Year: 1859

ever been granted to any new State upon its ad
mission into the Union. Congress simply amend


ed this by reducing the land grant and leaving
it to vote of the people of Kansas whether
they would accept the Lecompton Constitution
with diminished grant, and be Immediately ad


mitted as State. or continue in their territorial
condition, until their population entitled them tC
representative in Congress, and take their chan.
ces for such grant of land as all other new
States had obtained on their admission into the
Union. The wisdom of this policy has been de-
monstrated by the events which have followed


The designs of the sedtious have been defeated;
the unhalowed passions of the ambitious have
been rebnked; the people of Kansas have reject
ed the constitution and returned to the So
Der second thought Of peace; for they have seen,
and what is more, they have been entirely con-
WINGED that no wrong was intended to be inflicted
upon them by the measure which had been agreed
upon by Congress and the President, and sub
mitted to them for their decision. The policy of
the President has at least produced this result.
II the democratic party who elected him had, in
the captious spirit of fault finding, refused to
support his recommendations on this subject, it
is more than probable that it would have been
seized upon as the signal for renewing the traitor


GUS scenes which have disgracet Kansas and dyed
its soil with the blood of it's citizens. The strug-
gle, in all human probability would not have
stopped within that Territory, but spread itself
over the length and breadth of this great Repub-
lie. The votes l gave on this question were to
| restore peace in Kansas, and peace came. voted
to strangle the monster treason. and under the
action of Congress in passing the measure that
was presented to the people of Kansas, treason
has been disarmed, and. as trust forever Such
is brief outline of the history which led to the
adjustment of these perilous questions and from
which have resulted that peace and security which
the country now enjoys.


Let us now at this stand point briefly ad-
vert to some of the antecedent questions which
were conn, cted with the Kansas difficulty. And
full in our front has always stood the Missouri
Compromise. | have for many years believed
that measure was not warranted by our Federal
Constitution. 1t was violation Of that funda-
mental principle upon which the Constitution is
based; the sovereignty and cO-equal rights of the
States. The Constitution was grant of power
from States. each having co-equal and coordinate
rights. Whatever powers were not expressly
| delegated were declared to be reserved to the
States respectively. There was no power dele
gated to the Federal government to exclude from,
or to establish slavery in any of the States or
Territories. and of course by no indirect legisla-
tion could Congress or Territorial Legislature
have the power to accomplish that object. The
question of slavery was left exclusively to the
States. They possessed sovereign right to
adopt or exclude it. This sovereign right Injured
| to all States which mi ght come into the Union.
1t could be exercised by each new State in form


ing its Constitution, and on its admission into
the Union. or after that act by subsequent State
enac tments in such modes of legislation as had
been prescribed by organic law When, therefore,
this question came incidentally before the con-
vention which framed the Constitution of Califor-
mia, being member Of that body, sustained this
principle and said that what was called the Mis-
souri, Compromise line should be entirely dis
regarded in establishing the boundarie les of the
State. | maintained the same opinions in rela-
tion to the compromise laws passed by Congress;
and among them the one admitting California as
q State into the Union These views were again
reiterated in my vote on the Kansas Nebraska Act
in 1854. When the Lecompton Constitution was
adopted in Kansas had great doubts as to the
course which it might be proper for Congress to
pursue in relation to it. The views, however, of
the President in his opening message to Congress
in December 1857, and his subsequent specia!
message in February 1858, presented considera-
tions of the most important character in favor
of the admission of Kansas as State under that
Constitution. His recommendations were made
under the grave responsibility of the great office
which be holds. and large majority of the Dem
ocratic party, in and out of Congress sustained
the policy which he had adopted AS have said
it involved no less question than that of peace
or civil war. The acts of traiturous men in Kan
sas, and the entire tendency of the ambitious pro-
jects of band of profgate politicians in the
North. who had determined to rule or ruin this
government, pointed to the latter dreadful result
Under these circumstances sustained the recon-
mendations Of the President, and adopted that
pOllCy WHICH DelleFeu would Insure Luc IuOSL
practical good to my country. did not partici-
pate in the discussion of the Kansas question in
the Senate, but was careful observer of its
| progr, S. and voted for the admission of Kansas
as a State, believing at the time that the final
result of that vote would be to bring back peace
and security to the country. My object was not
to force Il State Constitution upon that Territory


for Congress did not possess the power to pass
such law. The question really presented to
Congress was the issue between those who voted
for the LecOmpton Constitution, and those who
refused to vote at all. The conduct of the latter
was anarchial and subversive of all government;
the former was the faithful discharge of pOliti-
cal duty. If the recusant majority who failed to
perform their duty on that occasion had acted
differently and voted as they did in August last
and the Lecompton Constitution had afterwards
been brought before the Senate, l should not have
sustained it. In fact under such circumstances
it could never have reached the President ofici-
| ally, in the form in which it was presented to
Congress- When the future historian shall re-
cord the events of the struggle in Kansas, he will
pronounce the conduct of those who refused to
exercise the elective franchise in that Territory
as rebelious and revolutionary. To make the
selection of sustaining such acts and such men on
the one side, and to stand by those who had dis
charged their constitutional duties in establish
ing and maintaining government in Kansas pre-
sented no difficulty to me; and l do not stand
alone in the course which adopted, but am sus-
tained by the whole democratic party of the
Union in and out of Congress, with the exception
of the few who defaulted and followed the lead
of Senator Douglas. The public opinion of such
party is high authority. To that time honored
party we owe some of our greatest triumphs in
principle, and our most signal successes in arms


To it we are indebted for the acquisition of Cali
forna-that proud trophy of the Mexican war
for whose prosperity the heart Of every citizen
of this State is filled with the most ardent hope.
To it are we indebted for all the acquisitions of
territory which we have made since the adoption
of the Constitution. Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
New Mexico California and all the great States
and territories that have been shaped out of them.