Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-02-09

fair vote Of the people, the people by an over
whelming majority would vote Il down. ana
they then demanded, if we are to believe these
gentlemen of the committees Of the two
Houses that the constitution should not De
submitted to the people. Why DID gentlemen
from the South demand that the Constitution
should not be acted on by the people They
knew that the people were in favor of making
Kanzas a free State that they would vote
down any constitution that did not make
Ksnzas free State; and, therefore, the peo
pie must be robbed of their right to vote on
their own constitution.
The President sent Governor Walker to the
Territory with the promise, with the assurance
that the people should vote upon the consti
tuition. Governor Walker, in his letter of
acceptance, says that he understands the Pres
ident and Cabinet to be committed to that
policy. Governor Walker went to the Ter
ritory. and in his inaugural address promised
the people that ''unless the convention submit
the constitution to the vote of all the actual
resident SETTLERS of Ksnzas, and the election
be fairly and justly conducted, the constitu-
ton s0iH be, and ought to be, rejected By Con-
gress."
What was the effect of these declarations
on the people? The people said "the census
has not been taken the registry has not been
to the polls to elect delegates to this conyen-
ton. We do not wish 10 commit ourselves
and then be cheated and be Gefrauded. We
will let them elect their delegates to the con-
vention, frame their constitution, and when
they submit it to US, we will vote 1t down.
That was the sentiment of the free state men
throughout the whole Territory, and all the
evidence goes to show it. know it to be so
by my own personal experience in that Ter
ritory, | know it to be the sentiment of the
leading men and of the people.
We are told by the President that the
reason why they did not vote was that they
wanted to enforce their Topeka constitution;
that they wanted to frame laws and estab-
lish their rebelhous government Sir, they
had a convention on the 9Th Of June, before
the delegates were elected to the Lecompton
convention, and they voted, with only one
solitary exception, against putting the laws
framed under the Topeka constitution in
force. The people intended nothing of this
kind but they decided to elect their officers
under the Topeka constitution, to keep that
government alive for protection in the last re-
sort, and then resolved to go into the Octo-
ber election under protest They went into
the October election and carried the Legisla-
ture and delegate to Congress.
Now, sir, wish to call attention for few
moments to Gov. Walkers course in regard
to the October election The President
quotes Gov. Walker when he sustains his
theory, but he does not quote him when Gov.
Walkers testimony goes to show that the
people of Kanzas have been cheated and de-
trauded. For promising that the people of
the territory should have the right to vote
on their constitution. Gov. Walker was as
sailed in all the slave States of this Union
Sc ~ l. nf he oc
this body demanded that lie should be re-
moved. He was denounced throughout the
Southern States by class of public journals,
for having promised that the people Of Kan
zas should have fair opportunity to vote for
the adoption or rejection Of the Lecompton
constitution. The administration which gave
him that assurance quailed beneath this de-
Runciation from the slaveholding States. 1t
changed its policy abandoned Walker, and
betrayed the people Of Kanzas
When the October election came on, there
were stupendous frauds perpetrated at Ok
ford, and in MCGEE county These fraudulent
votes, if counted, would have settled the
character OF the Territorial Legislature. Gov.
Walker could not give his sanction to those
frauds. What did he do He investigated
the frauds at Oxford, and the frauds in Nc
Gee county, and threw out the fraudulent
votes. For that act, for throwing out these.
pslpable frauds, for throwing out the list
made up out Of the Cincinnati directory, in
which it is said Gov. Chase's name was in
cluded, for performing that act of justice
GOV. Walker was assailed from one end of
the Southern States to the other by politi.
clans and presses. Men who had sustained
the invasion of the Both of March, 1866, of
four Thousand nine hundred men from Mis-.
souri,, men who had refused to investigate
those frauds, men who had upheld the laws
enacted by the Territorial Legislature, men
who had sustained the use Of the army in the
territory, and all the acts which have trans
pired in that territory, these men denounced
Gov. Walker for throwing out frauds that
prevented them, as they thought, from con.
summating the iniquity of dragging Kanzas
into the Union as a slave State
We are told by the President that the peo-
pie of Kanzas have had fair opportunity to
vote on the slavery question. am sur.
prised that the President of the United States,
has SO little regard for the intelligence of the
Senate and the country, and for his own rep
utation, as to make a declaration Of that
character. The people Of Kansas had fair
opportunity, he tells US, to vote on the 2lst of
December last, for or against slavery. Sir,
they had no such opportunity and the Pres
ident of the United States, if he does not
know it, ought to know it. The slaves in
the Territory, it was declared by the Lecomp-
ton Constitution, were property and
"Therght OF property in slaves now in the Territory
shall in no manner be inteTfsred with.
No alterations shall be made to affect the right of pro
perry Ia che ownership Of slaves.
Ahese proVlsiens went into your Constitu.
SOH WIN no slavery There are about three
hundred slaves in the TerritoI7 of Kansa.
This Constitution with no slavery recognizes
the existence of the right of property in thoso
slaves, and declares that in no manner shall
that property be interfered with. In any pro-
posed amendment to the Constitution, we are
tolG that " no alteration shall be made to af-
feet the right Of property in the ownership of
slaves" That was the Constitution with no
slavery.
Then we have the Constitution with sla-
very and L assure Senators that | would
much rather have your Lecompton Constitu-
tion, with slavery, than your Lecompton Con-
stitution without slavery. Your Constitu.
ton without slavery, recognized slavery in
the State, declared that it should never be in
terfered with-made it eternal those slaves
then there, and their posterity forever. That
was the Constitution without slavery What
mockery is it to tell the people OF Kansas
that they had an opportunity to vote for or
against a slave State.
But we are now told by the President that
we can change the constitution before 1864.
have no doubt Of that. believe the peo-
pie have the right to change their constitution
when they please, and just how they please
But what security have we that the men who
have been retreating for the last ten years
from the Wilmot proviso down to the doc
trine that slavery exists in tho Territory by
the constitution Of the United States, as much