The Kanzas news., 1858-12-25
Buchanan On Ransss.
: The following is that Dortiou a NJ. Bs

buchanan On kansas.
The following is that portion of Mr.. Bu-
chanan's late message relating to Kansas ::
One year ago the sectional strife between
the North and the South on the daRgerous
subject Of Slavery had again become so in
tense as to threaten the peace and prosperi-
ty of the Confederaey. The appIication for
| the admission of Kansas as STATE into the
Union fostered this unhappy agitation. and
bro't the subject once more before Congress.
It was the desire of every patriot that such
measures of legislation might be adopted as
would remove the excitement from the States
and conine 1t to the Territory, where it le-
ultimately belonged. Much has been done,
am happy to say, toward the accomplish
ment of this object during the last session
of Congress.
The Supreme Court of the United States
had previously decided that all American
citizens have an equal right to take into the
Territories whatever is held as property un-
der the laws of any of the States, and to
| hold such property there under the guar
dianship of the Federal Constitution SO long
as the Territorial condition shall remain.
While such had been the beneficial ten
deney of your legislative proceedings out
side of Kansas. their influence has nowhere
been so happy as within that Territory it
| self. Left to manage and control Its own
affairs In its own way, without the pressure
| of external influence the revolutionary To-
lpeka organization and all resistance to the
Territorial Government established by Con-
gress have been finally abandoned. As a
natural consequence, that fine Territory
now appears to be tranquil and prosperous,
and is attracting increasing thousands OF
immigrants to make it their happy home.
The past unfortunate experience of Kan
sas has enforced the lesson so often already
taught, that resistance to lawful authority.
under our form Of government cannot fail
in the end TO prove disastrous to its authors.
Had the people of the Territory yielded
obedience to the laws enacted by their Leg
islature, it would at the present moment
have contained large additional population
of industrious and enterprising citizens,
who have been deferred from entering Its
| borders by the existence of civil strife and
organized rebellion.
1t was the resistance to rightful authority
and the persevering attempts to establish a
revolutionary government under the Topeka
| Constitution, which caused the people OF
Kansas to commit the grave error of refus-
ling to vote for delegates to the Convention
to frame Constitution under law not de-
MED to be fair and just in its provisions
This refusal to vote has been the prolific
source of all the evils which have followed.
In their hostility to the Territorial Govern
ment, they disregarded the principle abso-
lutely essential to the working of our form
kof government, that majority of those who
Iyote-not the majority who may remain al
home, from whatever cause-must decide
| the result of an election. For this reason,
seeking to take advantage of their own er-
ror, they denied the authority of the Con
vention thus elected to frame Constitution
! The Convention, Notwithstanding, pro-
ceeded to adopta Constitution unexception-
able in its general features, and providing
for the submission of the Slavery question
to vote of the people, which, in my opin-
ion, they were bound to do under the Kan
sas and Nebraska act. This was the all
important question which had alone con-
vuIsed the Territory and yet the opponents
of the lawful government, persisting in their
first error, refrained from exercising their
right to vote. and preferred that Slavery
should continue rather than surrender their
revolutionary Topeka organization.
A wiser and better spirit seemed to pre-
vail before the first Monday of January
last, when an election was held under the
Constitution. A majority of the people
then voted for Governor and other State
officers, for a member of Congress and
members of the State Legislature. This
election was warmly contested by the two
political parties in Kansas, and greater
vote was polled than at any previous cleo
ton. A large majority of the members of
the Legislature elect belonged to that party
which had refused to vote. The Anti-Sla-
very party were thus placed in the ascend
ant, and the political power of the State was
in their own hands. Had Congress admit
ted Kansas into the Union under the Le-
compton Constitution, the Legislature might
at its very first session have submitted the
question to a vote of the people, whether
| they would not have a Convention to amend
their Constitution, either on the Slavery or
any other question, and have adopted all
necessary means for giving speedy effect to
the will of the majority. Thus the Kansas
question would have been Immediately and
t finally settled.
I Under these circumstances, / submitted
to Congress the Constitution thus framed,
with all the officers already elected necessary
! to put the State Government into operation,
accompanied by strong recommendation
| in favor of the admission of Kansas as a
State. In the course of my long public
life, have never performed any official act
which, in the retrospect, has afforded me
more heartfelt satisfaction. It's admission
could have inflicted no possible injury on
any human being, while it would, within a
brief period, have restored peace to Kansas
and harmony to the Union. In that event
the Slavery question would ere this have
been finally settled, according to the legally
expressed will of a majority of the voters,