Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-03-18

tumacy. He wanted Tor tn IS purpose cnly
an army and full command of the Executiv e
exchequer; Of promises OF favor and of threats
of punishment. Frederick P. Stanton OF
Tennessee, honorable and capable, OF per-
suasive address, but honest ambition, was
appointed his Secretary. The new agents
soon found tney had assumed task that
would tax all their energies and require all
their adroitness. On the one side, the Slave
Labor party were determined to circumvent
the people, and secure, through the Lecomp-
ton Conventions Slave State. On the other,
the people were watchful, and determined
MOTTO be circumvented: and in no case to
submit Elections for desegates to thai body
were at hand. The Legislature hal required
a census and registry of voters to be made
by authorities designated by itself, and this
duty had been only partially performed in
fifteen of the thiriy-four counties. and alto
gether omitted in the other nineteen. Tie
party of Sla7e Labor insisted on payment If
| taxes as condition of suffrage. he Free
Labor party deemed the whole proceedings
void, by reason of the usurpation practiced
and of the defective arrangements for the
election. They discovered design to SUI
prise in the refusal of any guaranty that the
Constitution, when framed, should be sub
mitted to the people, for their acceptance
or rejectiun, preparatory TO an application
under il for the admission Of Kansas inIo the
Union. The Governor, drawing from the
ample treasury of the Executive at his CON-
mand, made due exhibitions of the army,
and threatened the people with an accep-
tance of the Lecompton Constitution, how
| ever obnoxious to them, if they should re-
fuse to vote. With these menaces. he ju-
diciousy mingled promises of fabulous guam
titles of land for the endowment of roads
and education. He dispensed with the test
oaths and taxes, !amented the defects of GEN.
sus and registry, and promised the rejection
of the Constitution, by himself, by the Presi-
dent, and BY Congress, if full, fair, and
Complete submission of the Constitute
Should not be made by the Convention, and
he obtained and published pledges of such
submission by the party Conventions, which
nominated the candidates for Delegates, and
even by an imposing number of those candi-
dates themselves. The people stood aloof,
and refused to vote. The army protected
the polls. The S'ave-Labor party alone
voted, and voted without legal restraint. and
SO achieved an easy formal success by cast
ing some two thousand ballots.
Just in this conjuncture, however. the
term of three years service which the usurp-
ing Legislature had fixed for its own men,
bers expired, and elections. authorized by
itself, were TO be held, Tor the choice not
only of new members, but of a Delegate to
Congress. While the Lecompton Conven-
tioG was as sembling, the Free-Labor party
determined to attend these Territorial cleo
rI6ns, and contest, through them, Tor selss
government within the Territory. They
put candidates in nomination on the express
ground of reputation Of the whole Lecomp-
ton proceeding. The Lecompton Conven-
tion 2rudently adjourned to day beyond
the elections. The parties contended at
the ballot-boxes, and the result was COM
pIete and conclusive triumph of the Free
Labor party. For moment, this victory,
so important, vas jeoparded by the frdudu-
lent presentation of spurious and fabricated
returns of election in almost uninhabited
districts, sufficient 20 transfer ihe triumph
to the S ave-Labor party. and the Frees ate
party was proceeding to vindicate IL by
force. The Governor and Secretary detect
ed. proved, and exposed this atrocious fraud.
The Lecompton Convention denor iced
them, and complaints against them poured
in upon the President, from the lavetolding
States. They were doomed from HAT time.
The President was silent. The LecomPton
Convention proceeded, and framed Con-
stitut ion which declares Slavery perpetual
and irreversible, and postpones any altera-
ton of its own provisions nnti! after 1864,
oy which time they hoped that Slavery might
have gained too deep hold in The soil Of
Kansas TO be in danger of being uprooted.
All this was easy; but now Zane the ques-
ton whether the CONSTITUTE IN should be
submitted to ;he People. II was coHfessed
that it was obnoxious to them, and, j: sub
mi,ted. would be rejected with indignation
and contempt. An official emissary from
Washington is supposed to have Suggested
the solution which was ad opted. This was
a submission in form, but not in fact. The
President of the Convention, without any
laws to preserve the purl " of the franchise
by penalties for its viola ton, was authoriz-
ed 10 designate his own agents. altogether
irrespectively of the erritorial authorities.
and with their aid to hold an election, in
which there should be no vote allowed or
received, if against me Constitution itself.
Each voter was perIaitted to cast ballot
"For the Constitution with Slavery" or
"For the Constitu' ion with no Slavery"
and it was further provided, that the Con-
stitution should rand entire, if majority
of votes should De cast for the Constitution
with Slavery, while, on the other hand, if
the majority of votes cast should be "For
the Constituti on with no Slavery" then the
existing Slav cry should not be disturbed,
but should :main with its continuance, by
the success on of its unhappy victims by
descent forever. But even this miserable
shadow of choice between forms of
Slave-Sts ie Constitution was made to de-
pend on The taking of test oath to support
and mai,atain it in the form which should be
preferred by the majority OF those who
should vote on complying with that humilia-
ton. The Governor saw that By conniving
at this pitiiul and wicked juggle he should
both shipwreck his fame aud become re-
sponsible for civil war. lie demonstrated
and appealed to his chief, the President of
the United States, to condem it. Denuncia-
toms followed him from the Lecomptun par
ty within the Territory. and denunciatious
40 less violent from the Slave st tes were
his greeting at the National Capital. The
Prpsiden, disappointed his most effective
friend and wisest counselor. This present
Congress had now assembled. The Pre-
sident, as if fearful Of delay. forestalled our
attention with recommendations to overlook
the manifest objections to the transaction,
and to regard the anticipated result of this
mock election, then not yer held, as equivH-