Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-12-07
PRESIDENTS M

Nftf~Afto
FcSentdtiCCS -
When we compare the condition of the
country at the present day with what it was
one year ago, at the meeting of Congress- we
have much reason for gratitude to that Al
mighty Providence, which has never failed to
interpOse for our relief at the most critical pc
riOd of our history. One year ago, the sec
iional strife between the North and the South,
on the dangerous subject of slavery had again
become so intense as to threaten the peace and
perpetuity of the contederacy. The applica-
ton for the admission Of kanzas as a State
into the Union, fostered this unhappy agita-
ton, and brought the whole subject once more
before Congress. 1t was the desire of every
patriot that such measures Of Legislation
might be adopted rs would remove the excite
ment from the States, and contine it to the
Territory where it legitimately belonged
Much has been done, l am happy to say, to-
wards the accomplishment of this object, dur
ing the last session of Congress.
The Supreme Court of the United States
had previously decided that all American citi-
zens have an equal right to take into the Ter
ritores whatever is held as property under the
luws of any of the States, and to hold such
property there under the guardianship of the
federal constitution, so long as the territorial
condition shall remain
This is now a well-established position, and
the proceedings of the last session were alone
wanting to give it practical effect The prin-
ciple has been recognized, in some form or
other, by an almost unanimous vote of both
houses of Congress, that a Territory has a
right to come into the Union either as a free
or slave State, according to the will of a ma
jority of its people The just equality of all
the States has thus been indicated, and
fruitful source of dangerous discussion among
them has been removed.
Whilst such has been the beneficial tenden-
cy of your legislative proceedings outside of
Kanzas, their influence has been nowhere so
happy as within that Territory itself. Left to
manage and control its own affairs in its own
way, without the pressure of external inlu-
ence, the revolutionary Topeka organization
and all resistance to the territorial government
established by Congress, have been finally
abandoned. As natural consequence, that
fine Territory now appears to be tranquil and
prosperous, and is attracting increasing thous-
andS of immigrants to make it their happy
home
The past unfortunate experience of kanZaS
has enforced the lesson so often already taught
that resistance to lawful authority, under our
form of government cannot fail in the end to
prove disastrous to its authors Had the peO-
pie of the Territory yielded obedience to the
laws enacted by their Legislature, it would at
the present moment have contained a large adj
ditional population of industrious and enter
prising citizens, who have been deferred from
entering its borders by the existence of civil
strife and organized rebellion.
1t was the resistance to rightful authority
and the perseyering attempts to establish arev-
dictionary government under the Topeka con-
stitutiOn, which caused the people of Kansas to
commit the grave error of refusing to vote for
delegates to the convention to frame const-
tuition under a law not denied to be fair and
just in its provisions. This refusal to vote
has been the prolific source of all the evils
which have followed. In their hostility to the
Territorial government they disregarded the
principle, absolutely essential to the working
of our form Of government, that a majority of
those who vote-not the majority who remain
at home, from whatever cause-must decide
the result Of an election. Forths reason seek
ing to take advantage of their own error, they
denied the authority of the convention thus
elected to frame a constitution.
The convention, notwithstanding, proceed
ed to adopt a constitution unexceptionable in
its general features, and providing for the sub
mission of the slavery question to a vote of the
people, which, in my opinion, they were bonnd
to do under the Kansas and Nebraska act
This was the all-important question which had
alone convulScd the territory; and yet the OPP
! pOlUutS Vi lilC lawful government, DtTSlStlDH
in their first error, refrained from exercising
their right to vote, and preferred that slavery
should continue rather than surrender their
revolutionary Topeka organization.
A wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail
before the first Monday of january last, when
an election was held under the constitution. A
majority of the people then voted for Cover
nor and other State officers, for a member of
Congress, and members of the State legisla-
ture. This election was warmly contested by
the two political parties in Kansas, and a great
er vote was polled than at any previous cleo
ton. A large majority Of the members of the
Legislature elect belonged to that party which
had previously refused to vote The anti-sla-
very party were thus placed in the ascendant,
and the political power of the State was in their
own hands Had Congress admitted Kansas
into the Union under the Lecompton constitu-
tiOu, the Legislature might, at its very first
session, have submitted the question to a vote
of the people, whether they would or would
not have a convention to amend their constitu-
ton, either on the slavery or any other ques-
ton, and have adopted all necessary means for
giving speedy effect to the will of the majority.
Thus the Kansas question would have been
Immediately and finally settled.
Under these circumstances, l submitted to
Congress the constitution thus framed, with all
the officers already elected necessary to put the
State government into operation, accompanied
by strong recommendation in favor of the adj
mission Of Kansas as a State. In the course of
my long public life l have never performed any
official act which, i'll the retrospect, has afford
ed me more heartfelt satisfaction. Its admis-
sion could have inflicted no possible injury on
any human being, whilst it would, within a
brief period, have restored peace to Kansas and
harmony to the Union. In that event the
slavery question would ere this have been final
ly settled, according to the legally expressed
will Of a majority of the voters, and popular
sovereignty would thus have been indicated
in a constitutional manner
With my deep convictions of duty, could
have pursued no other course. 1t is true, that,
as an individual, | had expressed an opinion,
both before and during the session of the con
vention, in favor of submitting the remaining
clauses of the constitution, as well as that con-
corning slavery, to the people. But, acting in
an official character, neither myself nor any
human authority had the power to rejudge the
proceedings of the convention, and declare the
constitution which it had framed to be nudity.
To have done this would have been a violation
of the Kansas and Nebraska act, which left the
people Of the Territory perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the constitutional
the United States" 1t would equally have
violated the great principle of popular sover-
eighty, at the foundation of our institutions, to
deprive the people of the power, if they thought
proper to exercise it, Of confiding to delegates
elected by themselves the trust of framing q
constitution, without requiring them to subject
their constituents to the trouble, expense and
delay Of a second election. 1t would have beer
in opposition to many precedents in our his