Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1858-12-16
SYNOPSIS OF
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

+ eilctc Citizens Of the Senate and House of Rep
reSeniatIUeS
When we compare the condition of
the country at the present day with
what 1T was one year ago, at the meet
ing of Congress, we have much reason
for gratitude to that Almighty Provi-
dence which has never failed to inter-
pose for our relief at the most critical
period of our history. One year ago
the sectional 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 Contederacy. The application
for the admission of Kansas as a State
into the Union fostered this unhappy
agitation, and brought the whole sub
Iject once more before Congress-. 1t was
the desire of every patriot that such
measures OF Legislation might be adopt.
ed as would remove the excitement
from the States, and confne it to the
Territory where it legitimately belong
ed. Much has been done, am happy
to say, toward the accomplishment OF
this object during the last session of
Congress. 80
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 Stares, and to hold such property
there under the guar dianship OF the
Federal Constitution 30 long as the
Territorial condition shall remain.
This is now a established posi-
ton, and the proceedings Of the last
Session were alone wanting to give it
practical effect. The principle has been
recognized, i'll 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, accord
ing to the will of majority OF its peo-
Iple. The just equality of all the States
has thus been indicated, and fruitful
source of dangerous dissension among
them has been removed.
KANSAS.
While such has been the beneficial
tendency of your proceedings outside
of Kansas, their influence has nowhere
been so happy as within the Territory
itself. Left to manage and control itt
own affairs in its own way, without the
pressure of external influence, the rev
dictionary Topeka organization and al
resistance to the Territorial Govern
mcnt established by Congress have beer
abandoned. AS natural consequence
that fine Territory now appears to b.
tranquil and prosperous, and is attract
ing increasing thousands of immigrant
TO make it their happy home.
. Inc past unfortunate experience o
: hahsas has enforced the lesson so Otter
already taught, that resistance to law
tul authority, under our form of govern
ment, cannot fail in the end to nrov
, disastrous to ITS authors. Had the PEG
/. pie of the Territory yielded obedience
to the laws enacted by their Legisla
ture, it would at the present momen
have contained large additional pop
J. ulation of industrious and enterprisin,
citizens, who have been deferred fror
: entering its borders by the existence c
\ clvll strife and organized rebellion.
r ltwas the resistance to rightful at
:, thorlty and the persevering attempts t
establish revolutionary government
ID under the Topeka Constitution, whic
caused the people of Kansas to commi
the grave error of refusing to vote fo
9 delegates to the Convention to frame
a Constitution under law not denied I
be fair and just in its provisions. Thi
Az FHasr