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

IN THIS extraordinary Communication to Con.
gres'. The President told us, in his annual
message, that the attsntion of the country had
been too much drawn to the Territory of Kan.
sas regret, l think the country will regret,
tnink every man who cares anything for right
or justice, who cares anything for the honor
OF the American name and the American char.
acter-aye, anything for the reputation of the
Chief Magistrate of the Repubiic-will repre,
that the President himself had not devoted time
enough to the consideration of the affairs OF
Kansas, to have enabled him to present to the
Senate and the country fall, intelligent, &C
curate, and truthful a'ement Of the events
which have transpired in that Territory. say
here, sir, what know to be true, what ever,
intelligent man in the Senate knows to be true
what the country and the world know to be
true, that the statements in this message mis-
represent, wholly and entirely, the events which
have transpired in that Territory and tina
wherever this message goes, it will carry to the
world stupendous and gigantic misrepresenta
ton of affairs in the Territory of Kansas.
l know, sir, that the President cannot be ex
pected, in the midst of the vast duties tina
| devolve upon bim,to understand everything
that has TRANSFERRED IN thAts Territory. He wal
out of the country when the act for the organize
ton of Kansas was passed he was out of ths
1855, and portion of l856-years in which
events of great magnitude transpired in Kan
sas. He was nominated, we all know, sir, be
cause he was out of the country, and had no con
necuon with those events, because he was able
to prove an abb Bat, sir, he sends to us, tc
men familiar with the events Of the past foul
years, this message, covering this application
| tor the admission of Kansas and he gives a
cooring to events in that Territory which will
| give to The country and to the world about "a
correct an idea of the affairs of that Territory
as the bulletins of Napoleon gave to the people
of France of the condition of the grand army
on its retreat from Moscow.
The President tells US that there is delusior
in the country in regard to the condition Of
affairs in Kansas; that it is supposed there are
two parties In that Territory, contending for the
government of the Territory. He gives us to
understand that this is not the fact that there
is not great Free State party, struggling to
make Kansas Free State and q Slave State
party struggling to make Kansas a slave State
He would have the country understand tina.
this is the state of affairs in that Territory
that there is party of law and order, party
that legitimately and legally governs the Ter.
| rlsory; and that there is another party setting
at defiance the laws of Congress and the Con.
stltution OF the country, and that they are Ia
boring to overthrow by lawless violence the
Government of the Territory, and to impose on
the people Constitution of their own choice.
Now, sir, l know, you know, every man here
knows, that this is not the fact. l say there il
no party and there has been no party in the
Territory of Kansas setting at defiance the
Constitution of the United States or the laws
of the United States no party, nobody, no sci
men, in that Territory, in rebellion against Fed
ersl authority.
On the 30th March, 1855, the peopleof the Ter
ritory we're summoned to the ballot to elec
thirteen members of the Legislative Coancil and
twenty-six members of the House of Re presenta
tives. On that day there was an invasi ,n of the
Territory of forty.nine hundred men from the
neighboring State of Missouri These forty mine
hundred armed men went into every Council dis
trict and into every Representative diitrict but
one. They took possession of the electoral urns;
| tSegns Territory, and to shape and mould its
future. Of the twenty nine hundred men in
the Territory who had right to vote, ess than
fourteen hundred voted on that day, and yet a
majority of actual residents were in favor of
free State, and had majorities in sixteen of
the eighteen districts. There facts have been
proved, demonstrated, by taking the names of
the persons enrolled as actual voters, aud ia
king the names of the persons who voted on the
30th of March. These facts were proved
under the order of the House of Representa-
lives, and by thorough investigation by a
committee of that House, and no man here or
elsewhere can deny them.
The people of Kansas had imposdd upon
them that day a Government not ELECTED BY
themselves Government imposed uI on them
by those forty-nine hundred men from the State
of Missouri. The people of the Territory felt
this to be great outrage on their righ!s-they
had right to feel so. The people of any State
would have felt outraged on going to the ballot
boxes and finding them in the possession OF
armed men from another State. Gov Reeder
undertook to correct some of these frards upon
the ballot-box, by Withholding certificates from
the smbers thus elected; and Gov. Reeder,
on that day when he undertook to right these
wrongs, wAs marked for swift destruction.
The Legislature assembled it threw out the
Free State members Who held certificates from
Governor Reeder; it passed laws violsting the
rights of a free people; it violated the freedom
of speech and of the press; it denied to the
people the right to go to the ballotbox, unless
they took test oath that no freeman could
take without degradation. Those laws would
not allow man to sit in a jary.box, if he denied
the right to hold slaves in the Territory. These
laws were intended ito use the language of
one of the leading men who imposed them on
The people) TO degrade and drive out of the Ter
ritory the Free State men. What were free.
men to do under such circumstances? They had
been brought up in the belief that the people
were the inherent source of power-that all
COVER came from the people, in their sovereign
capacity. They had read the Kansas-N ebrasks
act, and they supposed that act conferred on
the people. without the Intervention of Terri.
toral Legislature or Of Congress, the right to
come together to frame Constitution, and to
ask for admission into the Union as sover
eign State. The people of other Territories
had framed such Constitutions. They assem-
bled in Convention, they framed such q Consti
tuition, they submitted that Constitution to the
people, and it received the popular verdict
They elected their officers under it they chose
their Senators, and sent them to this Chamber
to ask for admission into the Union. They under
took to enforce no laws, and from that time to
the present they have kept that Topeka Gov
eminent in existence; they have framed some
acts necessary for its preservation, but from
that day to this they have never attempted to
enforce those laws. / declare here to-day what
l know personally to be absolutely true, and
declare it in the face of the declaration of Gov.
Walker and of the President, that the presence
of your army in that Territory, the proclama-
tons of your officials, the action here in the Sem
ate aud the House of Representatives, have not
prevented that people from putting those laws
in execution; but they have acted according
to their own well-chosen and deliberate policy.
They never intended to 60 into rebellion they
never intended to enforce these laws against
the laws of Congress. They have always denied
the validity of your Territorial laws, which we're
imposed upon them by fraud and force they
have not used them for the protection of their
liberties or their lives. Young men who went
to that Territory to practice their professions
have, from conscientious scruples, engaged in