Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-04-15
Governor Gesry, in his message to the legs.

4
There not single officer in the Territory amenable
TO the people To the governor all having been ap
pointed by the legislature and holding their offices until
1857. This system of deprving the people of the just
exercise ofrSilts cannot be too strongly condemned
Governor Gcary in his farewell to the peo-
pie of Kansas, gives the following picture of
its condition a
" reached Kansas andientered upon the discharge of
my official duties in the most gloomy hour of her history
Desolati0n and ruin re9ned every hand Homes and
hresdes were deserted The smoke OF burning dwellings,
darkened the atmosphere. Women and children driven
from their habtatiGns wandered the praires and
through the woodlands sought refuge and protection
| among the Indian tribes
While such was the condition of Kansas,
and these wrongs were perpetrated by the ac-
quiescence if not lnstigatioD, of the admins
tration, its supporters in Pennsylvania called
upon the voters in the following language l
read from handbill for democratic meeting
at Mifliinburg, Sep 81 1856:
Democrats whgs! Republicans turn out and
learn the fact that it is the Democratic party that is Ia
boring for freedom Tor Kansas, the assertions of oppos
orators to the contrary notwithstanding" --.
! Four Governors have returned from the
Territory, all telling the same story to the
American people that is, that the rights of
the people OF Kansas have Leen trampled in the
dust, the ballot-b0x violated, their houses
burned, their presses destroyed, their public
buildings battered down by United States
cannon under the direction of United States
| officers /; yet in the face of the unanimous
voice of these men who have been upon the
ground, seen With there own eyes, and heard
tn there owd ears, the President and his cdle-
rerents insist that they know best what is the
condition of Kansas aud the will of its peo-
pie.
Why should this great fraud upon the rights
of people be consummated? What reason
can there be, what overshadowing necessity
exists, for so great violation of the principles
of free government The only reason urged
by its advocates for sustaining so glaring frauds
upon popular rights is, that it will give peace
to Kansas, and end the political agitations Of
the country
Peace is the siren song that has ever pre-
Ceeded the perpetration of every new outrage
upon the sentiments of the north, and the
rights and interests of free labor On the 4th
of March, 1858, from the steps Of yonder por.
tico the President congratulated the country
that " the agitation of the slavery question
was at rest" The troubled waters of past
political dssensions had subsided, aud not
ripple disturbed the surface. The ark of our
covenant reposed on dry ground, and the dove
had found resting place. Every foot of ter
ritory then owned by the federal government
was fixed in its character of slave or free, by
by some law which Mr. Webster, in his delu-
sien. thought to be irrepeaabe. And under
the then existing judicial decisions and cousti-
tutional constructions it was all fixed for free
dom. No note of dscord Jared OF the uni
yersal harmony The patriot was congratulat-
ing himself that the era of good feeling and
brotherhood had at last dawned upon his coun.
try What disturbed this unruffied calm and
again broke up the fountains of the deep?
On the 30th of May, 1854 FIVE hundred
thousand square miles of this territory, once
consecrated to freedom forever by solemn act
of our fathers, was opened to the spread of the
institutions of human bondage. The passage
of the bill at the dead hour of the night. was
heralded from this Capitol by the boom of can
non, since echoed from the plains of Kansas
in the sighs of its widows and orphans, and
the wall of its martyrs to freedom. In order
! to drown these cries, and, if possible, to stife
the awakened sense of justice, and the excited
sympathes of the humane heart, we are now
called upOn to perpetrate still another great
outrage upon the rights Of this people
Peace among a brave people is not the fruit
of injustice, nor does agitation cease by the
perpetration of wrong. For third of CEN
tury the advocates of slavery while exercising
unrestricted speech in it's defence, have strug-
gled to prevent all discussion against it, In
the south penal statutes, mob law, and brute
force in the north by dispensing assembages
| of peaceable citizens, pelting their lecturers,
burning their halls, and destroying their pres
ses. In this forum of the people, by fnaiity
resolves on all laws for the benefit of slavery,
not, however, to effect those in behalf of free
dom, and by attempts to stiAe the great con-
| stitutional right of the people at all times to
pet tion their government. Yet, despite threats,
mob law, and fnality resolves, the discussion
| goes on. and will continue to, so long as right
] and wrong justice and injast, humanity and
inhumanity, shall struggle for supremacy in the
| affairs of men,
| The President makes the same excuse for
his treatment of Kansas that tyrants ever en-
ploy in justification of their cruelty and wrong
That is, that the injured and oppressed, be-
cause they will not kiss the hand that smites,
are rebels and traitors and the wrong-doer
while perverting the truth and suppressng the
facts of history, strives, with hard words, to
heap obloqny and reproach upon the character
and motives of men in every way the equal, if
not the superior of the traducer
All the WRONGS of Kansas are sustained hY
| the administration, because they were perpetrat-
ed under the forms of law Justice and right
seem TO be Of less consequence than forms and
precedents The cruelest tyranny on the face
of the earth rests Oh forms of law where it
exists.
The bloodeSt pages in the drama of mans
existence have been written under the color of
law, ard too often in the name of justice aud
liberty The Jew crucfed the Saviour be-
cause he was fanatic, and stirred up dssen-
sions among the people. The law-and order
conservatism of the middle ages ostracised
| Inihar rs q hnretic hncalIse viii lie eynoSinr the