The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-08-26
The Vote in Kansas.

1he Vote IN Kansas.
The freemen Of Kansas have spoken in
thunder-tones against the Lecomptor
Constitution. The returns of each day
only serve to swell the tide of conde III a
tion which has swept over that scheme oil
despotc iniquity. But one or two coun-
ties have failed to cast an overwhelming
majority against it, and there is scarce
I ly a township in its favor. This
election was ordered BY the Lecompton-
ties themselves, and they therefore can
not question its LEGALITY" The votes
polled against it are sufficiently sanction
ed by thoir own provisions to be fair
index of popular will, even according to
their over-nice technical method of ascer-
tanning it. They bad clothed Lecom ptou
in purple and 6ne linen, and arrayed it
in all the tempting respectabiity that the
land ordinance, immediate admission into
the Union, aDd CALHoUNs certificate
could give it. But all would not avail
The people knew it to be an abomination,
conceived in fraud aud brought forth in
tyranny, and they slaughtered it without
mercy. i.
This vote, therefore, shows beyond
doubt, not only that the Leconpton Con-
stitution is not now the choice of the peo- j.
pie of Kansas, but that it was not their
choice last winter, when the effort was
persisteutly made for weeks to drag them
into the Union under it. There can in
future be no donbt or cavil on this point
1t is clear as the noon day sun. Every
Lecomptonite is thereby convicted Of hav-
ing endeayored to enforce Government
upon protesting people against their will
of establishing Constitution contrary
to the views and wishes of those who were
to be governed by it-of violating the
Fundamental doctrine which requires the
consent of the governed as the corner
stone of all political institutions. Be-
tween despotism and republicaDism there
is no wider channel than between the rule
Of the minority, which the Lecomp ptonites
have sought to establish in Kansas, and
the honest rule of the majority Those
who demand an eudorseme1: of the Ad-
ninistration Kansas policy by the whole
Democracy, wish to commit them, there
fore, against the right of local self. gov
ernment, against Popular Sovereignty, a.
gainst the rule of the people. They de-
mand that the Democracy of the nation
shall, in violation of the traditionary pol
icy, their platform, and the sentiments of
the people, array themselves against the
principle upon which alone free iustitu-
tions can rest. No party occupying such
position can preserve the public conf
dence or long hold polical power u a re-
publican country. Either the people must
lose all confidence in their own system Of
government, and be willing to subvert it
by substituting tyranny for freedom, and
the will of the few for the will of the ma
n.y. or they must crush out and subdue
any party which teaches the despotic doc
trines OF Lecomptonsm, and seeks to es-
tahlish them. They mig ght as well toler-
ate and sustain an ayowed party of mon
archi,ts at once, for an insidious organi-
cation against free government is not
more dangerous than an open and a
vowed one. All the past glories of the
Dem ocratlc party cannot save it from an
Inhalation il 1t does not east from its neck
the mill stone OF LecoW ptonism. Let the
honest members OF the party, North and
South, take a fair view OF the prospect
before them, and be wise lii time. Let
those who erred b. endorsing Lecompton,
and who have heretofore shielded them
selves by claiming that il was not legally
shown that that Constitution did not rep
represent the will of the people of Kan
sas, remember that the late election af-
fords new and iHcontros ertible testimony
on that subject, which cannot be disregar-
ded. The Democracy of the North have
been wrong heretofore on political ques-
tons, and when they discovered their
errors they yielded gracefully and
recanted their beresies. The Dem
ocracy Of the South are clearly wrong
now, and if they wish to act justly, aud
to save their party from annihiation, they
must abjure Lecompsonism; aud new eai-
idence of the hostility entertained towards
it by the people of Kansas gives them a
fair pretext for placing themselves in a
proper position before the american peo-
pie, and regaining the ground they have
lost by the endorsement of q gigantic
fraud and wrong,
The English Bill, which was substitu.
ted for Lecompton pure aud simple" Is
an espedient which only aggravates the