The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-25
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, d. c. FEBRUARY 25 1853
be cut off, whether they go from the North or


the South.
The Senator from Mississippi quotes Governor
! Walker, as saying, on the 9th of July, that
/ there was no longer any fear of invasion from
Missouri, and the people could vote. Here is
another of the Senator'S Inaccurate statements.
The people elected delegates on the third Mon
day in June, and this letter was written on the
| 9th of July. The Senator from Mississippi
! ought to be little more accurate in his facts,
| and commend him to the study Of old speech
es, to listen to old speeches with patience, until
he is better posted in his fscts. Gov. Walker in
this letter has reference tothe October election,
| to the Legislature under the Territorial laws,
and not the election of delegates to the Conven.
| ton. The people voted in October. In their 9th
of June Convention, before the delegates were
elected, the pe ople assembled in the largest Con-
vention ever held in Kansas; they discussed the
questions connected with the interests Of the
| Territory for two days, and voted with only one
| exception to go into the October election.
They voted to elect their officers under the
Topeka Constitution in the first week of August.
They did elect officers under the Topeka Con-
stitution, and they went into the Territorial
| election in October, and carried that election
| also.
| But the Senator from Mississippi has great
| doubts about frauds. Does he not know that
the people were nearly being cheated out of
their Legislature? If Governor Walker had
not assumed the responsibility of throwing out
some fraudulent votes, the people, who tri-
umphed by FIVE thousand majority, would have
been cheated out of the Legislature. The
frauds at Kickspoo, at Oxford, and in MCGEE
county, if allowed to pass uncorrected, would
have lost them the Legislature. Governor
Walker saw that these frauds were 30 great
that be must reject them, and he did reject the
M2Ciee ard the Oxford frauds.
Mr.. FESSENDEN. He rejected them for in
| formality.
Mr.. WILSON. He rejected them, as the SEN
| ator from Maine suggests, for informality but
| he went down to Oxford and found six houses"
f, and only a few people there. He found that
over fifteen hundred fraudulent votes had been
| returned, and he threw out the returns.
In answer to a question of the Senator from
New Hampshire, the Senator from Mississippi
said there might be occasion to 60 behind the
| instrument, and investigate the frauds. Now,
what are the charges? That there were frauds
| in the elections of the 2lst of December and
4th of January, everybody knows. The Con-
| vention which framed the Lecompson Constitu.
| ton was elected in June. 1t met, and adjourn
| ed to period after the October election. When
| they saw that the Legislature of the Territory
was taken possession of by the Free State men,
| they changed their tactics. 1t is true, as the
Senator from Mississippi tells Us, that meetings
were got up, asking Calhoun and his associates
not to submit the Constitution to the people.
Calhoun and those men had pledged themselves
to do it. On the demand of the President, on
| the promise of Governor Walker, and the dec
larations of the Washington Union, they had
| promised the people of Kansas that they would
| submit the Constitution to the people. They
provided for its submission In such q way that
| Governor Walker could not correct frauds, as
| he had done in the case of Oxford and MCGEE
| county, and so that Calhoun could have the
matter in his hands-a man who would not
| only permit the frauds, but, if necessary, make
the frauds himself. He was just the man to
do it; for God never allowed to walk the green
earth any man who more richly deserves to die
a traitors death, and leave traitors name,
than John Calhoun.
Mr. GREEN. Say it to his face.
| Mr.. WILSON. have said it here, and it
goes on the record. have no fear of the tools
of border ruffianism in Washington or in Kan
sas. am able to take care of myself. l will
| try to do 30, at any rate. Sir, this John Cal
| houn has cheated and defrauded the people of
Kansas out of their sacred rights. He has COM
mitted crime against the liberties of the peo-
pie, which will associate his name with tyran ~
and tyrants, while the history of Kansas shall be
read aud remembered by mankind.
|
refusal to submit the Constitution. Why, sir,
it has been the policy in all the States to ascer
tain the popular will by submitting Constitu-
tons to the people, to ascertain the popular
will. These men knew that if they submitted
the Constitution to the people, it would be vo-
| ted down, four or five to one. The President
| says they would have voted it down, because
they did not like the source from which it en-
| ansted. What business was it to John Calhoun,
or to that Convention, or to the President of the
United States, whether the people of Kansas
| would vote down the Constitution or not? That
was their business. 1t does not belong to the
President or his Cabinet to pronounce on their
| motives for doing it. 1t is an insult to free
people to talk to them in this language, wheth-
| er it comes from the Executive mansion or that
| class of men who formed the Convention that
assembled in Kansas.
The Senator repeats the declaration of the
Executive, that the people had an opportunity
| to vote on the question of making Kansas a
| free or slave State. The vote was taken on
that provision of the Constitution, whether
Kansas should be a slave State, with the slave
trade, or whether Kansas should be a slave
| State, without the slave trade. That was the
whole of it. Kansas was to be slave State
| anyhow. In order to make it a slave State
| without the slave trade, the voter had to vote
for the Constitution. No one could vote against
it. 1t was one of the most stupendous insults
to a free people, that body of usurpers
| ever offered. They took their votes. They
have returned six thousand seven hundred votes
| at that election-thirteen hundred down at this
| little township of Oxford. The town of Kicka-
poo gave nearly eleven hundred votes-a town
that cannot have legally more than four hun
| dred voters. Four or five towns make up
| three thousand fraudulent votes given on that
day. No mao, who knows anything of Kansas,
believes that there we're more than twenty-five
hundred, at the utmost, legal votes given in
| Kansas on that Constitution. Sir, Secretary
Stanton tells US, in his address to the American
people, that enormous frauds have been perpe-
trated at the precincts of Oxford, Shawnee, and
Kickspoo; and it may well be believed that
this result was actually designed by the artful
leaders, who devised the plan and framework
| of the Lecompton Constitution.
Sir, the Legislature have appointed commits
| sioners to investigate the alleged frauds at
Kickapoo and some other precints. The evi.
dence already taken before the commissioner
| proves beyond all question that enormous frauds
have been perpetrated. John G. Vaughn, a
gentleman not wholly unknown to the country,
testifes that he went to the polls with Thomas
Ewing, jr., son of the distinguished Ohio states
man. When he arrived at the polls, at quar-
ter past four o'clock, the officers informed him
that /" ACT votes had been polled." Double
ooting," he says, soas 6arefaced, so barefacsd
that the judges inside and the bystanders out
side could not help seeing It,"
More than one thousand votes were returned
| by the officers, and this, too, in place where
| the oldest residents testify before the commits
sioners that there are not over three hundred
| and fiftv voters Mr. Joseph Cornell Depu.