The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-01

my friends here who expect to support the
people of Kansas in their course, YOU cannot
blink the question; it ia Slavery that the people
are opposed to. have no doubt they would
like to express their sentiments on every part
of the Constitution; but caHdidly admit that
If there were no Slavery in it, there would NOT
be much contention about it on the other side Of
the Chamber, nor on this. Let not my friends
say that it makes no difference whether there
is Slavery in it or not, and that the bare CUES
ton is on the submission. agree that they
are right in principle on that. The people
should pass upon anything and everything con
nected with their welfare, touching the Consti
tution under which they are to live; but never
theless the Slavery question is the great matter
that divides us.
Mr.. President, there is something extraor
binary in the manDer in which this Constitu
ton was submitted. Was the like of it ever
heard of before have heard floating rumors
that the ingenuity of this whole District wal
invoked to invent that form of submission but
do not know how the fact was. / do not believe
that rude Border Rufianism had the ingenuity
to invent these meshes of Slavery. ] fear thai
the fingers of men at the other end of the
avenue may be tainted with it. do not know
that; but / have shrewd surmises about it
How was it submitted? will ask, first, why
did you submit it at all? On the other side
of this Chamber, you claim that the Conven-
ton was under no obligations whatever to
the people that the Convention was supreme
that it might do as it pleased that if it did
not submit it, the people must be content-a
doctrine as much fraught with despotism as
anything that can be found in the Eastern
world. You say that set of men called into
Convention can, at their will, frame an in.
strument by which the whole people are to be
bound, hand and foot, against their will. Why,
SIR, 1t is an absurdity, in my Judgment, alto
gether too palpable for argument in any part
of the United States
Ii we hold our liberties by such tenure as
that, they stand on more fragile basis than l
have supposed. Why, sir, have always sup.
posed that everybody understood, that when a
Convention was framing Constitution, it was
merely making proposition to the people who
were to be governed by it. They say to the
people (" Will you have this7 We have done
our best to make Constitution which we, as
members of this community, have believed
would be acceptable to you. We propose,
therefore, that you look into it, and, if it meets
your appreciation, make it your Constitution. !"
| have always supposed that that was the mean
ing of the action of such Convention and
certainly it is, if American liberty means any
thing.
The men assembled at Lecompton dare not
present their Constitution to this body without
some attempt to cover it up; they must make
an attempt to submit it. How have they done
tf Why, cir, they have contrived, by ingenui
ty, to get up scheme whereby the form of
voting might be preserved to the people, and
the result be the same, let them vote as they
would. 1t makes me think of man who built
hog pen up in our country once, and the rails
were 20 crooked and winding, that when his
hogs got through, and thought they had got out,
as they wound along they came right in again.
Laughter. So here, the people were to say
" Constitution with Slavery" or Constitution
without Slavery" If they said " Constitution
with Slavery" that gave them Slavery up to
their ears; it never could be done away with.
If they voted "Constitution without Sla.
very" what would an unsophisticated man sup.
pose would come then? He would suppose
ne had got out of the pen; but the fact is, it
twisted him right in where he was before. He
had not gone an inch Slsvery was there; it
was to be there it was to be protected there
forever, vote as you would. And they extorted
an oath, before they put this nefarious fraud to
the people, that they should support it.
Now, Sir, whoever devised this echeme, had a
more mean and contemplate opinion of the
American people than is consistent with Repub.
iicanism or Democracy. do not believe there
Is despot on Gods earth that dare deal thus
with his peoples and you say they are to be
bound by such Peter Funk operation as
that DO you suppose men are to be enlrap.
ped and deprived of their liberties in this
wsyY The only difference in the result, whether
they voted for the Constitution with Slavery or
without it, was whether they would allow the
future importation of slaves into the State. or
whether those now there should be kept in Sla-
very, with their posterity, forever. 1t was to be
a slave State, and, in the language of the Pres.
ldent, as much slave State as Georgia or
south Carolina, whether the people voted that
they would have the Constitution with Slavery,
or whether they said they would have it without
Slavery. ls not that fine aspect to hold up to
the American people, to suppose they are to be
gulled by such thing as that2
Then they provided, in the schedule, that the
vote should be returned to one John Calhoun,
the President of the Convention. deny, as a
legal proposition, that Calhoun could political.
ly live one moment after the Convention had
expired. All the incidents die with the princi.
pal. He was defunct, and it was not in the
power of the Convention to keep him on foot in
his official form one hour after that.
But passing by that point, we see the shrewd
ingenuity with which it was done. This Cal
houn was empowered, as dictator there, to fix
ail the election districts, to appoint the judges,
his own mere creatures and instruments, to
make the returns, and they were to make them
to him, and, as it is construed now, to make them
either this year or next year, just as he pleases.
They said the returns should be made to him
in eight days after the election, but he need
never exhibit them at all; and he has proclaim
ed in this city, to the honorable Senator from
Illinois, who has stated it on this floor, that un.
less this Constitution be adopted, he, in his
sovereign majesty, never will make known what
was done
Mr.. President, is it not an open, downright
insult, offered to the American Senate, to send
this fugitive from justice, armed with this ire
mendous power of turning constitutional ma
Jority one way or the other, just as he sees fit
Will the hberty-loving people of the United
States submit to this kind of authority and die
tationH Who is this John c. CslhounP
A SENATOR. He drops the &C"
Mr.. WADE. l am glad be does so, for the
honor of his predecessor Who is he? We
know nothing about him. The only history of
him we have, is, that be has been Indignantly
driven out by that people, as a violator of their
laws, as man SO infamous that they would not
suffer him to live there at all, and he has fed
to the place where everything that is antire-
publican and tyrannicsl seems to Ay-he has
sought city of refuge here, where everything
too vile to live at home seems to find place.
Here we are waiting on John Calhoun for light
% TO who shall govern the Territory of Kan
sas. The State" Well: the State of Kan
sas, when it gets to be State. know the
President calls it State now, and did it great
while ago. Was ever anything done like it on
this Continent hafora Wban hafora wos a
man armed with authority to take the votes of
toe people of State, bury them up in candle.
box, if you please, or carry them in his pocket,