The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-09
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Fsll9w Caiseas Of DE Senate

4
i and House Of Representatives +
1 When we compare the condition of the
country at the present day with what IL was
one year ago, at the meeting of Congress, we
have much reason for gratitude to that Al
mighty Providence which has never failed TO
interpose for our relief at the most critical PEI
RODS of our history One year ago, the sec
tional strife between the North and the South,
on the. dangerous subject of Slavery, had again
become so intense as TO threaten the peace and
perpetuity of the Confederacy. The application
for the admission of Kansas as a~State into the
Union fostered this unhappy agitation, and
brought the whole subject once more before
Congress 1t was the desire of every patriot
that such measures of legislation might be
adopted as would remove the excitement from
the States, and confne it TO the Territory where
it legitimately belonged. Much has been done,
| am happy to say, towards 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 under the laws of
any of the States, and to hold such property
there under the guardianship of the Federal
Constitution, SO long as the Territorial condition
| shall remain.
This is now well-established position, and
the proceedings of the last session were alone
wanting to give it practical effect. The prin-
ciple has been recognised, in some form or
| other, by an almost unanimous vote Of both
Houses of Congress, that Territory has right
to come into the Union either as free or
/ slave State, according to the will of majority
of lis people. The just equality of all the States
! has thus been indicated, and fruitful source
of dangerous dissension among them has been
removed.
Whilst such has been the beneficial tendency
of your Legislative proceedings outside of Kan
sas, their influence has nowhere been 50 happy
as within that Territory itself Left TO manage
and control its own affairs in its own way, with
out the pressure of external influence the revo-
| lutiOnary Topeka organization and all resist
ance TO the Territorial Government established
! by Congress, 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 Kansas
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 peo-
pie of the Territory yielded obedience to the
laws enacted by their Legislature, it would at
the present moment have contained large ad-
ditional population of industrious and enter
prising 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 revolu-
| tiOnary government under the Topeka Constitu-
ton, which caused the people of Kansas to COM
NIT the grave error of refusing to vote for dele
gates to the Convention to frame Constitution,
under law not denied 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
Government, they disregarded the principle alb
solutely essential to the working of our form Of
government, that a ma ority of those who vote
not the majority of those who remain at home,
from whatever cause-must decide the result
of an election. For this reason, seeking to take
advantage OF their own error, they denied the
authority of the Convention thus elected to
frame Constitution.
The Convention, Notwithstanding, proceeded
to adopt Constitution unexceptionable in its
general features, and providing for the submis-
sion of the Slavery question to vote Of the
people, which, in my opinion, they were bound
to do under the Kansas and Nebraska act
This was the al-important question which had
alone convulsed the Territory; and vet the OPP
ponents 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 revolu-
| tiOnary Topeka organization.
! A wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail
before the first Monday of January last, when
an election was held under the Constitution A
majority Of the people then voted for Govern
| or and other State officers, for a member of
! Congress, and members of the State Legisa-
| ture. This election was warmly contested by
the two political parties in Kansas, and great
er vote was polled than at any previous elec-
ton. A large majority of the members of the
| Legislature elect belonged to that party which
had previously refused to vote. The Anti Sla-
very party were thus placed in the ascendant
and the political power of the State was in their
own hands. Had Congress admitted Kansas
into the Union under the LecomptOn Constitu-
ton, the Legislature might at its very first ses-
| sion, have submitted the question to vote of
the people, whether they would or would not
| have 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 mmed-
atey and finally settled.
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 ad-
mission of Kansas as 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. Its admission
could have inflicted no possible injury on any
human being, whilst it would, within brief
period, have restored peace to Kansas and
! harmony to the Union, In that event the Sla-
very question would ere this have been finally
settled, according to the legally-expressed will
of majority of the voters, and popular sover-
eighty would thus have been indicated in a
constitutional manner.
II With my deep convictions of duty, could
have pursued no other course. 1t is true that
as an individual, | had expressed an opinion,
both before and during the session of the Con,
vention, in favor of submitting the remaining
clauses of the Constitution, as well as that con
corning Slavery, to the people. But, acting in
an official character neither myself nor any
human authority had the power to reiudge the
proceedings of the Convention, and declare the
Constitution which it had framed to be multi
ty To have done this would have been yio-
lation of the Kansas and Nebraska act. which
left the people of the Territory perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic institutions
in their own way, subject only to the Constitu-
ton of the United States" IT would equally
have violated the great principle of popular
sovereignty, at the foundation of our institu-
tons, to deprive the people of the power, if they
thought proper to exercise it, of confding to
delegates elected by themselves the trust of
framing a Constitution, witAQnt requiring them
to subject their constituents to the trouble, ex-
pense, and delay, of second election. 1t would