Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-12-14

sas to commit the grave error of refusing to
vote for delegates to the convention to frame
a constitution, under law not denied to be
fair and just in its provisions. This refusal to
vote has been the prolific source of all the evils
which have followed"
Now, sir, does not the President OF the
United States know that the refusal to vote
on the part of these people, was not what he
says it was but it was because they had no
opportunity if they did vote, to have their
votes fairly counted Does the President un-
dertake to say that the refusal of these men
to vote was a resistance to rightful authority
Does he not know that whenever there was
anything approaching fair opportunity for
the people of that territory to vote, they did
so Why, they improved the first opportunity
and the result of the first attempt of that peo-
pie, when it could be fairly exercised, was a re,
buke of him and of all his measures. And
yet he undertakes TO arraign the people who
refused to vote, as being guilty of resistance to
the Government Well, nov, sir, it is very
hard. If the people refuse to vote, it is rebel
lion in one place and if they do vote, unless
they vote as he seems fit to think they ought
to vote, they are submitted to a rebuke and
reproach for it. No, sir, it is utterly futile in
the President and will be and must be SO forever
~ uAuCIldAC " luIOW Tie Oh llldl SLdJe
of things which for so long time existed in
Kansas, upon the party there that contended
from the first to the last, simply for the right of
suffrage, and who, the moment they had the Op-
portunity, exercised it to overthrow him and
all his officers he had sent there
Now, sir, it Is too late in the day to make
any such assertion, because the facts are too pal
pable for anybody to contend before this coun-
try that the people of Kansas ever had, under
the submission of the Lecompton Constitu-
ton, the right to vote for or against slavery
Everybody knows it. Upon the very face of
the constitution, when the form of submission
was gone through with, it was SO palpa5le that
1t could not be contended. No man could have
gone and voted for or against that constitution,
in the manner in which it was submitted, with
out voting for the introduction and perpetua-
ton of slavery ; and the President, if he does
not ought to know that fact.
Sir, great mfny of US are constantly and
continually reproached with an attempt to agi-
tate and to introduce agitating questions into
the discussions of the Senate and House of Re-
p! esentatiyes. We are represented as men who
are continually standing in the way of peace,
and We are continually denounced of agitators.
Sir, what have we seen here at this very ses.
sion, at this very first meeting of Congress to-
day The very first thing that was asked to
be taken up out of its ordinary course, was
question relating to this very subject of slavery.
II was not asked by an anti slavery man it
was not asked by one of those whom the Pres
ident would denOunce as enemies to the Con-
stitution /; but it was asked that the Congress,
at the very commencement of this session,
should take up q bill which presents the slav-
cry question in the most offensive form that it
has ever been presented into the American SEN
ate or TO the American Congress. We are
asked, and We have agreed to do it to-day, by
vote, to pass by all the other claims, public
and private-the French spoliatiOn claims,
which have been waiting for justice at our
DOORS held by our own citizens, for more than
half century, are postponed-that you may
take up out OF its order, bill which proposes
to pay men for slaves as they are called, whom
the Supreme Court of our own country have
decided were not slaves, but were held against
law and against right by the hand of force
They were liberated by the action of the Ex-
ecutive under the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States and yet bill to
P~T r~~anrs for illegally and violently holding
those men, Is the only one that is deemed
worthy OF the action OF the American Oora=-e.-
at its first first sitting so far as to take it up out
offs order. There is nothing of agitation,
suppose, in all this.
As heard the Presidents message read, l
thought some light hsshed upon my mind in
regard to that motion; for the President, after
going on to recommend the acquisition of Cuba
for the very pious purpose of faboishiHg the slave
tIade-that is all he wants it for--comes to the
Amistad case, and says if we pass that bill, he
thinks it will have favorable influence on our
negotiations with Spain-that is, we can put
them in good temper by paying them for the
illegal seizure and holding of men that our
courts haVe decided were Illegally held If we
put our hands into the Federal Treasury, and
violate our conscience by paying these men for
Illegally and unlawfully holding those Africans,
it will put the Spanish Government in such good
humOr that they will be more likely to listen
favorably to our proposition for purchasing
Cuba. | am opposed to the Amistad bill, from
beginning to end, all the way through, and the
more opposed TO it when the President tells us
what he wants it passed for.
1t is no pleasure, sir, to be obliged to make
these comments. They are made in a very i'm
perfect and desultory manner; but think a Gus
tom has grown up here which deserves to be
Tebuked. ! alude to the Presidents undertak-
ing, under the privilege which is conferred upon
him by the Constitution, to recommend such
measures as he may deem proper and TO give
information of the state of the Union generally,
to give perverted, one-sided, and unfair history
of the previous acts of this government i'll regard
to matter which has already passed, and upon
which, as l understand the message, from the
imperfect reading have been able to give it,
he recommends no measure at the present time.
There is nothing that he recommends US to do
in regard to Kansas. He says it is very we'll
there; not quite 50 well however as it would
have been if you had let him have his way; but
still it is so well that he recommends no meas
ure TO be taken in regard to it at all. Why
then the necessity of devoting two columns of
this very long message to recitation of trans
actions which have long since passed; recita-
tion given in a manner and IN a spirit which he
knows could not, even in its recitals of fact, to
say nothing of the deductions and conclusions
he draws from it, command the assent Of a very
large portion of the American people. Sir, if
the President wants peace, why does he not
begin HIMSELF and why does he, in this manner
at the very outset of this session of Congress,
throw this question before US and challenge US
to speak out, or 10 be more silent and submit to
the imputations which he would make, and the
misstatements of fact with which. in my hum
bic judgment, the message abounds upon this
matter! If he wants peace, why does he do
that, and then put US In the alternative of either
by silence admitting that they are true, or pro-
testing they are not true, and thereby subjecting
ourselves to the charge of being agitators
have no particular objection to as many of
the message and documents being printed as
you please, though am not willing to vote for
ii myself. / am willing to have it printed; but
1 shall not vote for printing any extraordinary
number of the message, because desire not
only by what | say, but what do, to withhold
any impression of approval from the message
as it has been submitted to US. There are a
great many other things in this message on
which would comment, but do not wish, at
this time, to weary the patience of the Senate,
and leave it as it is
Agricultural.