Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-27
shall Kansas be a Slave States

Shall Kansas be a Slave Statef
Thursday morning we furnished the readers |
of the PATRIOT with texts from speeches made
in Congress by opponents of the admission of |
Kansas showing that the real issue is sldUTyor |
no slauery in the State. We are satisfied that |
the Northern opposition are conscious that if |
Kansas is admitted with the Lecompton Con- |
stitution she will remain slave State, and |
that this is the true cause of their violent |
hostility to it. Southern men who entertain |
doubts upon this point, would do well to ex-
anime the debates in Congress as published in
the Congressional Globe They will there find
proof enough to convince them. The fellow
ing extract from theN T. Courier and Enquirer
of the 9Th inst, is to the point. Read it:
What right have newspapers, here at the
North to assume, as they universally do that
Kansas, If admitted, may straightway change
her Constitution, if she pleases? We find no
such doctrine presented by Southern journals.
There are sound lawyers everywhere who de-
ny or doubt the possibility of legally changing
a Constitution except in the way and at the
time itself provides if it provides way and
time. If the LecOmptOn Constitution be ac-
cepted at all, it must be accepted as an ex-
preston, deliberate settled expression, Of
the will of the people of Kansas, and with all
its restrictions and limitations of popular
power Mr.. WEBSTER in his great argument
before the Supreme Court upon the Rhode Is
o I'd government, declared:-"I have said that
it is one principle of the American System.
that the people limit their governments.
National and State. They do so; but it is an
other principle, equally true and certain, and,
according to my Judgment Of things, equally
important, that the people of the Territory
limit themselves They set bounds TO their own
power. They have chosen to secure the in
situations which they establish against the
sudden impulses of mere majorities. All our
institutions TEEN with instances of this. Ii
was their great conservative principle, in con-
stituting forms of government, that they shall
secure what they had established against
hasty changes by simple majorities." The
Lecompton Constitution most certainly ought
not to be accepted, unless it be assumed to be
the will of the people of Kansas. If it be
thus assumed, who shall say that TIE people
had no right to LemH their pO,rer by cove
nanting in their organic law for a certain pc
Rod it shall be Interchangeable? Who will
guarantee that the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States will so decide?
But again even supposing, what we do not
believe, that the Supreme Court would not so
decided. supposing that the terminus quo of
1864 is nugatOry, yet how can the LecOmpton
Constitution be at once changed The moment
the States come in under that Constitution, the
State Government commences. The State
Government has been already chosen. at least
ostensibly chosen. The Governor, FRANK J.
MARSHALL, is a pro-Slavery man and for the
LecOmpton Constitution Whether the ma
jority of the Legislature is or is not pro-Slave-
ry and for that Constitution depends upon
the will of Regent CALHOUN in giving certif-
Gates of election to the pro-Slavery candidates
in Leavenworth county, and there can be no
doubt that he will decide for former, since
that will insure his election of the L. 5. Sena-
tor. But even if he accredits the other can
didates, still the Free State men of the House
of Representatives would not have two
thirds majority, which would he necessary to
pass law over the Governors veto; and
neither can there be any such majority in the
Senate. Governor MARSHALL would be sure
to veto any law providing for the summOning
of new Convention. How then will the
people of Kansas help themselves? The Gov
ernor just (ostensibly) elected, will remain in
Office by the Lecompton Constitution for tico
years, the Representatives for t,oo years, and
the Senators for four years. Said Mr.. WEB
sTER in the Rhode Island case-Suppose the
DoRR government to be rightfu? suppose
three-fourths of the people of Rhode Island
to have been engaged in it, and ready to sus-
tain it. How is to be done scHhom ute consent
Of the previous government? How is the fact that
three-fourths of the people are in favor of the
new government to be legally aSccrtained?
And if the existing government deny that
fact. and if that government hold on, and
will not surrender till displaced by force, and
if it is threatened by force, then the case of
the Constitution arises, and the United States
must aid the government that IS IN, because an
attempt to displace a government by force is
domestic violence. 1t is the cXigrncy prOvi-
ded by the Constitution. II the existing gov
eminent maintain its post, though hree. tourths
Of the State hare adopted The Constitution, is it
not evident enough that the eXigcncy arises IN
which the Constitutional power here must go
to the aid of the existing government Insur-
rection against the eristing government is the
thing to be suppressed"
It is plain then, il is absolutely certain that
the Lecompton Constitution, if il he once ac-
cepted by Congress, will not and cannot be
changed by the people of Kansas for three
years at best, the present Ostensible Legisla-
ture holding for two years and another year
elapsing before new Legislature will sit. 1t
is probable that the Courts would pronounce
the 1864 clause operative, and that thus nine
ten years would elapse before the change
held out by the President could be realized.
Mr.. STANTON, il will be remembered, made
calculation showing that such change could
not take effect before 1870.
1t being impossible to amend the Constitu-
ton short of the time specified by the Courier
and Enquirer, who can doubt the result! AS
stated by Mr.. MAYNARD, in his letter, which
we re-published yesterday, "a large and sub
stantial emigration will flow in from the other
slave States, taking with them their slaves
the settlers there, whatever may he their pres
ent sentiments, will find their prejudices
against slavery disarmed by contact with it
will see that they have been fighting phantoms,
that have no existence except in the heated
brains of enthusiasts and fanatics, and will let
the subject drop-leave it where the consttu-
tion leaves it," Whosoever doubts this result
must have little faith in the indomitable en-
ergy and perseverance of southern men. Iav-
ing triumphed in the formation OF State
Constitution, in defiance of the opposition of
black republcanism an6 abolitionism, the
interference Of government officials, and the
timid counsels of luke warm or timc-scrying
Southern men, it is simple to apprehend that
the pro-slavery men will suffer themselves to
be beaten in the end, and their constitution
destroyed.
Tue GRAcEs.-The " T. Herald, pretending
TO regard Messrs. DOUGLAS, CRIrrENpEN aud
BELL as rivals for the Presidency, says: