Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-03-18

stltutlon, without requiring on Oatn OF Inc
election officers, or afixing penalty on
fraudulent voting or forged returns; and
they, moreover, directed returns 10 be made,
not to the Governor or the legal Legislature,
but to one man alone, the.President of their
Convention; man holding q most lucra-
tive office and large patronage under general
Government; clothed with power to Judge
at his discretion of all returns of a Legisla.
ture before which he might become can
didate for office; bound BY no oath to f.
delity, and exposed to no legal penalty for
the abuse of his trust. We hold, then,
that the Convention has no claim to the
sovereignty in Kansas but by usurpation
that il had in no wise the sanction of Con-
gress, nor Of the President, nor of the peo-
pie of Kansas, and was but cunning de-
vice to defraud thai. people of its sover-
eighty.
The cardinal point on which the great
question turns in this: Is the Lecompton
Constitution the choice and will of the peo-
pie of Kansas? Isay it is not, and l shall
prove it. The first witness is the Conven-
lion itself, they were urged to refer the
matter TO the people; the President in his
high office pledged himself over and over,
and over again, to the appreciation of that
course, and by the authority and with the
knowledge of the Presidents appointment,
quietcd the discontents of the people of Kan
sas by advocating the necessity of such
submission before the Constitution could
claim any validity. And yet the Conven-
ton refused to submit its doings to the
people; thus confessing its consciousness
that its work would be rejected.
The second witness is the newspaper
press of Kansas; that press is against the
Constitution by majority of seven or
eight to one. r
Next; Kansas, by act of Congress. has
a right to delegate In Congress, charged
with the duty to speak 70, its people. They
have now delegate who is undoubtedly
the choice of the people and is the first Kan
sas delegate ever chosen by the people,
He is my third witness. 7
Next: ask the line of Governors ap-
pointed by Presidents themselves; Geary ;
Walker, formerly Senator from Mississippi,
and recently proposed for place in the
present Presidents Cabinet, and highly
commended by the President himself;
Stanton, so lately member of Congress
from Tennessee, all agree. And l would
not fear to ask Denver, the present incum-
bent; he will certify that even fraction
of the party against the Lecompton Con.
stitution is more numerous than the whole
of its friends.
Fifth: the people of Kansas now happi-
ly, thanks to Walker and Stanton, have q
Legislature indisputably representing that
people; and so soon as they could lift up
their voice, they protested against the Le-
compton Constitution. ~
Sixth: those State officers who received
the largest number Of votes at the election
ON the 4th of January last, have likewise
sent their protests to Congress.
Seventh: the voice of the people of Kan
sas itself should be heard. On the 4th of
January they repaired to the polls under
DO ordinary circumstances of solemnity.-
The President had sanctioned the proceed
ings by his special protection; the Legis.
lature and Denver took care that the vote
should be an honest one, and By that vote
it appears that an overwhelming majority
of the people of Kansas reject the Constitu-
tion of Lecompton.
So, then, we have seven sets Of witnesses
against Lecompton, the circumstantial evi-
dence of the Lscompton Convention; the
Kansas Press, the Kansas delegate in Con-
gress the series of the Kansas Governors
-four in one year; the Kansas Legisla-
ture; the Kansas people. All, all declare
that the people Of Kansas reject the LIE.
compton Constitution.
If could hope that the words of one SO
humble as myself could reach the presence
of one so high as the ! resident of the Uni
ted States, would entreat him to lend
bis ear reyerently, and hear and respect the
voice of the people of Kansas, however
lowly they may seem in the log cabins and
homes that they have mode for themselves
in the wilderness. What they have ac-
complisAed there under unexampled trials
and difficulties is the miracle of the age
A commonwealth in all its fair proportions
has grown up, as it were, in the nighttime
Ii tie President of the United States will
will have a peaceful administration; if he
will, by and by, have dignity in retirement
if he will stand well with the world of man.
kind; il, like Washington and all our great
Presidents, he wishes to stand well with
our posterity, let him respect the will fthe
people of Kansas.
It SAID that the whole affair is of little
consequence; that the wrong, is small
one. But there is in political justice NO
such thing as a small wrong. A small
wrong contains within itself the seeds OF
all evil.
1t is further said that the people were
factious, and as they meant at any rate to
reject the Lecompton Constitution, it was
right not to give them chance to do so.-
But if the Constitution for any reason did
not please them, they had right to reject
it; nothing is so factious as minority at
tempting TO ,ule majority.
1t is said they should be punished for
not going to the polls at the bidding Of
men who were believed to be disposed to
defraud them. They went to the polls the
first moment that they were satisfied o.
any chance of fair return, even though
suffering under great disadvantages in the
apportionment Representatives.
1t is said that the people of Kansas once
admitted into the Union, may change theil
Constitution. II this is dishonesty said
! will not use the language which would