face that it may wear on the outside to see if il
is not fraud and an outrage, tyranny and
wrong.
My quotations are from the eighth volume of
the Congressional Globe, session of l839I4O.
And, first, to all the gentlemen from the Presi-
dent down, who tell us so complacently that the
Lecompton Convention was a legal body, that
their Constitution was a legal instrument, that
its formation has all been technically regular
and that therefore, we have no right to consider
the nearly unanimous protest against it by the
Territorial Legislature, and the overwhelming
reputation of it by the people themselves,
quote the outspoken language of Aaron Wander