The Washington union., 1858-02-13

gress than the abled labors Of the mountain which
brought forth the ridiculous mouse.
The only inquiry in respect to frauds, germane 10
the matter before Congress is, whether the conyen
ton which framed the constitution was fraudulenv
elected-whether the vote that was cast IN favor of
the clause which the convention submitted TO the
people of Kansas fraudulent That is the whole
inquiry. Aud the grand feature of these two elec
tons was, that they went by deiault-tat they were
not contested-and that if there frauds at all,
they were frauds against party which repudiated
honest votes, and conounded legitimate with illegit
innate sufrage--ihat they frauds which did not
and could not change the result of the honest
voting.
We have no fear of this newborn outcry against
frauds" 1t is riekety platform that rests alone
upon bricks from Babel No common principle Of
policy--no just public ammo common impulse of
patriotism the party of odds and
ends. They can unite in nothing but camor
They can concert nothing but shrek.
GOV WISE IN NOVEMBER AND IN FEBRUARY
Formal criticism and refutation of the Pbiladel
phia letter of Gov. Wise unnecessary. The au-
thor is his own anthesis /; his own letter of No.
The latter production furnishes no new matter of
argument fact upon the coalition side Of the Kan
sas subject II is elaborate argument in favor of
the necessity of popular ratification Of State
stitutions, and ingenious effort to refute its su.
tl,or's own previous declaration that the ccnven
tion of Lecompton had power 10 decide whether
not to submit their work to the people, and that
Congress would be bound to accept the conventions
decision of that question as final Begging the main
question, in roundy asserting that constitutional
convention must submit their work to popular raf-
cation and adopting this petaio prneipii as prem
Use, the letter elaboratey undertakes to provo
that the Lecompton constitution was not ratified
by the people of Kansas.
Forgetting the maxim, qnt fact per alum fach per
se utterly ignoring the representative function which
is SO largely employed in our American republican
polity, and assuming that no procedure can be ac-
cepted the act and deed of a people except
formal vote polled directly by themselves through
the balotbox, Governor Wise goes gravely, and with
immense labor of logic and ingenuity, into argu-
ment to show that the people of Kansas have not
made the Lccompton constitution their act and
deed through the ballobox.
Ills own previous uectarauOn, tnat people OF
Kansas might make a constitution their act and deed
through their representatives in the Lecompton con-
vention greatly embarrasses the governor his line
of argument and he makes prodigious assault
upon the schedule of the I.ecompton constitution
the door through which to effect escape from his
original position. His assault upon the schedule
for the mere yerbiage it employs in providing for
vote by the people the slavery clause is rather
lndicrous. II the Leeompton convention had power
to send their instrument directly to Congress
without submission to the people, us GOV. Wise
admitted it might do. it is idle to contend that it
might not send up part without ratification. IT.
on the contrary the convention had discretion to
submit the whole constitution, as Gov. Wise admit
ted it had, in November last il certainly had the
discretion to submit part. The governors ar
rlgnment of n part Of the schedule, the terms Of
which seem to contemplate the submission Of the
whole instrument, against another part which pro.
vdcs for the submission of the slavery clause alone.
for the purpose of dscredting the honesty of the
convention and nvalidating the constitution it's
handiwork, seems to to b, vain Absurd
mere bubble upon words, and beneath criticism.
furious ad oaptandum assault upon the schedule
may to obfuscate simple and weak minds;
but ii cannot possibly, in the minds Of intelligent
people, relieve the governor from the awkward di
lemma of having admitted in of his letters
the power of representative convention to form
valid constitution for the people without ratifca-
tion and asserting, in another letter, that the
act and deed of the representatives of the people, in
convention assembled cannot be accepted the act
and deed Of the people themselves. We viii not,
therefore, interfere between the schedule and its
vindctive assailant He may pounce upon il with
the ferocity of tiger; he may tear it into shreds
and tatters he may annhate il utterly and yet
when the fen work is done, single sentence from
the letter of the 18th November will still be sufficient
to retute out of its author 3 mouth, the ingen
ous and desperate argument of his letter of February
the 9th.
The especial object of the present letter OF Gov
ernor Wise seems to have been to refute the late
message of the President; but we think the message
of the Virginia governor will not very materially inn
pair tho splendid effect which the message of the
President is producing throughout the North and
the Unon This measuring of his own strength and
authority with the Presidents by Virginia gov
ernor may bc ittle presumptuous, but we have no
fear that il will prove seriously disparagng to the
administration in effect and result