Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-24

tense strife, Tor the stake was 100 Qeep 10 Oe
quietly acquiesced in by either struggling party,
and, from that day to this, it has known no
cessation. A portion of the people of Kansas
have always refused to acknowledge the laws;
have always refused to exercise the power OF
changing them, by voting ut the regular cleo
tons, until when the President came into of
fee he found this fatal inheritance upon him;
rebellion actually existing, and advocated, not
only against the territorial laws, but against
the Federal authority itself, and every effort
made to bring about acts of lawleSSness and an
archy. Whatever difficulties exist at this hour;
whatever may be the complications of the Kan
sas question, they have ali resulted from the
systematic and premeditated refusal of a mass
of the people to vote at any election, except one
established by the territorial laws. An act was
passed, submitting to the people whether OF
not convention should be called to form
constitution for the State of Kansas; portion
of the people refused to be registered; threw
every obstacle III the way of taking full cen
suS; and finally refused to vote at all. The con-
Yenton met and framed constitution, and al
though, by the organic act, that body possessed
the power of ordaining and establishing 1t, 1t
was submitted, in its most material part, to ev-
cry free white male inhabitant; and for the
fifth time mass again withheld their Yotes.-
Ii those, who thus refused to rest upon their
privileges, constitute a majority of the people
of Kansas, they cannot now avoid the issue
which they have voluntarily and persistently
made.
On the one side, therefore, we have portion
of the people OF Kansas and the Territorial Leg
Slature, by resolutions now file among the
proceedings of this House, setting up the Topc-
ka constitution, formed by voluntary assem-
bage, without law, without even the semblance
of law and against the consent of the establish
ed authorities; on the other, We have the Lee
compton constitution, created under legal sane
ton, and supported by regular succession of
llnfyal ouIb Roth IN
mitted TO the people; but in each case there was
Il vast difference in the mode of submission
The Topeka constitution, without permitting
vote on the subject, forever prohibited slavery;
and it was presented to the people with the al
Tentative of either voting for it-as it stood, or
having no State Government at all. The LIE
compton conStitution-embOdying all the mate.
rial parts of the Topeka constitution, consttu-
tional privileges bill of rights, and ali, inclu-
ding the clause prescribing the mode of making
| amendments after 1864, and affirming merely
the decision of the Supreme Court in the bred
Scott case-was submitted to the people MS a
constitution with slavery or without slavery, as
they might themselves determine. The mere
| manner of the submission, therefore, specified
in the schedule could not fix upon the people
of Kansas constitution in any essential partic-
ular different from the Topeka constitution, ex-
cept upon the single, isolated question of slave
ry, which was left to their free decision, so far
| as they could control it, under the Federal Con-
StitutiOn as cXpOunded by the highest judicial
tribunal in the land. On the side, therefore,
we have legal movement, carried out to prac-
teal result, i'll Difference to judicial authority
On the other side we have the embodiment of
loose masses, acting upon what they choose to
term organic sovereignty, not only without the
sanction oflaw, but in open defiance of all es-
tabliShed authority. We have legality on one
side, and lawlesSncss on the other.
The then existing Legislature of Kansas hav
4,
government, with the single condition that the
same should be republican, it may become es-
Sential to inquire whether, in that view, it is
necessary to submit the same to the people for
ratification, to give it validity. Can such con-
stitution be formed by the people of any Terri
tory in defiance ofal law, and all existing legal
authority: Can they, in primary meetings;
without law, by the simple power of numbers,
frame government within an already establish
ed government, and, without express legal sane
ton, overthrow it? Sir, under the principles
of our Government, this, whether in StIte, or
in Territory, is not reform, it is revolution;
and the Federal Government is armed with eX-
press power to suppress it, not only by the Con-
stituton, but by the act of 1875. Our fathers
anticipated just such questions, from the preva-
ience of unSonnd doctrines, as we have had to
meet; and it was first proposed in the Federal
convention ''that republican constitution, and
its cristing LaieS, ought to be guaranteed to
each State by the United States" but it was ii
naly modified to guaranty to each State re-
publican form of government. Now, the
Constitution specifies that the only condition
which shall be required of a State, preparatory
to admission into the Union, is that her consti-
tuition must be republican one; and as the Con
sttntion specifies the same condition for the
continuance of State in the Union as is requi-
red for her admission into it, let us see what
that term republican" means.
Sir, under our system of government every
body knows that the people are the original
source ofall political power; yet there is 10 mode
for majority to manifest their will except in
conformity with and in subordination to estab.
shed law The very objects of constitutions
to limit and define the powers to be exercised
by the officers to whom the people may commit
the different departments of the government;
and the people, BY both constitutions and laws,
impose restraints upon their own rapacity, vio-
lence, and passions; and the majority, not less
than the minority, are bound by all, until le- /!
gal and constitutional change is made 1t was
well said by Madison, in the debates in the Vir-
ginia Convention, on the adoption of the FEEDER
al Constitution, that
The turbulence, violence and abuse of pow |
er by the majority trampling ON the rights of
the minority, have produced factions and com.
notions and tLesl. in rnnubIirs ,bo,,