The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1858-06-19


into the Union. Justice requires me to
say that these gentlemen still profess to
abhor that constitution and are willing to
submit to it temporarily, only with the
hope that they may change it Immediately.
Truly, gentlemen, this device of the enc
my was not adopted without deep and
cunning design. Its unjust and tyrannical
constraint has already operated upon the
minds of the timid, the time-serying and
the wavering. But, so far as I can learn,
it has made no impression upon the un-
broken phalanx of true hearted freepen,
who are unwilling to purchase, at thePriee
of degrading concession, that political
freedom and independent power, which
belong to them of right.
l have never objected to the Lecomp-
ton Constitution because it establishes a
slave-holding State. I have always con-
tended, and do still contend for the right
of the people to adopt that form ofcon-
stitution, if in their sovereign will they
should think proper to do SO. 1t was be-
cause the Lecompton government was not
made by the people of Kansas, and because
they have already rejected it by a fair and
legal election by an overwhelming ma
jority, that have felt it my solemn duty,
under the frowns of all my old associates,
and even with the certainty of being pro-
scribed by most Of that section in which I
was born, and where I have always lived,
to oppose this great wrong under all cir
cumstances, and in all shapes, and regard
less of all personal consequences, affect
ing my own fortunes and prospects.
have always felt, gentlemen, that my life
would have been more quiet, and prosper
Gus, ard happy, if I had never consented
to accom- pany Gov. Walker to this Terri
tory; and under the influence of that,
have sometimes regretted that was in
dueed to expose myself to the difficulties
of my position, the denunciations and
calumnies which have been heaped upon
me, the treachery and wrong which l have
suffered at the hands of those from whom
| had reason to expect better treatment
But never, for a single moment, have
faltered or hesitated, as to the line of my
duty, as to the great principles upon which
l stand firmly and immoVably at this hour.
My convictions on this subject are so deep
that l should forever forfeit my own self
respect, if I should surrender any material
part of the ground which I have hereto
fore occupied. The people of Kansas
have not only not sanctioned the Lecomp-
ton Constitution, but they have expressly
and almost unanimously rejected it. For
Congress now to say to this people, that
they may be admitted into the Union
under this constitution, with their present
uncertain population, but that under a
constitution to be fairly made by them
and to be adopted freely by their own
unbiased will, they must wait until a
legal census can be taken, and until a
population of ninety-three thousand shall
be thus legally shown to be in the Terri
tory, is to add insult to wrong and injury.
l was not unwilling that the people of
Kansas should be put to this test, not
being myself in any way responsible for
the Objectionable form of the proposition.
l knew, or at least | believed 1 knew, that
the people of Kansas would reject the
proposition with scorn and Indignation
I thought they could neither be bribed nor
forced into submission and degradation
As a Democrat and Southern man,
deeply regretted the false and suicidal
policy, by which the ascendancy of once
great, useful and patriotic party organiza-
ton was risked and wrecked upon device
so utterly indefensible and Iuinous as this,
and especially because the integrity and
security of Southern institutions were
enormously supposed to be involved in
the controversy. mourn over the infat-
nation which induces the great body of
Southern representatives to make them
selves and their constitution responsible
for the fraudulent doings of that party in
this Territory, which assumed the name
and claimed the authority of the South in
support of measures, which the honest
masses of that sunny region would indig-
nantly disavow. But the Administration
with its supporters, including the great
mass of Southern representatives, had
irretrievably committed themselves to the
tyranny of Lecomptonism,-they had
done all the damage which it was possible
for them, in their blind infatuation, to do
the cause of democracy and Southern
rights, and | was therefore content that
they should, with any disreputable evasion,
and with any and every possible disad-
vantage on our part, submit the question
to the people of this Territory. Was /
wrong, gentlemen? Are you too weak to
undergo this temptation? Are you daz-
zled by the glitter:ng prize of political
elevation. to such an extent, that you are
willing to accept it upon any terms, how
ever degrading? Will you reverse the
decision which you made on the 4th of
January last, when, with hurricane OF
Indignation, you swept the Lecompton
party from the Territory, by majority Of
ten thousand? Will you endorse the
frauds of Oxford, and Shawnee, and Kick
apoo, and Delaware crossing? Will you
go back to the October election and adopt
the monstrous forgery of johnson county,
which has been incorporated into the lie
compton Constitution, by virtue of the
unequal representation given to that county
In the State Legislature? Will you tol-
crate the base juggle by which the ques-
ton of slavery, or no slavery, was pretend
ed to be submitted to the people? Have
you forgotten the deep-toned indignation
with which the whole people of the Ter.
ritory arose as one man, and demanded
the legal opportunity, through their Ter.
ritorisl Legislature, to put the seal o.
eternal condemnation upon the work oil
those men, who, in the adoption of ths
Leeompton Constitution, had knowingly
and wilfully disregarded the cherished
sentiments-the deep and conscientiou.
eonvictions-oft the great mass of the peo.
pie? If you can forget these things,
never can. Had / not believed the PEG.
pie to be earnest and sinceFe-true, an6
faithful, and strong. and persevering, IL
their hatred of fraud and Wrongful ha6
believed they would afterwards be in,
duced, by any sordid consideration what.
ever, 20 eat their own words and publish
their own shame, by accepting what they
then denounced as the foulest outrage
would have retired in disgust, and giyer
rIaee tn some seryiIe instrument of tvran