Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-02-20
SENATOR WILSON'S OPINION OF JOHN
CALHOUN.

OhAhVONs
The following passages ure from the Speech Of
Henry Wilson, delivered in the United States Sem
ate. on tho Kansas election frauds:
\ y On the demand Of The President, on
the promise of Governor Walker, aud the declara-
ton Of the Washington Union, they had promised
the people Of Kansas ttat they would submit the
Constitutien TO the people. They provided for its
submission in such a way that Governor Walker
could not ccrrect frauds us he had done in the case
OF OSford and McGee counties, aud so that Cal
honn could have the matter n he hands-a man
who would not only permit the frauds, but, II
necessary, make the frauds himself, lie was just
the man to do il for God never allowed to walk
the green earth any man who more richly de-
serves to die n traitors dea,h, and leave Il traitors
natae, than John Calhoun.
Mr.. Green-Say it to his face.
Mr.. Wilson, have said ii here, and it goes on
the record. | have no fear Of the tools of border
rufianism in Washington or in Kansas. am
able to take care of myself. ! will try to do so,
at any rate. Sir, this John Calhoun has cheated
and defrauded the people of Kansas out of their
sacred rights. lie has committed "A crime against
the liberties of the people which will associate his
nanIo with tyranny and tyrants while the history
of Kansas shall he read and remembered by
mankind.
The Senator from Mississippi justifes the refu-
sal to submit the Constitution. Why, sir, it has
been the policy to ascertain the popular will.
These men knew that il they submitted the Con-
%btitutian to the people, il would be voted down,
four or five to one. The President says, they
would have voted it down, because they did not
like it. What business was it 10 John Calhoun,
or to that Convention or to the President If the
United States, whether the people of Kansas
would vote down the Constitution or not2 That
was their business. 1t does not belong to the
President or his Cabinet to pronounce on their
motives for doing it. IL is an insult to a free
people to talk to them in this language, whether
it comes from the executive mansion, CT that class
of men who formed the Convention that assembled
in Kansas.
The vote was taken on that provision of the
Constitution, whether Kansas should be a slave
State with the slave trade, or whether kansas
should be a slave State, without the slave trade.
Kansas was to be II sla ve State anyhow. In order
to make 1t n slave State without the slave trade,
the voter had to vote for the Constitution. No
one could vote againstit. 1t was one of the most
stupendOus insults to a free people that a body
of usurpers ever offered. They took their votes.
They have returned six thousand seven hundred
votes ut that election thirteen hundred down at
this little township Of Oxford.
The town Of Kickapoo gave nearly eleven hun
dred votes-a town that cannot have legally more
thar four hundred voters. Four or five towns
make 40 three thousand fraudulent votes given or
that day. No man who knows anything OF Kan
sas believes that there were more than twenty-five
hundred. at the utmost, legal votes given in Kan
sas on that Constitution. The Legislature have
NoN w h'NhNHNS
the frauds.
The St. Louis Republican publishes a letter il
regard to this Investigation and | wish to cal
the attention Of the Senators to it, especially The
Senator from Missouri. The St. Louis Democra
makes an abstract Of this CORES pondence
"On the original ~poll.book Of the vote on thu
Constitution, December Dist, 1858, which book i
now on file in the County Recorders office IL
Leavenworth, it was discovered that James Bu
chanan, President of the United States, cast tn
Two hundred and SEVENTEEN vote"
Mr.. Seward. What day was this
Mr.. Wilson. On the Dist, Of December.
Mr. Green. For or against slavery
Mr.. Wilson. For the Constitution with slave
~" of course. The Senator need give himsel
no anxiety about what vote James buchanan
would give 10 Kansas or out OF it. l wish tn
President would 90 to Kansas. lie has sent on
hts Governors there and they went as men sen
out of old to curse the people, and they cam
back blessing the people. 1t the President wa
there q few weeks, he would become a wiser an
better man. Instead of denouncing these peopl
as rebels, | think he would come back and sa
that he found a people loving liberty, law, an
order, who had been oppressed by a class OF CO..
rupt and unprincipled officials.
'Next on the list of distinguished names AZ
pears as the two hundred and seventy sixth vote
William Ii. Seward, of New Yord." daughter
They do not say how William Ii. Seward vote
on that day, Lu, we oil know how William L
Seward would have voted had he been there.
1928. Thomas +. Marshall, OF hentncKy.-
7l4th. George W. Brown, Editor Herald of Ere
dom. Then, S59th, John c. Fremont" (Laugl
teri
Mr.. Green low did he vote?
Mr.. Wilson 1t does not tell how any of the
voted except Buchanan.
Then comes the eight hundred and sevent
sixth voter, j. W. Denver, Governor Of Kansa
who had only taken his place the day before, ar
was then in %LecomptOn, fifty miles distant. Tho
III Rantpn nDUPars as the nine hundred ana n
teenth voter. And now it was dark, the pol
being kept open until halt. past six O'Clock, whe
alas for frail humanity, for the compunctio'
visiting CT conscience, in slips Horace Creole
(aughter,) and ~stealthily deposits his ballot
the nine hundred aud ~eightieth voter. Iii no
h~altpast 6 o'clock, and the curtain rises on tt
last act Of the drama. and in steps, in all his M
jestic proportions, Edwin Forrest, as the OF
thousand and twenty.sixth voter. This is NJ
Forests first appearance on a Kansas stage"