The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-03-11
Report or Senator Douglas.

| am constrained to withhold INV
assent from the conclusion to which
the majority of the Committee have
arrived, for the reason that there ia
no satisfactory evidence that the
Constitution formed at Lecompton
is the act and deed Of the people of
Kansas, or that it embodies their
will. In the absence of all affirma-
tive evidence that the Lecompton
Constitution does meet the sense of
the people to be affected by it, and
in opposition to the overwhelming
majority recorded against it at fair
and valid election held in pursuance
of law, on the 4th Of January, 1858,
it is argued that the Lecompton Con-
vention was duly constituted with
full authority to ordain a Constitu-
ton and establish government, and
consequently the proceedings of that
Convention must be presumed to en-
body the popular will, although such
presumption may be rebutted and
ovcrthrown by the most conclusive
evidence to the contrary.
Inasmuch, then, as the right of
Congress to accept the Lecompton
Constitution and impose it upon the
people of Kansas in opposition to
their known wishes and recorded
votes rests solely upon the assump-
ton that the proceedings were tech
nically legal and regular, and that
the regularity Of the proceedings
must be made to override the popu-
lar will, it becomes important to in.
quirc whether the Convention was
duly constituted, and clothed with
full power to ordain a Constitution
and establish a State Government to
the exclusion Of the organic act and
Territorial Government established
by Congress.
1t is conceded that on the 18th day
of February, 1857, the Territorial
Legislature passed a law providing
for the election of delegates to q Con-
vention to form Constitution and
State Government, and that the Con-
vention, when assembled in pursu-
ance of said act, was vested with all
the powers which it was competent
for the Territorial Legislature to
confer, and which by the terms of the
act was conferred On the Convention
and no more. Did that Territorial
act have the legal effect to authorize
the Convention to abrogate or sus-
pend the Territorial Government es-
tablished by Congress and substitute
State Government in its place?
This Committee, in their reports.
have always held that Territory is
not sovereign power; that the SOW.
ereignty of Territory is in abey-
ance, suspended in the United States
in trust for the people when they be-
come State; that the United States
as the trustee, cannot be Invested of
the sovereignty, nor the Territory be
invested with the right to assume
and exercise it without the consent
of Congress. BY the Kansas-Ne-
braska act the people of the Terrific
ry were vested with all the rights
and privileges of self.govcrnment on
all rightful subjects of legislation
consistent with and in obedience to
the organic act but they were not
authorized, at their own will and
pleasure, to resolve themselves into
a sovereign power, and to abrogate
and annul the organic act and Terri
torial Government established by
Congress, and to ordain a Constitu.
ton and State Government upon
their ruins without the consent Of
Congress.
1t would seem from his Special
Message that the President is under
the impression that the Kansas-Ne-
braska act, from the date Of it's pas.
sage, on the Both Of May, 1854, when
there were not five hundred white
inhabitants in the whole country. au-
thorized the people Of those Terri
tories respectively, or any portion
Of the same" at their own sovereign
will and pleasure, to proceed and
form Constitution in their own way,
without an express authority from
Congress, and TO suspend the author
ity of the Territorial Legislature, at
least to the extent Of depriving it Of
the power TO submit a Constitution
TO the people for ratification or rejec-
ton before it should be deemed the
act and deed Of the people of Kansas.
With the most profound respect for
the opinions Of the President, must
be pardoned for expressing my firm
convictions that neither the provi-
sions Of that, nor the history Of the
measure, nor the understanding Of
its authors and >un,nr,oro n. ,ho