Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-03-10

people there are in favor of free State.
Do not they tell us that fraudulent vo-
ting, false returns, and bogus poll-lists
are the common means used there to
defeat the real will of the people; and
is not Calhoun to-day holding in his
pocket two sets Of returns that he can
elect Just which he chooses of the men
voted for there at the late elections, to
depend on the acceptance or rejection
of the Lecompton Constitution Upon
such proof, the verdict must be-'sgaeil-
ty."
Again, the Senator asks: 'Who COM
menced this agitation, and opened the
way for these threatening disturban-
ces?" I will answer him. It was the
grasping slavery interests which COM
menced it. This strife and bloodshed
was begun by the Missouri Border
Rufi0aas, in their cabals and blue
lodges, on the frontier of Iowa, Kansas
and Missouri-by their robberies and
outrages upon freemen-and this, too,
before the passage Of Douglas Kansas
bill. 1t was not begun by the New
Englanders and Eastern emigrants, but
by the aggressions and robberies and
tyrannies of the slavery rufians upon
industrious freemen who went into that
free territory to establish for themselves
and families and friends, free homes
This was what begun the war and strife;
the violations of right, and the efforts
of the minions of slavery to either con-
troll these freemen, or to drive them from
that territory, that they might curse
and subjugate it wholly to the dark des-
tiny of slavery. This, I can tell the
Senator without fear of possible contra
diction-for clouds of witnesses, ample
facts will sustain me in the declaration.
The Slaveocracy, among other outra-
ges, attempted to wrest from residents
in Kansas their freedom of speech
| one Of the most cherished and sacred
of the rights of freemen-and one Of
the noblest-one which they never will
surrender-a right for which they will
always, everywhere, and in all places,
contend to the last breath they will
struggle for it as our forefathers fought
for their sacred rights in the war of the
revolution.
The Senator CMr Tucker) asks what
we will do, if the Lecompton Constitu-
ton should be adopted? In my opin-
ion, sir, if the peoples rights are longer
disregrded and trampled upon, and
their voices unheeded, those democrats
who are their oppressors will find they
have got an elephant upon their hands,
which they will not know any better
what to do with than John Doe did
with the one which was sent as pres
ent to him by an Eastern nabob, and
like him they will soon be Justify crying
to their neighbors to relieve them of an
unwieldy calamity.
Again, the Senator from the lst, (Mr.
Cook says, while he virtually admits
that the Lecompton Constitution is a
fraud-at least, that it is but the will of
a minority Of the people who must, if
it be accepted, live under it-that the
President is right in his herculanean
efforts to sustain it and pass it through
Congress; and, sir, the Senator further
said that it must and would pass. In
regard to the last statement, [ propose
to say but little. Still / hope, sir, and
how earnestly do a great majority Of
the American people hope, that it may
prove untrue. have come to the con-
clusion that the power of the President
is but little less than that of an abso-
lutte monarch-backed as he is by a
horde Of hungry Office seekers and of
fee holders, who, in the language of
one of their former most distinguished
leaders, are 'bound together by the CO.
hesive power Of public plmder.' am
not ready to say that he could not to-
day, if he chose, find thousands among
this class who would shout Good save
King Buchanan!'' if he would but re-
tain them Ill, or give them office.
But, i'll regard to the question wheth-
er he is right in sustaining the Lecomp-
ton swindle by virtue Of the Dred Scott
decision, have somewhat to say. In
his last message, he uses the following
language:
cit has been solemnly adiudged by
the highest judicial tribunal that slave
ry exists in Kansas by virtue Of the Con-
stitution of the United States. Kansas
is therefore at this moment, as much a
slave State as Georgia or South Caro-
lima. Without this, the equality of the
sovereign States composing the Union
would be violated, and the use and en-
ljoyment of territory acquired by the
common treasure of all the States would
be closed against the people and prop
erty of nearly half of the members Of
the confederacy. Slavery can there
fore never be prohibited in Kansas, ex-
cept by means of a constitutional pro-
vision, and in no other manner can this
be obtained so promptly, if the MAORI
ty Of the people desire it, as by admit
ting it into the Union under her pres
ent Constitution.
Sir, with feelings Of painful regret, I
have to admit this to be the law of the
law now, so far as the opinion of a ma
iority of the members of the Supreme
Court can make it the law. But is
there an honest man of sound sense