Year: 1859

Letter from Ex-secretary stanton.


Frederick P. Stanton, ex-SeOretary of Kan
sas, recently addressed letter to Mr.. G. W.
Brown upon the subject Of Kansas politics.
The letter is dated at Lecompton, Kansas
April 18th. We make the following extract;


1t ought not to be forgotten that Kansas now
rests under the odious discrimination affixed on
her by the terms of the Act Of Congress passed
on the 4th of May last, usually known as the
English Law. BY the provisions of that Act
she was authorized to enter the Union with the
LecOmpton Constitution; while, if she should
reject that fraudulent and hated instrument
she was subjected TO conditions which have not
heretofore been required Of any other new State
and which were, doubtless, intended to obstruct
and delay her admission. To the eternal hon
or Of the people Of Kansas they refused to en-
ter the American Union as q sovereign State
with Constitution not Of their own choice, al
though 1t was sanctioned by the Federal Gov
ernment, and attempted to be enforced by all
the powers of an Administration falsely claim
ing TO be Democratic. Kansas indignantly re-
jected the offer Of power and indepenence which
would have been obtained only by sacrifice
of popular rights, and by gross violation of
the principles Of the Union into which she was
invited to enter. She has the glory of having
contributed to the preservation of the Federal
Constitution, by spurning the advantage which
she might have derived from disregard of its
most sacred provisions.


In the organization of parties in this Terrific
ry (and believe, also. in the Union,) these
important facts cannot be overlooked. You
arc right In supposing that am NOT prepared to
join The Republican party; but at the same time,
feel compelled TO say that, without complete
reorganization, and an utter abandonment of
the hcresies and treacheries of the Buchanan
Administration, cannot cooperate scith the So
called Democratic party. The principles of Pcpu-
lar Sovereignty-the right of the people of any
State of this Confederacy, old or new, to adopt
or reject proposed Constitution, and to deter
mine the character of their own institutions--is
so fundamental in its connection with oil my
notions of Democracy, that cannot recognize
the Legitimacy Of that organization which could
deliberately violate that principle.


Kansas is not yet State Of the Union. Her
admission may be opposed on the ground Other
failure to comply with those humiliating pre-
requisites which, II cannot be denied, were
adopted by those who claimed to represent the
Democratic party. In this state OF things can
the Democrats of Kansas blndly mite them
selves to the party which has heretofore thus
sought to degrade the Territory. and which
may hereafter insist upon maintaining and en-
forcing that Act of degradation Until Kansas
shall become State we can have no direct
agency in the government of the Union and no
efficient power in politics. 1t is no part of our
duty-it is not even our privllege-to partioi-
pate in the management of Federal affairs
Why, then, should we busy ourselves in prepar-
ing for contests in which. possibly, we shall not
be able to engage at alli Our first and most
important interest is to secure the aeknowledg-
ment of our rights, to undo the wrong which
has been done, and TO vindicate the principle Of
Popular Sovereignty, which has been so shame
fully violated in our own recent history. The
Republican party has not heretofore professed


to favor that principle; and the Democrats,
while protesting it, have utterly disregarded it
in their treatment OF Kansas, and some Of them
are even now proposing Congressional inter
venton in the shape Of laws for the protection
of slavery In the Territories.


You will readily infer from what have al
ready written that am opposed to the organi.
cation Of parties in this Territory upon the po-
litcal questions which are discussed in the
States. 1t is by no means certain that the
present organization will be permanent there.
Everything seems to be in au unsettled condi-
ton, and can see no good reason why we
should enter The stormy arena Of party politics,
at least until we shall have attained a position
which shall enable us to act part in the drama.