The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-03-06
From As y. T. Courier osd Esquirsr.
Henry A. W.se on the Lecou,p,or s~i,al.

erS OF the general character and career of
Henry A. Wise. He has faults of temper
ament, and of intellectual discipline too.
that positively preclude him from ever
taking among the first order of American
statesmen, and that will always render
him, IN some measure, an unsafe deposit
tary Of public responsibility. But not
wlthstanding, there is no denying that he
possesses an intellect of great vigor and
penetration, and that there is no public
man South of the Potomac who equals
him in personal force. What is rare
among the public men of America, he has
veritable genius and, what is vet more
rare, he has moral COURAGE of the very
highest stamp. We confess to an exalted
degree of admiration for the stand he has
taken in Virginia against the Lecompton
Constitution. From the beginning he has
displayed sense of right upon the sub
ject, and an intrepidity in maintaining it,
that atone for thousand errors in his pre-
yious political life. The Lecompton Con-
stItution was no sooner adopted than he
denounced it in the leading Democratic
paper of Virginia as an imposition and a
wrong and from that day to this he has
held to that judgment, and vindicated it
with unfaltering spirit, in the face of the
public men and the public journals OF
Virginia, arrayed in one solid phalanx
against him. He has only gathered
strength and determination from the tre-
mendous odds; and the very hardest
blow he has yet dealt upon the iniquity,
he has just dealt in the letter to the Anti
Lecompton Democratic Convention in
Philadelphia. Considering that Cover
nor Wise was, at the commencement,
moro closely in the favor of Mr.. Buchan-
nan than any other man in the country,
and that he was also the acknowledged
chief of the Southern Democracy and the
peculiar favorite of his native State, his
refusal to join in the conspiracy against
the Free State men of Kansas, and his
declaration of war against the whole poll
cy of his party, was conduct of really
heroic cast. 1t is impossible not to re-
spect such dauntless independence.
We have already given by telegraph an
outline of this last letter of Gov. Wise
but an outline toomeagre to afford any just
idea of its real scope. The letter is Of
great length, and deserves to have Its
more salient points distinctly presented
The Governor commences with an allu-
sion to his past devotion to Mr.. Buchan-
an. He says:
'For the last seventeen years / have
been advocating the name of James Blu.
chanan for the Presidency for more thar
| twenty years I have been his warm, per.
sonal friend and l am as responsible
perhaps, as any other man In the United
States for his election, and as deeply anx.
| ious as any other person that his Admin.
/ istration shall be successful, and, above
all, be worthy of confidence and respect
Our personal relations are as nothing com.
pared to the importance of supporting hi:
! Administration on questions of mere ex.
| pediency, and where it is based in its &C.
ton on moral and legal right. But per.
| sonal and administrative relations com
bined are as nothing, on the other hand
compared with the great fundamental
moral, and political principles involved il
the issues now presented to the country
in the question of admitting Kansas un
der the Constitution now presented as tn
act and the deed Of her people, and as an in
strunient Republican IN FORM"
The Governor states the issue now be.
fore Congress to be as follows:
| "Ist. Is the Lecompton Constitution
the act and deed of the people of Kan
sas T?
"2d. Is it Republican in form ?'
He says:
''These are the only two essential is
sues to be tried. And with view to I
full, fair, and friendly verdict as to tht
fact, and judgment as to the law of the
case, l have carefully, patiently, and re
peatedly read the Presidents Message o
the Cd inst, in which he recommends tn,
speedy approval by Congress of the lie
compton Constitution, and the reception
of Kansas under it, as a State into tn,
] Union. regret to say that the earnest
honest convictions of my mind constrail
me to differ from the President of m.
choice, end to declare that / cannot en-
,dorse the Lecompton Constitution as tn
act and deed of the sovereign peopl
whose act and deed it processes to be
and that I protest against the mode il
which it was pretended to be submitted
to the people, as anti Republican and op
lpressive, and offensive to the selErespec
and moral sense of free people.
"These convictions of mine have beel
deliberately formed, and mean calml,
to maintain them, reasoning with friends
and not backing from foes, though ] stan'
alone against host. propose q rapit
review of the Message of the President
but before doing so it is proper to rscur +
antecedent facts which settled certain
points of principle which are now tn
test and truth of argument in the case"
The writer then goes on TO argue that tn
Kansas 4 ebraska act established the prin
ciple of aon-iateyUention by Congress wit
slavery in the States and Territories, an
guaranteed to the people of Territorie
popular sovereignty and self-governwent
He grants that this sovereignty must b
exercised by representative bodies; bu
maintains that it is essentially inseperabl
frsm the will of the people, and that th
!, Lec0mpton Convention was bound to sub
NIT its work to the confirmation of til
people, unless the people themselves ha
/ first ezpresslg relieved them of this obi
: CATION. He considers that the Conveu
ton itself recognized this necessity b
submitting as they did, part of the Cor
stitution TO the popular vote; but he COZ
. tends that this submission, in being pa
tiai, was wholly inadequate and nugator.
he says:
II aThe whole was not fairly submittet
Il One thousand voters went to the polls
nine hundred and ninety-nine might d.
sire to vote against the Constitution, an
one for it; the one would be counted, an
the nine hundred and ninety-nine wonl
not be ceueted.
"The part as TO slavery, which was sal
!. nitted for alternate voting, for and agains
n was NOS fairly submitted. One thousan
rro-slayery laen might go to the poll
desiring 20 vote for slavery, but again
the Constitution their votes could M
: be counted, and one freesoiler, who vote
for Che Constitution and against SLAYER,
would be counted, and overcome the Mn
e hundred aad ninesy-nine. It Is idle