Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-04-15
mo. 23.

ming up OF their argument:
"ln conclusion, this committee is off
pinion that when a constitution of newly
formed State, created out of our own ter
ritory, is presented to Congress for ad-
mission into the Union, it is no part of the
duty or privilege of Congress either to ap-
proDe or dtsapproUe the constitution itself,
and Its various provisions, or any of them,
( but simply to sec whether it be the legal
constitution of the new State; whether j;
be republican in form; whether the boun-
daries proposed be admissible; and wheth-
er the number of inhabitants be suffi-
cient to justify independent State or
ganization.
And the gentleman from Georgia, in his
report from the select committee of this
body, also declares:
w hen a new State presents cons.itu-
tion for admission, Congress has no more
power to inquire into the manner of its
adoption than the matter Of its substance.
The matter cannot be inquired into further
than to see that it is republican in form:
and the mode and manner of its adoption
cannot be inquired into only so far as to
see that it has been formed in such way
as the people haze legally established for
Hea,Selpes."
10 such extraordinary positions do the
necessities of this extraordinary case un-
Willingly hurry its ablest defcnders.-
We, on the contrary, who do not believe
that Congress is SO powerless, so bercft
of Legislative discretion, so tongue-tied.
that it has not even 1.-THE privilege of say
ing ono" when State asks for admission,
would meet the application of Utah did
she come here with constitution repub-
lican in form, with proper boundaries and
sufficient people, as we meet this Lecomp-
ton fraud-by the declaration that, in the
exercise of our power and authority, we
decline admitting you into the partnership
lof States, and remand you, for reasons
good and sufficient to ourselves, to your
territorial condition. You, gentlemen,
however, will be 'estoped'' by the doc
trines you have deliberately indersed; and
having ratified tho humiliating declaration
of the Senate's report, that it is neither
your duty, nor even your privilege" to
look behind a constitution fair on its face,
even if you know it be "whited sepul-
Cher you will have to welcome Utah in
to the Confederacy, as the first fruits Of
your Lecompton doctrine of 1858, with
Brigham Young and Heber G.. Kimball
In your national Senate, to assist you In
applying it to still other Territories in this
Union.
Imagine, sir. George Washington sitting
in the White House, that noble patriot,
whose whole career is brilliant iilustrs-
ton OF honor and purity in high places:
and who doubts that if such constitution
as this had been submitted to him for his
sanction, he would have spurned from his
door with contempt and scorn the mcssen-
ger who bore it? Or, ask yourself what
would have been the indignant answer of
Thomas Jefferson, who proclaimed as the
battle-cry of the revolution that great
truth enshrined in the Declaration which
has made his name immortal, and which
scattered to the winds the sophistries and
technicalities of the royalists of our land,
that call Governments derive their Just
powers from the consent of the governed"
not the implied consent of enforced sub.
mission, but the actual, undeniable, un-
questioned consent of the freemen who are
to bear its burdens and enjoy its blessings.
If messenger had dared to enter the por-
tails OF the White House when that stern
old man of iron will, Andrew jackson, of
Tennessee, lived within it, and asked him
to give his endorsement and approval. the
sanction of his personal character and off,
cial influence, to constitution reeking
with fraud, which its trainers were seeking
to enforce on people who protested and
denounced and loathed and repudiated it,
and to go down to history as its voluntary
fadvocate and champion, that messenger, /
will warrant, would have remembered tho
torrent Of rebuke with which he would
have been overwhelmed, till the latest hour
of his life. ~ c. ~
turn gladly, joyfully, from the consid-
Grafton of the extraordinary argumeRts to
which have alluded, to brighter, happier
picture, ifyou will only allow it to be pain
ted. The President complains that he is stir-
ed of Kansas troubles, and desires peace
How easy it is to be obtained? Not by fore
ing, with despotic power and hireling sol
diery, constitution hated and .spurned by
the,people upon Territory that will rise in
arms against it; not by surrendering the
power anu dutnOfity Oi an luidut otato W.
to the hands of a pitiful minority of its
citizens, who by oppressive laws. and per-
sistently fraudulent elections, have con-
tinued to WELD the power which shame
less usurpation originally gave them; but
by simply asking the people of Kansas,
under your own authorized if you insist on
rejecting the vote authorized, BY their Leg
Iislature, the simple and yet essential ques-
tion,l "Do you desire Congress to ratify
the Lecompton constitution, or the new con
stitution now being framedr How easy Is
the pathway to peace, when justice is the
guidel How rugged and devious the path
way of error when wrong lights the road
of her followers with her lurid torch, I hare
endeavored to show. - sgfsr.r -
The people ef. Kansas, through every
possible avenue which has not been closed
by their cnslavers, have demonstrated to
you against this great wickedness. BY
ten thousand majority at the polls; BY the
unanimous protest of their L,esislatass: by
public meetings; by their newsbapef press.
and By the voice of their Delegates upon
this floor, overwhelmingly elected less