Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1859-01-06

- fN-ThAthN y NtA'A ~
ted, and Congress had admitted Kan
sas, every thing would have been set
tied, and popular Sovereignty would
thus have been settled" On this
Question OF what he terms Popular
Sovereignty in Kansas. the President
seems to confound a right which ]
have never heard denied, and which
never has been practically dcnied in
this eountrt-that is the right of the
people, when they form a State con'
stitution, to come into the Union with
just exactly such constitution as they
see fit to form-with the system of
measures which he was undertaking to
force upon the people of Kansas.
The President again, in his mes
sage, undertakes to reiterate what. !
venture to say if he does not know Is
not true, every body else docs, and
tha; is, that the great question Of the
right to Introduce Slavery into the
Territory was. as he says, fairly sub
mitted to that people; and because
those men refused to vote when it was
thus fairly submitted to them, they
were guilty of the crime of treason, or
Of opposition to the Government
treason, | think it has been called on
many occasionsl
Now, sir, it is too late in the day
to make any such assertions, because
the facts are too palpablc for any body
to contend before this country that the
people of Kansas ever had, under the
submission of the Lecompton consti-
tuition, the righ; to vote for or against
Slavery. Every body knows it,
Upon tn, very ia -c Of the constitution,
when the form of a submission was
gone through with, it was so ps lpable
that it could not be contended. No
man could have gone voted for or
against that constitution, in the man
ncr in which it was submitted, with
out voting for the introduction ana the
perpetuity of Slavery; and the Prcsi-
dent, if he does not, ought to know
that fact.
Sir, great many of us are CON
stantly and continually reproached
with an attempt to agitate and intro
ducc these agitating questions into the
discussions of the Senate and House
of Representatives. We are repre-
scntc,l as men who are continually
standing in the way of peace, and we
are denounced continually as agitators
Sir, what have we seen at this very
first mceing of Congress to-day? The
very first thing that was asked to be
taken up ont of its ordinary course,
was a question relating to this very
subiect of Slavery. 1t was not asked
by an Anti Slavery man; it was not
asked by one oe those whom the Pres
ident would dcnouncc as enemies to
the Constitution; but it was asked
that Congress, at the very commence
ment of this session, should take up a
bill which presents the Slavery qucs-
tion in the most offensive form that it
has ever been presented in to the
American Senate or to the American
Congress. We have been asked, and
we have agreed to do it to-day, by a
vote, to pass by all the other claims,
public and priva;c-the French spoil
alton claims, which have been waiting
for Justice at your doors, held by your
own citizens, for more than half cen
turv, are postponcd-that you may
take up out of its order bill which
proposes to pay men for slaves as they
are called, whom the Supreme Court
Of your own country have decided were
not slaves, but were held against law
and against right by the hand of force.
They were liberated by the action of
the Executive nndcr the decision of
the Supreme Court of the United
States: and yet bill to pay persons
for illegally and violently holding
those men, is .hc only one that is
doomed worthy Of the action OF the
American Congress at its first sitting
so far as to take it up ont of Its order
There is nothing OF agitation. sup
pose, in all this.
KS heard the Presldent Message
read, | thought some light flashed
npon my mimi in regard to that mo-
ton; for the President, after going on
to recommend the acquisition of Cuba
for the very pious purpose of abolish
ing the Slave Trade-that is all he
wants it for-comes to the Amistad
case, and says if we pass that bill, he
thinks it will have favorable inhu-
enee on our negotiations with Spain;
that is, we can put them in good tenn
per by paying them for illegal seizure
and holding of men that our courts
have decided were illegally held. ii
we put our hands into the Federal