The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-03-31
WASHINGTON, March %, 1868.
SEN ATE

Mr.. Stuart Of Michigan, said he would
not discuss the Kansas question on the
abstract principle Of Slavery, but that the
action of the Lecompton Convention was
intentional fraud upon the people and did
not express the will Of the people. Then
he followed with considerable closeness the
Presidents Message, contending that its
reasons in some cases were fallacious, aud
IN others absurd.
He was astonished, he said, that the
President should, in his special message,
say that Kansas was in state of rebel.
lion, and yet propose the adm ssion of this
rebellious State into the Union. He (Stu.
art) would not recapitulate the history Of
Kansas-that has already been done well.
There are, he said, two factions in the
Territory, the Abolitionists, who support
the Topeka Constitution, and small squad
of extreme Southerners in favor of the ex-
tension of Southern institutions and the re.
vival of the slave trade, who favor the lie.
compton Constitution.
But the great bulk of the people are
against both Of these constitutions. When
the President made that remarkable state
ment as to rebellion, it was at the time of
the October election.
When every mail and telegraphic dis
patch brought word that all was peace
there, it was absurd to say that people,
who were having the government in their
own hands, and exercising it under the
forms of law, and Governor appointed
by the President, was in a state of rebel
lion.
The people p, acefully prepared an issue
by which they could express their objcc
lions to the proceedings Of the Convention
and they did SO by ten thousand MAORI
ty.
The President having established, ashe
thinks, this constitution on the principle of
right, proceeds to defend it on the princi.
pie of expediency. For himself, his (Stu-
art's) view of territorial constitution is
that it is an incipient movement for the
! formation of State. If presented to
Congress and refused acceptance it is
constitution no longer. He next COM
mented upon the fraudulent surroundings
of the Lecompton Constitution, and also
condemned in severe terms the conduct of
Calhoun, touching the returns in the last
election. Then citing the Presidents
words, that if the Kansas act is fairly ex-
ecuted, it will allay all excitement, he said
he (Stuart agreed with the President on
that point, that is principle on which all
can stand, not because it is the Kansas
act, but because it carries out principle
as ancient as the right of free government
namely, that the people may say under
what government they will live. This is
the panacea not only for Kansas, but for
the whole continent.
The Senator from Va. (Mr. Huntcr)
the other day, by the way of disreputabe
contrast. alluded to the Eagles of England
gathering to the spoils Of empire, while we
are wrangling over the frauds at Delaware
Crossing. That Senator here unwittingly
described the difference between the ma
tions of Europe and this Republic. There
empire is extended, and the people are
governed by the strong arm of power
here through the purity of the ballot-box.
Had the Senator forgotten that impurity,
flowing throu2h all the arteries and veins
of this Republic, may reduce it to shape
less, rotten mass? Statesmen must not
overlook small agencies. Mr.. Stuart plead
ed earnestly for con:ilatory course on
this question. Let the Kansas act, he
said, be fairly executed. Let the people
make Constitution in their own way, and
there will be peace in Kansas and in the
country. Let the people exercise the priv
! ilege which, in common with all within our
borders, belongs to them, and in a few
days we can herald throughout the Union
that Kansas has had her rights secured
here in the legislative halls of the nation,
that Lecompton is dead and the people
are free. He concluded by replying at
much length to the several legal points laid
down in Mr.. Pugh's recent speech, and an
nouncing that he would vote against that
gentleman's amendment.
(The galleries were crowded, and in the
heat and confusion there, lady tainted.
Mr.. Douglas has just entered, and is
holding long private conversation with
Mr.. Green. The former looks i'll, and
everybody is trying to get look at him.
! The Turks have also just entered.)
Mr.. Bayard of Delaware proceeded to
demonstrate by a reference to numerous
legal authorities, that the Lecompton Con
stitution was framed with all due formal
ity-that the majority in Kansas were
bound by the vote of the minority, mas
much as they are held to assent to what
they could have avoided if they choose.
He had heard there were no frauds in the
vote as to whether Kansas should be
admitted. The alleged frauds were at
subsequent Legislative election. Congress
he continued, had nothing to do with that
Arguing to the question of submission he
thought it would have been better to have
submitted the question to the people, but
that submission was not necessary to its
validity He lived in state (Delaware)
whose constitution was never submitted,
yet he never doubted its validity. The