The Kanzas news., 1858-03-27

!, and provisional Representative, they sub.
f mitted their Constitution to Congress, and
! prayed to be admitted as a free State into
the Federal Union The Federal authori
ties lent no aid to this movement, but or
!. the contrary, the President and Senate con
temptuously rejected it, and denounced it as
treason, and all its actors and abettors as dis
loyal to the Union. An army was dispatched
into the Territory. intended, indeed, to pre-
! serve the peace, but at the same time to
obey and sustain the usurpation. The pro-
visional Legislature, which had met to CON
fer, and to adopt further means to urge the
prayers of the people upon Congress, were
dispersed by the army; and the State Off
GERS Professionally elected, who had commit
ted no criminal act, were arrested, indicted,
and held IN the Federal camp as State pris-
oners. Nevertheless, the people of Kanzas
did not acquiesce. The usurpation remain
ed barren authority, defied, derided and
despised.
A national election was now approaching
Excitement within and symathies without
the Territory must be allayed. Governor
Shannon was removed, and Mr. Geary was
appointed his successor. He exacted sub
mission to the statutes of the usurpation,
by promised equality in their administration.
He induced a repeal of some of those stat
utes which were most obviously unconstitu-
tional, and declared an amnesty for political
offences. He persuaded the Legislature of
the usurpation to ordain call for conven
ton at Lecompton, to form Constitution,
if the measure should be approved by pop
ular vote at an election 10 be held for that
purpose. To vote at such an election was
to recognize and tolerate the usurpation, as
well as to submit to disfranchising laws, and
to hazard a renewal of the frauds and vio-
lence by which the usurpation had been es-
tabiIshed. On no account would the Legis-
lature agree that the projected Constitution
should be submitted to the people, after it
should have been perfected by the Conven-
ton. They refused this just measure, so
necessary to the public security in case of
surprise and fraud. The Governor insisted
on this provision, and demanded of the
President of the United States the removal
of partial and tyrannical Judge. He fail
ed to gain either measure, and incurred the
displeasure of the usurpation by seeking
them. He fled the Territory. The Free
State party stood aloof from the polls, and
the canvass showed that some $500 less than
a third of the people of the Territory had
sanctioned the call of Convention, while
the presence of the army alone he'd the Ter
ritory under forced truce
AT this juncture the new Federal Admin
istratlon came in, under President who
had obtained success by the Intervention at
the polls of third party-an ephemeral or
ganlzatlon, built upon a frivolous issue,
which had just strength enough and life
enough to give to pro-slavery party the aid
required to produce that untoward result
The new President, under show of mode
ration, masked more effectual interven-
ton than that of his predecessor, in favor
of slave labor and slave State Before
coming into Office he approached, or was
approached by, the Supreme Court of the
United States. On their docket was, through
some chance or design, an action which an
obscure negro man in Missouri had brought
for his freedom against his reputed master.
The Court had arrived at the conclusion on
solemn argument, that, inasmuch as this
unfortunate negro had, through some igno-
rance or chicane in special pleading. sdmit
ted, what could not have been proved, that
he was descended from some African who
had once been held in bondage, that there
fore he was not, in view of the Constitution,
a citizen of the United States, and therefore
could not implead the reputed master in the
Federal Courts; and on this ground the Su-
preme Court were prepared to dismiss the
action for want of jurisdiction over the suit
or's person. This decision-certainly as
repugnant to the declaration of independence
and to the spirit of the Constitution as to
the instincts of humanity nevertheless
| would he ono which WOULD oz6o,,o+ Ill
power of the tribunal, and exclude conside-
ration of all other questions that had been
raised upon the record. The counsel who
had appeared for the negro had volunteered
from motives of charity, and ignorant, of
course, of the disposition which was TO be
made of the cause, had argued that his eli
ent had been freed from slavery by opera
ton of the Missouri prohibition of 1890
The opposed counsel. paid by the defending
STAKEHOLDER, had insisted, In reply, that the
famous statute was unconstitutional. The
mock debate had been heard in the chamber
of the Court in the basement of the capitol,
in the presence of the curious visitors at the
seat of government, whom the dullness of
a judicial investigation could not disgust
The Court did not hesitate to please the In
coming President, by seizing this extrane
Gus and idle forensic discussion, and con-
verting it into an occasion for pronouncing
an opinion that the Missouri prohibition was
void, and that by force of the Constitution,
slavery existed, with all the elements of prop
erty in man over man, in all the Terrific
ries of the United States, paramount TO any
popular sovereignty within the Territories.
/ and even to the authority of Congress itself.
\ In this iIl-omened act, the Supreme Court
forgot its own dignity. which had always
been maintained with just judicial jealousy
They forgot that the province of a court is
simply 'jus deere" and not at all gus
dare" They forgot also that one e'foul SEN
i tence does more harm than many foul ex-
Il ,lor.. IL 4 IL