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to the great questions of state sovereignty, of | rated throughout her limits? Does she want self-government, and of the Union? Is the to be "bleeding Kansas" for the benefit of

political agitators within or out of her limits, or does she prefer the peaceful and quiet arbitrament of this question for herself? What benefit will the great body of the people of Kansas derive from these agitations? They may for a brief period give consequence and power to political leaders and agitators; but it is at the expense of the happiness and welfare of the great body of the people of this territory.

Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon any philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race. For in their so-called constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race so inferior and degraded, as to exclude them all forever from Kansas, whether they be bond or free, thus depriving them of all rights here, and denying even that they can be citizens of the United States, for if they are citizens they could not be constitutionally exiled or excluded from Kansas. Yet such a clause inserted in the Topeka constitution was submitted by that convention for the vote of the people, and ratified here by an overwhelming majority of the anti-slavery party. The party here, therefore, has, in the most positive manner, affirmed the constitutionality of that portion of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, declaring that Africans are not citizens of the United States.

sable African alone entitled to your sympathy and consideration, even if he were happier as a freeman than as a slave, either here or in St. Domingo, or the British West Indies, or Spanish America, where the emancipated slave has receded to barbarism, and approaches the lowest point in the descending scale of moral, physical, and intellectual degradation? Have our white brethren of the great American and European race no claims upon our attention? Have they no rights or interests entitled to regard and protection? Shall the destiny of the African in Kansas exclude all considerations connected with our own happiness and prosperity? And is it for the handful of that race now in Kansas, or that may be hereafter introduced, that we should subvert the Union, and the great principles of self-government and state sovereignty, and imbrue our hands in the blood of our countrymeu! Important as this African question may be in Kansas, and which it is your solemn right to determine, it sinks into insignificance compared with the perpetuity of the Union, and the final successful establishment of the principles of state sovereignty and free government. If patriotism, if devotion to the Constitution and love of the Union, should not induce the minority to yield to the majority on this question, let them reflect that in no event can the minority successfully determine this question permanently, and that in This is the more important, inasmuch as no contingency will Congress admit Kansas this Topeka constitution was ratified with this as a slave or free state, unless a majority of clause inserted by the entire Republican party the people of Kansas shall first have fairly and in Congress, thus distinctly affirming the refreely decided this question for themselves by cent decision of the Supreme Court of the a direct vote on the adoption of the constitu- Union, that Africans are not citizens of the tion, excluding all fraud or violence. The United States, for, if citizens, they may be minority, in resisting the will of the majority, elected to all offices, state and national, inmay involve Kansas again in civil war, they cluding the Presidency itself; they must be may bring upon her reproach and obloquy, placed upon a basis of perfect equality with and destroy her progress and prosperity; they the whites, serve with them in the militia, on may keep her for years out of the Union, and the bench, the legislature, the jury box, vote in the whirlwind of agitation, sweep away in all elections, meet us in social intercourse; the government itself. But Kansas never can and intermarry freely with the whites. This be brought into the Union with or without doctrine of the perfect equality of the white slavery, except by a previous solemn decision, with the black in all respects whatsoever, fully, freely, and fairly made by a majority social and political, clearly follows from the of her people in voting for or against the position that Africans are citizens of the adoption of her state constitution. Why, United States. Nor is the Supreme Court of then, should this just, peaceful, and constitu- the Union less clearly vindicated by the positional mode of settlement meet with opposition now assumed here by the published creed tion from any quarter? Is Kansas willing to of this party, that the people of Kansas, in destroy her own hopes of prosperity merely that she may afford political capital to any party, and perpetuate the agitation of slavery throughout the Union? Is she to become a mere theme for agitators in other states, the theatre on which they shall perform the bloody drama of treason and disunion? Does she want to see the solemn acts of Congress, the decision of the people of the Union in the recent election, the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities of the country all overbrown, and revolution and civil war inaugu

forming their state constitution (and not Congress), must decide this question of slavery for themselves. Having thus sustained the court on both the controverted points decided by that tribunal, it is hoped they will not approve the anarchical and revolutionary proceedings of other states, expunging the Supreme Court from our system by depriving it of the great power for which it was created, of expounding the Constitution. If that be done, we can have, in fact, no unity of government or fundamental law, but just as many ever varying

constitutions as passion, prejudice, and local | ous legacy they received from our fathers, and

interests may, from time to time, prescribe in the thirty-one states of the Union.

I have endeavored heretofore faintly to foreshadow the wonderful prosperity which would follow at once in Kansas, the peaceful and final settlement of this question. But if it should be in the power of agitators to prevent such a result, nothing but ruin will pervade our territory. Confidence will expire, and law and order will be subverted. Anarchy and civil war will be re-inaugurated among us. All property will greatly depreciate in value. Even the best farms will become almost worthless. Our towns and cities will sink into decay. Emigration into our territory will cease. A mournful train of returning settlers with ruined hopes and blasted fortunes, will leave our borders. All who have purchased property at present prices will be sacrificed, and Kansas will be marked by universal ruin and desolation.

Nor will the mischief be arrested here. It will extend into every other state. Despots will exult over the failure here of the great principles of self-government, and the approaching downfall of our confederacy. The pillars of the Union will rock upon their base, and we may close the next Presidential conflict, amid the scattered fragments of the Constitution of our once happy and united people. The banner of the stars and stripes, the emblem of our country's glory, will be rent by contending factions. We shall no longer have a country. The friends of human liberty in other realms will shrink despairing from the conflict. Despotic power will resume its sway throughout the world, and man will have tried in vain the last experiment of self-government. The architects of our country's ruin, the assassins of her peace and prosperity, will share the same common ruin of all our race. They will meet, whilst living, the bitter curses of a ruined people, whilst history will record as their only epitaph: They were the destroyers of the American Union, of the liberties of their country and of the world.

But I do not despair of the Republic. My hope is in the patriotism and intelligence of the people; in their love of country, of liberty, and of the Union. Especially is my confidence

they will transmit to their children the priceless heritage. Before the peaceful power of their suffrage, this dangerous sectional agitation will disappear, and peace and prosperity once more reign throughout the borders. In the hearts of this noble band of patriotic settlers, the love of their country and of the Union is inextinguishable. It leaves them not in death, but follows them into that higher region, where, with Washington and Franklin and their noble compatriots, they look down with undying affection upon their country, and offer up their fervent prayers that the Union and the Constitution may be perpetuated. For recollect, my fellow citizens, that it is the Constitution that makes the Union, and unless the immortal instrument, bearing the name of the Father of his Country, shall be maintained entire in all its wise provisions and sacred guarantees, our free institutions must perish.

My reliance also is unshaken upon the same overruling Providence which has carried us triumphantly through so many perils and conflicts, which has lifted us to a height of power and prosperity unexampled in history, and, if we shall maintain the Constitution and the Union, points us to a future more glorious and sublime than mind can conceive or pen describe. The march of our country's destiny, like that of His first chosen people, is marked by the foot-prints of the steps of God. The Constitution and the Union are "the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night," which will carry us safely under his guidance through the wilderness and bitter waters, into the promised and ever extending fields of our country's glory. It is His hand which beckons us onward in the pathway of peaceful progress and expansion of power and renown, until our continent, in the distant future, shall be covered by the folds of the American banner, and, instructed by our example, all the nations of the world, through many trials and sacrifices, shall establish the great principles of our constitutional confederacy of free and sovereign R. J. WALKer.

states.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
TERRITORY OF KANSAS.

unbounded in the hardy pioneers and settlers To the Legal Voters and Elective Officers of

of the West. It was such settlers of a new state devoted to the Constitution and the Union, whom I long represented in the Senate of the United States, and whose rights and interests it was my pride and pleasure there, as well as in the Treasury Department, to protect and advocate. It was men like these whose rifles drove back the invader from the plains of Orleans, and planted the stars and stripes upon the victorious fields of Mexico. These are the men whom gold cannot corrupt, nor foes intimidate. From their towns and villages, from their farms and cottages, spread over the beautiful prairies of Kansas, they will come forward now in defence of the Constitution and the Union. These are the glori

Kansas:

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Douglas, 8.

11th

12th

16th

18th

Riley and Pottawatomie, 4.

Johnson, 3.

Shawnee, Richardson, and Davis, 2.
Lykens, 3.
Linn, 3.

Bourbon, McGee, Dorn, and Allen, 4.

The proper officers will hold the election for delegates to the said convention on the third Monday of June next, as directed by the law aforesaid, and in accordance with the apportionment herein made and declared. In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed the seal of the territory, at Lecompton, this the 20th May, 1857. FRED. P. STANTON.

*On the 1st of Dec., 1856, John W. Whitfield having again been elected a delegate from Kansas, the following proceedings took place in the House of Representatives:

Mr. Phelps. I hold in my hand the credentials of John W. Whitfield, elected as a delegate from the territory of Kansas to this session of Congress. Mr. Whitfield is present, and I desire that the oath of office be admin istered to him. I will ask the clerk, however, first to read the credentials.

The credentials were read, as follows:United States of Amreica,

Territory of Kansas:

This is to certify that John W. Whitfield was duly elected a delegate to the second session of the thirty-fourth Con

gress of the United States from the territory of Kansas, at an election held on the first Monday of October, 1856. In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my

hand, and caused to be affixed the seal of the terri[L. S.] tory. Done at Lecompton, this 8th day of October, 1856. JOHN W. GEARY, Governor of Kansas territory.

By the Governor :

DANIEL WOODSON, Secretary.

On the 9th of Dec., the House decided that Gen. Whitfield should be sworn in, as follows:

*These proceedings should have followed Gov. Geary's

Message; but were inadvertently omitted.

YEAS.-Messrs. Aiken, AKERB, Allen, Barksdale, Bell, Hendley S. Bennett, Bocock, Bowie, Boyce, Brunch, Brooks, BROOM, Burnett, Cadwalader, JOHN P. Campbell, Carlile, Caruthers, Caskie, Clingman, Williamson R. W. Cobb, Cox, Crawford, CULLEN, Davidson, HENRY WINTER DAVIS, Jacob C. Davis, Denver, Dowdell, Edmundson, Elliott, English, ETHERIDGE, EUSTIS, EVANS, Faulkner, Florence, FOSTER, Thomas J. D. Fubler. Garnett, Goode, Greenwood, Augustus Hall, J. MORRISON HARRIS, Sampson W. Harris, Thomas L. Harris, HARRISON, Herbert, Hickman, HOFFMAN, Houston, Jewett, George W. Jones, J. Glancy Jones, Keitt, Kelly, KENNETT, Kidwell, LAKE, Letcher, LINDLEY, Lumpkin, ALEXANDER K. MARSHALL, HUMPHREY MARSHALL, Samuel S. Marshall, Maxwell, McMullin, McQueen, Smith Miller, Millson, Moore, Morrison, Mordecai Oliver, Orr, Packer, PAINE, Peck, Phelps, PORTER, Powell, PURYEAR, Quitman, READY, RICAUD, RIVERS, Ruffin, Rust, Sandidge, Savage, Shorter, Samuel A. Smith, William Smith, TRIPPE, Tyson, UNDERWOOD, Vail, VALK, Walker, Warner, WILLIAM R. SMITH, SNEED, Stephens, SwOPE, Talbott, Taylor, Watkins, Wells, Wheeler, WHITNEY, Williams, Winslow, John V. Wright, ZOLLICOFFER.-112. Henry Bennett, Benson, Billinghurst, Bingham, Bishop, NAYS-Messrs. Albright, Allison, Ball, Barbour, Barclay, Bliss, Bradshaw, Brenton, Buffinton, Burlingame, James H. Campbell, Lewis D. Campbell, Chaffee, Bayard Clarke, Ezra Clark, Clawson, Colfax, Comins, Covode, Čragin, Cumback, Damrell, Timothy Davis, Day, Dean, De Witt, Dick, Dodd, Durfee, Edie, EDWARDS, Emrie, Flagler, Galloway, Giddings, Gilbert, Granger, Grow, Robert B. Hall, Harlan, HAVEN, Hodges, Holloway, Thomas R. Horton, Valentine B. Horton, Howard, Hughston, Kelsey, King, Knapp, Knight, Knowlton, Knox, Kunkel, Leiter, Mace, Matteson, McCarty, Killian Miller, Millward, Morgan, Morrill, Mott, Murray, Nichols, Norton, Andrew Oliver, Parker, Pearce, Pelton, Pennington, Perry, Pettit, Pike, Pringle, Purviance, Kitchie, Robbins, Roberts, Robison, Sabin, Sapp, Scott, Sherman, Simmons, Spinner, Stanton, Stranahan, Tappan, Thorington, Thurston, Todd, Trafton, Wade, Wakeman, Walbridge, Waldron, Cadwalader C. Washburne, Elihu B. Washburne, Israel Washburne, Welch, Woodruff, Woodworth.-108.

[graphic]

AN ITEM OF HISTORY.

A piece of unwritten history, connected with the legislation on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, will find an appropriate place here.

It will be recollected that the motion of Mr. Cutting of N. Y., by which the Senate bill, organizing the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, was committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, on the 21st of March, 1854, gave rise to a good deal of bad feeling between some of the friends of the bill, who voted against that motion, and those of them that voted for it. It was freely insinuated that these representatives claiming to be the friends of the measure, who voted for that motion, were at heart opposed to the bill. These gentlemen who had so voted, and who afterwards gave the bill their support, justified its commitment to the Committee of the Whole House upon the ground that, unless the bill was freely discussed in the House before it was brought to a vote, the people could not become thoroughly acquainted with its merits, and would be apt, in the Northern states, to make up a hasty judgment in opposition to it, well calculated to defeat its sanction by them, and to bury, politically, those representatives from the North who were giving it their support. The result of the commitment of the bill, and the bad feeling which ensued, was a caucus of its friends, held a few nights subsequent, in the Committee on Foreign Relations room of the

House of Representatives, where there were in | of Kansas, we are apt to refer merely to the

This

existence of two violent political parties in that territory, divided on the question of slavery, just as we speak of such parties in the states. of the case. presents no adequate idea of the true state. between two political parties, both acknowledg→ The dividing line there is not ing the lawful existence of the government, but between those who are loyal to this gov ernment and those who have endeavored to destroy its existence by force and by usurpa have done all in their power to overthrow the tion-between those who sustain and those who territorial government established by Congress. This government they would long since have subverted had it not been protected from their assaults by the troops of the United States. Such has been the condition of affairs since my inauguration. Ever since that period a been in a state of rebellion against the govern large portion of the people of Kansas have

attendance some 98 members of both Houses, and where the subject was fully discussed. Mr. Wm. H. Witte, of Pennsylvania, and others, opposed the bringing of the discussion on the bill to too early a close. The folly of such a course of action upon a measure embracing so vital a principle as that involved, destroying as it did a compromise, in behalf of which the prejudices of the Northern people were so highly excited, became apparent to the meeting, and it was determined that the discussion should be full and ample, and that when it reached that standard, then, and not till then, should the bill be brought to a vote. The caucus appointed Mr. Stephens of Ga., Mr. Olds of Ohio, Mr. Witte of Penn., Mr. Bocock of Virginia, Mr. English of Indiana, and Mr. Kerr of North Carolina, a commitment, with a military leader at their head of tee to superintend the progress of the bill, to arrange the debate in its favor, and attend to all matters tending to promote its safe transit through the House. These gentlemen did justice to the positions thus assigned them, and to their efforts may be attributed to a great extent the success which attended it. The wise policy of discussion triumphed. There were more speeches made by the opponents of the bill than by its friends, which completely precluded them from complaining of any application of the gag to their right of discussion, and thus deprived them of what would have been, in their hands, a potent instrument to excite opposition to the measure.

a most turbulent and dangerous character. They have never acknowledged, but have constantly renounced and defied the government to which they owe allegiance, and have been all the time in a state of resistance against its voring to subvert it and to establish a revoluauthority. They have all the time been endeationary government, under the so-called Topeka constitution, in its stead. Even at this very ment the Topeka legislature are in session, Whoever has read the correspondence of Governor Walker with the State Department, recently communicated to the Senate, will be le always protested against the withdrawal convinced that this picture is not overdrawn. of any portion of the military force of the United States from the territory, deeming its presence absolutely necessary for the preserOn the 2d of Feb., 1858, the President com-vation of the regular government and the exemunicated the following message to Congress:cution of the laws. In his very first despatch he says: to the Secretary of State, dated June 2, 1857, The most alarming movement, howI have received from J. Calhoun, Esq., pre- June of the so-called Topeka legislature, with ever, proceeds from the assembling on the 9th sident of the late constitutional convention of a view to the enactment of an entire code of Kansas, a copy, duly certified by himself, of laws. Of course it will be my endeavor to prethe constitution framed by that body, with the vent such a result, as it would lead to ineviexpression of a hope that I would submit the table and disastrous collision, and, in fact, resame to the consideration of Congress, "with new the civil war in Kansas." This was with the view of the admission of Kansas into the difficulty prevented by the efforts of Governor Union as an independent state." In compli- Walker; but soon thereafter, on the 14th of ance with this request, I herewith transmit to July, we find him requesting General Harney Congress, for their action, the constitution of to furnish him a regiment of dragoons to proKansas, with the ordinance respecting the pub-ceed to the city of Lawrence—and this for the lic lands, as well as the letter of Mr. Calhoun, dated at Lecompton on the 14th _ultimo, by which they were accompanied. Having received but a single copy of the constitution and ordinance, I send this to the Senate.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of

the United States :

A great delusion seems to pervade the public mind in relation to the condition of parties in Kansas. This arises from the difficulty of inducing the American people to realize the fact that any portion of them should be in a state of rebellion against the government under which they live. When we speak of the affairs

reason that he had received authentic intelligence, verified by his own actual observation, that a dangerous rebellion had occurred, “involving an open defiance of the laws and the establishment of an insurgent government in that city."

informs the Secretary of State "that this moveIn the governor's despatch of July 15, he ment at Lawrence was the beginning of a plan, originating in that city, to organize insurrection throughout the territory; and especially in all towns, cities, or counties where the repub

lican party have a majority. Lawrence is the hotbed of all the abolition movements in this territory. It is the town established by the abolition societies of the east, and whilst there are respectable people there, it is filled by a considerable number of mercenaries who are paid by abolition societies to perpetuate and diffuse agitation throughout Kansas, and prevent a peaceful settlement of this question. Having failed in inducing their own so-called Topeka state legislature to organize this insurrection, Lawrence has committed it herself, and, if not arrested, the rebellion will extend throughout the territory."

And again: "In order to send this communication immediately by mail, I must close by assuring you that the spirit of rebellion pervades the great mass of the republican party of this territory, instigated, as I entertain no doubt they are, by eastern societies, having in view results most disastrous to the government and to the Union; and that the continued presence of General Harney here is indispensable, as originally stipulated by me, with a large body of dragoons and several batteries."

graph of the message of Governor Robinson, dated on the 7th of December, to the Topeka legislature, now assembled at Lawrence, contains an open defiance of the Constitution and laws of the United States. The governor says: The convention which framed the constitution at Topeka originated with the people of Kansas Territory. They have adopted and ratified the same twice by a direct vote, and also indirectly through two elections of state officers and members of the state legislature. Yet it has pleased the administration to regard the whole proceeding revolutionary."

This Topeka government, adhered to with such treasonable pertinacity, is a government in direct opposition to the existing government prescribed and recognised by Congress. It is a usurpation of the same character as it would be for a portion of the people of any state of the Union to undertake to establish a separate government, within its limits, for the purpose of redressing any grievance, real or imaginary, of which they might complain, against the legitimate state government. Such a principle, if carried into execution, would destroy all lawful authority and produce universal

From this statement of facts, the reason becomes palpable why the enemies of the government authorized by Congress have refused to vote for delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention, and also afterwards on the question of slavery submitted by it to the people. It is because they have ever refused to sanction or recognise any other constitution than that framed at Topeka.

On the 20th July, 1857, General Lane, under the authority of the Topeka convention, under-anarchy. took, as Governor Walker informs us, "to organize the whole so-called free state party into volunteers, and to take the names of all who refuse enrolment. The professed object is to protect the polls at the election in August, of the new insurgent Topeka state legislature." "The object of taking the names of all who refuse enrolment is to terrify the free state conservatives into submission. This is proved by recent atrocities committed on such men by Topekaites. The speedy location of large bodies of regular troops here, with two batteries, is necessary. The Lawrence insurgents await the development of this new revolutionary military organization," &c., &c.

Had the whole Lecompton constitution been submitted to the people, the adherents of this organization would doubtless have voted against it, because, if successful, they would thus have removed an obstacle out of the way of their own revolutionary constitution. They In the governor's despatch of July 27th, he would have done this, not upon a considerasays that "General Lane and his staff every-tion of the merits of the whole or any part of where deny the authority of the territorial | the Lecompton constitution, but simply because laws, and counsel a total disregard of these they have ever resisted the authority of the govenactments." ernment authorized by Congress, from which it emanated.

Without making further quotations of a similar character from other despatches of Governor Walker, it appears by a reference to Mr. Stanton's communication to General Cass, of the 9th of December last, that the "important step of calling the legislature together was taken after I [he] had become satisfied that the election ordered by the convention on the 21st instant could not be conducted without collision and bloodshed." So intense was the disloyal feeling among the enemies of the govcrnment established by Congress, that an election which afforded then an opportunity, if in the majority, of making Kansas a free state, according to their own professed desire, could ot be conducted without collision and bloodhed!

The truth is, that, up till the present moment, he enemies of the existing government still dhere to their Topeka revolutionary constituion and government. The very first para

Such being the unfortunate condition of affairs in the territory, what was the right, as well as the duty, of the law-abiding people? Were they silently and patiently to submit to the Topeka usurpation, or adopt the necessary measures to establish a constitution under the authority of the organic law of Congress?

That this law recognised the right of the people of the territory, without any enabling act from Congress, to form a state constitu tion, is too clear for argument. For Congress "to leave the people of the territory perfectly free," in framing their constitution, "to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States," and then to say that they shall not be permitted to proceed and frame a constitution in their own way, without an express authority from Congress, appears to be almost a contradiction in terms. It would be

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