Freeman's champion., 1858-03-18

=
vital import, not one man claiming to
be q Free State man could be found
ready to cast into our midst frebrand
of discord and division. That our
hope was unfounded, the article which
we have above copied is painful and
sufficient evidence. Step by step the
downward tendency has gone on, un-
til, at last, a professed Free State pa
per comes out and openly proposes in
case the Lecompton Consti tuition is
thrust upon us by Congress, to quietly
accept it, to make it ours toliye under
lit, to allow tito become the living law
of the land, and then, after every prin-
ciple concurred in the whole struggle
has been abandoned, after the Free.
State men of Kanzas shall stand before
the country degraded, cowed, stulti-
fed class of men--all their noble
words eaten and their brave deeds un-
performed--thea 60 at it, and through
the forms Of the Lecompton Consti-
tuition, make anew onel Oh, it shames
us, and pains us to the heart, that we
are obliged to sit down to write
against SO abhouent a proposition
coming from paper which was es-
tablished and has been sustained by
the generous offerings ofthe free hearts
and hands of the Republican North!
But our duty as lovers OF liberty--as
haters of oppression, will not allow
us to suffer this first open proposition
Of so great crime as acquiescence in
the Lecomp'on Constitution, to pass
without our solemn protest, our most
stern and emphatic diSapprobation.
This proposition of submission to
the Lecompton Constitution, de-
serves the complete .rcprobation Of
every true Free State man: First, be-
cause it is a total abandonment and
and backing down from what the Free
State people have, times and ways
without number, in the most solemn
manner, proclaimed to the world as
their deliberate, fixed, settled and final
determination--never, for a moment,
ander any circumstances, submit to The
.Lscompton Consultation, or allo,o IL 10
become the organic law of Raazas. IL
it necessary to prove that this has
been our position? Has not the Her.
AID itself often avowed its determine.
ton to fight even the United States
Government, rather than submit ia
that Constitution? Have we not, in
our large conventions, and in the
m st solemn manner, formed leagues
and covenants, and signed them with
our own hands, and sworn before
high heaven that the Lecompton Con.
stitution should never become the
organic law Of Kanzas? 7? Did not
even the Territorial Legislature de,
clare by the unanimous vote of tho
Free State members, that the attemp
by Congress to force that Constitu
tion upon us would be q Just caus,
for armed resistance? Is there
true Free State man in Kanzas VIII,
has not declared over and over again
that he would never submit to tha
Constitution? And yet, in the di
: rect face Of all these facts, these sol
) emn public and private vows, it il
now proposed to submit without
murmur, to prostrate ourselves in sh
; deepest debasement and degradation
: to hug the chains which are to bin,
us--to make that felon's instrumen
our Constitution, and not only ours
) but to make it the legal progenitor
; the legitimate and primal source, TO
: every government which shall exis
; in Kanzas, for all time to come
: We must not only debase ourselves
to the level of0scourged and yoke
: bondmen, but we must perpetuate tn
; degradation and intamy upon the gen
erations who are to come after us
, According to the arrangement, ever.
Constitution which shall hereafterb,
the organic law of Kanzas, will dat
back by o regular succession to tn
Lecompton Constitution as its origin
its legitimate starting point. w
shall perpetuate the indubitablc rec
ord and proof Of our -hearte,
cowardice and slavishness to all VIII
I, , shall come after us,-Our children
even, will spit upon our graves as
5 perjured race ofrSerfs, who crouche,
and crawled to tyranny, and dare
: not stand up like men in the defonc
|, Of their plaincst rights.
l Secondly, because this propositio
:. Of submission to the Lecompton Con
stitution, until through itS forms W
! can set another, is tho precise argu
: ment Of James Buchanan and our en-
|, omies, and is directly calculated 7