The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-04
Ioo,.-,xrvn rsox THE y1Rsr PAGE. /

ts,ic,i because we have been threatened, and
not rive one word of warning 10 the people
from whom ne anticipates it-not tell them that
they will be compelled 10 bow to the VIII OF the
mai ,rity that they will be compelled to obey the
laws of the land ? Why, sir, it is the strangest
thing to me- that a Chief Magistrate Of the coun-
try holding this position should not say, as one of
his great predecessors said before him, that the
Constitution should be preserved that the Union
should be preserved; that when the action OF
Congress was legal, no mstter upon what sub
i-ct lie power Of the Federal Government should
ue brought 10 bear on any people, or any portion
OF people, whatever, who undertook TO make any
agitation which endangered the safety OF the
Union of these States; but we hear nothing OF
that from the present President.
Strange to say, too, he is all the time talking
of law; he tells Us that the people must obey
the laws; that the course of things in Kansas
has been legal on the one side and illegal on the
other; and he is very ready to read lectures to
that people and to us on the subject Of obeying
the law, while he conveys no intimation to any
b ldy that if the laws are broken, or attempted
T. be broken, in region of country, there will
be any interference from him, or even any words
o. Reproduction from him.
Now sir, as to the facts stated; let US look lit
tie at what the President has stated in his message
He has made all the limitations of which have
spoken; but what has he gone on to say2 He
charges substantially, that the majority flor he
admits il to be q majority by saying more than
once in his message that the people of Kansas,
unless he had prevented them by military force,
would have overturned the Government; thus
admitting that they had the power as well as the
will to subvert the Territorial Government there
established) had design, and have had from
the beginning, 20 subvert the Government by
force. Is there any proof of this 2 What proof
does he adduce7 The desire to establish the
Topeka Constitution, il has been called and
on the strength of that fact he even charges
Governor Robinson with having, in the very
first sentence of the message which he commu-
nicated to the Topeka Legislature, expressed the
same design; when If you come TO look at it,
q will not trouble the Senate with reading it,
there is not a single word, not single idea, not
n single intimation, in that clause Of Governor
Robinson's message which has been referred to
by the President, intmating any design or wish
OF the kind. / deny, here, the whole foundation
of the Presidents charge and argument on that
point. There never has been q design to estab
lsh the Topeka Constitution by force. No such
design has ever been svowed, and no such de-
sign has ever been attempted to be carried into
execution.
know very well that the honorable Senator
from Illinois, Mr. DOUGLAS, in the speech which
be made at the beginning of this session, stated
that, if he had not believed it was the intention
of the people of Kansas to carry that Constitu-
ton into effect by force, and establish State
Government under il by force he would not have
been disposed to interfere, for they had undoubt-
eddy good right to petition, in that form, as
another portion of the people had TO petition in
another form but should be glad to have gen.
Iemcn point me to the proof, in any part of the
proceedings in the Territory of Kansas, showing
that that people ever designed or expressed the
intention TO establish that Constitution and
State Government under it by force. The very
first step they took disproves it. They sent it
here to Congress, and petitiOned TO be admitted
under it a Sia,e. They chose Legislature
and that Legislature met, but passed no laws
1t adjourned. Ii avowed then, that its design
not forcible one-not to establish a State
Government by force but to establish it by the
weight of opinion in the Territory, under APP
plicaton to Congress to be admitted under it /;
and yet this has been alluded TO over and over
again, more than once this floor and by the
President himself and by other officials as estab-
fishing the fact that there rebellion existing
in Kansas. Sir, the adoption of that Topeka
Constitution, and the choice of State officers
der it, and all they ever did, more go 10 make
out rebellion against the constituted Government
than would town meeting called TO pass res
olutions on the same subject
What is rebellion? 1t is a desire and an at
tempt TO overturn Government by force. Re-
belliOn does not consist in words you must have
forcible acts II is not enough to express abhor-
renee OF Government; it is not enough TO ex-
press detestation of the officers who carry on the
operations of Government il is not enough 10
call town meetings it is not enough 10 frame
a Constitution and submit it to the people for
adoption; il is not enough even to pass laws I'M
der it, so long there is no design to put them
forcibly in execution. The people of Kansas have
done no more than this. On that ground, Sena-
tors on this floor and Others elsewhere have re-
peale lily charged, and the President echoes the
cry, that here is rebellion existing in Kansas
and the people are denounced as rebels against
the constituted authorities Leaving out of the
case the fact that the Territorial Government was
a usurping Government in the beginning, las il
was, and granting IL to be legal one still aver
that there las been nothing done in reference to
the Topeka Constitution, from the beginning to
the end, on which any man who values bis opin-
ION a constitutional lawyer could predicate the
idea of rebellion. | said so the other day and
! say 1t again; and the charge is not proved
by long, labored, quotations from letters of Gov
ernor Walker. Governor Walker seems to be
very good authority with the President on one
point, and authority whatever with him on
other points. When Governor Walker tells him |
that great majority of the people of Kansas are
opposed TO this Constitution, he does not believe
him, for he does not refer TO the fact When
Governor Walker tells him there was fraud in |
the arrangement made In reference to the State |
ofcers, that should be corrected be does not be-
leye word of it, nor do gentlemen here When
Governor walker tells him of the great frauds
that were committed at various precincts which
have been spoken of by the Senator from Massa-
chusetts Mr.. WILSON and others, he does not
believe word Of it. But he does refer to Gov
ernor Walkers letters, and makes many extracts
from them to establish the fact of rebellion; but
they produce no such convictions-they prove
nothing OF the kind. Take them from the be-
ginning TO the end, and they make out no forcible
resistance They are nothing but statements
there is no fact on which to predicate them The
country might understand, from the statements
thus made in detail, that the President really be-
heved there was a dangerous rebellion in Kansas,
and that unless he interfered with the troops of
the United States, the Government would be over
turned
1t has been remarked by my honorable friend
from Massachusetts, Mr. WILSON, that it will be
observed that these letters of Governor Walker
were written Immediately after his arrival in the
Territory. Who was Governor Walker2 A friend
of the Administration, a leading Democrat,
Southern man, with all his prejudices excited
against the Free State people of Kansas, all his
feelings and wishes in favor of adding to the
strength of the slave States, by making Kansas
also "A slave State. he went there with these i'm
prcssiOns he carried them with him he began
his administration with them he carried them
j am happy 10 say, not to the end. On arriving
there, whom does he meetf His associates are
the very persons who have been practicing these
iniquities in Kansas. His suspicious are ava
kened, his mind is excited, and he looks upon all
these demonstrations actually constituting a
rebelliOus disposition on the part of the people
of Kansas
Wsat are the proofs that he gives? They
amount to nothing. As l remarked on a former