The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-04
GOVERNOR WALKER.

The letkef of Governor Walker to the Anti.
Lecompto1' Convention of Indiana, dated Feb
ruary 2Oth, is sufficient answer to the report
set in circulation by the Philadelphia Bulletin,
that he had retreated from his position, and
gone over to the Administration on the Kan.
sas Question. He reiterates without qualifica.
ton the Jews he maintained in his letter to
the President, and which he had advocated in
Kansas. He asserts that he never would have
accepted 5he Governorship, but with the ex.
plicit understanding that the People should
have the right to vote upon the Constitution
by which hey were to be governed and that
the President knew this. Mr.. Walker does not
say, in so Iaany words, that the President be-
trayed him. but he plainly shows that that is
his opiniol.
He sayt, Revolution and Civil War were ina.
pending n the Territory, and could be pre-
vented Jig by the bayonet, or by the wise
and safe policy he advocated, of submitting
the Com ;itution to the popular vote. The
President Was fully apprized of the state of
things-hnd he knew that peace was preserved
only by the pledges given to the People that
they should have fair opportunity of voting
upon the Constitution.
"These were pledges we'll known to the
Presidens sand all his Cabinet. They were
pledges given by me in good faith, and any
abandonment OF them now on my part, after
the Peep . had accepted and acted upon them,
would be- to cover myself with infamy and dis
honor. Whatever, then, may be the action of
the wave;ing, timid, or corrupt, menace and
prescription have no terrors for me-"
And if these pledges were given with the
knowledge and sanction of the President and
Cabinet, as Mr.. Walker asserts, how can they
escape tie "infamy and dishonor" which he
says would attach to him, had he abandoned
them. LITER reviewing the oppressive course
pursued by the Administration towards Kan.
sas, Mr.. Walker exclaims, Indignantly
Where are we, and in what direction are
we drifting? Are we upon the banks of the
Bosphorss or Danube, or upon soil conse-
Grated to popular sovereignty by the blood
of the Rgevolution7 Is it Executive edicts or
sovereign rights that constitute the liberties of
our couctry? Are we freemen who know
our rights, and knowing dare maintain or are
We vasssls, serfs, or slaves, palace slaves, that
will crinEe or change at the stamp of the foot
of matter? Is it the people and the States,
as represented in the Senate and House of
Repreae tatives, who are to record their votes
as indidAted by their unbiased judgment; or
are theA merely to register Executive edicts.
under psoslties for refusal of denunciation and
prescription? Is the President the master or
the servant of the people, that he should thus
dictate 10 them, or their representatives, under
threats Of exclusion from the party of their
choice? Is Democracy name and shadow,
or 81 stance? 1t means the posuer of the
people. This is it's vital essence. Or has it lost
it's true yignifcation, or are we moving from it
with vieuless but rapid strides towards despotic
power, to make and unmake the rules of politi.
cal faith; under pains and penalties abhorrent
to the souls of freemen? Is this the eighty.
second rear of our independence, or is it the
FIRST yeaf of American Monarchy, that is now
dawninss upon us?"
The last year of King James, by the grace
of Slavery.