The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-01-12
GOV. WISE ON THE KANs.
CONsTITUru0r

"s 'o'io~ing 10 the letter from Gov. w,sr n
Iepiy 70 an invitation to participate In m. ~.
aeon % the sth OF January, at Tammany uall.
RICHMOND, Dec 80, 1857.
10 pasiki b. DEiAvss, Rsq, for the Committee.
Gentlemen: have the homer 10 ack,o-,.a..
.ne ,asiation o. the Society of Tammany 10 ~.
teao tne,r oeiebration Of the Forty.third Xnnivsr
sary OF the Battle of New Orleans tha avan;n
the sth day Of January next. "s vi
regret that cannot be with Won 1, nar.o,
put tender TO you my warmest sympathy in the
sentiments and objects OF your ceiebratiop I
| trust that your venerable Order will aIwaxs 80,
| hold the Federal Constitution. with which rn,,
proudly claim TO he cotempora neous thar vo, ,;,,
strive to revive and perpetuate the spirit of the
revolutionary fathers, who you boast yere vorr
| founders; and that you will now, more than
ever, cherish national opposed to sectional fee
ingsa strict construction the Constitution an on
| posed to all compromises Of its provisions: true
Democracy In its Republican form, 8 opposed to
the lcentiousness Of mobs or mere msjorities on.
| acting their own Shigher law" and the liberties
| of the people against all power, delegated or un-
delegated. upon earth.
To these ends youImay well commemorate the vic
! tory of New orieans Its hero was "guided by Law
and bound by duty" when he took the responsi.
bility to save city then, and afterwards to save
country from a foe more formidable than foreign
| bay onets. lie gave us the motto: ''The Union
must and shall be preserved" and hope that his
l
on every heart, and upon every banner in the
whole country To preserve it we must steadily
adhere TO the Democratic faith and platform: We
must stand by you in standing by James Buchan-
an ss the people stood by Andrew Jackson He
had TO contend with the Money Power and sub.
dued ii by the Samson Of Democracy. We now
! have to meet the Black Demon of the shigher
law" and render the same Samson services in Wig
or to fight for the chosen people. God forbid that
| tho Samson of Democracy shall at last be Sam.
son Agonistes, shorn and blinded, to become de-
| stroyer. Almost every other people and every
| other party, except the American Democracy have
| had their bridges of asses' but do pray that
we may not be such asses ourselves as to make q
bridge of slavery, of any other subjecfo us to
stall at in career and progress Of national great
| ness. And yet, gentlemen there great many
hdnsdsSSfn n our country, and they are not hsfas
stubborn asses the CIntdsSeS. A driver can get
along after a manner with an ass that can but the
crGelest goad will not prevail with the asses who
| CONT They are the stnbbornest of ALL and are
sure to stall just in the way, and at the very place
| of most danger. They bray a political religion
and religisus politics. The best whip which ever
| touched these asses exactly in the raw was James
| BuchaDan's Conestoga thong, laid right on upon
| forty fanatical preach ,rs ''all in a row."
As to your other m tto-"CiVil and religious lib.
| erty'-ours WAS saved by the Virginia Democracy
| in 1855. We struck the dark lantern out of the
hands of inefable Sam, and none now are found so
| peor as to "hurrah' for him. We. therefore have
some right to say to you on other topics, that all
common sense and justice require is that we let
each other property and political privileges alone,
and attend TO the conservation of our interests
| respectively, at home. When We happen TO meet
in the common Territories, to make new homes and
| neighborhoods there, all We have to do is to re-.
| spect each others equal rights. If we are South
Shareholders, don't let property be invaded
| or taken away from us; don't allow any power to
| prevent Us from settling upon common lauds, or
don't drive us away from the settlements we have
| made upon domain purchased or won by common
| treasure and united yalor. On the other hand if
| you prefer that slavery shall not be Incorporated
in the new body polite of which you are to be-
come members, we promise you that 1t shall not be
imposed upon You with our consent either by force
| or by fraud We propose to go together to the
| polls as equals, justly respecting each Others
rights, and there determine by legal votes, what
shall be the laW of the casel If property be estab.
shed in one form or another, it shall be respected;
and, if forbidden in any particular form. it shall
| not in that form exist In that community. Now
has this JUST fair and equal course been observed
! in Kansas! fearlessly say that 1t has not been
observed. Force and fraud both, on both sides
have been attempted, and have to shameful ex-
tent prevailed. And 1t is the great vocation of De.
| mocracy to pat down both fraud and force in this
and all other cases. Howi The case divides it.
self into two categories-the dc jre in the Ter
ritory, as between the Convention aud the people,
and the other de facto in the country at large as
| between Congress and the Territory In the first,
| in Kansas, there enabling Statuten If
the Kansas-Sebraska act did not enable the people
to hold Convention, or to make laws for their own
self lfgovernment, il had no virtue in it at all The
Kansas Nebraska bill organized Territory, and the
people thereof were enabled thereby to govern
| themselves. By their own laws they organized
| Convention to frame a Consultation of state Gov
| ernment That Convention was, therefore de jurc
legitimate.
1t formed a constitution, and hada right to form
| it.. That was its function, and there its power
| ended, except to submit it, as proposed organic
law. to the fair and free election of the Sovereign
People, to be adopted or to be rejected by them.
They, in their organized being of legal voters,
alone sovereign. The entire constitution ought to
| have been submitted to their lawful voices at the
| pols. The power was not delegated to the con-
| vention to proclaim and establish State Consti-
tuition; it had to- be approved by Congress- and
| much more had it to be approved by the sovereign
| principals for whom the mere agent, the Conven-
ton, acted Is waslnot mere statute law repealabIe
1T will, by Legislature to set yearly, and to be
chosen 10y the precincts of annual elections. 1t
| was the great fundamental organic law under
| which titles and tenures and franchises were to
| be held: and Judges and Legislators were to sit
| and Executive authority was to WELD the arms of
State; and offices were to be filled; and justice was
to be administered; and law was to be enacted; and
| confederate station was to be assumed; and SOW
| eregnty itself was to be assumed; and it was
| TO be irrepealable by legislation and to be- in
word, the Supreme Constitution Of State, under
| which she was to be received into the most glOri-
GUS Union of States which ever protected and for
| titled the liberties of mankind! What,-tell us
that an instrument of this dignity; that Republi.
! GOvernment it5oll, WAS not 10 De submitted
its form and plan proposed, to the only lawful
| ereigns-the organized people-not mere mass of
persons but the bona fde inhabitants and legal vo-
ters of the State TO be governed for their election
| to adop. or reject it! DeJnre, say, it ought to
| have been so submitted. Pure and undefiled Re-
publicanism conservative Democracy required that
| 1t should be so submitted There is no mobocracy
in that idea. 1t fs even just steady, organized,
free Republican action; the law Of popular liber-
ty med by citizenship and the rule of election,
| and is the true example Of essential sovereignty
in the People. Instead of submitting this pro-
posed Constitution by the mere agent, the Conyen-
tion, deferentally TO the principals the organized
| sovereign People, there was usurpation, with
| holding from them of fair free, fuli and equal
election to choose or not to choose their own Cen
stitution of self government. 1t was pdrte; il
the foul Heads win and tails you lose;" the Con
| stituion was obliged to be adopted, with the
clause or without the clause the vote was bound
to be "for the CJnsituioE;" it was all pro and no
CON- and We say that was no submission to an etec
tinr at all Election is choice OF alternatives, 10
adopt to reject; to reject as well as adopt, to
adopt as well as reject.
There was no choice in this case, and no equality
of voters in the case. Three men went to the
polIs A said 81 vote for the Constitution, with or
| without the clause;" but and said, "We vote
| against it with or without the clause" AS vote
was counted, BIS and C's were not to be counted,
| and this one made not only to offset two, but
to be sole substitute in fact for three against the
majority of two to one out Of three. Now this wae
but the unveiled trckery and shameless fraud of a
so-caled schedule. There was neither right nor
Justice in il. The Democracy of Virginia at least
scorn title Of any sort founded on fraud, occult
| or paIpabIe like this. We sny that as between the
Convention of Lecompton and the people of Kansas
the question was dc jre, and de jtrc the whole
Consultation in all its parts, ought TO have been
submitted to all the legal voters pro and con, and
| the two voters ought TO have been allowed their
voices rgsinst It. as well as the voter his voice
for it, And SO far as slavery is concerned, it made
the case worse against that species of property to
submit the slavery clause alone to the election OF
the people. Why discriminate In respect to that
s.neculisr institution, Is IL because il was pecu
liar! If we contend for anything especially, IL Is
not that our property shalt not be distinguished
| or discrmnated from other property In lcgisla-
ton. Ii stands on the same footing OF right TO
| protection and preservation which Is c'eimed Tor
anr othar hascrinfinn of thing owned or posecseed