San Andreas independent., 1858-01-23
[From Forney's PhiladelpLial Press.]
Hon. Robert J. Walkers Resignation of
the Governorship of Kansas.

lr rom Fofhey (fhliaueipia-' ITessJ
Hon. Robert J. Walkers Resignation Of
the Governorship of Kansas.
[coRREcrED FROM GOV. WALKERS owx COPY
WAsHTNGros CRY, Dec. Is, 1857.
Hon. Leuis Cass, Secretary of State:
SIR:-I resign the Office of Governor of the
Territory of Kansas have been most reluc-
family forced to this conclusion, after anxious
and careful consideration of my duty to the
country, to the people of Kansas, to the Presi-
dent of the United States. and to myself. The
ground assumed by the President in his late
message to Congress, and recent instructions
in connection with the events now transpiring
here and in Kansas, admonish me, that as
Governor of that Territory, it will no longer be
in my power to preserve the peace or promote
the public welfare.
At the earnest solicitation of the President
after repeated refusals, the last being in wri-
ting. finally accepted this Office, upon his let
ter showing the danger and difficulties of the
Kansas question, and the necessity Of my
undertaking the task of adjustment. Under
these circumstances, Notwithstanding the great
sacrifices to me, personal, POLITICAL and pecu-
mary, felt that could no more refuse such
call from my country, through her Chief
/ tlldu ~ SOluleT III DaLt1c, WHO Is
ordered to command a forlorn hope. ac-
cepted, however, on the express condition that
| should advocate the submission of the Con-
stitution to the vote of the people, for ratifica-
ton or rejection These views were clearly
understood by the President and all his Cabi-
net They were distinctly set forth in my let
ter OF acceptance of this office, on the 2Gth oil
March last, and reiterated in my inaugural ad-
dress OH the 9th of May last, as follows =
Indeed cannot doubt that the Convention,
after having framed State Constitution, will
submit it for ratification or rejection by ma
jority of the then actual bona fde resident
settlers of Kansas. With these views well
known to the President and Cabinet, and APP
proved by them, | accepted the appointment
of Governor of Kansas. My instructions from
the President, through the Secretary of State,
under date of the 18th of March last sustain
the regular Legislature of the Territory, in
assembling Convention to form a Constitu-
ton;' and they express the opinion of the Pre-
sident, that "when such Constitution shall
be submitted to the people of the Territory,
they must be protected in the exercise of their
right of voting for against that instrument;
and the fair expression of the popular will must
not be interrupted by fraud or violence"
repeat then as my clear conviction, that
unless the Convention submit the Constittu-
ton to the vote of all the actual resident settlers
in Kansas, and the election be fairly and Justly
conducted, the Constitution will be and ought
to be, rejected by Congress" This inaugural
most distinctly asserted that it was not the
question of slavery merely, (Which believed to
be of little practical Importance then in its ap-
plication to Kansas but the entire Constitu-
ton which should be submitted to the people
for ratification or rejection. These were my
words on that subject in my inaugural alt is
not merely shall slavery exist in or disappear
from Kansas, but shall the great principles of
self-government and State sovereignty be
maintained or subvcrted" In that inaugural
proceed further to say, that the people, ''may
by a subsequent vote defeat the ratification of
the Constitution" | designate this as ssgreat
Constitutional right" and add, 'tlat the Con-
ventlon is the servant and not the master of
the people,
In my official despatch to you of the second
OF June last, copy of that inaugural address
was transmitted to you for the further nforma-
tion of the President and his Cabinet No
exception was ever taken to any portion of
that address. On the contrary, it is distinctly
admitted by the President in his message with
commendable frankness, that my instructions
IN favor OF the submission of the Constitution
to the vote OF the people were general and
unqualified BY that inaugural, and subse-
quent addresses, | was pledged TO the people
of Kansas to oppose, by all lawful MEANS y
the adoption of any Constitution which was
not fairly and fully submitted to their vote for
ratification or rejection. These pledges can
not recall or violate without personal dshonor,
and the abandonment of fundamental princi-
Piles, and therefore it is impossible for me to
support what is called the Lecompton Consti-
tuition, because it is not submitted to the vote
of the people for ratification or rejection
| have ever uniformly maintained the prin-
ciple that sovereignty is vested exclusively in
the people of each State, and that it performs
its first and highest function in forming State
Government and State Constitution. This high
est act of sovereignty, in my judgment, can
only be performed by the people themselves,
and cannot be delegated to Conventions or
other intermediate bodies. Indeed, the whole
doctrine of the sovereignty of Conventions, as
distinct from that of the people--of conyen-
tlonal or delegated sovereignty, rs contradis-
lngulshed from State or popular sovereignty
has ever been discarded by me, and was never
heard of to my knowledge, during the great
canvass of 1856. Indeed, this is the great
principle of State rights and State sovereignty
maintained in the Virginia and Kentucky re-
solutions of 1913 and 1799, sustained by the
people in the great political revolution of 1900,
and embraced in that amendment to the Fed
eral Constitution, adopted under the auspices
OF Mr. Jefferson, declaring that ''the powers
not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States
are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people" The reservation to "the States ;"
is as separate States, in exercising the powers
granted by their State Constitutions; and the
reservation to q the people" is to the people of
the several States, admitted or inchoate, in
exercising their sovereign right of framing or
amending their State Constitution. This view
was set forth in my printed address, delivered
at Natchez, Mississippi in January, 1893,
against notification; which speech received
the complimentary sanction of the great and
good Madison, the principal founder of our
Constitution, as shown by letter of Charles
}. lngersoll, of Philadelphia, as published in
the Globe at Washington, in 1896. What
adds much to the force of this opinion is the
statement then made by Nj. Madison that
these were also the views of Mr. Jefferson-
BY this clause of the Federal Constitution. the
sovereignty of the people" of each State is
clearly reserved, and especially their own ex-
elusive sovereign right to form, in all its en-