The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-04-20

not be my will but it is my act and my
] deed.
| Now, sir, as to the last provision of
this amendment. Having submitted
this constitution in such a form as inc.
Vitably to secure its rejection, having
submitted it. not to the people, but to
the people, but to the packed jury, se-
lected in defiance of the Law of the con-
vention, and in defiance of the law of the
the Legislature that called the con-
ventlon having selected out the body
cf>electors towhich we remand it haVs
ing, in addition, required every man who
is against the institution of slavery in
the new State to vote down the whole
constitution and having offered all the
temptations to ambition which can be
offered in the shape of new ofices as
an inducement to vote down the con-
stitution: what is to come next? /
take it as positively certain that under
this bill any constitution woFld be re-
jected. None could pass such an ordeal !;
for even If these cndidates approved it,
they would say, ave will make it oyer
again after we get the Offices" What
is to come next9 Then it is said there
is to be new constitutional convention.
I think we have had constitutional con-
ventions enough in Kansas, Territory
of about fifty thousand people. She has
has had three constitutional conventions
in three years. We have had Topeka aud
Lecompton, and this new one, Minneola,
now in full blast. They are the hardest
people to suit that ever knew, No,
sir, | am willing to take of these three
constitutions that which is the most for
NAL and the most regular. am will
ling, if Congress requires it, that new
convent ton of delegates shall be assem-.
bled in Kansas 10 pass upon this consti-
tuition, for that is the form which they
have provided, and that would be grant
lug them new trial. But if they fail,
l am against any more constitutions from
Kansas. Let her stay until she gets the
proper population. voted for the
Toombs bill, with proviso, on that
ground. I only assented to it for the
sake of peace. I did not believe it was
a good precedent to bring State into
the Union with SO small population;
and l say now, if this Lecompton con-
stitution, which is the only regular and
legal one, is to be rejected in every
shape and form, let US dismiss the whole
subject out of Congress, and let Kansas
wait until shegets a population sufficient
according to the ratio prescribed for one
Representative.
But, sir, this amendment authorizes
four gentlemen to exercise discretion un
limited in time as well as in manner,
the Governor, the Secretary, the Speak
er of the Council, and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, although
two of them are out of Office At an in
definite period in the future, at any
time extending throughout the whole
territorial life of Kansas, these four per-
sons, two of whom, as have said, have
ceased, or will soon cease to be officers,
are to have the power of calling upon
the people to elect delegates, of provi-
ding who shall be the officers to snperin-
tend the election, and when the dele
| gates shall be elected, and when they
shall be assembled in convention; and
that convention is to make the constitu-
tion, and it is to be a perfect constitu-
tion from the start. Ifthey should pass
this railroad ordinance which has given
some Senators so much trouble, we have
no power over it provided they make it
part Of their constitution. It is never
to come back to us; the President is to
look at it, and to roclaim the State ad-
mitted
know there are cases, very good pre-
cedents too, in which constitution has
been submitted to Congress s. Congress
has been sufficiently satisfied ofits repub-
lican character, but has remanded it to a
convention to alter some one or other of
its provisions perhaps its boundaries, per-
haps some clause which is supposed to
infringe the Constitution of the United
States; bnt wherever Congress has re.
mauded constitution in that way, to be
altered or amended in some particular,
and afterwards, on compliance with that
condition, to admit the State into the
Union on proclamation, Congress has
had some sight at the constitution. 1
1 never knew<of their authorizing con-
stitution to be formed blindly as this
! bill does It is for Congress to admit
a State, not the President. We have
the right to require that certain proyis-
!. lens shall be complied with, and upon
that to trust the people of Kansas 10
their present condition and therefore
that provision would be evidently ebjec-
tionable. What will be the result of it ?
We shall have discharged ourselves from
an connection with the subject, and il
the constitution to be framed should be
be like this constitution, against which
one party protests, which one party
charges with frauds, with outrages, with
periuries of every description, what shall
~ 80 - y1T a,l.1l I,na, f.o,,,