Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-11-02
GQlOreesttr @ailp Spp.
What has Intervention donef
CONCLUDED


Remember, Kansas was safe aider iate,ventioa-
under the prohibition of slavery by the Mis-.
sour compromise; and h d not that compro-
mise been repealed, and Kansas been subject
to non-intervention, Kansas would have beep
settled by free men, as pcaccably as were Ohio
and Indiana. But non Intervention opened
Kansas to civil war, and INTERVENTION saved
her If indeed she is saved. 1t was interyen.
ton alone-active, extensive, efficient, that
arrested the tide of slavery for which nonin-
PREVENTION opened the way. 1t was interven-
ton by Kansas relief and emigrant aid socie-
ties clothing, provisions, Sharp's rifles, state
legislatures were appealed to, and by no one
more earnestly than by Mr.. Thayer himself,
to appropriate money for Kansas. Now all
this was ntervention-invted, it is true, bv
Intervention from the slave states for slavery .
but still intervention, and just as really vic.
lation of Thayers doctrine of non.intervep-
ton as any act of the federal government could
be. Mr. Thayer says =
ut was Intervention that imposed thieves
and murder RS, and house-burners upon the
people of Kansas, as officers. Intervention
filled their ballot boxes with the votes of Mis-.
souri, invaders. Intervention came near fore
ing upon them the infamous Lecompton fraud.
Intervention had caused all their woes. The
treemen of Kansas do therefore hate the word
and the idea Of intervention, and trust all the
more to their good right arms"
1t was the non-intervention of the Kansas.
Nebraska act which invited this intervention
by the border rufians and then the free states
interviewed to fight it out
But, "the freemen of Kansas hate tile word
and the idea of Intervention" do they? Read
the following article from the Lawrence Re.
publican -
"THe Practical Workings ofhe Douglas Donna
N regard to tile Ierrtories-The political
friends and special admirers of Mr.. Stephen
A. Douglas often appeal to Kansas, as a fitting
example of the practical workings OF the great
principle of Squatter Sovereignty" meaning
by that expression the great "principle" of al.
lowing one portion of the people, when wicked
enough to desire to do so, TO make slaves of
another portion. They say the practical
workings of that principle have been to make
Kansas Free State. Suppose we grant it
still at what a price have the people of Kansas
purchased freedom Five years of continual
warfare and bitter strife the loss of much
property and many lives hardships untold to
her brave settlers CONFUSION and agitation
throughout the nation these constitute the
price at which freedom in Kansas has been
purchased under Mr.. Douglas great princi.
pie" Under the wise economy OF the Repub.
lican party, Kansas never would have been
slave at ALL All this strife and agitation
would have been saved. Her people would
have marched forward in Improvement and
wealth, peacefully, from the very beginning.
The country would have heard nothing about
bleeding Kansas" nothing of ''border ruffin
invasons nothing of hotels and printing
presses indicted by courts and destroyed by
mobS-nothing of houses burned, and villages
sacked, and detenseless people murdered. All
would have been quiet and peaceful and order
ly from the start and to-day she would un-
douhtedly have been State in the Union,
with her own Senators and Representatives,
instead of being Territory punished Tor its
opinions, and compelled to listen to the lies of
Border Rufian Green and the ISLANDERS of
drunken Wigfal.
We OF Kansas can speak from bitter expert
ence OF the practical workings of MIR. Douglas
great principle" and we pronounce it great
cheat. 1t is doctrine not of peace, but of
strite-not of wisdom, but OF foly-not of the
statesman, but of the demagogue 1t is a
doctrine which makes every new Territory the
theater of discOrd and violence, and forces its
inhabitants to rescue at the mouth OF the rife
and the point of the bayonet those ordinary
privileges and franchises which are the unques-
toned birth right of every American citizen
Let us hear no more, therefore of Kansas as
an example in favor OF Mr. Douglas dogma
She stands as living witness of its falsity and
constant memorial of its practical failure to
bring forth good fruits" 1t is evil, and only
evil, and that continually"
That article, from one of the abest papers in
the country, edited by one of the truest repub
lcans, L. Dwight Thatcher, represents the
unanimous sentiment of the republicans of
Kansas. l have seen, within the last six
months, every prominent republican of Kan
sas,-(except Gen. Lane and with all his
faults, believe him to be an earnest repubIi.
can, Judge Conway, representative elect to
congress judges Even and Bailey, supreme
justices elect Messrs. Thatcher of the Repub-
lican, Mr. Phillips, Capt Montgomery, Messrs.
Whitman, Pomeroy, and some twenty or more
others, earnest free state men, and every man,
without single exception, expressed the be.
lief that it is the right and the duty of CON
eress to prohibit slavery in the territories
that such prohibition would have saved all the
tronbles in Kansas and that popular sovereign
ty, whether that of Stephen A. Douglas or
Eli Thayer, is delusion and cheat.
But, says Mr.. Thayer, "The republicans of
Kansas, in the Osawatomie platform, endors.
ed nonintervention." Not bit of it. These
are the facts.
The Osawatomie convention was held in
May, 1859. The question to be decided was
Shall we form republican party in line with
the national republican party, and standing on
the Philadelphia platform or shall we form a
free state party, which would include free
state democrats with their Douglas pro.
clivities On the day before the convention
met Horace Greeley made speech, in which
he came out fat-footed, for pure republican
party. He says, "Our cardinal principle of
slavery restriction we cannot, must not sur.
render" and he argued this deliberately and
ably. This speech struck the keynote.
The convention, after long discussion, adopt
ed a republican platform. The fourth article
Mr.. Thayer claims, endorses his doctrine of
non-intervention. 1t is as follows:
A. Resolved, That, with the founders of The repub
lie, we believe that governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed; and that
it is proper that the people of organized territory
should be permitted to elect their own officers and
enact their own laws. free from congressional
ecutive CONTROL
Can the doctrine of non.intervention be tor.
tured out of that resolution
Undoubtedly, as it was desirable to concili-
ave the Tree state democrats, phroseology
was adopted which should come as near as
possible to popular sovereignty" and not en-
dorse non.interventon. Nobody objects to al
lowing the people oil an organised territory to
elect their officers and enact their own laws"
provided that the fundamental law under
whlch the territory is organized" prohibits
slavery ana here is the pregnant word of the
resolutlon-"the people OF an organized terrific
ry, meaning to give TO congress the power to
organize the territory, and to place il under AN
organic law prohibiting slavery. This, / am