Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-04-06
Speech of Hon. w. K. SEBASTIAN, or Arkansas, on the Admission of Kansas and Minnesota.


 STATES, MARCH 10, 1858.
 The Senate haviving under consideration the bill to admit the State of Kansas into the Umon -Mr. SEBASTIAN said:
 ask the indulgence of the Senate for short lime while 1 consider the subject before us; not in it's general and enlarged relations but in the limited aspect which 1t presents as practical ouestion connected with the legislation of the day.
 Mr. President, the most remarkable feature in the discussions and proceedings which have | orioinated here as to the domestic affairs of | Kansas and it's rights to mould its own institu- tions in it's own way, Is, that we are earnestly | seeking to intervene, when non-lnterventlOn Is | the great principle upon which we propose to act Wear usurplng the consideration oi those | very questions that were referred to the people | of that Territory; and more restrictions and in vasions of the rights of the people are sought to be enforced than were removed from them by the repeal of the Missouri restriction. We are questioning the exercise there of the very powers which we have here abdicated, and under the pretexts of parental sovereignty held in abey- ance'' and T. in trust" for them, to emasculate their great charter of freedom of all its value and virtues That famous restriction imposed upon the people of the Territories but one disability "a grevous and offensive one-a professed bond of peace, but fruitful source of sectional dscord. That was removed, and the question which it had arbitrarily decided was referred to its proper arbiters, the people of the respective Territories Now, when the people, in the eX- ercise of their highest powers, have determined this question: and seek to give repose to the country, a new element of discord appears; new and fearful issues are presented, as menaclng as the old. They have settled this question in G.. the very validity of that constitution is ques- toned, its provisions assailed, and the form of its adoption denounced. Indeed, almost every objection which is urged here to the admission of Kansas is such as has been already determin- ed by Kansas herself, in her own way; and were that Territory to be denied admission into the Union as State, it would present the anomaly of conterrng rights upon Territory and pun ishrg her for exercising them; of enabling them to form their domestic institations in their own way" and then quarrelllng with them be- cause they had not formed them in ' our way" It would be to transfer the dIscords of Kansas to the halls of Congress, and make national s- sues of Kansas quarrel,; and in the spirit | of jealous and caption, power review the iu- terna politics of that Territory upon the ques ton of her admission into the Union. Mr. President, let Us not mistake the true issue here and conlound the great question between the Union and Kansas with the smaller discorls and ryalries of parties aud factions there.
 A preliminary question arises, which demands a passing notice The friends of K tnsas aud Minnesota propose to unite their fortunes and their destitles in the same measure. This s 4 step in the right directions; an 1 rejoice that each section, through its national men of what ever party, can in this manner give earnest U each other of their 'ydlty to a common faith | One Is free and the other Is a slave State; and each in the exercise of the ackrowled sed right to form its domestic institutions according to its own views, has arrived quite different results, and shaped them in different moulds It may be the last opportunity which > afforded of thus testing the sincerity and integrity of those who profess devotion to the principles of popular rights in the Territories. Such instances have occurred betorc anI thiS scheme Is not vii thout | prcccdeutS. Iowa and Florida were admitted l together and iu the same bll; while Arkansas | and Michigan though not embraced iu the same bill, the historical fact s notorious that | they were considered aS kindred and dependent measures, and supported by the same influence. l This coincidence ol cource is no attempt 10 re- vive the idea of preserving the balance of pow | CT by admitting a slave and free State together | That ephemeral security for the constitutional equality of the rights of the southern States has | passed away forever. It was virtually destroy ed in the admission of California; and the pro- | gress of events renders all hope of the reStora- | ton of that equilibrium in the Senate more des- | perate and delusive every day The free States of this Union have outstrpped the southern States in the march of empire, and the rapid, if not precocous, development of population and formation of States With their preponderanre of population, their large accessions from Eu- rope, and the constant stream of emi igraton from the southern States to the free States of the northwest and the Pacific, they have accele- rated the laws of population, and established | disparity between the two sections of the Union,
 which 1t is in vain to expect will ever be di- minished or destroyed. If ill the race of pro-
 5ress, of development, empire, or aggrandize- ment we in the southern States have been dis | tanced, it is a result at which we neither com. | plain nor repine. This great Union k not | partnership of sections, but Union of States; and, whetherslave or free, of republican States. 1 he southern States seek not empire or aggran- dizement. h those additions to the Union supposed to have been made under the agency and influence of the southern States, the north ern States have had ever the lions share iu the benefits which followed.
 These acceSSons were but contributions to jiie Udl!biidt NcdltD ana strength, tO the great ness and glory of the Union We claim no mouopo'y of them, but only au equal right to the enjoyment of common inheritance- 1 Whether this consists of constitutional rights the security of our institutions, the settlement of the common domaIn-or the additions of new members to our great family of States, our rights
 are equal and the sune We would place no part oi this national heritage under the domin- lon ot any section, or mould their institutions in | conformity with any will but that of the people
 with whose welfare they are connected. While 1 this union of States, equa iu dignity and rights. | is preserved there should be no association hnt that between equals Whateve- the diversties of institutions founded in the varied accidents of origin, race, or history, the influence of eli mate habits, and pursuits, the spirit of our DO.
 Iitlcal associations is that of equals and sover- esls among the States, and our government as to all national purposes. There is, therefore. an eminent proprlety in the associations of these two measures as one, not to suffer in the disis- | ters of a common defeat but to share a common success. Let them enter the Union as twin sisters. The spectacle has been witnessed in our past history and it will lose none of it. moral or its significance if it is witnessed by us.
 We shall thus, by one comprehensive and de-
 cSlve measure, rid ourselves of two subjects of expressing interest. The country needs repose from thls sectional agitation, which threatens to become, Ii It Is not so already an iucurable vice
 m our political system. Let us dismiss from our halls this national discord over the domestic quarrels of distant Territory which has come upon us unbidden and uninvited Let us refer this question to the State of Kansas as a sover
 elgn among her sisters in this confederacv. and 1 dlscord, must cease, and the law be restored to its supremacy. II these antcipations of the
 future are not realized; if the scenes of strife of carnage, and evoutiot, which have convulsed
 that Territory and threatened to extend them selves beyond her border, are to be immortal; II Kansas Is to bring into the Union no gifts but
 her dscoris, with which to embroil sections in
 her own unhappy strife, it will be because of that mschievous and malign interyenton in her affairs from outside her borders that has coun- seled resistance to the law, to her legitimate