Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-10-24

slave State if they preferred it. [Cheers
but lnasmueh as we conceived that ther
was so large majority of the people i
favor Of free State. we discussed til
proposition on the supposition that Kansa
: would be a free State. I expressed til
hope that, upon making it free State, the
would insert such clauses in their Consti
tuition as would guarantee the fulfilmen
on the part of their people, of every pro
vision of the Constitution of the Unite,
States, and that they would put into thei
Constitution a clause requiring ever,
officer in that State, and every citizen, t
lend his aid in the enforcement of all con
stitutiOnal provisions, the Fugitive Slav
Law included. Cries of, "Good," ant
cheers.l I declared then, as l do to yo'
to-day, that no man ought to be permitted
to vote at any election, who is not willin,
to obey the Constitution of the United
States in all its parts. Applause.] Ano
L, therefore, trusted that they would 81
frame their Constitution as to make i
| obligatory on every citizen of Kansas t.
perform his obligations under the Consti
tuition. But while l expressed this opinion
to Gov. Walker. it was distinctly under
stood that this was question for the
people of Kansas to decide for themselves
and whichever way they decided was t.
be final and conclusive. 1 do not dis
tinctly recollect whether [ communicated
to Mr.. Calhoun, or not, the results of this
interview with Gov. Walker. 1t is well
known to my friends that L am not in the
habit of writing political letters. 1t is
true that L gave many letters of introduce
| ton to Mr.. Calhoun, to persons applying
for surveying contracts, or having business
1 tb tho lanH -nffiaa in X anH Ir1a
possibly have written him, narrating this
interview. But l am very sure that l
wrote him no letter upon the subject of
politics, or the Lecompton Constitution,
pending the session of the Convention.
GoU. HaZFe1 proceeded to Kansas, agd pub
| EsHed his inaugural address, containing the
| statement that he lras authorized By the P,,esi-
dent and his Cabinet to say that the Constitution
sCouH be rejected, unless it ,Cos submitted 10 q
JOte Of the people When the Convention
adopted the Constitution and declared it
in force, without submitting it to the peo-
pie. [ denounced it the very instant
heard of it. Tremendous shouts of ap-
plause.l The very night the news arrived
at Chicago, bringing the form of submits
sion of the slavery clause, denounced it
in unmeasured terms. [ denounced it be-
fore knew what the course of any other
man in America in relation to it would be-
TCries of Bravo 'That's the man." and
applause | did not wait one hour or one
minute, when / discovered the trick by
which the people were TO be cheated.
[Cheers.
If you look into the Lecompton Con-
stitutiOn, yolt a0iH find tbotHe original docit-
meat made Kansas Stare State and then the
schedule submitted another szaUe1y clause to the
people, to cote for or against 1t If Hey UOted
for 1t, Kansas lcas Stare State, and If then
0otel against At, still at acas sZaue State. When
[ reached Washington, three days before
the meeting of Congress, l went directly
to the President, and had talk with him
upon this subject, in which informed him,
as a friend, not to send the Constitution
into Congress for acceptance. told him
it was violation of every pledge we had
made to the people, a violation of the fun
damental principles of the Democratic
party, and a violation of the principles of
all parties in all Republican governments;
because it was an attempt to force Con-
stitutiOn on an unwilling people. He beg
ged me not to say anything upon the sub
ject, until we should hear the news as to
how the vote stood on the slavery clause.
The vote, you remember, was to be taken
on the slavery clause on the 21st of De-
cember, three or four weeks subsequent to
this Convention. | told the President that
if he would withhold his recommendation
until the vote was taken on that clause, |
would withhold my speech against the
measure. He said he must recommend it
in his message, and [ replied that if he
did, would denounce it the moment his
message was read. Great applause. A
voice" We like you for it,
at last the President became sOmea11sot en-
cited upon the subject. Laughter. And he
arose and said to me: ''lL,'. Douglas, I de-
yet differed with an administrator of his oacn
laughter. Then he aided '.Beacare of the
fate Of Talhaadge and RiUes g arose and
said: "Ml-. President, I a0ish yOu to remember
that General Jackson IS dead, SIR" ITumuI-
tuous cheering. From that day to this
he and l have been trying the question
whether General jackson is dead. Great
laughter and applause. And one thing is
certain, the people of Illinois decided, in
1858, that James Buchanan was not Gen
raj Jackson. Renewed laughter and APP
plause. have 4 few words more to say on
this subject.
hJOOh cl1tCtH lUt
LecOmptOn Constitution, in December of
that year, General Calhoun and large
number of the members of the Lecompton
Conventional of his particular and con-
tidential friends-visited Washington
Now, if it be true, as they charge on me-
that | had advised Calhoun to pursue this
course, how does it happen that these gen.
tlemen, while in Washington, did not charge
me with that fact. A voice, "That's the
point. They were present in the gale
ries of the Senate day after day, week af-
ter week, and month after MONTH hearing
me denounce the LecomptOn Constitution,
and the scheme of submission, as a fraud.
and not a man of them whispered that |
had even been satisfied with it. TCries of
''Never, they could not do it'll Ny enc
mics wait until the controversy has passed
away, until John Calhoun is dead, and I'M
til we arrive upon the eve of Presiden-
tial election, and then they trump up this
base charge, which they never
before dared to insinuate, that had sane
toned scheme from which now even they
shrink with horror. A voice, "Just like
them."1
If you will read over these pretended
letters, for do not know whether they are
genuine or forged, you will find in them
the evidence that this charge is basely
false. And now let me call your attention
to them. My enemies found the charge
upon the hypothesis that Mr.. Calhoun was
under my influence, and did just what l
and because Mr.. Calhoun finally
submitted to this form of submission of
the Constitution, they infer that I must
have agreed to it. If you will read all of
these letters, you will find that every man
who speaks on the subject testifes that
Calhoun was, from the beginning to the
end, in favor of submitting the whole
to the people 1 rejoice that