The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-09-15

luis aUOmaiOuS duu eXcepUlOudl kluu Ol
Labor exists, to maintain and perpetuate
it among them, if they see proper. With
that We have nothing to do-no right to
interfere, further than the mere express
sion of opinion extends. But when that
system becomes aggressive, and insists
upon establishing itself upon the virgin
soil of our free territories, even against
the will of the majority of the resident
population, we hold it to be both right
and duty to prevent it.
The wise, enig ightened, and far seeing
patriots and statesmen who framed our
institutions Washington, Madison aud
Jefferson in the south, as well as Frank
lin, Hamilton and King in the North
all regarded slavery as aD evil They
refused to permit the word to appear in
the Federal Constitution, and expressed
the united hope that ere long, by the pro-
cess of gradual emancipation, it would
disappear from the Union. They ex.
pressly fixed time after which, under
the legislation Of Congress, the inports.
tiOu of slaves should be prohibited, and
Congress. acting in accordance with the
universal sense Of the civilized world i,
placed the brand of piracy upon the in
human African Slave Trade. Pursuing
the same policy, Congress, from time to
time and without question Of its Constitu-
tiODal power. iu establishing governments
over the Territories of the Union as the
gradual advance of settlement required
them. by whatever means of cession or
purchase those territories were acquired,
up to the organization of Oregon in ls4s
under the Presidency of Mr.. Polk, ex.
pressly enacted that Involuntary servi-
tude, except for crime, should not be
permitted in them, and with the agree
ment of Mr.. Monroe and bis Cabinet, 10.
cludiug such southern men as Calhoun,
Crawford and Writ, and of Congress
where Clay, Pinkuey, and other most
enlightened statesman were conspicuous,
fixed a geographical line which was
thenceforth to define the nothern bound
ary of slavery, and which received the
long subsequent recognition of the Gov
ernment in terms of the compact BY which
Texas became an integral part of the
Union. 1t was not until the Territory of
Kansas, which had been solmenly set a..
part for free labor BY the Missouri Com.
promise. having passed through the try
ing ordeal of Territorial condition in,
the exercise of rights which had received
frequent Congressional recognitions, pre-
st n;ed a Constitution of Government and
applied for admission as State into the
Union, that whatever may have been the
Theoretical declarations of ultra South
ern propagandists of slavery any prscti-
cal attempt was made to overthrow this
established policy OF the Government for
tilted By SO many coucurring precedents,
to the authority of which all parts OF the
Union were bound BY the action of their
representatives..
An effort like this both to overthrow
established principles and to suppress the
voice Of majority of the people of Kan
sas. was accompanied, of course, BY a
series OF out RACES, exampled iu the bis
tory of the country. The ballot box was
polluted with fraud, and corrupted by
violence. The right of free election was
denied to the people. The residents
were oterawed by invssions of armed
men, Who employed arson, robbery. aud
even murder to impose slavery upon the
Territory, aud their forcible aud fradu.
lent proceedings were recognized as legit-
innate expression of the popular will by
the Territorial auth critics acting under
the Commission, and with the approba.
ton of the Democratic administration
at Washington. In 1856, in order to re-.
lieve itself of part of the odium which
it was compelled to bear on account Of
these atrocious proceedings, the Demo-
cratic party nominated candidate for
president, whose absence from the coun-
try discharged him from the imputation,
at least, of being a personal participant
iu the acts of bis predecessors; and in ac-
cordapce with predetermined policy of
deception which was to be pursued dur
ing the canvass, MIR. Buchanan, at once,
found himself by the most solemn writ
ten pledges not to be an accomplice in
further violations of the rights OF the
N majority, but to submit to the fair and
uncontrolled determination of the People
of Kansas themselves the decision of the
question whether she should come into
the Union as free or slave State. This
was the burthen of all the speeches Of
of bis advocates, the printed addresses of
the party coumittees-the editorisl deo-
lsrations Of the Democratic" press
Even 10 his inaugural address, the same
profession was made, and 10 the instruc-
tons given to his selected Governor Of
Kansas it was reiterated. Bstthis would
have been fatal to the designs of those
who were determined to fix slavery upon
Kansas, and the policy thus repeatedly
avowed was abandoned with sudden and
indecent haste.
The most strenuous efforts we're made,
and Presidential influence was brought
to bear with its utmost power, in the
multiplied forms of patronage, to force
through Congress, impose upon the peo-
pie of Kansas against their will, the ic-