The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-07-31

puuH
cneress had clearly power 20 cast constitution
from It's doors because il had not the endorsement
n A popular vote. IL might be advisable and well
for constitutional conventions To take the popular
sense on doubtful points on to submit the whole
ostrument but authority 10 form constitution was
so.ssarily delegated 10 them, and they were under
no legal obligation TO call for popular vote 10 condemn
~ approve the instrument they produced But this
Iamor about pon-subInission mere pretext The
ayery clause of the Lecompon constitution was sub
mittei TO the people, and fairly submitted Those who
All not vote had themselves to blame they were ree-
state men, and greyed that the clause establishing
avery was adopted The only trouble about slavery
I fee State men, In convention assembled at Topeka,
resolved that all they wanted was IAN vote on the shave
question. Was there any difficulty about anything IN
tbe Leeompton constitution besides the slavery clause
Who had ever heard of any other point IN controversy
The people of Kans If they opposed the slavery clause
L,d let the time pass for voting ii downthey had had
The opportunity give legal expression TO their views
against the slavery clause, and had spurned that oppor
unity and now made facious and irregular opposition
N fiat which had been legally done. But it urged
that slavery would still have existed in Kansas even
Il the slavery clause voted upon had been stricken
ant 1t was that there would still have been slaves
theethat the slave property in the Territory would
have been recognised property was legally there in
accordance with the decision OF the Supreme Court OF the
Inited States in the bred Scott caseand who but u
ira American aboltionist would have thought of confs
eating this property Why, even in the British West In
Ala colonies the slaves emancipated paid for;
though the did cheat the saveowners in the
ttenent out of the most that due them the prin
chile applicable to the Kansas recognised The
whole amount of the statement that slavery would still
have existed in Kansas if the people had voted to
strike the slavery clause that the slaves already
there about three hundred in number would be recog
nised as property That which property according
10 the decision of the Supreme Court Of the United
States would not have been confiscated. The slave
property Kansas not worth than hundred
and fifty thousand dollars and it had been provided that
he slave clause the constitution had been stricken out
the slaves should be emancpated upon the payment to
their of their value What terrible outrage 1t
would have been to have brought these people OF Kansas
te the Union and have allowed them to do just exactly
as they pleased afterward What an outrage The fact
was that the slavery clause in the constitution the
occasion of the outcry about this outrage.
Now gentlemen said the speaker, taking this view Of
the case don you think the southern in Congress
might have voted unanimously for the admission of
Kansas into the Union in December last under the Le
compton constitution, without any of them charging
their consciences with very heavy load guilt He
hoped now that the boserous of Kansas history
were over and that she would be recompensed for her
stormy and unfortunate past by and prosperous
future.
The Kansas question was but an episode The course
pursued by the republican party regarding Kansas
but an incident in the policy of that party which
now the overshadowing political power in the North.
The purposes of that party broader and deeper than
resistance the administration in Kansas betokened.
Its policy certainly to prevent the admission of any
slave States into the Union and ultimately aboli
tonize all the States That this was the policy of the
party inevitable from its antccedents Logically
could not be otherwise. Here the speaker gave gen.
eral view of the slavery question up to lS20-up to
which time slave and free States had been admitted ndis
Ultimately and when Intervention against slave States
commenced. The Wilmot -proviso movement, and the
reaction that followed reheased and it related
how the antsavery sentiment of the North had been
Broadening deepening, and rushing in rapid cur
rent The people Of Kentucky, he thought, had not APP
precated the scope and force of the antislavery
erful party in the Union unless the national de-
mocracy were the stronger No party but the
democratic could withstand it anywhere. 1t was,
organization, strong compact earnest, resolute,
and hopeful And dariy deceived were those who
thought that conceived its work to be confined to anti
Lecomptonsm. Its aim to keep out all new slave
States in all atitudeso obtain the preponderance in the
general government and to power to abolish slavery
everywhere. He would to show its purposes read from
the speeches of the representative of the party
men belonging to the body which he had the honor
to preside and with whom it was his duty, it was his
pleasure to cultivate kindly personal relations He read
from fiery, ultra speech Of Senator Wilson and then
from one whom he styled greater than Wson--a
whose uterances were the principles of his party-Mr
Seward, of New York, who, in grand speech made to
the Senate the Sd of March, 1858, said Here Mr.
Becinridge read that remarkable and famous paragraph
addressed especially to southern senators, affirming that
free labor at last apprehendcd its mission, and was
marching to conquest That's the programme, said
Mr. Breckinridge Along the line Of march this party
must be met and resisted The constitution was not
in their way at all for they did not acknowledge
the binding force of of its planest provisionsthat
concerning the return of fugitive slaves. Garrison
honest than they, for he acknowledged that the
constitution was in his way. They grew more bold and
enepising in their aggressons every year They
in the outer rim of the Whirlpool and rapidly
fastening to the rock where Garrison stood in the
ire They would pause at obstacle be appalled, at no
ruin Already they had practically made waste paper of
the constitution They carrying class of States
against another class of States And whenever the line
was drawn the nation which the affections
and hopes of the people could not fow the Union
like grdled tree, doomed to speedy decay and death
Even that venerable august and pure tribunal the
balance wheel of the mighty machinery of govern
ment the Supreme Court of the United States,
sailed with force and venom nearly unparalleled. bill
had been introduced into the Senate to rcoganze this
Court And the threat that this reorganization should
take place not an idle one Those who had under
taken the work strong rampant and confident, and
INSCRIPTIONS.
And would Kcntuckans go with this great party Of the
North under the delusve of the peoples party
lie had shown KentuckaIs the banquet set before them
Had they any stonachs for the feast Oh ! for the
giants that werefor the trumvrate that aar the
danger that now Calhoun, with his far reach
Ing intellect it first, and warned his countrymen
Clay saw it, and in his latter days served his country with
patriotism broader than before and fervor deep
er, in seeking to avert it, And still the mellow beams
OF the setting Of that great fingered in golden
radiance the western sky. Webster itthat grand
and granite man resisted the madness of the torrent of
political hnaticism that arose in his own State o
rock resiss the but the dirty tide rolled over
him, and now seehed there triumphant with demagogue
rifwood floating with the froh and scum that arises
70 the surface amid the fury Of faction The giants were
10 nore and it rgaincd for those to whose hands were
oonhded the trusts of their country to consider what
should be done to destroy the growing power of the re-