St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1860-01-26

NHdScu from L lduCC uull my tIiC ltSi
dency of Mr.. Jefferson, and as these
two settlements covered all the terri
tory then belonging to our Govern
mcnt, our people fondly hoped that fol
n long period of time this vexed ant
Irritating question would be kept out
of our national councils, and that the
angry and cmbittcrcd feelings always
arising from its discussion then, would
die out from want of food. As an adj
ditional basis upon which to rest this
hope, our people had the solemn pledge
of the political party then dominant
in all the branches of our natlonai
government deliberately given at the
time Mr.. Pierce was nominated by
them for the Presidency, that ifplaccd
in power they would resist to the ex.
tent of their power the agitation of
that dangerous question, both in the
Congress of the United States and out
of it.
Unfortunately for the peace Of the
country and for the preservation of
those kindly and fraternal feelings
which should always exist among our
people, Mr.. Pierce and his political
friends did not redeem that pledge.
On the contrary, the first important
act of his administration was the pas
sage of the kansas-Ncbraska bill by
which the settlement made during Mr..
Monroe's administration of the ques-
ton of Slavery in the Territory &C
quircd from France was set aside, and
the fountains of strife, so recently
closed, again opened to pour forth
among our people their bitter waters.
The excuse offered for this wanton,
uncalledfor and most unfortunate act,
was the alleged desire on the part of
those who did it to settle the question
of Slavery, then in state of perfect
quietude and repose, and this was to
be done by introducing into our legis
lation a new policy which denies te
Congress q power claimed for it b,
the founders of our Government, ant
exercised by it from the beginning
which declares that to be unconstitu
tional which the makers of the Con
stitution declared to be constitutional
and which rests upon the strange as
sumption that the Government of the
United States cannot set up and main.
tain in the Territories of the United
States a form of government demand.
cd by majority of the people, and
identical in the disputed particulars
with the form Of government of a ma.
jority of the States Of our Confedera-
cy. If the men who did this thing
did not know that their action would
again produce among us agitation,
heart-burning jealousy, and ill-will,
they were so wholly ignorant of the
temper and feelings of our people as
to make them unsafe public servants,
if they did not know they were un-
faithful. In either view, they were
faithless to the pledges they had given
as the inducements for placing power
in their hands. The Kansas Nebraska
bill was long in passing, and its pas
sage was strcnuously resisted in Con
gross. The debates in that body upol
it were acrimonious and exciting, tho
discussions in the public press wer,
bitter and inflammatory, and when thu
passions of the people in the differ
ent sections of our country had beef
thoroughly aroused, their prcjudices
infamed, and their pride enlisted il
the contest going on in the halls O
Congress, that contest was by the
passage of the bill transferred from
those halls to the plains of Kansas
from the Representatives, in Congress
to our entire people, and there wa'
cast into the arena as a prize to b,
struggled for by our people thus
aroused and excited, a Territory which
in size, in soil and in climate is equal
to some of the most powerful monar.
chies Of the old world. Did the men
who passed that Act expect and desire
that struggle to be a peaceful one
The country would fain so believe, yet
such belief requires that we should at.
tribute to them q want of knowledge
and foresight, but little less criminal
in men in their position than would
have been the expectation and desire
by those that the struggle should be
as it was, hostile and bloody one
1t is my deliberate conviction that OF
the day on which the opponents o.
this new and most unfortunate meas
urc, aided by few of its original
friends, defeated its legitimate con-
summation by defeating the passage
of the SO called Lecompton bill, which
sought to impose upon the people of
Kansas Constitution they abhorred,
and which would have required for its
enforcement the aid of Federal bayo-
nets-on that day the union of these
States met and escaped the greatest
peril to which it has yet been subject.
But happily for all, unexpectedly to
the fears of many, adversely, perhaps,
to the wishes Of some, that great peril
was escaped, and Kansas, with a Con
stitution in accord with the legislation
which in the last generation dedicated
her to freedom, and with the wishes of
the people, stands ready to ask ad.
mission into our Union as a Free
State.
do not recur to these past trans.
actions for the purpose of again STIR
ring up ill-feelings, now measurably
appeased, but for the light which in
my opinion they throw upon present
events. 1t is as true now as it was
in the olden time that they who sow
the wind shall reap the whirlwind. !"
During the struggle in Kansas which
makes her story blot on the page of
our country's history, the free state
men of that Territory were treated by
their pro-slavery brethren in the Ter
ritory and in the States, and by the
General Government, as if they had
not any rights, legal or natural, which,
either were bound to respect. Is it
strange that some of them should have
ceased to respect the rights of those
they looked upon as their opprcssors I?
Should learned to hate the institution
for whose advancement they were op-
pressed? During the same period
the other new policy called fllibuster.
ism and the doctrines by which il
sought to be upheld attained full force
and vigor. 1t was insisted in sub.
stance by our Southern brethren, and