The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1858-01-08

out, no matter how the vote may stand? Wha
had the senator seen within three davs to fore
this conclusion upon his mind! If be has knowl
edge OF scheme OF base fraud to cheat the peo
pie, Ito impose on Congress, | know he is h
man TO develop IT. and when so developed n
man will 60 further than myself TO punish tn
offenders. II hr cannot do This, then wh,
allude to it at all? Why, in this unhapp,
manner and offensive spirit, cast imputatioi
upon those who have been, and are still. hi
friends | can readily perceive-and ii is tha
which | most regret-how such spntimen
/ from 50 high source is calculated to produc
diScontenls and clamor about real or imaginar,
wrongs when the result shall have been ascpr
tanned. Ii IS virtually an invitation 20 malcon
tents 10 continue the strife. ez-a4asaessa.
The honorable senator, in his diigent effort
to render the doings of the Lecomplon conven
ton odious, has dwet on that clause o
the proposed constitution interdiciing the mi
grailOn cG Tree negroes to Kansas. He was can
did enough 10 admit that the constitution of h
own State contained the same inhibition and
We all know that the Topeka party, by popu-
lar vote, have instructed the legislature 10 pasl
law TO the same effect But the senator shouit
have done "the Lecompton concern" as he /
pleased to term It, the justice to say, that q
this point, at least, it had conformed to The pop
ular will; for both parties have spoken agains
the admission of free negroes. Nor has he eve
told US that his native State, Vermont, practs
ed that great MEASURE OF wrong upon the pee
pie, if wrong it be, of asking admission for t}
Slate before the people bad voted on the con
stituiioni nor that his adopted State came inb
the Union without an enabling act half so god
as the Kansas Nebraska law; and that this sam
State, no longer since than lS4S, set the exar
pie for the late action of Kansas by submittin
part OF the constitution to vote of th
people.
The senator will pardon me for looking liz
tie further into his views. In an address de-
livered at Springfield on the 18th of June las,
touching Kansas affairs, he says
''Kansas is about to speak for herself fthroueI
her delegates assembled in convention 10 form
a State constitution, preparatory 10 admission
into the Union" 'The law under which he
delegates are about to be elected is believed b
be Just and fair in all its objects and purposes'
"Ihere is every reason
to believe the law will be fairly interpreted and
Impariially executed"
''The election law is acknowledged to be fai,
and just, and the rights of the voters are clearly
defined, and the exercise Of those rights will be
efficiently and scropuIous.y protected
Then, again, he says:
"The organic act secures TO the npoplp of
Kansas the sole and erciuSiUe right Of formiag
md regulating their domestic Institutions 70
'uH themseiUes, subject only TO the Constitution
Of the United States"
He denounccs all neglect of, or resistance TO,
he movement for a convention, and saws. that
# portion OF the people refuse to vote for DEL
egates, and Kansas should become slave State
through their neglect, upon them should the
-esPonsbility fall. ! should prefer to give
The entire ereqch 10 J = ,-I--s-s-ax-
end my remarks TO so great length. NoW
et Us turn to what he said in the Senate the
other day;
elf you apply these principle TO the Kansas
you find that it had no power TO do
any act as a convention forming government;
you find that the act calling it was null and
void from the beginning; you 6nG that the leg
stature could confer no power whatever on the
That convention was simply an
assembage Of peaceable citizens, under the
Constitution of the United States, petitioning
Tor the redress OF grievances, and, thus assem-
Oied, had the right 10 put their petition 10 the
orm OF constitution they chose but still it
was only petition, having the force of petit
ion, which Congress could accept or reject, or
dispose Of as it saw proper. That is what un-
derstand TO be Just the extent of the power and
authority OF this convention assembled at Lee
How to reconcile these sentiments I cannot
see 10 the Springfield speech, he says, "Kan-
'aS is about to speak for herself through dele
gates assembled in convention to form a State
;ansttutlon," and tha; the law under which
Ter delegates We're about to be elected is believ-
ID to Je just and fair in all its objects and pur-
)osrs In the Senate, he says:
lyon find that the act calling it 1.-THE convention1
"as nu and void from the beginning: you find the
legislature could confer no power whatever on the
ouveuton.''
Then, again, at Spring field, he says:
''The organic act secures to the people Of Kansas
he sole and exclusive right of forming aud regula-
ing their domestic institutions TO suit themselves
ubject only 10 the Constitution of the U. States.
In the Senate, he says that the convention,
ThIch was, from It's very nature, an assembage
If the people, through their representatives,
'was simply an assemblage of peacpable cit-
.ens, under the Constitution of the L. States
0 petition for the redress of grievances"
which petition Congress could accept or reject,
II dispose OF as ii saw proper. Comment is
carcely necessary. IT the right of the people
n the matter of making government for them
elves be limited only By The constitution, as
Iamed by the senator in his Springfield speech, |
should like to know where he finds the au-
horty for congressional interference. Nor can
see how he could designate law as Just and
air in all its purposes, which he at The same
lme held to be ''nulI and void from the begin |
ing" or what he could mean by saying that
lansas is about to speak for herself, holding at
be same time that she cannot speak at all with
at the permission of Congress.
PIT Ill