Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1858-12-18
Presidents Message.

Felloas Citizens of the Senate and Of the
House Of Representatives;
When We compare the condition of the
country at the present day with what it was
one year ago, at the meeting Of Congress,
We have much reason for graduation to that
Almighty Providence, which has never
failed to interpese for our relief at the most
critical period of our history. One year
90 the sectional strife between the North
and South on the dangerous subject of
slavery, had again become so intense as to
threaten the peace and perpetuity of this
confederacv. The application for the ad-
mission Of Kansas as State into the I'm
ion, fos'ered this unhappy agitation, and
brought the whole subject before Congress.
| 1t was the desire every patriot that such
measures of legislation might be adopted
as would remove the excitement from tn
States, and cOnfine it to the Territory where
| it legitimatelv belonged. Much has been
done, am happy to say, towards the &C
complish'nent Of the object, during the last
session. of Congress.
The Supreme Court of the UnitedStates
had previously decided that all American
citizens have an eqiial right to take into
he Territories, whatever is held as prop
ertv und.r the guardianship of the Fed
eral Constitution, rs So long as the terrific
rial condition shall remain.
This is now well established position,
and the proceedings of the last session were
Ialone wanting to give it practical effect
The principle has been recogniz, din some
form or other, by an almost unanimous
vote of both Houses of Congress, that a
TERRITORY has right to come into the I'm
lion either as free or slave State accord
inc to the will of a majority of its people
The just equality of all theStates has been
vindicated, and fruitful source of danger
Gus dissension among them has been re
moved.
While such has been the beneficial ten
dency of your proceedings outside of Kan
sas, their influence has been nowhere SO
happy as within the territory itself: Left
to manage and control its own affairs in lis
own way, without the pressure of external
influence, the revolutionary Topeka organ
ization and all resistance to the territorial
, government established by Congress. has
been finally abandoned. AS a natural
consequence, that fine territory row ap
pears to be tranquil anil prosperous, and j.
attracting increased thousands of immi
grants to make Kansas their happy home
il KANSAS.
i The past unfortunate experience Of Kan
sas has enforced the lesson already SO of
ten tau ht, that resistance TO lawful au-
Ithorty,undef ohr form Of government, can
not fail in the end to prove disastrous /,
the authors. Had the people of the Ter
.i,ory yielded obedience to the laws enact
ed by heir CO Legislature, it would at the
lprese t moment lave Contained larg, adj
ditional population of industrious and en-
terprising citizens who have been deferred
from entering its borders by the existence
of civil strife and organized rebellion.
1t was the resistance To rightful adthor-
ity, and the pcrseverng attempts to estab
lisb revolutionary government under the
Topeka constitution, " hich caused the peo
pie of Kansas to commit the grave error
of refusing to vote for delegates to the con
venl ion to frame constitution under las
not denied to be fair and just in its provis-
ions. This refusal to vote has been the
prolific source of all the evils which have
followed. In the hostility to the Terrific
trial government, they disregarded the
principle absolutely essential to the work
ing of government, that majority of those
who may remain at home, from whatever
cause-must decide the result of an cleo
ton. For this reason, seeking to take ad-
vantage of their own error, they denied
the authority of the convention thus elect
ed to frame a constitution.
The contention notwithstanding pro-
ceeded to adopt constitution unexcep
tionable in its general features, and provid
ling for the submission of the slavery ques-
lion to vote of the people, which in m,
II opinion, they were bound to- do Under the
karsas- Nebraska act. This was the all
important question which had alone con-
yused the Territory; and yet the oppon-
ants of the lawful government, persisting
IN their first error, refrained from expires
sing their right TO vote, and preferred that
slavery should continue, rather than sur
ender their revolutionary Topeka organi
cation.
A wiser and better spirit seemed to pre-
vail before the firstMohday ofJanuary last.
when an election was held under the con-
stitution. A majority of the people then
voted for Governor and other State off
( GERS for member Of Congress, and mem
beers of the State Legislature. This cleo
ton was warmI, contested by the two pc
litical parties in Kansas and greater votc
was polled than at any previous election
A large majority of the members elect be
longed to party which had previously reIus
ed to vote. The anti-slavery party we've
thus placed in the ascendent. and the po-
li,ical power of The State was in their own
hands.
Had Congress admitted Kansas into the
I Union under the Lecompton Constitution,
the Legislature might, at its very first ses
sion have submitted the question to vote
of the people, whether they would or wo'd
NOT have A convention to amend the con