The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-05-06

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mere srsyust enough people to warrant their
admissio~ INTO the Union as State if they will
accept TIE Lecompton Constitution, and by no
means 90 ngh, not half enough, to warrant
sner adm sion under any other Constitution.
When did bis new question of numbers arise
70 THIS de stef Just on that day, and precise
y at that iour, at that moment, when the re-
Port of the committee of conference was brought
INTO the enate and Representatives Cham
Sers.
|, L would pot dwell on this false issue, if had
lot evidef 70 that it is effective here. 1t seems
o be carr ing with it the vote of the honorable
Senator fs,m Ohio, who has spoken this morn
ng, Mr.. x'UGH At least, / can find no other
sxplanaties of his course on this bill. That
honorable Senator, under Instructions of his
Legislatus \ voted against the Senate bill, be-
cause it d not submit the Lecompton Consti.
tuition TO 10 people. he tells as now that this
new bill % not submit the Lecompton Con.
shtution the people, and yet he votes for it.
Mr.. PQ III. 1 should like to ask the Senator
where his ..uthority is for stating that that was
the reason for my going against it?
/ Mr. Sc lard. am arguing, sir.
mr. ~ ID. That was not the instruction.
The instr stion was not based on that ground
Mr.. Sc lard. As the honorable gentleman
has left hi course obscure, am endeavoring to
arrive at suits by such lights as shine along
our way. hope TO do him no injustice. infer
that he W ss for this bill on the ground that
Kansas h. got just numbers enough to make
slave Sk -, and not numbers enough to make
! free Sts1. The honorable Senator has taken
more pai1kto refer 10 the speeches that have
! made In sts Senate heretofore, than I ever took
for myself He has 20 presented remarks taken
from theN speeches as to imply that, in 1856,
stood ur N the ground that there were votes
enough to sake State in Kansas and if there
were not, ,ere soon would be.
Sir, ave heard the extracts from those
speeches hich have been read. ask, when
ever prt 0ised the rapid settlement Of new
State and . the ravages Of invasion and amid
the desol ions of civil war? / spoke for the
advance Kansas under the Topeka Constitu
ton, whie l urged the Senate to recognise-in
other woe >, a. free State. ask again, did
stand n here and promise vernal, q luxuri.
ant grow, , to slave State planted anywhere,
much mo to slave State planted north of
360 30/ o. north latitude? No, sir. Continue
civil war spd Slavery in Kansas, or even con-
time SlsY by there alone, and my promises that
she shall<,ave population. enough to make
Stsae entf ed to Representative in the House
of -tepres .ptatives will be postponed as long as
the prom es made in the same respect in re-
gafi to rida, for aught know. know bet.
ter sir, y at it is that makes States stand and
flourish, droop and decline.
| ] was cry young when / first saw the play
of Othell exhibited, but yet not 90 dull that
when % 'the first act opened with the odious
scene of nalgsmation-the Moorish general
married Z the fair daughter of the Senator of
Venice did not know that contentious and
strifes wo id follow in the second act, and that
desolatior and death would be the denouensent
of the drS ia.
Sir, God here in 1856, as I stand here
now, adve ating the admission of Kansas as q
free SAT- upon the ground, not of q super
abundant pr even q sufficient population, but
simply of necessity, even though / confessed it
to De r. 'olutionary movement under consti.
tutional fms, to arrest evils for which there
seemed t. be no other remedy. 1t would have
been well if You had listened to my counsel
then. d and on the same ground now. 1t is
lmmateril to me, totally immaterial, whether
Kansas b ten thousand or ten hundred thou.
sand peane. shall vote for her admission
under ensttution of her own choice, that
secures Sal and impartial liberty to all her peo-
pie, with ger present population, be it what it
may. Yen may pile numbers upward until
you eqGs the population of China and the
myriads she teeming East, yet will not give
vote to limit the new State in opposition to
its own W !, or in violence against its own Just
conviction of the dignity of human labor.
Mr.. Pr ,identsI allege against this bill
third fault namely, that it is Indirect. 1t bears
the stamp 4 equivocaticn upon every page and
every line The issue which Yves raised be-
tween the ~o Houses, as l have already said,
was whotxsr Kansas should be admitted with
or ~ithoR the submission of the Lecompton
Constitution to the people. Parties in Con-
gress and 10 the country had committed them
selves upoa that issue, as they thought irrevo-
cably. d ,es this bill submit the Lecompton
Constituti N to the people, or does it not
There is he puzzle. The party who objected
to the sdp ission of Kansas under the Lecomp-
ton Consti ntion, because it was not submitted
by the Sc ,ate's bill, are expected to say, and
some of Il ,m do say, that their difficulty is re-
moved no !, because this bill does submit that
CONSTITUTE to the people. The party who
we're CON nitted to vote against any bill by
which it .ould be submitted, are content with
this bill, ,ecause they say it does not submit
the Lecos pton Constitution.
Here i a question which must solve. 1t
lies right across my way. Well, sir, have
made up " mind upon it; have reached the
conclusion that the bill does not submit the LIE
compton constitution to the people. No. sir
not at ALL / think 30 because its two Senate
rial fsthes of the committee of conference, the
honorable ienstor from Missouri, Mr.. GREEN,]
and the b. ,orable Senator from Virginia, Mr..
HUNTER, eject the construction which repre-.
SCENTS that be Constitution is submitted. Ger
tainly thikis the very best authority. look
into the itself, and find that it carefully
defines aSd limits what it does submit. What
It submisss is the question of dowry moth.
ing more, nothing less, nothing else; dowry
or no doyry, so pure and simple is the ques-
ton suhrsitted. 1 look further into the con-
tents of ias bill; l go backward, of course, to
the begin ing. find that the bill begins with
recital f the only point of difference, and
that is tbs amount of the dowry. Thus have
shown, M 1t clearly, that the bill does not at all
submit Ii Lecompton Constitution to the peo-
pie Of Kss sas. Indeed, claim the thanks of
the nom 1sbmissionists for having established
their posi- ,on immovably.
Bot, NJ President, in pursuing the subject,
have mad up my mind that the bill does submit
the Lecot >Yton Constitution to the people,.
will provs;;t. There is to be an election held
In kansaa. and at that election the question is
to be SUBJ ,itted to the people, Will You accept
the dowrS proposed by Congress, or will you
not? If sey accept the dowry, then the Lee
compton constitution, with its hideous and fe-
rocious f lures and its blood-stained hands,
stands en i in Kansas, and, except as God
maj press se the people from seduction and
inti,oidati !, it stands forever. But if the peo-
pie say h~y to the devry, then the monster
Leeampto perishes and dies in the prolonged
agoay Of r. birth. = Now, Mr.. President, how
can this { nsequence, this result, follow the de-
cision of 70 people at this election, and neces.
sarily follSs il, unless question which involves
that cons, luence has been submitted to the
people? submit, sir, without fear of contra
diction, E.ss have shown that this bill does
submit u Lecompton Constitution to the peo-
ple of Il - ga