Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-03-06

4 her people, were those who then represented
9 the states Of Missouri and South Carolina II
q both houses Of Congress.
g The senate OF that day, giving swift heck
g to the request OF Mr.. Buchanan, by the vot'
Q of every Democrat member except those o.
q Douglass and three or four followers from
9 the Northern States, voted to admit Kansas
under the Lecompton constitution. Tht
Z House majority, less resolute in its determ1-
: nation to force Kansas into the Union as 6
] senate what came to be known as the En-
! glish bill, which submitted to the people Of
/ Kansas the question of their desire to come
, into the Union under the Lecompton consti.
tuition at an election to be held in the fol
, lowing August, and the senate subsequently
{ yielding, the bill became law.
[ This was supposed to be reasonably Ger,
tain way of bringing Kansas into the union
under the Lecompton constitution, on &C
count of the evident desire of the people of
Kansas to be admitted into the union and
the great inducements offered. The bill moi
only offered to the people of Kansas the
greatest quantity of land for public purposes
Lever OucIcO W d Lew StaG0 IN case Lucy NOt0O
to come into the union under the Lecompton
constitution-and in case of the vote being
in the affirmative the president was author.
lied to proclaim the result, and thereupon,
without further proceedings of congress,
Kansas should at once become state of the
union-but in the event that the people
should reject the Lecompton constitution il
was provided that the territory should not
be admitted until by census, thereafter to
be taken, there should be shown to be pop
ulation equal to the ratio of represen-
tation required for member OF
the house of representatives, in which event
convention to frame new Constitution
might be called, etc.
But the temptation was unavailing. Much
as the people of Kansas desired admission
into the Union for the purpose of being rid
of the infamous and hateful prosecutions OF
the federal government, they could not be
| coaXed or bribed to abate one jot or title OF
their determination to come in only under
free state constitution, and one, too, of theil
own framing, and so at the election ordered
by the English bill they buried the Lecomp.
| whelming avalanche of their votes. Out OF
a total vote of over 1900 all but about 1,SO(
were cast against the constitution.
Then the census was taken, members of
constitutional convention duly chosen,
constitution framed, which was in turn sub.
mitted to the people for their approval or
| rejection. A majority of more than two to
one voted in its favor in the largest poll OF
votes ever cast in the territory, and the con
stitution was transmitted for presentation to
the first session of the Thirty-sixt congress
| in December, 1859. In the following April
an act passed the house by the votes of the
| republicans and Douglas democrats admit
| ting Kansas under the new constitution, and
on the 21st day of the following January
- H. l..
with an amendment, the vote
on the same being classified
as in the house; and on the 18th day of the
same month President Buchanan signed it,
and Kansas was finally, after a great and
bloody struggle, adTitted into the union as
free state.
This struggle is significant now to be re-
called because of the historical parallel ii
furnishes to what is transpiring now.
The last in a long line of democratic pres
idents, until the present. made indecent haste
to urge, officially, that Kansas be forced into
the union under constitution which estab- |
lished slavery on soil consecrated to freedom,
Notwithstanding the people to be effected by
it had overwhelmingly repudiated it. The
representatives of the national democracy of
that time, leo by the senators and members
from Missouri and South Carolina. were
the actors in this conspiracy against free
soil and free states. Subsequently when
Kansas presented itself with a free constitu-
ton, the choice of its people, with more than
the requisite population, the same senators
and members, followed by al! the democrat
ic representatives except the few who con-
sorted with Mr.. Douglass, resolutely and
vindictively fought against her admission.
Is not history repeating itself? Is there nc
significance in the fact that the fight against
the admission of Dakota, free state, is led
in the senate by the senators representing
II IL e rnnv fny4
the lineal successors of those who first tried
to force Kansas as slave state into the
union and later tried to keep her out as
free state? The fight against Dakota is un-
der the same banner and under the same
leadership as was the fight against Kansas,
and with the same purpose to keep out OF
the union free Commonwealth.
This is not only worthy of consideration as
historical parallel, but l present it as
part of the dispute make to the position as
sumed by the senator from Alabama (Mr
Morgan). He says the democratic party has
always been favorable to the admission OF
new states, and reply that the democratic
party has never favored the admission
of new states unless such states
were in political utilization with that party.
No other test except that of party affilia-
ton has ever been applied by the democratic
party, and it has consistently opposed the
admission of all states into the union which
were not in political accord with it.
Are we on the threshold of contention
about the admission of new states which
will be carried out of these halls and divide
the American people as they divided upon
Kansas? The Kansas struggle foreshadowed
the greater one which followed for the pres
ervation of the union. 1t was in those days
"bleeding Kansas, ""abolition Kansas" abo-
lition traitors, Yankees, higher-law men
any and all terms which expressed
for the free state settlers of Kansas contempt,
and designed to cover them with obloquy, to
show their utter worthlessness and unitness
for self-government. The felicitous language
of the senator from Missouri enabled him to {
the people of Dakota in some
thing like the same virulent fashion; and yet ,
I appeal to facts within the knowledge OF
every senator on this floor when I say that
the Kansas of that early time was worthy of {
association with the states then or since :
composing the American union. The Kansas
of bitter contention, treated with indignity
and contumely by the slave oligarchy and Its
servile tool, the democratic party. became, {
in the language of Mr.. Sum ner, 'the minis
tering angel of the republic"
Kansas came into the union when the un.
ion was breaking seemingly beyond the
hope of ever again recovering-as the states
whose representatives in house and senate ,
had prosecuted her and caused her fair face !
70 be defled with blood were leaving their
places in the union to join in a wicked and
,auseless rebellion. 1t did not seem an at
,ractive place to get into-a union assailed =
~ nearly one-half its inhabitants-but the
people of Kansas were not dismayed. Adj
mission to the national union as free state L
lad been for all the weary years of their s
struggle the goal of their ambition, and they
'heerfully came in, knowing that the toll
md blood by means of which their ambi- t
y1oh ny1fv nc rIIv % /