The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-05-06

I
parties IN Kansas, that if the question whether
it should be free State or slave State were
submitted TO those alone who had gone there
! from the Southern States, they would decide,
! without the aid of single Northern vote, In
! favor of making it free State. have no good
! reason to doubt the correctness OF TINS state
ment as an index Of the public sentiment there,
and ano,,o that class of citizens in the Terri
tory. unon this question. / will state another
f,ct in this connection | am informed, upon
| GOOD authority, that among the Free-State
| members of the present Territorial Legislature,
three of them were originally from the State OF
| Virginia alone, while there were but FIVE of the
Free-State members of that Legislature from
all the New England States.
! These facts, alone, furnish an appropriate
answer and q fitting rebuke to the persistent
and reiterated assertion that the Free State
party in Kansas is made up, in great part, il
not quite altogether, of I" Northern fanatics and
Abolitionists," sent out under the patronage OF
the Massachusetts Emigrsnt Aid Society" Il
repeat, then, that the question of bringing Kan
sas into the Union under the Constitution re-
Gently devised at Lecompton, is not one which
divides the people, either in Kansas or In the
States, by old party lines, or by geographical
lines.
1t is not to be denied, however, that this is
an Administration measurement emphatically
an Administration measure-and urged on with
an inflammation as blind as it must prove to be
fatal Yea, more, sir; it is urged on with
recklessness and desperation of spirit as heed
less and as defiant Of the popular sentiment OF
the country, as it is recreant to the principles
and pledges upon which it was brought INTO
power; or, as it 10 false to the promises and as
surances by which it lulled, for time, the
storm in Kansas, and inspired hopes and ex-
pectatious in the country, only to await, as 1t
would seem, the reminding of the flames of
still fercer strife and to meet the fate of more
cad disappointment. This issue is urged on by
the Administration, against the voice of remon-
STRANGE and Of warning from the great body OF
the Democracy of the North, and from many
of its earliest and most efficient supporters at
the South; and has come to be made the touch
stone of political fidelity to it, and of political
favor from it. In the vigor and pertinacity
with which this obnoxious measure is urged on
by the Administration, we are furnished with
another aud striking exemph6cation of the
ancient adage, "whom the gods would destroy,
they first make mad
But. Mr.. President, the material question
presents itself to our considerations this Lee
compton Constitution the act and deed of the
people of Kansas2 Do they give it the sane
ton of their approval? Sir, / undertake to say,
what the whole country knows full well to be
true that this Constitution is not the act and
deed of the people of Kansas, and does not re-
ceive the sanction of their approval. And by
the people of Kansas, / mean the majority
the great mass of her bona fde inhabitants-
or, to speak perhaps with more technical accu.
racy, the majority of her legal voters. under
take TO say that this Constitution is but the re-
suit. the bitter fruit, the logical sequence, you
please, of systematic scheme of violence and
fraud, by which the people of Kansas have been
pursued, trodden down, and deprived of their
common rights as citizens and freemen; and by
which small, unprincipled, and INSCRIPTIONS
minority have been able to usurp and to WELD
all the powers of the Territorial government.
Sir, will not weary this body by'a recital Of
the oft.told tale of the wrongs and injuries, the
subiugation aud the persecution of the people
of Kansas They are all familiar to the coun-
try, CT, at least to those who are willing to
know the truth of what it answers a better pur-
pose, for the moment, in others 10 deny. 1t is
enough for this occasion to say, that this dynas-
ty of usurpation and tyranny was installed in
power by an armed invasion from the border
counties of neighbcring State, at the first Ter
ritorial election, on the Both day of March,
1855, when the bona fde settlers, of Kansas
were ON6FpOWcfSu duO uElNcu 1TOul tue pOl15 III
every district save one and the election was
taken, By force and violence, entirely cut of
their hands The truth of this fact has become
historical. 1t stands upon the authority of the
incontrovertible testimony of Governor Reeder,
the Investigations of a commission from the
National House CT Representatives, upon CON-
mon notoriety, and upon the admissions of the
invading parties themselves, when, upon their
return TO Missouri on the following day, accord.
irg to the account given by their own organ,
published at the time in Weston, they came in
with music and banners, and loud huzzas. ma
king public and boastful proclamation that "they
had made clean sweep of the Kansas cleo
ton" Well, sir, they did make clean sweep
of that election. am quite tempted to ask
here, what if the people of Pennsylvania should
some time, by preconcert, and in organized and
armed companies, rush into Delaware or Mary.
land or Virginia, on election day, and snake
clean sweep" of their Legislative election? /
put the question, and leave it, unanswered, for
your contemplation. leave the question to be
answered by those who deny our right to in.
quire into these things and who deny our pow
er or authority to apply any correction or any
means of prevention. / will only remark by
the way, that the case of Territory, being I'M
der the peculiar care and guardianship of the
Federal Government, is much stronger than
the case of State.
With that spurious Territorial Legislature,
was inaugurated a reign of usurpation and of
tyranny over the people of that Territory, which
has no parallel in the history of the country,
and which has been maintained by cores
ponding system of fraud and violence, with the
knowledge and acquiescence, if not with the
countenance and connivsnce, of the Federal
Administration, and with the aid of Federal
troops, from that day to the parturitior of the
Lecompton Convention; and this usurpation,
30 maintained, is the natural parent of the lie.
compton Constitution. AZ Knowing whereof
speak, and to whom and Of whom speak, i
abate not one Z" lot or title" from the full
measure and significance of these declarations.
system of terrorism was thus established,
under which the most fragrant outrsges were
practiced with IMMUNITY upon the prescribed
Free-Stste people of Kansas. All protests
against the illegality of these elections were
suppressed. A code of laws was enacted by
this spurious Assembly, in keeping with it's
own origin and character, and in harmony
with the purpose of its creation, with view to
maintain the ascendency of the minority over
the great majority of the people, and which
aimed deadly blow at the fundamental prin.
ciples of free government-which imposed It's
penalties upon the freedom of speech. upon the
freedom of the press, upon the freedom of Jury
trial, and upon the freedom of outrage and
which denounced the penalties of felony against
sll who should call in question the legal ex-
istence of Slavery, or the right to hold slaves
in the Territory. This bloody ccde was Ell.
forced by fitting instruments of the Govern
ment, ard with spirit which seemed to exut
IN its own deeds of blood and barbsrism. The
Free State men did not see ft to acknowledge
the authority of a Legislative Assembly foisted
upon them by foreign invasion. They did
not see fit to recognise the validity or the bind
ing force and obligation of Its ensctments yet,