The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-29

TO SANCTION THE LECoMPToN coEsTITu-
| TON.
When Committee of Conference on the Lee
compton Bill was secured in the House by the
votes of Messrs English of Indiana, Hall and
PendletoAIof Ohio, and Owen Jones of Penn
sylvania, members who had previously opposed
the Leconpton policy of the Administration,
the worst consequences were apprehended. The
Lecomptonites saw their advantage. They
had the majority of the Committee, appointed
by the Senate, and Mr.. Orr knew how TO give
them the ascendency in the Committee of the
House, without violating the form of Parlia
mentary usage. Selecting Mr.. Stephens, the
Administration leader, he associated with him
Mr.. English, whose position on the question
had never been satisfactory TO the Opposition,
but who had betrayed a constant inclination for
compromise, 80 that the House Committee, like
that of the Senate, really contained but single
decided Ant-Lecompton member.
No one doubted that Mr.. English would be
prompt enough in concession, but the hope was
that no overture that he could venture, would be
entertained by the Lecompton members. The
case, however, was desperate one. Mr.. English,
| doubtless, took counsel with the leaders of the
Administration Party, with whom, after all, he
has constantly sympsthized, and the result of
their joint lsbors, we suppose, lie the bill report
ed by him last Friday, as a substitute for both
the Senate and House bills. In the preamble,
it assumes that the people of Kansas, by their
delegates, did for themselves at Lecompten
form q Constitution and State Government;
that this Constitution is republican; but that
the ordinance in relation to the public lands
which accompanies it, is not acceptable to Con-
gress. For this reason, and not because there
is any question concerning the validity of the
Constitution, the People of Kansas are to be
allowed to vote for or against certain changes
in this ordinance, specified in the bill If they
vote for them, Kansas is to be declared in the
Union forthwith, with the Lecompton Constitu-
ton if they vote against them, then they are
to be authorized to elect delegates to form
Constitution for themselves, whenever it shall
be ascertained by census duly and legally
taken that the population equals or exceeds the
ratio of representation required for one mem
Der of the Federal House of Representatives
but no provision is made in this case for the
grant of public lands.
In the Crittenden amendment, it was provi
ded that for the purpose of securing fair cleo
ton, the Governor and Secretary of State,
and the two presiding officers of both branches
of the Legislature, should form Board of Com
missioners &c. This was perfectly honest and
impartial-the Administration being represent
ed by two, and the People, or Free-State Party,
by an equal number. But, the English bill
adds the United States District Attorney, thus
giving majority of the Board to the Lecomp-
tonites, and providing no certain veto upon the
repetition of such frauds as have already dis
grsced the Administration party in Kansas. In
prescribing, too, the qualifications of voters, it
completely ignores the existing Territorial
Legislature, because, We must presume, it is a
Free-Sste one, and it require, that they shall be
sucn as were epjoined by the laws of the Terri.
tory at the last general election for members of
the Territorial Legislature.
Such is this Compromise bill, as it is called
an insult to the People of Kansas, an insult to
the Common Sense of the People of the United
State-of piece with the Lecompton juggle
itself. Entitled, "a Bill for the Admission of
Kansas it ought to be entitled "a Bill to
Bride the People of Kansas to Sanction the
Lscompton Constitution"
We print the whole of it. Let every reader
examine for himself Messrs. English, Hall,
Pendetcn, Jones, Gfoesbeck, and several Dem
ocrats, hitherto cooperating with Mr.. Douglas,
are sustaining it; and they voted, last Friday,
as tho record shows, with the Lecomptonites,
against every motion to secure full time for con.
sidering the merits of the new and strange
measure. Their constituents should make them
selves familiar with the character and objects of
a measure intended to prevent fair submits
sion of the Lecompton Constitution to the judg-
ment of the People of Kansas. Recollect, the
Senate bill was opposed by these gentlemen,
because, they said, it attempted to force the Con-
stitution upon an unwilling people; and the
Montgomery amendment was sustained by them,
because, they said, it provided for submitting
fairly that instrument to the popular vote. Now,
this substitute of Mr.. English does not propose
any such submission: the people are not to have
the right to say yea or nay to the Constitution:
it does not satisfy single demand of Popular
Sovereignty. On the other hand it does not
propose openly, by force, to thrust upon the
People a Constitution which they abhor, but it
proposes at once to bride and intinaidate them
into its adoption.
The Lecompton Convention, with the pecu-
liar modesty characteristic of all its proceed
ings, asserting the right to tax the public
lands within Kansas, adopted an Ordinance, to
be submitted with the Constitution to Congress,
agreeing to relnqui1h this right, on certain
enormous concessions being made by the Uni
ted States, involving, among other matters,
grants of lands to the amount of twenty-five
millions of acres, worth nearly thirty millions
of dollars. Of course, the Ordinance claimed
the existence of right which belongs to no
State; its demands were indecent; both the
Senate bill and the Crittenden amendment
coolly set them aside; and provision was made
for the ordinary grants in such cases. There
was no necessity of submitting any PROPOSE
tion in regard to these changes to the people
of Kansas, for certainly the Federal Govern
ment may Go what it win with its own. Who
ever heard of re-submiIting land grant to the
people of Territory2
But the ridiculous Ordinance of the Con-
vention afforded convenient pretext to Mr.
English and his cunning associates. They
could change the Ordinance into the usual
form of Immigrants to new States, submit it
then to the popular vote, and under cover of