Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-05-07
ftnh The u. Y. Courier & Enuuirer.

MAY an election is to be held in Kansas TO
decide whether the Constitution lately framed
by the Constitutional Convention ut Leavcn-
worth shall be accepted or rejected by the
people. This election is legal and regular
in every particular. The last Territorial
Legislature, in January, enacted that the
Convention should be held the Convention
was regularly elected, and regularly assem-
blcd and did its work and that work is now
regularly submitted to the popular ratifica-
ton or rcicction-and, in conjunction there
with in accordance with both law and usage, |
elections are to be held on the same day, to |
fill the several Offices created by the Constitu-
ton. All that we hear from the Territory |
shows that this election will be participated |
in by the great mass of the people of Kansas,
and leaves little or no doubt that the Ieaven-
worth Constitution will I've adopted by II
majority of many thousands.
When the Lccompton swindle, with the
bride in its belly, is to be submitted, is not
yet determined. The Board of Commission
crs, to whose care the management of the
matter has been committed, are to name the
day. The Act simply provides that ait shall
be as ca ly day as is co sstent with due
notice thereof to the PEG lie of said Terrific
~" OF course the necessary arrangements
cannot be made SO that the question can be
taken within the next fortnight. The I.eav-
cnworth Constitution will have already be-
come the organic aw Of a new State, when
| the app inted time comes for voting upon
| the Lecompton imposturc. And undoubted-
| ly the people will all vote upon it. They
| will rally en- mdsse, and this mis-bcgotten alb
| ominaton will be crushed incontinently. Ii
| border ruflians undertake to prevent it, by
repeating the forays of 81 and So, they will
be shot down like dogs If rcprobatc cleo
| ton managers of the Calhoun stripe under
take to prevent it by repeating the frauds of
So and 81, they will be strung up like dogs
Come what may, tn will of the people of
Kansas will then assert itself. and the thing
of Lccompton, the pet of a shameless Execu-
tive, will die the death, and be buried, in its
rottenncss, beyond all possibility of rcsurrcc-
| ton.
But what then? Is Kansas to remain in
a territorial condition as this English bill,
which has Just passed. contemplates? If
that is the expectation at Washington, we
hope Governor Denver will have good time
of it. 1t will be a curious sight-on the one
hand the new State Governor, all the State
officers of the Legislature, which are to be
elected two weeks from to-day, invested with
Office under the Leavenworth Constitution,
exercising every substantial function of office,
with an overwhelming majority of the peo-
pie at their back and on the other hand, the
poor miserable shadow of the territorial Gov
crnor, Invested of every particle of available
power, and as tenuous and impotent..as one OF
Ossians ghosts, through which you could
see the stars. lie will have no Legislature
to aid him in his predicamcnt, for the present
Territorial Legislature is unanimously for the
Leavenworth Constitution, and would recog
Mise no other authority We say it will be
an interesting sght-the whole solid machi-
merry of the new State government, in full
/ operation under the irresistible power of the
people, and poor Mr.. Denver essaying to stoI
it with his goose-quill proclamations. In
deed it will be funny scene. Don OUR.
ote's furious charge upon the wnd-mills will
be dismal in comparison.
1t is mistake to suppose that admission
r into the Union is necessary to the existence
of State Minnesota is not yet a member
of the Union, aud yet for months she has beer
a State to all intents and purposes. She ha'
a State Governor, IA State Legislature, a Stat
Judiciary, and State administration anC
ministerial officers throughout and all now il
the actual exercise of official power. Nobod
r calls in question their authority. So it il
with every new State for an interval between
the adoption of its Constitution, and its ad
mission So will it be with Kansa,
after the ratification of the Lcavenworth in
| strument. There will be no other prnctica
= government in Kansas but the State govern
ment Nothing that Governor DENVER il
Lecompton can do, OF Mr.. Buchanan a
| Washington can do, will make it otherwise
, | The utmost that these dignitarics can accom-
5 plish will to make themselves laughing stock
, for the entertainment of the country just a
|, has already been more than once done by thu
awful calling of heaven and earth to witncs
that the Territorial laws (thosc of the bogu
Lcgslature) should be enforced, and whcr
the time for action came, whiting down int
Q the harmlessness of a sucking dove. For tn,
/ last several months, Gov. Denver has been
: complete cypher in the Territory we arr
he will figure under the Lcayenworth Con
> stitution.
The truth il, this undertaking to cocrcc
people against their grain is, in this country
t very absurd business. 1t cannot be done
r 1t is not in the Anglo Saxon blood w
= have Just seen what has come of foolish at
o tempt even in England, when the man over
A the channel undertook to drive things in hi
own way. The expectation which seems t,
= have been entertained at Washington tina
the people of Kansas will forego the Leavcn
worth Constitution and adopt the Lecomp
0 ton, with the ENGLISH bait, is one of tn,
e sheercst decisions Of the age, and the history
G of the next three months will prove it 80
The whole OF this business of forcing upor
Kansas institutions which its people do moi
want-a business which with various appli
ances has now been kept up for three year
and a half-termlnates in a ridiculous anc
. contemplate fasco that can scarcely b,
, matched in the annals of human folly.
FROM PERu.-A bloody battle took plac,
| at Arequipa, Peru, on the It'll, between tn,
government under Castillo, and the revolu
, tionists, headed by vivanco. The latter wal
defeated, and had escaped to Bolivia. Are
quipa was stormed by Castillo. The battl,
is said to have been terrific. OF one battal
lion OF 600 men which defended the barri
cades, all but 40 were killed The loss OF
both sides was over 1000 killed, and the cit,
was filed with the wounded All the wal
steamers had been surrendered to Castillo
and Vivanco had fed to Bolivia. Peopl
thought that Castillo would assume the pow
ers of dictator.
The WEALTH OF misunderstanding t,
the returns of the county assessors of Illinois
to her State auditor, the aggregate value o
real and personal property in that Common
wealth (omitting several counties not yet re
/ ccived) amounts to S40S ,4O7 1907, being al
increase of So 227 $40 over the total of tn,
year 1856. Though railroads rarely max,
money for the stockholders, they do for com
munity at large,