Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1858-09-08


er bloOdshed, murder and treason to prevent sla'
le cry there; aud that when The elections wer
ID ordered both for Delegates % the Convention
T. and 10 take the sense Of the people on ih
ID slavery clause in the Constitution, they pei
L Versely refuse TO vote, with the declared puI
s. pose OF resisting the lawful acts and auihori
$ ties Of the Territory.
!, The issue being thus made up, by the de
iection.oi Senator Douglas and two other Dem
: ocratc Senators from the free States, Messrs
a Stuart Of Michigan and Broderick Of Cali
G iornia, and Of some twenty Northern Demo
(. Gratis in the House, the bill was defeated. 1
5 Senator Douglas and the other Democrats had
! stood firm, Kansas would have been admitted
7 as State and the anii.savery agitation end
ed, for the present At least, in Congress, with
: but little prospect of IT'S being revived in any
: form which would have served the Republic.
cans in the Presidential contest in 1860. This
{ bill, II is true. was not defeated by direct
I. vote, but It's strength was tested, and il was
defeated. But, in order to defeat il, the Re.
; pubicans had TO vote for the Crittenden. Mont.
: gomery amendment, and thereby falsify their
t great nllying principle of "no more slave
+ States, by voting for the conditional admis.
sion of slave State.
The Senate'S bill being thus defeated, aud
this great measure thus thrown open for re-.
newed agitation, with the certainty before us,
that if il rested there, without further action
by Congress, the Lcavcnworth frce.SM,c Con.
stitulon would be presented 10 us for accept
nncc, and the admission of the new State un.
der II, before the close of that session, No
true ID. mocnt, and certainly no Southern
man desired such result as this. And
Commttc of Conference was appointed be-
tween the two Houses, on the motion of Mr..
English OF Indiana, on the part of the House,
who had voted against the Senate's bill, for
admission under the Lecompton Constitution.
This bill proposed to admit Kansas as State
under the Lccompton Constitution, but sub
mitcd to the people Of Kansas The question: Of
whether they would consent TO modify the
schedule annexed to their constitution, so as TO
greatly reduce the quantity of land they ask.
cd OF the General Government, on coming in
as State. If they should accept this modi.
iication of the schedule to their Constitution,
the President was to proclaim Kansas State;
bat if they should reject this modification,
then Kansas was TO remain in her territorial
condition until her population should cntitle
her to Representative. She now has some
thirty-fve thousand population, and it would
take nnety-tlircc thousand three hundred to
entitlc her to a Representative. Upon this
bill some of the Northern Democrats, who
voted against the original BILL came to our aid
and it was passed, every Southern Democrat
but two voting for it.
Some of our Southern friend. have objected
to this bill, and denounced it as n compromise.
But the most Of those who do this fear, have
not considered the subject in all its bearings;
and do not comprehend the difficulty of Leg.
islating upon great and complicated question,
upon the result of which depends not only the
success or defeat of great political parties, but
possibly the fate of great nation. We did
not, it is true get all we desired for the South,
for we wanted Kansas Admitted as State
under the Lccompton Constitution, with slave
ry established there, and the agitation about
Kansas quietcd forever, so that the nation
might have time and inclination to consider
the many PRACTICAL administrative questions,
and questions of foreign and domestic policy
which have been too long deferred, for the good
of the country, to this dangerous and distress
sing anti-suvery agitation, ----,-.,,,,
But we had to choose between the entire
reopening of the agitation, with the certainty
that all hope of making Kansas slave State
was gone, if we defeated this Conference Bill,
and the chance of its admission as slave
State, with no possibility of Its coming in as
free State under this bill, if we passed it,
And with the additional advantage that if the
people of Kansas shoul! reject the proposition,
they would do so in the face of the solemn de-
claration BY Congress, in the bill itself, that
they would be remandcd to Territorial con-
dtion until their population would entitle
them to Representative; thus waving the
agitation about Kansas until the people there
shall, in peaceful manner, settle the question
for themselves, as to whether they would or
would not have slavery.
Besides this. there were prominent citizens
Of Kansas at Washington at the time, who l..
were of the most Jealous and enlightened pro-
slavery men of Kansas, and the owners of y,
slaves there, and these men, who were familiar
with all the facts, urged us to vote for the "
Conference Bill, as the last chance they had :.
TO establish slavery there And this appeal, u
from those who knew all the facts, and were
directly and personally interested, and had ),
borne the heat and burden of the day, the "
brunt of the battle there, was certainly entitled
to consideration. thought then, as do =
now, that it was better for us to vote for this
Conference Bill, than to destroy all hope at
one dash in Kansas.
But it has been said that when the original =
bill was defeated, the Southern members ought =
10 have left Congress aud precipitated an issue
between the North and South on the refusa
TO admit n slave State. But it was believed "
bv all the Southern members, including the \
two who voted against the bill, that the Kan. :, -
sas issue was so complicated with frauds and !
irregularities on both sides, as not to be fit
issue to 90 before the world upon in so impor- |,
ant struggle. And there was not South :,
ern man in Cnnnress who believed that any