Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1858-01-28

the deepest intensity of hatred. There
was no other division among them
Every band of combatants was ranged
under pro-slsvery or an anti-slavery
banner. Every violent act of aggres-
fsion or defence was by one of these par
ties against the other. When life was
lost, the news of the victims death was
always accompanied by statement of
1.-THE side he had taken on the slavery is
sue. IF general riot took place, the
killed and -8ounded were e-enumerated
TO their classIhe Hen on this
Iquestion. The abolitionists organized
their party into the form of a State 60
vernment, with all-its machinery, civil
and military, and, ranging themselves
under it, they swore fierce defiance and
deadly hostility to the regularly consti-
tuted authorities of the United States
simply because of their views on slave
Try. This was not all. The contest ex-
tended itself from Kansas to to the ut
termost ends of the country. It be-
came great sectional controversy, and
Everywhere the burden of all that was
said and sung upon it was slavery
The Union itself was in danger-in
great and imminent danger; and no one
dreamed of ascribing that danger to any
cause except the unsettled condition of
the slavery question in Kansas.
In these unhappy circumstances, the
legal and satisfactory settlement of this
exasperating dispute was consumma-.
ton most devoutIy to be wished. To
extirpate this root of bitterness was the
first thing to be done towards pacifica-
ton. But how wa: it to be effected p
Our political opponents thought-and
L suppose are still of the same opinion
that the people of the United States,
through their representatives in Con-
gress, might decide it without consult
ing Kansas, whose people, according to.
their theory, should be treated with ut
ter contempt. But the democratic par
ty determined to leave it with. those
who alone were directly concerned in it.
This latter doctrine was triumphantly
sustained in Congress, at the polls, and
by the Judiciary. After that the gener-
al government could do no more than
protect the people of Kansas in doing.
the work assigned them. How they
should do it, by what agents or organs,
was not prescribed; they were to do it
':in their own way"-by such represen-
tatives as they might see proper to
,teheese. ~
But unfortunately the abolition par
ty had become so raucorous that the
olive branch was offered them in vain.
They insulted and blasphemed the laws
which left the matter to their own deci-
sion. The regular authorities could do
no more than give all fair chance of
voting. The legislature first passed
law submitting the question of Soon
ular vote. The next legislature after
wards, in accordance with the known
wishes of the people, and by virtue of
their own rightful authority, enacted
another law for the election of delegates
| to a convention. The delegates were
chosen at fair and free election, after
full notice to all the voters. Whether
the vote was large or small, it is not
possible to deny the right of those who
were chosen. To say that portion of
the electors by absenting themselves
from the polls could invalidate an cleo.
ton otherwise legal and regular is sim
ply absurd. .... s'- ~i..
The members of the convention thus
chosen met at Lecompton, and then was
raised the new alarm that the delegates,
or some Of them, intended to make a
slave constitution in opposition to what
they knew to be the will of the people.
! While the President saw that he had no
right to interfere between the people of
! Kansas and their own representatives,,
and while he knew very well what was
known to every other lawyer and states
man in the country, that it was for the
convention to shape the constitution
and to decide upon the form of its sub
mission, he nevertheless expressed his
opinion freely, that in the circumstan-
ces of the case, and with reference to
that question of slavery, the constitu
ton ought to be submitted. 1t was
submitted-so submitted that if there
was majority opposed to slavery they
had nothing in the world to do but go
to the polls and say SO. .s
But the moment the abolitionists saw
the whole disposition of the slavery sub
ject placed in their own hands, they
abandoned apparently all th,ir hostility
to it. They will not condeseend-not
they-to vote on a question SO trifiing.
The principle for which they were will
ing to drench the country in blood has
ali at once become too insignificant to
be worth a ballot. Something else in
the organic law never thought of before,
and not specified even now, has sudden
ly become so important in their eyes
that the slavery question may be deci
ded against them for aught they care
about it, unless this new and underlined
and unexpressed grievance be redressed
at the same time. To me it seems per-
fectly clear that conduct like this must
be prompted either by prejudice almost
insane, or else by hypocrisy shameless
beyond the reach Of comparison.
If the convention has no legal au
thority to make a constitution without
submitting the whole of it to popular
vote, then this constitution ought to be
treated as nullity. But whosoever
denies the general power of the people
to clothe their representatives with full