Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-02-18
The Kansas Message.

The last message of the President Illus
trates the truth, that there may be in lowest
depths lower deep. Everybody supposed
that Mr.. Buchanan had touched bottom
long ago, but still he dcscends. From the
Silliman letter to this message; into how
short term has he contrived to compress
folliesand enormit cs sufficient to give no
toriety to a lifetime!
We publish this message IN e.rtenso, and,
long as it is, we commend it to the atten
tive perusal of our readers. They will not
fail to mark the innocent simplicity with
which the President avows the fact. and the
profusc detail of evidence by which he es-
tablishes it, that the Territorial Govern
me1t fastened upon Kansas by the invasion
of March 80. 1855. has been maintained to
the present time only by the constant pres
ence of the army of the United States, and
could not have existeda single day without
it. Nor will they fail to mark his admis-
sion, that it was this necessity of retaining
force in Kansas which has palsed the
Utah expedition. The Republicans have
constantly urged against the Administra-
tion these identical charges. The President
admits their truth, and by strange per-
versity of mind seems even to take credit
to himself for the acts upon which they are
founded.
How is it possible to argue with a man,
who. in one breath, declares it to be per-
fectly clear that the people of Kansas might.
without an enabling act form Constitu-
tion, in any way, and by any process which
might seem good to them, and in another
breath, denounces them as rebels, because
they formed Constitution at Topeka, to
be submitted to Congress for acceptance?
How is it possible to argue with man,
who, in one breath. denounces the people
of Kansas for not voting under the Lecomp-
ton Constitution on the 2lst of December,
AMI in another breath affirms that nobody
coull vote under it without solemnly en-
dorsing and sanctioning it, as he maintains
that all those did, who voted under it on
the 4th Of January, thus condemning the
people of Kansas to the alternative OF re-
bellious contumacy, or of an estOppel
against all subsequent remonstrance? In
what form of language, at all respectful to
the Chief Magistrate of the country. can we
characterize the assertions, that the ques-
ton of Slavery was submitted to the people
| of Kansas, when everybody knows that the
| only question submitted had relation to the
| further Introduction of slavcs--and that
the people of Kansas can forthwith change
their Constitution within the forms of law.
frauds committed by his official subordinate,
Calhoun, the Senate of Kansas is so
packed as to defeat all peaceful change for
four years, term within which slaves
enough may be introduced to render any
change impossible for an indefinite period?
The President exultingly announces that
Kansas is as much slave territory as Geor-
gia and South Carolina, and is so under a
decision which fastens Slavery upon four
| fifths of the already imperial area of tho
United States, and will fasten it upon a
continent, if the men who contrived it, are
able to retain their political ascendaney.-
Doubtless, all this is SO. but was it expe-
dient thus ostcntatiously to proclaim it?
Not satisfied with thus going to the farth-
est extreme with party which mcditates
the enslavemcnt of the country, Mr.. Buch-
anan even joins hands with those who seek
| to overthrow the Government of it. His
assertion that the Union is endangered by
refusal to accept the Lecompton fraud
unaccompanied with a syllable of ccnsure
| for those who make such an apprehended
refusal the pretext for threatening the
Union, but urged as a reason for yielding
to their demands, is a scarcely concealed
endorsement of their justice. Having ex-
pended all, his indignation upon imaginary
rebellion in Kansas, he has nothing left but
kindness and sympathy for real nulliica-
tion at the South. He will concede moth
ing, not even justice, to the complaints oI
the people of Kansas, cxtorted by wrongs
which have made angels weep, but he de-
mands everything to appease clamors,
which he himself, not many months since,
stigmatized as the ''ho~iiags Of Georgia,
4dlabama and Mississippi. In what other
country. or in what other time, has been
witnessed this strange completely between
those who administer Government. and
those who are plotting to destroy it?
| The President announces as his only am
bition, the wish to secure the respect and
affection of the country. 1t is late in the
day for a man who bas passed the age of sew
enty without inspiring respect in anybody
who really knew him., who, incapable of
friendship himself, never excited it in man
or woman, and who never had political
associate whom he did not bctray, to cher
ish the untimely ambition which now pos
sesses Mr.. Buchanan. Let him have the
good sense to dismiss it. The most favor
able emotions which he can hope to excite
in mankind are pity and commisseration,
and the utmost he can ask of'the county is
the forgiveness which may be accorded to a
nam, who has been thrown by she accidents
Pof9political fortune into a position. which
has confused and bewildered faculties which
might have'appcaretl respectable at an ele-
walton less conspicuous. Washington Re-
pusie. z -,.. s. '..''eg g. - = ~. ,'s.'s
s'siin1ae Kansas i'm the. Senate. 1zq szf