The Kanzas news., 1858-02-20

In the Governors dispatch of July 81,
he says: stLane and his staff everywhere
deny the authority of the Territorial laws,
and counsel total disregard of these en-
actments."
Without making further quotations of a
similar character from other dispatches of
Gov. Walker, it appears, by reference to
Secretary Stanton's communication to Gen.
Cass on the 9th of December last, that
''the important step of calling the Legisla-
ture together was taken after Gov Walker
| had become satisfied that the election or
dered by the Convention on the 21st of De-
cember could not be conducted without col
I lision and bloodshed." So intent was the
disloyal feeling among the enemies of the
Government estat lished by Congress, that
an election which afforded them opportuni-
| ties, if in the majority, of making Kanzas
Free State according to their own professed
desire, could not be conducted without col
lision and bloodshed. The truth is, that
until the present moment the enemies of the
existing Government still adhere to their
Topeka revolutionary Constitution and Gov
ernment. The very first paragraph of the
message of Gov. Robinson, dated the 7th of
December, to the Topeka Legislature, now
defiance of the laws and Constitution of the
United States. The Governor says: "The
Convention which framed the Topeka Con
stitution originated with the people of Kan
zas Territory. They have adopted and rat
flied the same twice by direct vote, also
Indirectly through two elections for State
officers and members of the State Legisla-
ture yet it has pleased the Administration
to regard the whole proceeding as revolu-
tionary.' The Topeka Government, ad-
hered to with such reasonable pertinacity,
is Government in direct opposition to the
existing Government prescribed and recog-
nized by Congress.
1t is usurpation of the same character as
it would be for a portion of the people of
any State to undertake to establish sepa
rate Government within its limits for the
purpose of redressing any grievance, real or
imaginary, of which they might complain
against the legitimate State Government
Such principle, if carried into execution,
would destroy all lawful authority and pro-
duce universal anarchy. From this state
ment Of facts, the reason becomes palpable
why the enemies of the Government au-
thorized by Congress have refused to vote
for the delegates to the Kanzas Constitution
al Convention, and also, afterward, on the
question of Slavery submitted by it to the
people. 1t is because they have ever re-
fused to sanction or recognize any other
Constitution than that framed at Topeka
Had the whole Lecompton Constitution been
submitted to the people, the adherents
of the organization would doubtless have
voted against it, because, if successful, they
Il IL Il.
of the way of their own revolutionary Con-
stitution they would have done this, not
upon the consideration OF the merits of the
whole or part of the Lecompton Constitu-
ton, but simply because they have ever re-
sisted the authority of the Government au
thorized by Congress from which it emana-
ted. Such being the unfortunate condition
of affairs in the Territory, what was the
right as well as the duty of the law abiding
people? Were they silently and patiently
to submit to the Topeka Usurpation, or to
adopt the necessary measure to establish a
Constitution under the authority of the Or
ganic law of Congress? That this law re-
cognized the right of the people of the Ter
ritory, without an enabling act of Congress,
to form State Constitution, is too clear for
argument. For Congress ':to leave the
people of the Territory perfectly free' in
| framing their Constitution ''to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the Constitution
of the United States,' and then to say that
they shall not be permitted to proceed and
frame the Constitution in their own way
without express authority from Congress,
appears to be almost contradiction in terms.
1t would be much more plausible to contend
that Congress had no power to pass such an
enabling act, than to argue that the people
of Territory must be kept out of the Union
for an indefinite period, and until it might
please Congress to permit them to exercise
the right of self-government. This would
be to adopt, not their own way, but the way
which Congress might prescribe. 1t is
impossible that any people could have pro-
ceeded with more regularity in the formation
of Constitution than the people of Kanzas
have done. 1t was necessary, first, to as
certain whether it was the desire of the
people to be relieved from Territorial de-
pendence and establish State Government.
For this purpose the Territorial Legislature,
in 1855, passed law for taking the sense
of the people of the Territory upon the ex-
pediency of calling Convention to form a
State Constitution at the general election to
be held in October, 1856. The ''sense of
the people, was accordingly taken, and they
decided in favor of Constitution.
| 1t is true that at this election the enemies
of the Territorial Government did not vote,
because they were then engaged at Topeka,
without the slightest pretext of lawful au
thoriIy, in framing a Constitution of their
own for subverting the Territorial Govern
ment- In pursuance of this decision of the
people in favor of the Convention, the Ter
ritorial Legislature, on the 9th of Februa-
~, 1857, passed an act for the election oi
delegates on the third Monday of June,
1857, to frame State Constitution This
law is as fair in Its provisions as any that