San Andreas independent., 1858-03-20
THE KANSAS QUESTION.
Correspondence of the Independent.

stituton upon the people of Kansas, on the
strength of a rather equivocal technicality
and in defiance of their expressed will, you
no journal could well have avoided that cares
anything for its character, for independence
and plain dealing, and for its reputation AS an
advocate of justice and right. As to the re-
solutions of our glorious do-nothing Legisla-
ture, they have acted just as everybody ex-
pected, with few honorable exceptions-they
fell down and worsipped the golden calf at
the very first glimpse they had of it. After
having ided away at a frifing expense to
their constituents, two or three months in
empty vaporing and silly discussions, con-
Quoted in style which smacks more of the
grogshops than of legislative assembly, they
rush up and endorse as republican, and the
will of the people of Kansas, document
which but one man amongst them could say
that he had seen or read, and which they
knew well was not the will of that people,
A melancholy and degrading spectacle; but
so much for party. 1t is still the same old
rule-the king (tle party can do no wrong
From the tone of Mr.. Buchanan's Inaugural,
and his conduct-untl lately the people,
amongst them many of his political enemies,
willing to forget his antecedents = thought
that they had once more found chief magis-
trate of the jackson stamp-one who had
common sense enough to see the simple JUS
tice and right, and the will to carry it out and
trust to them and to them only, to sustain him
in so doing. But between the Scylla and Cha
rybdis of our American poitics-fre- eating
chivalry on the one hand, and amalgamating
nigger worshippers on the other, both parties
professed politicians, making a living by agi-
tation-his lions skin has been torn off, and
he stands confessed before the people, poll
tician; the man who signed the Ostend brag-
gadocio, read Congress homily on iibuster-
ing, as moral wrong, and pointed out to
Walker the folly and wckedness' of-not sue
ceeding iu it.. In the message recommending
the Lecompton Constitution to Congress, Mr.
Buchanan says:
"The Kansas Convention, thus lawfully
constituted, proceeded to frame a Constitu-
ton, and having completed their work finally
adjourned on the 7th ofNovember last They
did not think proper to submit the whole of
this Constitution, but did submit the question
whether Kansas should be free or a slave
State, to the people,
This extract contains about the whole pith
of the message. Mr.. Buchanan does not tell
us why they did not think proper to submit
the whole, but argues that the State constitu-
tions are so excellent generally, that it would
be difficult to go far wrong at the present day,
in framing a new one. The reasoning is rather
lame, but shows the President to be of gen.
erous and confiding disposition. In fact, the
slavery clause once got rid of, the balance of
the constitution was, as Mr.. Toots would say,
''of no consequence" Again: to say that the
slavery clause was submitted to the vote of
the people, is a prevarication, because the act
of voting implies i'll itself something done with
out any restrictions-the free exercise of
choice; therefore, saying to the people of Kan
sas, before you can vote for or against slavery,
you must first vote for the constitution, was
illegal and anti-republican, and they were per-
fectly right in refusing to vote atall. In strong
and striking contrast to the verbose and la
bored pleading of Mr.. Buchanan, stands the
simple language of the historian in the pro-
gress and termination of the Roman Republics
U. c. Cos, The administration of the
hSins Lex oaciiuS present year is distinguished by
an act in which both the Consuls
concurred, and which is therefore marked in
the title with their joint names. The Roman
people had frequently experienced the defect
of their forms in the manner of enactng laws
Factious tribunals had it in their power to
carry motions by surprise, and to pass in the
same law variety of clauses, and by obliging
the people to pass or reject the whole in one
vote, frequently obtained, under the favor of
some popular clauses, acts of very dangerous
tendency. To prevent this abuse, it was now
enacted OH the joint motions of the Consuls,
Cacilius and Ddius, that every proposed law
should be made public three market days be-
fore it could receive the assent of the people
That all its different clauses should be separately
roted and that 1t should be taavfu1 for tie people
to pass or reject the whole or any part Of 1t"
i Cic, Philip V, Pro domo sua Epistle ad
Atlicum.
We would infer from the above, that the
Lecompton dodge is about two thousand years
too old. Who is right, the historian or Mr.
Buchanan? Which, of them illustrates popu-
lar sovereignty the principle of the Kansas
Nebraska bill QUIEN SABE.
Big TREE GRovE.-We understand the pro-
prietor of the Big Tree Grove is making lib
eral provisions for the summer campaign.-
Small parties are now daily visiting the place
The Falls of San Antonio and the Mammoth
Cave at Cave City, also comes in for share
of the attention of curiosity hunters and won
der seekers.
RETIRED.-Mr. Chas. P. Davis has retired
from the Horntos (Mariposa) Democrat, hav-
ing sold out to his late partner, Mr. VIM. God |
frey, who will continue its publication Good
bye, Charley" and when you get home
(what world of thought the word recalls |
may that gar' receive you with smiling
face, sweet embrace, and no emphatic "no.n
MINING ACCIDENT - On Thursday March |
tn an accident occurred at Yauue Camn in |