The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-12-11
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE,
Ftllot Citizens Of tile Senate and House {
RenreaInfnIiroa.

Ftltor Citizens Of tile Senate and House
Representdtires:
. When We compare the condition of Il
country at the present day with what it vi
e one year ago, At the meeting Of Congress
: We have much reason for gratitude to tn
: Almighty Providence, which has never fails
d to interpose fer our relief at the most crit
: cal period Of our history. One year ag
. the sectional strife between the North an
7 the South on the dangerous subject Of slav'
ten the peace and psrpetuity of the coafe
deraey. The application for the admissie
Of Kansas as State into the Union, fostere
this unhappy agitation, and brought tn
whole subject once more before Congress-
1t was the desire of every patriot that sue
measures Of legislation might be adopted, q
would remove the excitement from tn
States and con6ne it to the territory when
it legitimately belonged. Much has h..'
demo, ! ara happy 10 say, towards the &C
complainant Of this object, during the las
session of Congress.
The Supreme Court of the United State
had previously decided, that all American
citizens have an equal right to take into tn
territories, whatever is held as property un
der the laws Of any Of the States, and t.
hold such property there under the guard
anship Of the federal constitution, SO long a.
the territorial condition shall remain.
| This is now a well established position
and the proceeding of the last session were
alone wanting to give 1t practical effect
Ihe principle has been recognized, in some
form or ether, by an almost unanimous vote
of both houses Of Congress, that territory
hiss 4 ri ght to come into the L MON either as
free or slave State. according to the will
of mqjority of its people. The Just eGaa-
lity of all the States has thus been vndi-
Gated, and a fruitful source of dangerous
dissenson among them has been removed.
Whilst such has been tho beneficial ten
dencv Of your legislative p oceedings out
81. Of Kansas, their influence has been no.
ere so happy as within that territory IT,
self Left TO manage and control its own af-
.airs in its own way, without the pressure Of
external intiueuce, the Revolutionary Topeha
organization aid all resistance 10 the terri
toria. government established by Congress
have been finally abandoned. As natural
consequence, that fne territory now appears
to be tranquil and prosperous, and is at
tracing increasing thousands Of immigrants
to make it their happy home.
The past unfortunate experience OF Kan
taught, that resistance te lawful authority
under our form of government, cannot fail
in the end 10 prove disastrous 10 its authors.
Had the people Of tho territory yielded ODE
diencs to the laws enacted by their legisla-
ture, il woulu at the present moment have
contained large additional population of
industrious and enterprIxins citizens who
have been deferred from entering its borders
by the existence Of civil strife and organized
rebellion.
1t was the resistance to rghtful authority
and the persoVerns attempts to establish
revolutionary government. under the Topeka
constitution which caused the yeeale OF
Kansas to commit the grave error st refus
ne to vote for delegates to the convention to
frame 4 constitution snder a law not denied
to be fair and just in its provisions. This
refusal to vote has been the prolific source
of all the evils which have followed. In
their hostility to the territorial government
they disre5arded tie principle, absolutely
essential to the working of our form Of go
vcrnment, that ma jority Of those who vote
not the majority who may remain a. home
from whatever cause-must decide the re-
suit Of an election. For this reason, seek
ing to take advantage of their own error,
they denied the authority OF the convention
thus elected to frame q constitution.
The convention, notw outstanding, proceed
ed to adopt constitution unexceptionable
in its genera! features, and providIHg for the
submission G! the slavery question TO vote
of the people, which. in my opinion, thoy
were bound to do under the kaneas and Ne
braska act. This was the all important
question which had alone convulsed the ter
rItory; ond yet the opponents of the lawful
government, persisting in their first error,
refrained from exercising their right TO vote,
and preferred tnat slavery should continue
rather than surrender their revolutionary
Topeka crgan Zation.
A wiser and better spirit seemed to pre-
vail before the first Monday Of January last,
when an election was held under the con-
sti.ution. 4 majority Of the people then
voted for . Governor and other State ofi-
GERS, for a member of Congress. and MEM
beIs of the State legislature. This election
was warmly contested by the two politica!
parties in kar sas, and greater vote was
polled than at any previous election A
large majority Of the members of the legis-
laturs elect belonged to that party which
had previously refused to vote. The anti
slavery party were thus placed in the as
cendant, and political power Of the State
was in their own hands. Had Congress ad-
mitted Kansas into the Union under the
Lecompton constitution, the legislature
might, at its very first session, have sub
mitted the question TO a vote Of the people,
whether they would or would not have a
convention 10 amend their constitution,
and have adopted all necessary means for
giving speedy effect to tie will Of the ma
jority Thus the Kansas question would
have been Immediately and finally set
tied.
Under these circumstances, | submitted
t, Congress the constitution thus framed,
with all the officers already elected necessa- |
~ to put the State government into opera
ton, accompanied by strong recomenda-
ticn in favor Of the admission Of Kansas as
a State. in tho course Of my long public |
life have never performed any official act |
which, in the retrospect, has afforded me |
more heartfelt satisfaction. Its admission |
could have inflicted no possible injury on .
my human being, whilst it would within
brief period, have restored peace to Kansas
Ind harmony to the Union. In that event
he slavery question would ere this have
oeen nna!ly settled, according to the legally
vii! of a majority of the voters,
md popuja; sovereignty would thus have
been indicated IN z constitutional man
lcr.
With my deep convictions of duty,
.ould have pursued no other course, 1t is
rue, that, as an individual, had expressed
IN opinion, both before and during the ses-
lion of the convention, in favor Of snbmit-
ing the remaining clauses Of the constitu-
ion, as we'll as that concerning slavery, to
he people But, acting in an official char
.cter, neither myself nor any human au-
hority had the power to rejudge the pro-
.eedings Of the convention, and declare the
constitution which it had framed to be q
,ullity. To have done this would have
,een a violation of the Kansas and Nebras-
a act, which left the people of the Terrific