The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-25

rebellion, quotes the evidence of Governor
Walker. Governor Walker, sir, went to that
Territory as the Presidents instrument, to ac
complish q certain purpose He was appointed
Governor of Kansas on the seth Of March,
1857: he entered the Territory on Sabbath
evening the Oath of May. Much of the inter
vening sixty days of time was spent by the
Governor in making speeches, and writing let
ters magnifyipg his great mission. l went to
the Territory, from ST. Louis, in company with
Governor Walker; l saw him at Lawrence;
saw him when he was welcomed by the people
of "rebeious" Lawrence in q generous way,
Of which any man might be proud; Was at
Lecompton, the capital, when be arrived there.
Governor Walker went to Kansas, and his own
letters demonstrate l., on this mission to divide
the people who were in favor Of free State,
to unite the Free State Democrats with the Pro
Slavery men, and secure the slavery then exist
ing In Kansas, and make it q Biz, Lsw, p q.
Slavery, Democratic State. That was his mis-
sion and no man In America could have
labored more faithfully 10 accomplish that oh.
ject. He went to that Territory Pro-SlaVery
man, in favor of the Pro Slavery policy of thi,
country; and in his inaugural address to the
people. in view of the fact that il might becoms
g free State, he said thatthe great Indian ter.
ritory of the South would be slave territory,
and that slaye States might be made out of it.
was there when that address was issued and
although we are told now that everything in
the Territory was in a state of excitement Dor.
dering on rebellion, say here to day. that there
was no spot on the North American continent
where there was more quiet than existed. on the
LIST of June last, in the Territory Of Kansas.
Rebellion existed only in the teeming brain of
Governor Walker.
Sir, when Governor Walker arrived in Kan
sas, the persons appointed to take the census
and to enroll the voters had not performed
their duty In about half o! the counties of the
Territory. The Free State men, under the lead
of Governor Robinson and other leading men,
made proposition to acting Governor Stanton,
before Governor Walker arrived, to go into the
election of delegates to the Convention, if they
could be enrolled, and the ballot boxes so pro
tected that there should be no nvasions and no
fraudulent voting. They did not wish to com
NIT themselves in that election, and find at the
polls what they found at the polls on the 3O.h
of March, l855-an invading host of ILLEGAL
votere, to rob them of their rights Secretary
Stanton, who was then acting Governor, to
whom this proposition was made, answered
these gentlemen by saying he had no power TO
correct the let of voters, and he could do n1th.
ing to aid them. Some of the people, in Some
of the counties where the officials had refused
to take the census or to register the voters,
made an application to 60 on and elect their
delegates; and it was suggested to them that
they could do 3d. and that their delegates might
be accepted by the Convention. When the
day of election came, less than twenty-three
hundred men went to the polls to vote, about
one-ninth part of all the voters in the Terri
tory.
When the result of this election was known
=. al - L L
men Of all parties that the Convention would
never assemble; that it had gone down beneath
the moral sentiment of the people that il was
an ignominious aud contemplate failure.
The President quotes Governor Walkers
hasty and illtimed language in regard to the
action of the people of the city Of Lawrence, to
show their rebellious spirit. We were told
here, the other day, by the Senator from Geor-
gia, that the city Of Lawrence was the sink
Of slyyb fall, end flSehqpdo Sig L venture
States north, south, east, or west, of the nun.
bers to be found in this town of Lawrence
containing more of individual worth, or per-
sonal character, or general intelligence. l
venture TO say that there are more college grad
yates in that town than in any town west OF
the Alleghanies of equal population. The peo-
pie OF Lawrence are lawsbid;ng, liberty-lov-
ing people. Having lived for two years with
out the protection of law, having been robbed
and plundered, and being DESTROYS of doing
something for their own local interests, the
people of that town, in July last, framed aud
adopted city charter. The people there are
all on one side; there are, | think, only two or
three Slave State men there, and no one intend.
ed to enforce any laws on them. 1t was a
charter framed by common consent. The laws
under it were intended to be executed by CON-
mon consent. The committee of the people
say, in their address:
GAS ciion will be purely loo al and have reference
merely own internal affairs, collision appre-
hended with any other organization claiming exercise
general jurisdiction III the Territory
They did not intend to violate the laws of
the Union or of the Territory. The Governor
moved the troops upon that town, and pro-
nounced their acts rebellion but the people
went right on. They framed their ordinances,
they put their ordinances in execution, while
his army was encamped on their soil; and from
that time to this, they have peacefully and qui-
city administered their own local town affairs,
and have harmed nobody in or out of the Ter
ritory. This simple act, performed by COM
mon consent, having the assent of the whole
people, intended to operate only in their own
local affairs was pronounced by Gov. Walker
AS the greatest rebellion the world had ever
witnessed:
"A rebellion injurious and necessarily involving
such awful consequen has never before disgrsced any
age or couniryn
This ridiculous declaration is only eqaalled
BY his ridiculous action in moving the army on
Lawrence. The Governor tells US that this
town of Lawrence was the hot-bed of the Adolf
tionists of the East, that paid agents of those
societies were there. deny the fact that paid
agents were In the town of Lawrence, of any
Abolition society, East or West.
The Legislature imposed on Kansas BY law
less violence provided that the people should
vote in October, 1856, whether they would call
Convention TO frame q Constitution. In Octo-
Der, 1856, the vote was taken, and about two
thousand votes were given upon that question
Test oaths were then demanded, and the Free
State men would not vote. Sir, the President
sharply censures the people of Ksnsas-for not
voting for the election of delegates to the Con-
vention. The Legislature, in the winter Of 1857,
passed the Convention act. The plan was TO
make Kansas slave State. The time, the mode,
and the machinery, were all selected, with the
skl of political tricksters, to secure that result
Governor Geary vetoed the act, because it con.
tanned no clause authorizing and directing the
submission of the Constitution to the people, for
their ratification or rejection. In q recently.
written letter, Governor Geary tells US that
ain confe renee with the committees Of the two Houses
by whom the bill had been reported proposed 10 sign
the bI provided they would insert m " section auh0f-
izng the submission of the Consuton above indca-
ted. Bu they distinctly informed that the bill 1.-The
appreciation OF their friends IN the Sooihthst
their intention the Constitution should be submit
ted 10 the people, and that all ntens and purposes IL
WINS like the laws of the Modes and Persians could
not be altered"
Governor Geary tells us that he was informed
that the reason why the Constitution was not TO
be submitted to the people was, that their
friends in the South, who were in favor of ma
king Kansas slave State, required that it should
not be submitted. Their friends in the South
were wise in this respect They believed thew