New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-11


holders by handing over 10 them 1.-The few thou.
"sand inhabitants Of Kansas, bound hand and foot
in the fetters Of the Lecompton Constitution there
is one important consideration which our venerable
Chief Magistrate ,eems to have forgotten. And 1t
is evidently uI der the influence Of similar state OF
Oblivion that the President has sought to over
whelm tbese few thousand citizens Of Kansas with
charges of being in rebellion against the Territorial
Government established by Congress, Of "having
constantly renowned and defed the Government
"to which they oue allegiance" and of "hsving
been all the time in resistance TO its authority"
f the "few thousand inhabitants Of Kansas were
isolated Like the Mormons. without friends and
without sympathy, and the objects Of universal
odium, this method of procedure might answer
sufficiently we'll But the case Of the people Of
Kansas is totally different This charge of treason
and rebellion brought against them does not involve
them alone. 1t is charge of giving aid and COM
fort to rebellion brought against the late House OF
Representatives of the United States, which body
not only appointed Committee to investigate the
claims of the Territorial Government, actually
constituted, to the allegiance of the people
of Kansas but on the strength OF the
report of that Committee and the sworn test-
mony taken before it actually passed bill de-
nouncng as void all of that pretended legislation,
refusal to recognize which as lawful the President
now denounces as rebellion. 1t is also charge Of
aiding, abetting and countenancing rebellion
brought against the entire Republican party of the
Union, whose sympathies, from first to last, have
gone openly and warmly with the people of Kan
sas, and who have denounced not less loudly
the bogus Legislature and the Border-Rufian
invasion by means of which the Territorial Leg
issture was constituted, than they have the
Lecompton Constitution, the Acknowledgement
of three quarters of the people of Kansas in
which it originated, and the tricks and frauds BY
which it has been attempted to pass it of as the
act Of the people of Kansas. Nay more, it is
charge of aiding and abettrg rebellion brought
against that great section of Dir. Buchanan's own
supporters in the Presidential election who voted
for him on the express ground that, if elected, he
would carry out the policy inaugurated BY Gov.
Geary, who, it was asserted and generally be-
lieved, had been sent to Kansas on Mr. Buchanan's
recommendation and for the express purpose Of
inaugurating the policy which he, if elected Presi-
dent, was determined to carry out. To trample
under foot the few thousand people Of Kansas,
and by means of the Army of the United States
and the entire power of the Government to force
upon those few thousand people hateful usurpa-
ton, might seem to Mr.. Buchanan quite an easy
affair; but these few thousand people, however
weak in themselves, become rather formidable
when backed by the entire Republican party of
the Union and by the better half of Mr.. Buchanans
own Northern suppOrters-a fact which, by this
time, it seems probable that Mr.. Buchanan may
have begun to realize.
The truth is, and Mr.. Buchanan may perhaps by
this time have begun to see it, that this question of
forcing Constitution upon the people Of Kansas is
one in which the interest of the people of the United
States is to say the least of it, quite as great as
that of "the few thousand people of Kansas" The
position of the people of Kansas in this matter is
that of the passive party-the sufferers upon whom
a wrong is to be inflicted. The position in which
the President is seeking to place the people of the
United States through the action Of their represen
tatives in Congress assembled is that of the active
nfictOrs of this wrong. The worst that can happen
to the people of Kansas is to be reduced to political
nOnentity by force and fraud, against which they
had struggled manfuly but in vain. The evil that
threatens the people of the United States is, that
they shall be placed by frightened President and
by Congressional majority-partly fanatics of
despOtsm, partly the slaves of their own slavehod
ing constituents and partly bought up by Presiden.
tia patronagein the position of substituting the
basis of republican government, instead of the votes
of majority of the people, force, fraud, bubbles
and chicsnery employed to place an acknowledged
minority in power.
1t was going quite far enough, and so the slave
driving section Of the Democratic party may yet
discover, to ask the Northern Democracy to shut
their eyes to the Border .Rufian invasions and the
election frauds on which the late Territorial legis
lstion of Kansas was based. To go further than
that-to ask the Democracy of the North to be.
ONE the indorsers of those violences and frauds,
and to Join hands with their authors and perpe-
traitors in forcing upon the people of Kansas State
Constitution the acknowledged work Of contempt
bic minority-is pressing the matter a little too
far. 1t might possibly be that since the people of
Kansas are only few thousands, and the greater
part of them politically hostile to party frsm
which they have hitherto received neither protec-
ton nor justice-nothing but delusive promises,
which as coon as Governor has attempted to
carry out. the President has recalled hint might
be that the President might have succeeded.
had that been all he asked, in persusding the
Democratic party to continue to shut their ears
to the complaints of the people Of Kansas. But to
ask them not merely to refuse to do justice, but to
join actively in Gaping the climax of wrong by
L..