New-York daily tribune., 1858-03-31
FROM UASHINGTON.
SENATOR WILSON'S REPLY TO SENATOR
HAMMOND.


WASHINGTON, Monday, March ~, 1858.
Senator Wilson'S speech 10 tue Senate on Satur-
DAY night was delivered before crowded au-
dience, who remained attentive to the close 1t
10 undoubtedly the ablest parliamentary esort OF
the Massachusetts, Senator, who has in his dsy
made many good speeches since bis advent De-
fore the public in the Harrison campaign Of 1910,
in which he figured as tho Natick CObbler, and
spoke, if remember rightly, nearly hundred
fines upsn the stump.
Mr.. Wilson plunged at once into the thick of the
Kansas fight. During those hundred days Of con-
fiot, ne said we have seen the honors, the patron
age and the power OF this Government openly pros
tiuted by the President to seduce the weak and to
strike down the strong who could not ne won by
corruption. Never has the nation witnessed such
shameless prostitution Of Executive power Never
have vo witnessed such reeking corruption, or
such abject and uublusIiDg servility. That pure
and inustrious statesman, John Quincy Adams, has
left recorded in his diary these pregnant words:
cit is among the evils of Slavery that it tsints the
"very sources of moral principle establishes false
"estimates sfvirtue and Of vice, and perverts hu-
man reason" Mr.. Wilson was reminded OF these
significant words as he watched the progress OF
events in Kansas, he listened to the studied per-
verson of those deeds Of fraud and violence, of
treachery and falsehOOd. He reminded the authors
of that perverson that though great advocates have
been found before the Judicial tribunals of the world
in defense of great criminals, that page Of human
history ia vet TO be written which shall record the
enduring fame of statesmen won IN lhe vindlcation
Of crimes against the people. :,
The right OF the people to frame their own iorms
NJ Government is an achieved American right. 1t
WAS won not bv your Kansas-Nebraska act, but
eighty wears ago in the fire and blood oi he'outoh.
In framing or amending constitutions We should Use
above techuicalites and forms. we shoulu re-
member the words of James Madison, "that forms
sought TO give way TO substance; that riglu ad'
{, berence TO forms would render nominal and mugs
{. tory the transcendant and precious rights OF the
a. necple." Never before witnessed such an
exhibition Of specialites and technicaes as IN the
ease of Kansas. The people of that Territory have
been stigmatzed in official papers and IN both Houses
of Congress US rebels and traitors for exercising the
dearest rights of American citizens. There is not
Senator here there is not an intelligent man IN
America who does not know that the LecOmptOn
Constitution is not sustained by the people of Kan
sas. There is not al intelligent man IN America
who does not know that this Constitution is tainted
and vtiated by fraud and violence. The evidence
Of this need not be repeated, Tor the fact Is as no
torious and undenlabe as the fact that the French
and English besieged Sevastopo!-as wei estao-
lshed as the charge of the Light Drag0on, al Bald
hays or the stormng Of the Malakoh. The acts
Of violence and fraud IN Kansas are matters oil ms
tory, proved BY Congressional lnyestigation' oy 1he