M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1858-05-13
MoARTHUR
An Important AdInisSiOn--HOW
Kansas became n Free State.

An Important AdTnissiOn--HOw
Kansas became IA Free State.
No one will forget the clamor which
was raised in the free States by the
Black Republicans when the Kansas
Nebraska Bill passed, in 1854, against
the authors and abettors OF that meas
ure. Such an upheaving Of the politi.
cal waters was never seen before. 1t
was denounced in the most vehement
terms as a pro-slavery measure, and
as intended and calculated to introduce
slavery into Kansas and Nebraska,
and over all the free Territories Ofthe
North. The people were so infamed
by this language that they elected to
the next House OF Representatives a
Black Republican majority, and eve.
rywhere prostrated those who had
favored the measure. The clamor
was purely a Black Republican one,
for those Democrats who opposed it
did it upon other grounds and assign.
ed different reasons. Four years have
passed, and we see a leading Black
Republican member OF Congress, Mr..
Thsyer, Of Massachusetts,, OF emigrant.
aid-society, rise in his place and tell
the country that all this Black Repub
lican clamor ol 1854, raised by him
and others, was a great mistake, and
that, if it had not been for the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise and the
passage OF the Nebraska Act Kansas
would have been made a slave State |!
Nothing but that act saved it to free
dom! Hear him:
81 come now to the consideration Of
the event which just MS surely has
doomed to destruction the political
poaeer Of that institution--I mean the
repeal of tho Missouri Compromise
measure in the passage OF the Kansas.
Nebraska Bill. What need was there
for repeating that compromise, or of
admitting slavery into KanssS by Lao 7
Was not the South snre enough Of the
Territory as it was before 2 | think
and this is my honest conviction-I
that had it not beer for that act, Kan
sas would have been inevitably u slave
State. We OF the North had no par
ticular interest in that Territory. 1t
was put down in our biographies as
the great American desert. We had
not considered it Of much importance;
but we relied on the LaaO to keep slave
ry out OF it, to preserve it to freedom.
We of the North have too high an idea
Of the power of the General Govern
ment and OF lac, either for or against
freedom. Sir, this General Govern
ment has but little power over this
question. 1t is not ntOtiUe.pO,0er.
It is only a registry, an exponent Of
power.
ST the people in their homes in
Kansas have been pro.slavery, what
could the North have opposed to it
1t was emigration, and emigration
only, that could have made Kansas a
State, either slave or free. The great
law that governs emigration is this:
that emigration follows the parallels
of latitude westward. Under that law
Kansas would have been settled en-
tirely by slavery people, and as
was the southern part OF Indiana, and
rs was the southern part OF Illinois.
We in the North, trusting in the pro-
lection OF the law, would have had no
remedy. People in favor of slavery
would have gone there, and if they
were compelled at first to adopt fre,
constitution in order to shape their in
stitutions according to any law con-
cerning the Territory, they might have
soon reversed that position. In fact,
the decision Of the Supreme Court has
now made any such thing unnecessary.
They might have formed just such a
constitution as they pleased. Well,
then, we would thus, in all prObabili-
ty, have had Kansas a slave State
without the Kansas Nebraska Bill. :"
What will the preachers aud other
Abolitionists of Massachusetts, who
were so violent on tire Kansas ques
ton in 1854, say to that9 Their OWN
Representative, Mr.. Thayer, coEvicts
them OF being so short sighted as to be
utterly unworthy hereafter OF being
political guides. 1.-The is to be believed,
it was they who were against the in.
terests of freedom, and not Kansas
Nebraska men.-Cin. Eng.
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