The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-01-29
THE POLICY AND PRINCIPLES OF THE DEMo
a0H RACY sFs.-

RACY
The question Of the admission of Kansas involves
principle and policy which are vital to the wei
fare Of the country The controversy which it is
thereby proposed to foreclose has been the staple
and throughout the Union, since the passage of
the act repeating the Missouri Compromise and
providing for territorial government in Kansas.
At the first blush, ii was resolved by our oppo-
nents to go to the people upon the single ones
ton Of the restoration Of the compromise Hence
that measure bitterly assailed violation Of
faith and the principle Of popular sovereignty, which
was substituted for the Missouri restriction, WAS
equally denounced snbversive of the settled poll
icy of the American Union But it was soon found
that there vitality in the issue they had made
They turned to Kansas field of profitable labor.
They organized aid societies and filed the Territory
with paid emissaries who obeyed instructions not
to vote and to throw every obstacle in the way Of
organizing and operating territorial government.
They set up revolutionary government at Topeka,
for which they claimed the allegiance of the people
Through period Of nearly fonr years all efforts
pacify them have proven unavailing and now, as .
last resort when Congress proposes TO receive them
into the Union We are met by declaration that to
do 80 will defraud them Of their rights and violate
fundamental principle Of our democratic system.
We do not regard il necessary to recount the
events to which We have briefly referred II there
are any persons in the democratic party who do not
believe that the territorial Legislature on the 18th Of
February, 1855, had full power TO provide for and
direct the election ofdelegatesto convention in June
following, we do not know them. That legislature
was the offspring Of the act of ls54-the famous
Kansas Nebraska act of Mr. Senator Douglas-which
called it into legal being 1t existed by virtue Of the
authority of Congress- and the people Of Kansas
who elected the members thereof. II there were
persons who did vote at such election greater
less in number, their omission to perform their du-
ties must not be pleaded against the legal authority
Of those who did vote and the authority which the
latter thereby conferred upon their representatives
But we go step further. We charge those who
refused to vote acting with and carrying out in
attractions sent to them by political party out Of the
Territory. Refusal to vote was the enactment Of q
part Of the republican programme by which the great
canvass Of $50 was conducted. Refusalto vote was
intended embarrass and defeat all efforts to settle
and adjus the retful question Of slavery, which
the only question about which any interest was felt
here or there. Refusal to vote Was premeditated
treason against the peace Of the country and gave
birth to all the frightf civil connections in the Ter
ritory.
Under these circumstances and with these facts
uttered by every democratic press and orator
throughout the country it is little short of insult to
appeal to the democracy for either sympathy or con-
sderaton for the parties who thus not only neglected
TO perform the high duties imposed upon them, but
accompanied that refusal with repeated and wholly
rpjusti6abe efforts to overthrow party in Kan
sas and throughout the Union.
Again the June election called out unusually
small vote II was conducted in the usual way, and
it's results announced by legal authority The law of
the 18th February authorized the delegates thus elect
cd to frame constitution for the people Of Kansas.
The authority to do this was in legal form penary
IN scope, and wholly without limitation touching the
question of the submission Of their work to the pco
pie Gov Walker Mr.. Douglas, and Mr. Stanton, all
concur that mp TO the assembling of the constitutional
convention everything had been done in obedience