St. Cloud visiter [sic]. [volume] (St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1857-1858, 1858-06-24
The English Kansas Bill.

The English Kansas Bill.
We ask the candid attention Of all our
readers.to the following extract from the
speech Of Senator Seward, on tho bill
which was passed in Congress admitting
Kansas into tho Union, if she will ac-
ccpt the Leco,npton Constitution, and re-
t,,siny her admission under any other.
We ask the men of Minnesota to. settle
candidly in their own minds the question.
Is it right to offer Kansas 5000, 900 dol
lars worth of the public lands as a bride
for establishing slavery in their State!
Would it be right to give her that much
more than Minnesota received; and to give
it for the express purpose of defeating the
will Of large majority Of the people Of
Kansas?
Mr.. Crittcndcn is southern man and
his amendment to the Lecompton bill said
expressly that the Constitution should be
subjected to direct vote Of the people OF
Kansas. If IL majority were in favor OF
it, Kansas should be proclaimed one Of the
States. If majority were opposed to it
they might, whenever they pleased, call a
Convention, make another constitution and
come up for admission under it, just as
Minnesota did, and in either case they
should receive their full amount Of the
public lands. Was not that fair? Was
it not Democratic? Was it not Squat
ter Sovereignty? Why then did almost
every Southern man, and sono Northern
Democrats vote against it? The Republi-
cans every man voted for it, and we think
did wrong in doing so; for by that vote
they said they We're willing to admit Kan
sas as slave State if the people of Kan
s,s desired it, but they knew that the peo-
pie of Kansas wanted free labor, and SO
they voted as they did; but what about
the democrats who voted decidedly against
permitting the people Of State to choose
their own constitution?
Read Mr.. Stewards remarks:
I have to state i'll tho first place, that the bill
makes up and presents to the people ofKansas,
When say false, l mean foreign or fictitious
question, substituted for thctrue one. The true
issue before Congress and the country, is the
question whether the people of Kansas shall OF
shall not, Us condition Of coming into this
Union. have right to accept or reject the LIE
comton Constitution. Now, be it understood,
that Congress gives to every new State, when
it comes into the Union, dowry taken from
the public land within its borders. Every new
State receives it in every case. Upon the Civ.
ing Of such dowry, or upon the quantity OF
extent OF it, speaking practically, no question
is ever raised in Congress The Lecompton
Convention sent an application or demand
tor large aOwry, one larger than is usally nj.
lowed. The Senate passed bill putting aside
thrusting out Of the way altogether, not only
the amount Of the dowry, but the giving one Al
all, postponins it until another day; and con.
tented itself with barely disclaiming, in the bill
for the admission Of Kansas which they passed
an assent to the demand which the Lecompton
Convention, speaking in the behalf of Kansas
had made.
The House Of Representatives, in their bill
Off the admission Of Kansas, treated the matter
in the came way. They turned to the Mime.
sofa bill, and copied from it into their Kansas
bill, which they sent to the Senate, provision
by which Kansas should receive dowry ex.
actly equal TO that Of Minnesota.
From the beginning Of this debate to the end
there was no discussion, no question raised
about the amount of the dowry,' or the giving
il. or the Withholding it, and it was never
heard of.
Then the speaker goes on to show that
Mr.. English makes this undisputed ques
ton of dover take the place of the rea]
question at issue.
l show the Senate next, second false
issue presented in this new BILL an issue raised
concerning the actual amount Of population In
Kansas The committee Of conference find thai
there is just population enough to make slave
State, and by no means enough, not one halt
enough to make free State. There it Just
population enough to admit the State at once il
it will accept the Lecompton constitution. ani
not population at all enough to admit it unde,
any other
Mr.. President, have shown that this bill
gives to the people only show of choice be-
tween freedom and slavery. l have next tt
show that it provides for overriding, counter
acting, and defeating that very shadow o.
choice if it shall be in favor of freedom. Thu
bill provides, not that the people of Kansas, Of
their Legislature or their authorities shall ap
point the commissioners under whom the con
tcmplated election shall be held, and its result.
uscertaincd, but it constitutes board to consis
. Of five persons; and while it allows two to b,
named by the people Of Kansas, it asks tire,
for the President Of the United States. Now
sir, there have been five agents appointed by
the President of the United States to hold cleo
tions, and return results in the Territory O
Kansas already, and every one of them ha'
been dishonorcd and disgraced for having
struggled to prevent fraud, and to certify tn
truth about these elections.
Il X,
Upon what grounds is this bill, thus shown
TO be so deeply Objectionable, recommended t
us? First, it is recommended as a compromise