The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-04

may say some things that have been said b
others, and possibly some that have been said b
myself before; but the difficulty is, that thes:
obnoxious doctrines are pushed at us so fire.
quentiy that In meeting and resisting them, i
sometimes becomes necessary to travel owe,
ground which has been occupied before
say, then, sir, that the rule by which to iudp,
| OF the intent, the object the purpose of an act
is to see what the act is calculated to do wha,
| its natural tendency is, what will in all human
probability be the effect Before the passage q
the Kansas-Nebraska act, there stood upon YOU,
statute-book a law by which Slavery was pro.
hibited from going into any territory noyth q
800 30/. The validity and constitutionality G
| that law had been recognised by repeated de.
cisions of the courts of the several States If
am not mistaken, have a memorandum by me
showing that it had been recognised by tbs
Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana. So
| far as know, the consttutionality of that en-.
| actment was unquestioned, and the country has
| reposed in peace for more than generation UNI
der its operation. BY and by, however, it wa,
discovered to be unconstitutional, and it wa,
broken down. The instant it was broken down
Slavery went into Kansas but still, gentlemer
tell us they did not intend to let Slavery in tbs
| was not the object Let me illustrate this Sur
pose a farmer has a rich field, and pasture ad.
| joining, separated by a stone wall which his
fathers had erected there thirty years before
The wall keeps out the cattle in the pasture, wht
are exceedingly anxious to get into the field
Some modern reformer thinks that moral suasof
| will keep them in the pasture, even if the wal
should be taken down, and he proceeds to TAX,
it down. The result is, that the cattle 90 righs
| in /; the experiment fails. The philosopher saws
| DO not blame me; that was not my intention
but it is true, the effect has followed" I retorj
upon him. You knew the effect would follow
| and, knowing that it would follow, you intended
| that it should follow"
But, sir, we are not without the book on this
subject, if we compelled to go to the ayowed
declarations and sentiments of the gentlemen who
advocated the bill. An honorable Senator, who
usually sits before me, but who is not now in his
seat mean the Senator from South Carolina.
MIR. EVANS, and may say of him, what woulg
not say if he were present, man in whose hearS
| and in whose lips there is no guile and no de-.
ceit, man who could not utter a falsehood if
he tried-in 1856 delivered a speech on this
question, in which he divulged and laid open, az
his own character is, the purpose he had in vo.
ting for the bill. He was speaking for the South,
and no man of all the South controverted him,
and said nay. l will tell you what he said
shall not use his very words, but will state his
argument fairly. He referred to a declaration OF
the honorable Senator from Massachusetts,, GMf
WILSON, and said the Abolitonists had avowed
that 1t was their intention to abolish Slavery ia
the Territories and in the District of Columbia,
and he apprehended that their purpose was to
abolish it everywhere when they could, and that
they would, when they got into power abolish
Slavery, not only in this District and in the Ter
ritories, but in the States. He said that that
consummation was to be reached by an amend
| nient to the Federal Constitution authorizing
Congress to do this, which requires the assent
| three-fourths of the States and in this view of
| the controversy, one slave State was as good IS
three free States and, therefore, as guarantee
| against the encroachments of the Anti-Slavery
spirit they wanted Kansas for a slave State.
That is the argument of the honorable Senator
| from South Carolina. 1t is the truth-no more
true after he said it than it was before; no more
palpable to any man who would not see after the
avowal than it was before.
That was the purpose; out the bill itself says
its object was to leave the people perfectly free
1t seemed to intimate that we had a kind of freq
dom in this country before, but it was an impes-
feet sort Thew we're mere tvros those old NEE
Federal Convention, hoary and venerable with
age, ripe with experience, honored and veneratei
for their lives of fidelity and of valor; they hal
but an imperfect notion Of freedom. 1t was re-
served to the new lights of this latter day to dir
cover and proclaim to the world what perfect
freedom was, and the illustration was to be
made in Kansas. ! shall trace the history of it
presently. II seemed to be implied that there
II
of any Constitution before. | stand here, sir,
amid the representatives of thirty-one States, A
majority of whom, think have emerged from
Territorial condition to one of State sovereignty;
and ask the Senators from each and every one
if, in the formation of your State Constitutions
your people did not enjoy perfect liberty2 Was
any restraint imposed upon you? In the cage
of California, it was said that her Constitution
was formed under the prestige of a military proc
| lar hv \
the Senators from California, called as that Con-
vention was, whether, when the delegates got
| together, they did not exercise perfect freedom
and form and limit to Congress just exactly
the Constitution which the popular sense of the
State demanded? / ask the Representatives OF
those States carved out of the Northwestern Ter
rtory, where the great ordinance of Freedom
which is attempted to be stricken down, was 10
force, whether, when they came to delibera,r
upon the high question of the formation of .
State Constitution, preparatory to their admis-
sion into the Federal Union, they were not per-
tectly free? Was any restraint imposed upon
Ohio, that giant State of the West2 Did she
inscribe Freedom upon her Constitution, con-
trary to the wishes of her people, at. any one,
behest2 Was it so in Illinois, Was it SO ia
Indiana2 Has any State of this Union, any
where, formed Constitution, and presented it TO
Congress, without the exercise OF perfect free-
dom? If there be any, let them speak. No, sir;
it is not true. Our fathers knew what perfect
freedom was, and they exercised it, have in
quired as to the new States, and no man gain
says me. Now let me ask, how was it in the ola
States2 Were their Constitutions formed under
restraint, or were the people of each and every
one of these confederated States perfectly free Isl
the formation of their Constitutions No ops
will deny that they enjoyed perfect freedom.
Having stated what believe to have been the
object OF the bill, ! propose to inquire how per-
feet freedom has been carried out in Kansas
Another term became popular about the same
| time, about which | have word to say, and j
will carry it along with perfect freedom-and that
is popular sovereignty" What has been the
history of the application OF. perfect freedoms'
and popular sovereignty" to Kansas? The pee
pie of Kansas were to have the real, the unadus-
terated, the genuine perfect freedom" They
were to illustrate the great doctrine of popultr
sovereignty as it never had been illustrated ca
this continent before. What was the first step?
In the first place, you made a code of laws for
these sovereigns. You would not let them begin
under their own laws. To start with, you piled
upon them every law that Congress, in its wiz
dom or folly, had ever made, from the beginning
of the Government to the passage of that adj
except, as Mr.. Benton well said on another or
casion, little short act, not as long as your s-
ger, made expressly for them, and the only oLe
in the whole nine volumes that was made for
them, and that was one abolishing Slavery. That
act you excepted but you piled upon them eveay
other law you had passed, without distinctioa,
except those which were locally inepplicabE
You made Governor for them; you appointed
their marshals, their attorneys, and all their Of
Ecers you made their laws, and sent the men TO
administer them. Thus you started them on tie
great career of developing and illustrating popt-
lar sovereignty, !.
What was the next chapter You left 10 then
on paper the poor privilege Of vetias, aH" >
been hattered into the idoa 49, = - HaNA@s