The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1858-01-05
The Message Of Acting Governor stanton
to the Kansas Leg islature.


to the Kansas Legislature.
LEcoMPfoN, Dec. 8, 1857.
Felow Citizens of the Council, and House
OF Representatives.:
In tho absence Of the Governor, who by
leave of tho President has gonc for short
time to Washington on important public
business, and thus while temporarily
clothed by the organic act with all the pow
crs and duties of tho chief Executive Office
of the Territory, find myself compelled
by sense Of duty to call you together, in
order that you may adopt prompt legisla-
tive measures to avert the calainties which
imminently threaten the public peace.--
From the representations of a majority Of
your own bodies, as well as from other in
formation of an authentic character, havo
reason TO know that recent events have
produced profound agitation of the pub
lie mind, and that sense of wrong and
injustice, whether well or ill.foundcd, and
an apprehension OF greater evils to arise
thercfrom, have aroused the people oi tho
Territory " IL condition &c dangerous ex-
citement. The proceedings of the late
constitutional contention are the immediate
cause of this trouble and alarm.
The law passed at the last session of the
Legislative Assembly, providing for tho
organization of convention to frame
constitution for the government of Kansas
as one of the States Of the Union, was a.
dopted at period when, unfortunately,
the people of the Territory were divided
by bitter hostility, resulting from pre-
yious state Of commotion and civil war. In
consequence Of this embittered feeling, and
the mutual distrust naturally thereby en-
gendered, one of the parties, constituting
large majority Of the people, refrained
almost entirely from any participation in
the proceedings instituted under the law
aforesaid. The census therein provided
for was imperfcctly obtained from an un-
willing people, in nineteen counties Of the
Territory; while in the remaining counties,
being also nineteen in number, from vari-
Gus causes no attempt was made to comply
with the law. In some instances, people
and officers were alike aveSe to the pro-
cecding; in others, the officers neglected
or refused to act; and in some there was
but n small population, and no efficient
organization, enabling the people to secure
a representation in the convention. I'm
der the operation of these causes combined,
n census list was obtained of only nine
thousand two hundred and fifty-one legal
voters, confined to precisely onc-half tho
counties of the Territory, though those,
undoubtedly, contained much tho larger
part OF the population.
At the election which followed in pur.
suancc of the law, only two thousand two
hundred persons, being less than onc-fourth
of the registered voters participated in any
manner in the choice Of delegates, either
by voting for those elcct' d, or for other
persons. The average aggregate vote, in
favor of the successful candidates, was
about eighteen hundred.
1t thus appears that in the election Of
the 18th June last, for delegates 10 tho
convention, the great mass of the people
RETAINED from voting, and left tho whole
proceeding, with all lis important consc-
qucnccs, TO the active minority, under
whose auspices the law had been enacted,
and also executed, so far as that could be
done by the executive officers, without the
concurrence of majority Of the people.
That tic refusal Of tho majority to 60
into the election for delegates was anfortu-
nate, is now too apparent to be denied. 1t
has produced all tho evils and dangers of
the present critical hour. 1t has enabled
n body of men, not actually representing
the opinions of the people, though regular
ly and lcgitimately clothed with their au-
thority, to prepare for them form of gov
ernmen!, and to withhold the greater part
of its most important provisions from tho
test Of popular judgment ard sanction. 1t
has created the resent profound excite
ment, consequent upon the apprehension
that Congress may admit the State under
this constitution, and that the people Of
Kansas may be thus forced in submit to
tho operation of fundamental law TO the
of which they have had no actual
1t is not my purpose, nor is it necessary
to inquire how far either of the parties into
which the people were unbappily divided
upon the proceeding in question, was JUS
Unable IN the course pursued. lhe only
important question which seems now to
concern the people or their representatives
is as to the legal and political effect Of the
facts as stated--whether they do. or do
not, impose upon the whole people an Oh
legation tc accept the work of the convcn-
ton, and to acquicsce in its plan of adop-
ting the constitution and sending it up to
Congress for the admission Of Kansas as a
State into the Union.
Ifa convention, organized rs this was,
can be considered as embodying in itself
the sovereignty of the people, the Difficult
ty is undoubtedly insup 'rable, and the
omission of tho majority to vote last juno
is past all present remedy. But, in my
judgment, such position cannot be sue
cessfully maintained, Tho fundamental
principle Of popular self government, and
Of that republican form" which
tho Constitution of the United States guar
antics to every member of the Confedera-
cy, excludes the possibility Of the delega-
ton or transfer Of their sovereignty, by the
people, to any authority whatever. In its
very nature, that sovereignty which erects
governments. and endows them with their |