Litchfield enquirer., 1858-03-25

.Iie sword on any people that inherited the biood which circulates in our veins, and the sentiments which make us free people? If they will agitate on such ground as this, then how, or when, by what concessions we can make, will they ever be satisfied? To what end would they agitate? It can now be only to divide the Union. Will they not need some fairer or more plausible excuse for proposition so desperate? How would they improve their condition, by drawing down certain ruin upon themselves Would they gain any new secu- rlty for slavery? Would they not hazard securities that are invaluable?
 But shall not insist, now, on so radical a measure as the restoration of the Missouri pro- hbition know how difficult it is for power to rel;nquish even a perncious and suicidal policy all at once. We may attain the same result, in this particular case of Kansas, with out going back so far. Go back only to the ground assumed in 1854, the ground of popu- lar sovereignty. Happily for the authors of that measure, the Jealous and energetic resis- tance of abuses practiced under it has so far been effective that popular sovereignty in Kan sas may now be made a fact, and Liberty there may be rescued from danger through its free exercise. Popular sovereignty is an epic of two parts. Part the first, presents Freedom in Kansas lost. Part the second, if you will consent owrite it, shall be Freedom in Kansas regained. It is on this ground that I hail the eminent Senator, Mr. Douglas, and his asso- ciate, the distinguished Senator from Michigan
 Mir Stuart, and the youthful but most brave Senate" from California, Mr. Broderick.
 The late MT. Clay told us that Providence has many ways for saving nations God forbid that l should consent to see Freedom wounded because my own lead or even my own agency in saving it should be rejected. I will cheer fully cooperate with these new defenders of this sacred cause in Kansas, and I will award them all due praise, when we shall have been successful for their large share of merit in its del.verance
 Will you tell me that it is difficult to induce the Senate and the House of Representatives to take that short backward step? On the contrary, the hardest task that an executive dictator ever set, or parliamentary manager ever undertook, is to prevent this very step from being taken Let the President take off his hand, and the bow bent so long, and held to its tension by so hard pressure, will relax and straighten itself at once.
 Consider now, if you please, the consequences Of your refusal 1fyou attempt to coerce Kan sas into the Union, under the Lecempton Con- stituton the people ofthat Territory will resolt t to civil war. You are pledged to put down that revolution by the sword Will the people listen to your voice amid the thunders of yonr cannon? Let but one drop of the blood of a free citizen be shed there by the Federal army, a Id the countenanee of every representative of a Free State in either House of Congress will blanch, and his tongue will refuse to utter the vote necessary to sustain the Army in the buschery of his fellow-citizens.
 Practically, you have already one intestine and Territorial war-a war against Brigham l. oung of Utah. Can you carry on two, and confine the strife within the Territories ? Can you win both? A wise nation will never pro- yoke more than one enemy at one time. I know that you argue that the Free State men ot Kansas are impracticable, factious, ,seditious. Answer me three questions Are they not a majority, and so proclaimed by the people of Kansas! Is not this quarrel, for the right of governing themselves, conceded by the Federal Constitution Is the tyranny of forcing a hateful Government upon them, less intolerable than three cents ilnpost on pound of tea, or five cents duty on a promissory note? You say that they can change this Lecompton Con- stitution when it shall once have been forced upon them. Let it be abandoned now What tervention to prevent the future change ?- What security can you give for your own ad- herence to the construction of the Constitution which you adopt from expediency, to-day ?- What better is Constitution than bylaw of a corporation, if it may be forced on State to-day and rejected tomorrow, in ..derogation of its express inhibition :?
 So long as the States shall come in by free consent, their admission will be an act of un- ion, and this will be a Confederacy. When ever they shall be brought in by fraud or force, their admission will be an act of consolidation. and the nation, ceasing to be Confectionery, will become in reality as Empire. All our elementary instruction is wrong, or else this change of the Constitution will subyert the liberties of the American people,
 You argue the consent of Kansas from doc umentary proofs, from her forced and partial acquleseence, under your tyrannical rule, from elections fraudulently conducted, from her own contumacy, and from your own records, made up against her. l answer the whole argument at once Kansas protests here, and stands, by your own confession, in an attitude of rebellion at home, to resist the annexation which you contend she is soliciting at your hands.
 Sir, if your proofs were thousand times stronger, would not hold the people bound by them. They are all contradicted by stern facts. A people can be bound by no action conducted in their name, and pretending to their sanction, unless they enjoy perfect free dom and safety in giving that consent. You have held the people of Kansas in duress from the first hour of their attempted organization as community. To crown this duress by an act at once forcing slavery on them, which they hate, and them into union with you, on terms t. which they abhor, would be but to illustrate anew, and on a grand scale, the maxim