Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1858-03-25


shall have been successful. for their
large share of merit in It's deliverance.
Will vou tell me that il is difficult
to induce the Senate and House of
Representatives to take that short
backward step? On the contrary. the
hardest task that an Executive dicta-
tor ever set, or parliamentary manager
undertook, is to prevent this very step
from being taken. Let the President
take off his hand, and the bow bent SO
long. and held to its tension by so
hard a pressure, viii relax, and
straigten itself at once
Consider now, if you please. the
consequences of your refusal If YOU
attempt to coerce Kanzas into the I'M
ion under the Lecompton Constitution,
the people of that Territory viii resort
to civil war You are pledged to put
down that revolution by the sword
Will the people listen to your voice
amid the thunders Of your cannon?-
Let but one drop of the blood of free
citizen be she'd there by the Federal
Army, and the countenance of every
Representative of a Free State. in
either House of Congress, will blanch,
and his tongue will refuse to utter the
vote necessary to sustain the army in
the butchery of his fellow citizens.
Practically, you have already one
intestine and Territorial war-a war
against Brigham Young in Utah.
Can you carry on two, and confine the
strife within the Territories? Can
YOU win both? \ wise nation will
never provoke more than one enemy
at one time. | know that YOU argue
that the Free State men of Kanzas are
impracticablc, factious, seditious.-
Answer me three questions: Are they
not majority, and so proclaimed by
the people of Kanzas? Is not this
quarrel, for the right of governing
themselves, conceded by the Federal
Constitution? Is the tyranny of fore
ing a hateful Government upon them
less intolerable than three cents i'm
post on a pound of tea, or five cents
stamp duty on promissorv note?
You say that they can change this Lc-
compton Constitution when it shall
once have been forced upon them.
Let it be abandoned now What
guaranty can YOU give against your
own intervention to prevent that future
change? What security can YOU give
for your own adherence to the con
struction of the Constitution which
you adopt, from expedicncy to-day?
What better is Constitution than a
by law of a corporation, if it may be
forced on State to-day, and rejected
tomorrow, in derogation of its own
express inhibition?
KANZAs CAN NOT BE FORCED INTO THE
UNION.
| perceive, Mr.. President, that, in
the way of argument, | have passed
already from the ground of expediency.
on which | was standing, to that of
right and justice. Among all our re-
finements of constitutional learning,
one principle, one fundamental princi-
pie, has been faithfully preserved,
namely; That the new States must
come voluntarily into the Union-thcy
must not be forced into it. Unite or
Die" was the motto addressed to the
States in the time cf the Revolution
Though Kanzas should perish, she can
not be brought into the Union by
force.
SO long as the States shall come in
by free consent, their admission will
be an act of union, and this will be
Confederacy. Whenever they shall
be brought in by fraud or force, their
admission will be an act of consolida-
ton, and the nation, ceasing to be
Confederacy, will become in reality an
Empire. All our elementary instIuc-
tion is wrong, or else this change of
the Constitution will subvert the lib
critics of the American people.
You argue the consent Of Kanzas
from documentary proofs, of her forced
and partial acquiescence, under your
tyrannical rule, from elections fraudu-
lently conducted, from her own contu-
macy and from your own records,
made up here against her. | answer
the whole argument at once; Kanzas
protests here, and stands by your own
in an attitude of rebellion
at home, to resist the annexation
which you contend she is soliciting at
your hands.
Sir, if your proofs were a thousand
times stronger, J would not hold the
people of Kanzas bound by them.
They are all contradicted by stern
facts. \ people can be bound by no
action conducted in their name, and
pretending to their sanction, unless
they enjoy perfect freedom and safety
in giving that consent. You have
held the people of Kanzas in duress
from the first hour of their attempted
as a community. To
crown this duress by an act, at once
forcing Slavery on them, which they
hate, and them into union with YOU,
on terms which they abhor, would be
but to illustrate anew, and on a grand |
scale, the maxim:
Prosperum ct felix scelus, yirtus vocatur
Mr.. President. it is an occasion for
Joy and triumph when community |
hat has gathered itself together under
of privation and exile,
md proceeded through season Of ter
ritorial or provincial dependence on
distant central authority. becomes
State, in the full enjoyment of civil
and religious liberty. and rises into the
dignity Of member of this Imperial
Union. But in the case of Kanzas.
her whole existence has been. and il
t.af - trial topanoct chaos onl Il