Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-01-07
The New Development in Kansas.
(From Forney's Philadelphia Press.)

eudpt, anu NS0i, piOiSSItu
the Lecompton fraud while their representa-
tive or delegate in Congress has protested
against it while Governor ROBERT j WAL
KER and Secretary FREDERICK p STANTON, both
men of strong southern attachments, and one
of them native of the Sonth, have denounc-
ed it as unworthy of the age the ready an
swer of its advocates, at least to us of the free
States, has been " We admit that it is hard
to insist upon such q Constitution-we admit
it is wrong to force it upon the people who
spurn it with loathing as a thing abhorred :;
but then slavery was the only issue in the late
Presidential battle, and as slavery is sure to
be voted ont on the 2lst of December, the
mere matter of the Constitution can be soon
\ amended after Congress has compelled the
people to take it." Such arguments as these
backed up by the idea that after all, there
was no practical issue at stake, lulled the minds
of many good easy men. And then the fact
that nearly every leading man in the South
had declared that Kansas was not intended
by climate or by events to become slave
State, was the clncher to the nail in the cof-
fin OF all adverse augmentation. If it needed
anything else to settle the ghost Of objection
to the Lecompton fraud, and to its virtues and
justice, a few allusions to /" Black Republican
ism" were sure TO perform the work.
But the apparition will not down. THE
PRACTICAL QUESTION HAS TRANSFERRED The
election on the 2lSt has passed off ; and slave
~ is decreed in Kansas 1t was given out
as we have said, in more than one quarter,
thai if the Constitution was accepted, slavery
should be prohibited. We are even told that
the proslavery men, and that CALHOUN and
hia ap1omplpaS unulA fbansol,o,
slavery if only the people would take the I.e-
compton Constitution. The sequel is before
ms. A most contemplate faction in Kansas
voted for this Constitution and for slavery :;
and now like the submissive and law-abiding
men we are called upon to accept the decree
as boon.
Had the slavery clause been stricken ont
and the odouS provisions protecting slavery
in that Territory been retained the majority
of her people refusing to vote on account of
the test oath and various other disabilities
imposed upon them in the advance of the vote,
binding them to submit to Constitution upon
which they were not permitted to vote, and
convicting them of perjnry in the event of re-
fusing to obey its provisions, we should still
have raised our voice against the decree and
in so doing, we believe we would have been
sustained by an overwhelming majority of the
Democracy of Pennsylvania 1t is against the
Constitution framed at Iecompton by mi
nority Convention that the people of Kansas
protest. It is against the Instrument which
in its Bill of Rights, declares that it is " an
inalienable and mdefeasble right of the peo
pie of Kansas to amend or alter their Consti-
tution whenever they please" and in its sched-
ule, which follows, that whenever the Consti-
tuition may he amended they shall not he per
mltted to make any amendment affecting the
right of property in slaves it is against this
high-handed atteml to elevate the right of
property IN slaves over every other domestic
institution, that the people of Kansas protest.
1T IS, against the assumption by the COnven-
tlon OF legislative functions against the pro
vision for the creation of monster bank
against the aristocratic and auti-J elferSOnian
disqualification of adopted citizens against
grants to railroads against the unpreceden-
ed and partial selection Of site for State
capitol against the arrogant provisions of
the right to tax and legisiate over the lands
of the United States within the borders of
Kansas equally with the lands of individual
citizens-it is against these and many other
clauses Of this Constitution that the people of
INduotS nave 'ttIdS cu tHellStlNtS
But even If the instrument had been all that
the Washington Unioa originally declared it
to be even if it deserved the extatic eulogy
conferred npOn it by that journal if the. peo
pie OF Kansas, who are to live under it, refus
ed so to regard it, we--a portion Of the con
stituency of those representatives in Congress
who are to accept the instrument or to reject
it, we--a portion of the Democratic party
which voted for Mr. BUCHANAN in 1856, and
pledged ourselves that the people Of Kansas
should form and regulate their own institutions
in their own way-should steadily sustain
them in their course
We perceive that cenSure has been cast up-
on the men who have voted 10 make Kansas
q slave State. At all events, we repeat our
admiration OF their courage Their conrse was
natural. They saw a number of Northern
men solemnly pledging themselves to vote for
the Lecompton Constitution, with slavery or
without slavery, and they determined to make
sure of their interests, to leave nothing to in.
ference and To doubt and so they voted an
the slavery clause Aud, notwithstanding the
cunning preparation for the protection of Sla
very IN the event OF the rejection OF that clause,
they preferred the other course, and call upon
those Northern men who promised to abide by
the election of the 2lst to come forward and
fulfill their obligations
But may we not readily excuse our fellow
countrymen who on the 2lst in Kansas refused
to vote? They found themselves, as We have
said, in danger of being challenged to support
a constitution upon which they had no right to
express their opinion. Who will say, with
the fact before his eyes that nineteen counties
out of thirty had been practically disfranchis-
ed in the election of delegates to the Conven-
tion, that the people of Kansas were under
any obligation to vote for contrivance so
odious ? Who will say that they we're Obliged
to vote for it in the face of the broken pledges
of CALHOUN and his followers to submit their