Year: 1859

at the present day with what it was one year ago,
at the meeting of Congress, we have much rea-
son for gratitude to that Almighty Providence
which has never failed to nterpOse for our relief
at the most critical periods of our history. One
year ago, the sectional strife between the North
and the South on the dangerous subject of slavery
had again broken out SO intense as 10 threaten
the peace and perpetuity of the Confederation
The application for the admission of Kansas as a
State into the Union formed this unhappy agita-
ton and brought the whole subject once more be-
| fore Congress- 1t was the desire of every patriot
that such measures of legislation should be adopt


ed as would remove the excitement from the
States and confne it to the Territory where it
legitmately belonged. Much has been DONE
am happy to say, towards the accomplishment
Of this object during the last session of Congress-
| The Supreme Court of the United States had
previously decided that all American citizens of
the United States had an equal right to take into
| the Territories whatever is held as property un-
der the laws Of any of the States, and to hold
such property there under guardianship of the
Federal Constitution so long as Territorial condi-
tion shall remain This is now we'll established
position, ard the proceedings of the last session
were alone wanting to give it practical effect
The principle has been recognized in some form
or other by an almost unanimous vote of both
Houses of Congress that Territory had right
to come into the Union either as free or slave
State, according to the will of the majority of it's





been vindicated, and truthful source of danger
Gus dissension among them has been removed
Whilst such had been the beneficial tendency Of
your legislative proceedings outside of Kansas


their influence has nowhere been so happy as
within that Territory itself. Left to manage and
control its own affairs in its own way, without
the pressure OF external influences, the Ievolu-
tonary Topeka organization and all resistance
to the Territorial Government established by
Congress, has been finally aban oncd as a natural
consequence. and that fine Territory now appears
to be tranquil and prosperous and is attracting
increasing thousands OF immigrants to make it
their happy home. The past unfortunate expert
cnce of Kansas has enforced the lesson, so often
already taught that resistance to lawful aulhori
ty III der our form OF Government cannot fail in
the end to prove disastrous to its authors. Had
the people of the Territory yielded obedience to
the laws exactcd by their Legislature, it would.
al the present moment have contained large ad-
dtional population of industrious and enterpris-
ing citizens who have been deferred from enter
ing its borders by the existence of civil strife and
organized rebellion. 1t the resistance to
rightfu authority and the per$everng attempts
to establish revolution government under the
Topeka Constitution Which caused the people of
Kansas to commit the grave error of refusing to
vote for delegates to the Convention to frame a
Constitution under a law not denied 10 be fair and
just in its provisions. This refusal to vote has
been the prolific source of all the evils which have
followed. In their hostility TO the Territorial
Government they disrcgardrd the principle abso-
lutcly essential to the working Of our form of
government. that a majority of those who vote
not the majority who may remain at home from
whatever callse--must decide the result of All
election For this reason. seeking to take advan-
tagc Of their own error they denied the authority
of Convention they had elected to form Con
stitution. The Convention. Notwithstanding. pro-
cecded to adopt Il Constitution uneXceptonable
in its general features, and providing for the sub
mission of the slavcly question to Il vote of the
people, which. inmy opinion, they were bound to
do under the Kansas and Nebraska Act. This was
the all-important question which had alone con-
vulsed the Territory; and yet the opponents of the
lawful Government perssting in their first error,
rcirained from exercising their right to vote, and
preferred that slavery should continue rather
than surrender their revolutionary Topeka Orga-
niZaton. A wiser and better spirit seemed to
prevail before the first Monday of January last,
when an election was held under the Constitution.
A majority of the people then voted for Il Cover
nor and other State officers for member of Con-
grcss and members of the State Legislature
This election was warmly contested by the two
political parties in Kansas, and greater vote
was polled than at any previous election. A lar
ger majority of the members of the Legislature
belonged to the party which had previously re-
fused TO vote The anti-Slavery party were thus
in the ascendant, and the political power of the
State was in their own hands Had Congress ad-
mitted Kansas into the Union under the LecOmp-
ton Constitution, the Legislature might, at its
very first session, have submitted the question to
vote of the people whether they would or would
not have Convention to amend their Constitu-
tion, either on the slavery or any other question:
and have adopted all necessary means for giving
speedy effect to the will of the majority. Thus
the Kansas question would have been Immediately
and finally settled. Under these circumstances
submitted to Congress the Constitution thus
formed with all the officers elected, necessary to
put the State Government into operation accom-
panied by a strong recommendation in favor of
the admission of Kansas State.


In the course of my long public life, have
never performed any official act which, in the re-
Prospect has afforded me more heartfelt satisfac-
ton. Its admission could have inflicted no pos
sble injury on any human being. whilst it would
within brief period have restOxed peace to
Kansas and harmony TO the Union. In that event
the slavery question would ere this have been
finally settled, according to the legally expressed
will of majority of the voters, and popular
sovereignty would thus have been settled in a
Constitutional manner. With my convictions of
duty l could have pursued no other course 1t is
true, that an individual, had expressed an
opinion both before and during the session of the
Convention in favor of submitting the remaining
clauses of the Constitution, as well as that con-
corning slavery, to the people; but, acting in an
official character, neither myself nor any human
authority had the power to prejudice the proceed
ings of the Convention and declare the Constitu-
ton which it framed to be nullty. To have
done this would have been a violation of the
Kansas and Nebraska Act, which left the people
of the Territory perfectly free to form and re-
gulste their domestic institutions in their own
way, subject only to the Constitution OF the Unit
ed States" 1t would eventually have violated
the great principle of popular sovereignty at the
foundation of our Institutions, to deprive the
people of the power, if they thought proper to
| IF oonf6ipr tn 1oln0atpS elected bV
themselves, the trust of framing Constitution
without requiring them to subject their constitu,
ents to the trouble, expense and delay of a second
election. 1t would have been in opposition to