Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1858-02-04
The Kansas question.


in the election, of the 4th inst, whicl
) was held under the provisions of tn
} Lecompton convention, and the conse
} quent acknowledgment of the legalit,
of that convention, have completely fal
siied the predictions of those who S,
) con n6dently asserted a few weeks ag,
that nine out of ten of the inhabitant
of the territory would prefer civil war t.
submission, in any shape, to the acts o
constitutional convention. It is to b.
supposed that the clear, deliberate anc
convincing exposition of the President
views on the question, as contained il
the message to congress, showed the
law-resisting party in Kansas the utter
hopelessness of any attempt to overthrow
the acts of the territorial authorities and
obtain political power by illegal means
and convinced them that the ballot box
was far safer and more effectual means
of attaining their object than a resort to
violent opposition to the federal author
| ity. The reports of several recent
meetings of the free state party in Kan
sas; their resolutions in favor of voting
on the 4th instant, as 1.-The only mode
of opposing the 1Leeompton constitu-
tion;" their opinion, that "the man is
mad who advises rebellion as a mode of
redressing grievances which can be re-
dressed at the ballot box" and "Gov-
ernor" RoBINsoN's detection from the
resistance at all times and at all hazards
party, show that sober second thought
has been productive ofbenefcial results,
even in Kansas: and the telegraphic dis
patche: as to the election on the 4th (if
correcD show that majoity of the free
state party have voted, and that no vio-
lence was offered to the exercise of their
legal right.
The conservative portion of the free
state settlers of Kansas are naturally
tired of being made the puppets of Mr..
jim LANE and other factious wire pull
lcrs within and without the territory,
and Of being keptin continual hot water
to serve the selfish ends of few unscru-
pulous demagogues who have not the
slightest consideration for their interests
or prosperity, and by whose advice they
have been hitherto practically deprived
of the power of forming their own gov
ssrnnent, aud arranging their affairs to
suit themselves. Their common sense
tells that to deny the legality of the
territorial legislature which the Presi-
dent and Congress of the United States
have repeatedly acknowledged, was as
vain as it was unjustiiablc; and that if
the Lecompton convention was composed
of men politically opposed to them, the
fault was their own; that, had they voted
as they were empowered and invited to
do, they might have elected delegates of
their own way of thinking; and that
their foolish obedience to jim LANES
advice, instead of the law, could not
possibly be permitted to disfranchise
those who did obey the law, or annual
the acts of a legally elected and proper
ly constituted body, such the Lecomp-
ton convention undoubtedly was. Once
convicted of this, Gt is pity that the
conviction did not reach them earlier)
they thought that there was some prob
ability that the Lecompton constitution,
adopted on the 21st of December by the
votes Of seven thousand electors of Kan
sas, would be accepted by congress, and
that Kansas might be admitted as a
state under that constitution. They saw
that if this were the case, and if they
abstained from voting for state officers
and state legislature, on the 4th in
slant, they must either abandon the
government of their state to their polit-
ical opponents, or else ''set up an indie
pendent government which one of
their leaders, with unusual frankness,
declared to be "rebellion," and which
Governor ROBINSON warned them not
to attempt, by showing the utter fruit
lessness of resistance to the power of the
United States. They therefore voted
peaceably on the 4th (if report speaks
truly, and if they have elected their
ticket they will have the right, of which
the President told them that 'no human
power" could deprive them, of chang
ing the Lecompton constitution just as
they pleased, after Kansas is admitted
as state, and arranging their fundamen-
tai law in accordance with her own
tastes and opinions. This is the legal,
constitutional, and only admissibly way
of asserting popular sovereignty, and
the right of the majority to rule; and
the free state men who voted on the 4th
inst. will find the practical superiority
of this method over the resistance and
revolution breathing resolutions of the
Topeka meetings in which they were
unfortunately y induced to participate.
Should the Kansas question be set
tied in this peaceful way, as we sincere
ly trust it will be; should the entire sub
ject of Kansas government be thus re
moved from national politics and hand
ed over to the people of that territory,
it will doubtless be very severe blow
those who hoped by ingenious manage
mont, to keep up the excitement and
turn it to account in 1860. 1t will be
mortifying to the men whose party or
ganization and future hopes depend al
most entirely upon the continuance of
the ''war in Kansas" to find the ground
taken from under them, their impostures
exposed, their representations falsifed,
and their selfish schemes defeated. But
it will be atriumph for the conservative,
intelligent, law-respecting masses of the
entire Union to find that the principles
which they have always advocated have
at length prevailed; that fanaticism has
yielded to common sense, and rebellion