The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-25


The President sent Governor Walker 70 the
Territory with the promise, with the assn
rance, that the people should vote upon the
CONSTITUTION. Governor Walker, in his letter of
acceptance, says that be understands the Presi-
dent and the Cabinet to be committed to that
policy. Governor Walker went to the Territory,
end in mis- inaugural address promised the peo-
PIE that unless the Convention submit the Con-
stitution to the vote of ell the actual resident
settlers of Kansas. and the election be fairly
Lad justly conducted, the Constitution riN be,
0ad ioilL ought to rejected by Congress"
WHAT was the effect of these declarations on
the people? The people said, "the census has
Tot been taken; the registry has not been hon.
tsrly made; we shall be cheated, if we 60 the
polls to elect delegates to this Convention. We
do not wish to commit ourselves, and then be
cheated and dsfrauded. We will let them elect
their delegates 10 the Convention, frame their
Constitution; and when they submit 1t TO Us, we
viii vote II down." That was the sentiment OF
the Free State men througho the whole Ter
ritory, and all the evidence goes to show It.
know it to be so by my own personal experience
in that Territory. / know it TO be the senti-
lnent of the leading men and OF the people.
We are told by the President, that the reason
why they Gid not vote was that they wanted to
enforce their Topeka Constitution; that they
wanted 10 frame laws and establish their rebel.
lious Government Sir, they had Convention
on the 9th of June, before the delegates were
elected to the Lecompton Convention, and they
voted, with only one solitary exception, against
putting the laws framed under the Topeka
Constitution in force. The people intended
nothing of this kind; but they decided to elect
their officers under the Topeka Constitution, to
keep that Government alive for protection in
ihe last resort, and then resolved to go into the
October election under protest. They went
into the October election, and carried the
Legislature and Delegate to Congress.
Nov, sir, wish to call attention for a few
moments to Governor Walkers course in regard
10 the October election frauds. The President
qaotes Governor Walker when he sustains his
tasory, bat he does not quote him when Gov
ernor Walkers testimony goes to show that the
people of Kansas have been cheated and de-
Irauded. For promising that the people of the
Territory should have the right to vote on their
Constitution, Governor Walker was assailed in
al the slave States. / think some Senators
demanded that he should be removed. He was
denounced throughout the Southern States by
class of public men and by class of public
journals for having promised that the people OF
hsnsas should have q fair opportunity to vote
for the adoption or rejection of the Lecompton
Constitution. The Administration which gave
him that assurance qusiled beneath this denun-
citation from the slaveholding States. It changed
its policy, abandoned Walker, and BETRAYED the
people of Kansas.
When the October election came on, there
stupendous frauds perpetrated at Oxford
and in MCGEE county. These fraudulent votes,
II couated, would have settled the character OF
tie Territorial Legislature. Governor Walker
could not give his sanction to those frauds.
WHAT did be do? He investigated the frauds
of ~ Il L. L. II
aud threw out the fraudulent votes. For that
ac;, for throwing out these palpable frauds, for
throwing out the list made up out of the Gin
clnnati Directory, In which it is said Governor
Chase's name was included-for performing
that act of juetice, Governor Walker was assal-
ed flom one end of the Southern States to the
Other, by politicians aud presses. Men who
had sustained the invasion of the Both of March,
1855, of four thousani nine hundred men from
Missouri; men who had refused to investigate
those frauds; men who had upheld the laws
enacted by the Territorial Legislature men
who had sustained the use of the army in the
Territory, and all the acts which have trans
pred in that Territory-these men denounced
Governor Walker for throwing out frauds that
prevented them, as they thought, from consum-
mating the iniquity of dragging Kansas into
the Union as a slave State.
We are told by the President that the people
OF hacsas have had a fair opportunity to vote
Oa the Slavery question. am surprised that
the President OF the United States has so little
regard for the intelligence of the Senate and
the country, and for his own reputation, as to
make a declaration of that character. The
people Of Kansas had a fair opportunity, he
tells US, to vote on the 2lst of December last
for or against Slavery. Sir, they had no such
opportunity aud the President of the United
States, if he does not know it, ought to have
known it. Both Constitutions were slave Con
sntutions. The slaves in the Territory, it was
declared by the Lecompton Constitution, were
property; and
The right of properly in slaves now in the Territory
No alteration shall be mad. afe CT the zig of prop
cry IN the ownership of slaves"
These provisions went into your Constitution
With no Slavery There are about three hun
dred slaves in the Territory of Kansas This
Constitution with no Slavery recognises the
existence of the right of property in those
slaves, and declares that in no manner shall
that property be interfered with. In any pro-
posed amendment to the Constitution, we are
told that no slteratiIn shall be made to affect
the right Of property in the ownership of slaves"
That was the Constitution with no Slavery
Then we have the Constitution with Slavery !;
and assure Senators that / am as ready TO
have your Lecompton Constitution with Sla-
very, as your Lecompton Constitution without
Slavery. Your Constitution without Slavery
recognised Slavery in the State, declared that
1t should never be ipterfered WITH made it
eternal. Such was the Constitution without
Slavery. What mockery is it to tell the
people OF Kansas that they had an opportunity
10 vote tor or against making slave State.
But we are now told by the President that
we can change this Constitution before 1864.
/ have 10 doubt of that. believe the people
have the right to change their Constitution
when they please, and Just how they please
But what security have we that the men who
have been retreating for the last ten years from
tie Wilmot proviso, down TO the doctrine
that Slavery exists in the Territories by the
Constitution Ct the United States, as much as
1t exists in Georgia or South Csrolipa-what
security have we that the President of the
United States, that the Congress of the United
States, that the Supreme Court uf the United
States, will not declare that this constitutional
provision cannot be changed, that it is of bind.
iDg force in the new State, and is the eternal
lswof that State, beyond thereach of the people
/ know there are men in the country who have
already proclaimed this to be true. You can
find In the Southern presses the doctrine that
the people have no right to change it. 1t is
held to be a sacred contract of binding force
forever. If the slsve-drivers of the South put
their foot down, and demand that this shall be
the accepted doctrine of the Administration
and the Pro-Slavery Democratic party, the
Administration and the Pro-Slavery Democratic
party, with all the branches of authority, will
adopt it as readily as they have adopted any of
tie monstrous heresies of the past. l have no
faith in their promises or declarations know
that this Administration came into being as
L. IF nd tbot L..