Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-07-10
have done nothing bnt what they. bad a

have done nothing bnt what they bad
right to do.
The people Of any territory have
right, under the constitution, to call
convention at any tine, with or without
an act of congress, or of the territorial
| Legislature, and to form state govern
| ment, and apply to GO gress for admis-
sion into the union.
The right of people ITO alter or
| abolish their form of government is an
| inherent one and is classsd in the
declaration Of independence as indis.
pensable to the inalienable rights of
man.
Ii congress-, then, has prescribed no
form, whatever action the people think
proper to adopt in order to secure
| change of government, provided it be
conducted in u peaceable manner is law.
full and constitutional-lawfu because
it violates no valid constitutional,
| because article first of the amendments
to the constitution secures to the people
| everywhere under its jurisdiction the
| right paramount to all law peaceably to
| assemble and petition the government
for redress of grievances.
W. II. SEWARD.
My statement was, that there was no
previous authority of congress- ifor Cali
| fornia.
The military governor was General
Riley and l need not say to the honor.
able senators from California, that mil.-
| tary governors have no authority, with
ont an act of congress authorizing aud
| directing them to institute conventions
| to convert the power of the United
| States.
We know indeed, that the governor of
OF California acted in conformity
with the views OF the presi-
dent; but the president acted
without authority and ill obedience only
to o political necessity for which no
| provision had been made.
BY virtue of the proceedings thus in
| augurated and thus conducted, Cali
forEie assumed TO be, and became, net
| merely provisional state, subject to
the federal uitioi., but an independent
and absoluteiy sovereign state,
| Sir, what CalIornla did was rightly
done but it was not dols in pursuance
of any law.
1t Was done without law, and it was
testified then as | justify similar pro-
rdIDgs in Kansas now on the grounds
y! high political necessity
| The people in new states make their
| constitutions,
Our power is limited to the admission
or rejection of state, whatever its con
stitution may be.
LEWIS oAss.
| Why, sir, when the people are form
ing state government they do not
come to congress to get power 10
establish their constitution.
They want no euch power from you.
You have no right to give it. All
the power you can exercise
on that point is to bring them together.
but when they are once brought to-
gether they are totally independent OF
Iyou.
4 When refer to the principle OF the
Kansas. Nebraska act, mean the great
principle of the right of the people to
legislate for themselves.
4 | have never known man in this
broad land who denied the power Of the
. people of any state to insert in their
constitution provision excluding
4 slavery.
Then that is no principle OF the Kan
sas act.
1t is all idle to talk OF that being the
principle OF that act.
Sir, that is not principle dependent
!, on you.
1t belongs to the people themselves.
Ii is portion of their rights Which
you cannot take away.
i 1t is not given by this act nor secured
by this act.
II 1t exists without the act.
n / have already said, the great principle
OF, that bill is the recognition of the
right Of the people of q territory to
legislate for themselves over all subjects
not prohibited by the constitution.
That act first embodied these words
in our statute book.
phat is all there is of it.
The great principle Of that act, in my
opinion. is the principle which, on the
Oath of December, 1922, your ancestors
and mine adopted the day before they
landed at Plymouth beach.
II AS observed the other day, it was
, quite child then, but It grew up on the
4th OF July, l7I6. to be man.
Lord Worth then--tte senator from
j New hampshire now-calls 1t squatter
: over, but let me tell him that it 1s not to
j be beaten down by any epithet.
II ! call it the right of man to govern
himself.
STEPHEN ADAMS.
The people there have established the
D character of their institutions; and hav-
/ | ing done so, the right or privilege
3 secured by the organic act has exhausted
. itself.
Then it follows as matter of course.
: that when we have freely conferred on
A them the power Of legislation, they have
a right to paes such laws as they may
deem necessary III order to sustain their
j institutions.
al believe in the doctrine contepded for
by the senator from Michigan, that the
j. people have right to control them
: selves, and that it is usnrpation OF
b power. unauthorized by the constitution
: for congress to legislate for the people
i, of territory.