The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1858-12-17
PkESlDHNY'a A6E08AoH,
Fsllow-eitizens Of the Senate
l and House of Representatives

When wc compare the condition o
the country at the present day with
what 1t was one year ago, at tho meet
ing of Congress, we have much reasor
for gratitude to that Almighty Provi
dence. which has never failed to inter
pose for our relief, at the most critica
periods Of our history. Ono year ago
the sectional strife between the North
and the South on the dangerous subject
of slavery, had again become so intense
as to threaten the peace and perpetuti
ty of the confederacy. Tho application
for the admission of Kansas as State
into tho Union, fosterod this unhappy
agitation, and brought the whole sub.
ject once moro before Congress. 1t was
the desire Of every patriot that such
measures of legislation might be adopt.
ed, as would remove the excitement
from the States, and confine it to the
Territory where il lcgitmately belcng=
ed. Much has been. done, / am happy
to say, towards the accomplishment Of
this object, during tho last session Of
TRe Supreme Court of the United
States had previously decided, that all
American citizens have an equal right
to take into the Territories, whatever
is held as property under the laws of
any of the States, and to hold such pro-
perty there under the guardianship of
the federal constitution, SO long as the
territorial condition shall remain.
This Is now, a we'll ll-established posi-
ton, and the proceedings of the asst ses-
sion were alone wanting to give it prac
tical effect. Tho principle has been res
cognised, in some form or other, by an
almost unanimous vote of both houses
of Congressional a Territory has right
to come into the Union either as free
or slave State, according to the will
of majority of its people. The just
equality of all the States has thus been
vindicated, and fruitful source of dan
gerous uisunion among them has been
removed. -. ....... .......
Whilst such has been the beneficial
tendency of your legislative proceed>
iags outside Of Kansas, their influence
has nowhere been SO happy as within
that Territory itself. Left to manage
and control its own affairs in its own
way, without the pressure of external
influence, the revolutionary Topeka Or
ganization and all resistance to the ter
ritorial government established by Cons
gress, have been finally abandoned. AS
a natural consequences, that fine Terri
tory now appears to be tranquil and
prosperous, and is attracting increasing
thousands of immigrants to mako it
their happy homo. 4a
The past unfortunate experience Of
Kansas has enforced the lesson SO often
already taught, that resistance to law.
full authority, under our form Of gov
ernment, cahnot fail in tho end to prove
disastrous to its authors. Had the peo.
ple of the Territory yielded obedience
to tho laws enacted by their legislature,
it would at the present moment have
large additional population
of industrious and enterprising citizens,
who have bsen deferred from entering
its borders hy the existence of civil
strife and organized rebellion.
1t was the resistance to rightful au /
thority and the persevering attempts to
establish a revolutionary government
under the Topeka constitution, which
caused the people Of Kansas to commit
the grave error of refusing to vote for
delegates to the convention to frame
under law not denied to
be fair and just in its provisions. This
refusal to vote has been the prolific
source of all the evils which have fol-
lowed. In their hostility to the terri
torial government, they disregarded the
principle, absolutely essential to tho !
of our form of government,
that majority Of those who votc-not I
the majority who may remain at home,
from whatever cause-must decide the I
result of an election. For this reason,
seeking to take advantage Of their own
error, they denied the authority Of the
,an nvention thus elected to frame con-
stitution. rr7.ss
The convention, notwithstanding, pro-
,oedcd to adopt a constitution unox-
in its general features, and
for the submission of the sla- il
very question to vote of the people,
which, in my opinion, they were bound !,
20 do, under the Kansas and KebrasKa
vet. This was the all-important ques
ion which had alone convulsed the Ter
.itory; and yet the opponents of the
awful government, persisting in their
irst error, refrainod from exercising
heir right to vote, and preferred that
lavery should continue, rather than
their revolutionary Topeka
organisation. y faai saHt d'ga n,A
A wiser and better spirit seemed to
prevail before the first Monday of Jan.