The  immediate  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  Sl*itc. 


P   685 
•S51 
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iJL  W 


SPEECH 

OF 

i.  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 


OF     NEW    YORK, 


m  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  APRIL  9,  1856. 


Wednesday,  April  9, 1856. 

The  special  order  of  the  day  having  been  resumed, 

Mr.  SEWARD  addressed  the  Senate  as  fol- 
lows : 

Mr  President  :  To  obtain  empire  is  easy 
and  common  ;  to  govern  it  well  is  difficult  and 
rare  indeed.  I  salute  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  in  the  exercise  of  its  most  important  func- 
tion— that  of  extending  the  Federal  Constitution 
over  added  domains  ;  and  I  salute  especially  the 
Senate  in  the  most  august  of  all  its  manifold 
characters,  itself  a  Congress  of  thirty-one  free, 
equal,  sovereign  States,  assembled  to  decide 
whether  the  majestic  and  fraternal  circle  shall  be 
opened  to  receive  yet  another  free,  equal  and 
sovereign  State.  The  Constitution  prescribes 
only  two  qualifications  for  new  States,  namely — 
a  substantial  civil  community,  and  a  republican 
Government.  Kansas  has  both  of  these.  The 
circumstances  of  Kansas,  and  her  relations  to- 
wards the  Union,  are  peculiar,  anomalous,  and 
deeply  interesting  The  United  States  acquired 
the  province  of  Louisiana,  (which  included  the 

f resent  Territory  of  Kansas,)  from  France,  in 
803,  by  a  treaty,  in  which  they  agreed  that  its 
inhabitants  should  be  incorporated  into  the  Fed- 
eral Union,  and  admitted  as  soon  as  possible, 
according  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution, 
to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights,  advantages, 
and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
Nevertheless,  Kansas  was  in  1820  assigned  as  a 
home  for  an  indefinite  period  to  several  savage 
Indian  tribes,  and  closed  against  immigration 
and  all  other  than  aboriginal  civilization,  but  not 
V  without  a  cotemporaneous  pledge  to  the  Amer- 
ican people  and  to  mankind  that  neitlier  Slavery 
Onir  involuntary  servitude  should  be  tolerated 
jtfuerein  forever.  In  1854  Congress  directed  a 
Removal  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  organized  and 
alpened.  Kansas  to  civilization,  but  by  the  same 
^ict  rescinded  the  pledge  of' perpetual  dedication 
fij'  Freedom,  and  substituted  for  it  another, 
lich  declared  that  the  [future]  people  of  Kan- 


sas should  be  left  perfectly  free  to  establish  or  to 
exclude  Slavery,  as  they  should  decide  through 
the  action  of  the  Republican  Government,  which 
Congress  modeled  and  authorized  them  to  estab- 
lish, under  the  protection  of  the  United  States. 
Notwithstanding  this  latter  pledge,  when  the 
newly  associated  people  of  Kansas,  in  1855,  were 
proceeding  with  the  machinery  of  popular  elec- 
tions, in  the  manner  prescribed  by  Congress,  to 
choose  legislative  bodies  for  the  purpose  of  or- 
ganizing that  republican  government,  armed 
bands  of  invaders  from  the  State  of  Missouri  en- 
tered the  Territory,  seized  the  polls,  overpowered 
or  drove  away  the  inhabitants,  usurped  the  elec- 
tive franchise,  deposited  false  and  spurious  bal- 
lots without  regard  to  regularity  of  qualification 
or  of  numbers,  procured  official  certificates  of  the 
result  by  fraud  and  force,  and  thus  created  and 
constituted  legislative  bodies  to  act  for  and  in 
the  name  of  the  people  of  the  Territory.  These 
legislative  bodies  afterward  assembled,  assumed 
to  be  a  legitimate  Legislature,  set  forth  a  code 
of  municipal  laws,  created 'public  offices  and 
filled  them  with  officers  appointed  for  consider- 
able periods  by  themselves,  and  thus  established 
a  complete  and  effective  foreign  tyranny  over  the 
people  of  the  Territory.  These  high-handed 
transactions  were  consummated  with  the  express 
purpose  of  establishing  African  Slavery  as  a  per- 
manent institution  within  the  Territory  by  force, 
in  violation  of  the  natural  rights  of  the  people 
solemnly  guaranteed  to  them  by  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States.  The  President  of  the  United 
States  has  been  an  accessory  to  these  political 
transactions,  with  full  complicity  in  regard  to 
the  purpose  for  which  they  were  committed.  He 
has  adopted  the  usurpation,  and  made  it  his  own, 
and  he  is  now  maintaining  it  with  the  military 
arm  of  the  Republic.  Thus  Kansas  has  been 
revolutionized,  and  she  now  lies  subjugated  and 
prostrate  at  the  feet  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  while  he,  through  the  agency  of 
a  foreign  tyranny  established  within  her  borders, 
is  forcibly  introducing  and  establishing  Slavery 


pofco.  jjiQ^j  Sale  at  the  Office  of  the  New  York  Tribune.   Price,  per  Dozen  Copies  20c. 

fr\  __  PER  IIundred,  ^1  25. ;  per  Tuoosand,  $10. 

litic* 


2 


61 


there,  in  coutempt  and  deOance  of  the  organic 
law.  These  extraordinary  transactions  have  been 
attended  by  civil  commotions,  in  which  property, 
life  and  liberty  have  been  exposed  to  violence  ; 
and  these  commotions  still  continue  to  threaten 
not  only  the  Territory  itself,  but  also  the  adja- 
cent States,  with  the  calamities  and  disgraces  of 
civil  war.  I  am  fully  aware  of  the  gravity  of 
the  charges  against  the  President  of  the  United 
States  which  this  statement  of  the  condition  and 
relations  of  Kansas  imports.  I  shall  proceed, 
without  fear  and  without  reserve,  to  make  them 
good.  The  maxim  that  a  sacred  vail  must  be 
drawn  over  the  beginning  of  all  Governments, 
does  not  hold  under  our  system.  I  shall  first 
call  the  accuser  into  the  presence  of  the  Senate, 
then  examine  the  defenses  which  the  President 
has  made,  and  last,  submit  the  evidences  by 
■which  he  is  convicted.  The  people  of  Kansas 
know  whether  these  charges  are  true  or  false. 
They  have  adopted  them,  and,  on  the  ground  of 
the  high  political  necessity  which  the  wrongs 
they  have  endured,  and  are  yet  enduring,  and 
the  dangers  throu^-h  which  they  have  already 
passed,  and  the  perils  to  which  they  are  yet  ex- 
posed, have  created,  they  have  provisionally  or- 
ganized themselves  as  a  State,  and  that  State  is 
now  here,  by  its  two  chosen  Senators  and  one 
Eepresentative,  standing  outside  at  the  doors  of 
Congress,  applying  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union 
as  a  means  of  relief  indispensable  for  the  purpo- 
ses of  peace,  freedom,  and  safety.  This  new 
State  is  the  President's  responsible  accuser.  The 
President  of  the  United  States,  without  waiting 
for  the  appearance  of  his  accuser  at  the  capital, 
anticipated  the  accusations,  and  submitted  his 
defenses  against  them  to  Congress.  The  first 
one  of  these  defenses  was  contained  in  his  Annual 
Message,  which  was  communicated  to  Congress 
on  the  30th  of  December,  1855  I  examine  it. 
You  shall  see  at  once  that  the  President's  mind 
was  ojipressed — was  full  of  something  too  large 
and  burdensome  to  be  concealed,  and  yet  too 
critical  to  be  told.  Mark,  if  you  please,  the 
Btate  of  the  case  at  that  time.  So  early  as 
August,  1855,  the  people  of  Kansas  had  de- 
nounced the  Legislature.  They  had  at  volun- 
tary elections  chosen  Mr.  A.  H.  Eeeder  to  rep- 
resent them  in  the  present  Congress,  instead  of 
J.  W.  "Whitfield,  who  held  a  certificate  of  elec- 
tion under  the  authority  of  the  Legislature. 
They  had  also,  on  the  23d  day  of  October,  1855, 
by  similar  voluntary  elections,  constituted  at 
Topeka  an  organic  Convention  which  framed  a 
Constitution  lor  the  projected  State  They  had 
also,  on  the  15th  of  December,  1855,  at  similar 
voluntary  elections,  adopted  that  Constitution, 
and  its  tenor  was  fully  kuov^n.  It  provided  for 
elections  to  be  held  throughout  the  new  State  on 
the  lath  of  January,  1856,  to  fill  the  offices  cre- 
ated by  it,  and  it  also  required  the  Executive 
and  Legislative  officers,  thus  to  ^  chosen,  to  as- 
Bcmble  at  Topeka  on  the  4th  day  of  March,  1856, 
to  inaugurate  the  new  State  provisionally,  and 


to  take  the  necessary  means  for  the  appointment 
of  Senators,  who,  together  with  a  Eepresentative 
already  chosen,  should  submit  the  Constitution 
to  Congress  at  an  early  day,  and  apply  for  the 
admission  of  the  State  of  Kansas  into  the  Union. 
All  these  proceedings  had  been  based  on  the 
grounds  that  the  Territorial  authorities  of  Kan- 
sas liad  been  established  by  armed  foreign  usur- 
pation, and  were,  nevertheless,  sustained  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  A  constitu- 
tional obligation  required^the  President  "  to  give 
to  Congress"  in  his  Annual  Message  "  informar 
tion  of  the  state  of  the  Union  "  Here  is  all 
"  the  information"  which  the  President  gave  to 
Congress  concerning  the  events  in  Kansas,  and 
its  relations  to  the  Union." 

_  In  the  Territory  of  Kansas  there  have  been  acts  prejudi- 
cial to  good  order ;  but  as  yet  none  have  occurred  under  cir 
cumstances  to  justify  the  interposition  of  tlie  Federal  Execu- 
tive. Ihat  could  only  be  in  case  of  obstruction  to  Federal 
law,  or  of  organized  resistance  to  Territorial  law,  s<"-"imiiig 
the  character  of  insurrection,  which,  if  it  sliould  ccsur,  it 
would  be  my  duty  promptly  to  cveicome  and  sui';,ress.  I 
cherish  the  hope,  however,  that  tlie  occurrence  of  any  such 
untoward  event  will  be  prevented  by  tlie  sound  sense  of  the 
people  of  tlie  Territory,  who,  by  its  organic  law,  possessing 
the  right  to  determine  their  own  .  omestic  institutions,  are 
entitled,  while  deporting  themselves  peacefully,  to  the  free 
exercise  of  that  right,  and  must  be  protected  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  it,  without  interference  on  the  part  of  the  citizens 
of  any  of  the  States. 

This    information  ipiplies  that  no  invasion, 
usurpation,  or  tyranny  has  been  committed  with- 
in the  territory  by  strangers,  and  that  the  pro- 
visional State  organization  now  going  forward 
is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  also  prejudicial  to 
good  order,  and   insurrectionary.     It  menaces 
the  people  of  Kansas  with  a  threat,  that  the 
President  will  "  overcome  and  suppress"  them. 
It  mocks   them  with  a  promise,  that,  if  they 
shall  hereafter  deport  themselves  properly  under 
the  control  of  authorities  by  which  they  have 
been   disfranchised,  in   determining  institutions 
which  have  been  already  forcibly  determined  for 
them  by  foreign  invasion,  that  then  they  must  be 
protected  against  "interference  by  citizens  of  any 
of  the  States."     The  President,  however,  not 
content  with  a  statement  so  obscure  and  unfair 
devotes  a  third   part   of  the  annual  messacre  to 
argumentative  speculation  bearing  on  the  charac- 
ter of  his  accuser.     Each  State  has  two  and  no 
more  Senators   in  the  Senate  of   the   United 
States.     In  determining  the  apportionment  of 
Representatives  in  the  House  of  Representatives     / 
and  in  the  Electoral  Colleges  among  the  States,  < 
three-filths  of  all  the  slaves  in  any  Stat«  ar«  / 
enumerated.    1'he  slaveholding  or  non-slaveholcl' 
ing  character  of  a  State  is  determined,  not  (' 
the  time  of  its  admission  into  the  Union  as  \ 
State,  but  at  that  earlier  period  of  its  politicff 
life  in   which,  being  called   a  territory,   it  ^ 
politically  dependent  on  the  United  States,  or  cf 
some  foreign  sovereign       Slavery  is  tolerated 
some  of  the   States,  and   forbidden  in  othe. 
Affecting  the  industrial  and  economical  systc; 
of  the  several  States,  as   Slavery  and  Freed/ 
do,  this  diversity  of  practice  concerning  tl/ 
early  worked  out  a  corresponding  diflerenos 


conditions,  interests,  and  ambitions  among  the  : 
Stales,  and  divided  and  arrayed  tlicm  into  two  , 
classes.  The  balance  of  political  power  between  j 
those  two  classes  in  the  federal  system  is  sensi- 
bly affected  by  the  accession  of'any  new  State 
to  either  of  them.  Each  State,  therefore, 
watches  jealously  the  settlement,  growth,  and 
inchoate  slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding  char- 
acters of  territories  which  may  ultimately  come 
into  the  Union  as  States.  It  has  resulted  from 
these  circumstances,  that  Slavery,  in  relations 
purely  political  and  absolutely  Federal,  is  an 
element  which  enters  with  more  or  less  activity 
into  many  national  questions  of  finance,  of  reve- 
nue, of  expenditure,  of  protection,  of  free  trade, 
of  patronage,  of  peace,  of  war,  of  annexation, 
of  defence,  and  of  conquest,  and  modifies  opin- 
ions concerning  constructions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  distribution  of  powers  between  the 
Union  and  the  several  States,  by  which  it  is  con- 
Btituted.  Slavery,  under  these  political  and 
Federal  aspects  alone,  enters  into  the  transac- 
tions in  Kansas,  with  which  the  President  and 
Congress  are  concerned.  Nevertheless,  he  dis- 
ingenuously alludes  to  those  transactions  in  his 
defence,  as  if  they  were  identified  with  that 
moral  discussion  of  Slavery  which  he  regards  as 
odious  and  alarming,  and  without  any  other 
claim  to  consideration.  Thus  he  alludes  to  the 
question  before  us  as  belonging  to  a  "  political 
agitation,"  "  concerning  a  matter  which  consists 
to  a  great  extent  of  exaggeration  of  inevitable 
evils,  or  over-zeal  in  social  improvement,  or  mere 
imagination  of  grievance,  having  but  a  remote 
connection  with  any  of  the  constitutional  func- 
tions of  the  Federal  Government,  and  menacing 

ty 

rity  of  the  U 

ce  manner  the  President  as'isails  and  stig- 
matizes those  who  defend  and  maintain  the 
cause  of  Kansas  as  "  men  of  narrow  views  and 
sectional  purposes,"  "  engaged  in  those  wild  and 
chimerical  schemes  of  social  change  which  are 
generated  one  after  another  in  the  unstable 
minds  of  visionary  sophists  and  interested  agita- 
tors''— "  mad  men,  raising  the  storm  of  frenzy 
and  fixction,"  "  sectional  agitators,"  "  enemies  of 
the  Constitution,  who  have  surrendered  them- 
selves so  far  to  a  fanatical  devotion  to  the  sup- 
posed interests  of  the  relatively  few  Africans  in 
the  United  States  as  totally  to  abandon  and  dis- 
regard the  interests  of  the  twenty-five  millions 
of  Americans,  and  trample  under  foot  the  in- 
junctions of  moral  and  constitutional  obligation, 
and  to  engage  in  plans  of  vindictive  hostility 
against  those  who  are  associated  with  them  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  common  heritage  of  our 
free  institutions."  Sir,  the  President's  defence 
on  this  occasion,  if  not  a  matter  simply  personal 
is  at  least  one  of  temporary  and  ephemeral  im- 
portance. Possibly,  all  the  advantages  he  will 
gain  by  transferring  to  his  accuser  a  portion  of 
the  popular  prejudice  against  Abolition  and  Abo- 
litionists,.  an  be  spared  to  him.    It  would  be 


the  stability  of  the  Constitution  and  the  integ- 
ty  of  the  Union  " 
In  like 


wise,  however,  for  those  whotie  interests  ai-e  in- 
separable from  Slaveiy  to  reflect  that  Abolition 
will  gain  an  equivalent  benefit  from  the  identifi- 
cation of  the  President's  defense  with  their  che- 
rished institution.  Abolition  is  a  slow 
pressible  uprising  of  principles  of  natural 
ice  and  humanity,  obnoxious  to  pn ' 
cause  they  conflict  inconveniently  with  existing 
material,  social  and  political  interests-P'^ 
to  others  than  statesmen,  charged  with  the  care 
of  present  interests,  to  conduct  the  social  reforma- 
tion of  mankind  in  its  broadest  bearings.  I  leave 
to  Abolitioniststheir  own  work  of  self-vindication. 
I  may,  however,  remind  slaveholders  that  there 
is  a  time  when  oppression  and  persecution  cease 
to  be  eSectual  against  such  movements  ;  and 
then  the  odium  they  have  before  unjustly  incurred 
becomes  an  element  of  strength  and  power. 
Christianity  blindly  maligned  during  three  cen- 
turies by  Prffitors,  Governors,  Senates,  Coun- 
cils and  Emperors,  towered  above  its  enemies  in 
a  fourth ;  and  even  the  cross  on  which  its  founder 
had  expired,  and  which  therefore  was  the  emblem 
of  its  shame,  became  the  sign  under  which  it 
went  forth  evermore  thereafter,  conquering  and 
to  conquer.  Abolition  is  only  yet  in  its  first 
century.  The  President  raises  in  Lis  defense 
a  false  issue,  and  elaborates  an  irrelevant  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  Congress  has  no  right  or 
power,  nor  has  any  sister  State  any  right  or 
power  to  interfere  within  a  slave  State,  by  legis- 
lation or  force  to  abolish  Slavery  therein — as  if 
you,  or  I,  or  any  other  responsible  man,  ever 
maintained  the  contrary.  The  President  dis- 
torts the  Constitution  from  its  simple  text,  so  as 
to  make  it  expressly  and  directly  defend,  protect 
and  guarantee  African  Slavery.  Thus  he  al- 
leges that  "the  Government"  which  resulted 
from  the  Revolution  was  a  "  Federal  Republic 
of  the  free  white  men  of  the  Colonies,"  whereas, 
on  the  contrary,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence asserts  the  political  equality  of  all  men,  and 
even  the  Constitution  itself  carefully  avoids  any 
political  recognition  not  merely  of  slavery,  but 
of  the  diversity  of  races.  The  President  repre- 
sents the  Fathers  as  having  contemplated  and 
provided  for  a  permanent  increase  of  the  num- 
ber of  Slaves  in  some  of  the  States,  and  there- 
fore forbidden  Congress  to  touch  Slavery  in  thd 
way  of  attack  or  offence,  and  as  Laving  there- 
fore also  placed  it  under  the  general  safeguarri  «f 
the  Constitution  ;  whereas  the  Paths  »j- 

thorizing  Congress  to  abolish  the  Africans' JiSave 
trade  after  1808,  as  a  means  of  attack,  ii.„.„>K^ 
on  Slavery  in  the  States  a  blow,  of  which  thej 
expected  it  to  languish  immediately,  and  ulti- 
mately to  expire. 

The  President  closes  his  defence  in  the  Annual 
Message  with  a  deliberate  assault,  very  incon- 
gruous in  such  a  place,  upon  some  of  the  Nor- 
thern States.  At  the  same  time  he  abstains, 
with  marked  caution,  from  naming  the  accused 
States.  They, however,  receive  a  compinnent  at 
his  handi-,  by  wa}  uf  giving  Letnnesi^  lo  in^  re 


bnke,  wliich  enables  us  to  identify  them.  They 
are  Northern  States  "  which  were  conspicuous 
in  founding  the  Eepublic."  All  of  the  original 
Northern  States  were  conspicuous  in  that  great 

..transaction.  All  of  them,  therefore,  are  ac- 
cused. The  offence  charged  is,  that  they  disre- 
gard their  constitutional  obligations,  and  al- 
though "  conscious  of  their  inability  to  heal  ad- 

Vmitted  and  palpable  social  evils  of  their  own, 
confessedly  within  their  jurisdiction,  they  engage 
in  an  offensive,  hopeless,  and  illegal  undertaking, 
to  reform  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South- 
ern States,  at  the  peril  of  the  very  existence  of 
the  Constitution,  and  of  all  the  countless  bene- 
fits which  it  has  conferred."  I  challenge  the 
President  to  the  proof,  in  behalf  of  Massachu- 
setts, although  I  have  only  the  interest  common 
to  all  Americans,  and  to  all  men  in  her  great 
fame, — what  one  corporate  or  social  evil  is 
there,  of  which  she  is  conscious,  and  conscious 
also  of  inability  to  heal  it  ?  Is  it  ignorance, 
prejudice,  bigotry,  vice,  crime,  public  disorder, 
poverty,  or  disease,  afflicting  the  minds  or  the 
bodies  of  her  people  ?  There  she  stands.  Sur- 
vey her  universities,  colleges,  academies,  obser- 
vatories, primary  schools,  Sunday  schools,  penal 
codes,  and  penitentiaries.  Descend  'into  her 
quarries,  walk  over  her  fields  and  through  her 
gardens,  observe  her  manufactories  of  a  thou- 
sand various  fabrics,  watch  her  steamers  ascen- 
ding every  river  and  inlet  on  your  own  coast, 
and  her  ships  displaying  their  canvas  on  every 
sea ;  follow  her  fishermen  in  their  adventurous 
voyages  from  her  own  adjacent  bays  to  the  icy 
ocean  under  either  pole ;  and  then  return  and 
enter  her  hospitals,  which  cure  or  relieve  suffer- 
ing humanity  in  every  condition  and  at  every 
period  of  life,  from  the  lying-in  to  the  second- 
childhood,  and  which  not  only  restore  sight  to 
the  blind,  and  hearing  to  the  deaf,  and  speech  to 
the  dumb,  but  also  bring  back  wandering  reason 
to  the  insane,  and  teach  even  the  idiot  to  think  ! 
Massachusetts,  Sir,  is  a  model  of  States,  worthy 
of  all  honor,  and  though  she  was  most  conspic- 
uous of  all  the  States  in  the  establishment  of 
republican  institutions  here,  she  is  even  more 
conspicuous  still  for  the  municipal  wisdom  with 
which  she  has  made  them  contribute  to  the  Afel- 
fare  of  her  people,  and  to  the  greatness  of  the 
Republic  itself.  In  behalf  of  New  York,  for 
whom  it  is  my  right  and  duty  to  speak,  I  defy 
the  Presidential  accuser.  Mark  her  tranquil 
magnanimity,  which  becomes  a  State  for  whose 
delivery  from  tyranny  Schuyler  devised  and  la- 
bored who  received  her  political  constitution 
from  Hamilton,  her  intellectual  and  physical  de- 
velopement  from  Clinton,  and  her  lessons  in  hu- 
manity from  Jay.  As  she  waves  her  wand  over 
the  continent,  trade  forsakes  the  broad  natural 
channels  which  conveyed  it  before  to  the  Dela- 
wat  e  and  Chesapeake  bays  and  to  the  Gulfs  of 
St  Lawrence  and  of  Mexico,  and,  obediently  to 
her  ooinmand,  pours  itself  through  her  artificial 
chanueLs  into  her  own  once  obscure  seaport.    She 


stretches  her  wand  again  towards  the  ocean,  and 
the  commerce  of  all  the  continents  concentrates 
itself  at  her  feet ;  and  with  it,  strong  and  full 
floods  of  immigration  ride  in,  contributing  la- 
bor, capital,  art,  valor,  and  enterprise  to  perfect 
and  embellish  our  ever-widening  empire.  When, 
and  on  what  occasion,  has  Massachusetts  or 
New  York  officiously  and  illegally  intruded  her- 
self within  the  jurisdiction  of  sister  States  to 
modify  or  reform  their  institutions  ?  No,  no, 
Sir.  Their  faults  have  been  quite  different. 
'I  hey  have  conceded  too  often  and  too  much  for 
their  own  just  dignity  and  influence  in  Federal 
Administration,  to  the  querulous  complaints  of 
the  States  in  whose  behalf  he  arraigns  them.  I 
thank  the  President  for  the  insult  which,  though 
80  deeply  unjust,  was  perhaps  needful  to  arouse 
them  to  their  duty  in  this  great  emergency.  The 
President,  in  this  connection,  reviews  the  acqui- 
sitions of  new  domain,  the  organization  of  new 
Territories,  and  the  admission  of  new  States, 
and  arrives  at  results  which  must  be  as  agreeably 
surprising  to  the  Slave  States  as  they  are  as- 
tounding to  the  Free  States.  He  finds  that  the 
former  have  been  altogether  guiltless  of  political 
ambition,  while  he  convicts  the  latter  not  only 
of  unjust  territorial  aggrandizement,  but  also  of 
false  and  fraudulent  clamor  against  the  Slave 
States,  to  cover  their  own  aggressions.  Not- 
withstanding the  President's  elaborated  miscon- 
ceptions, these  historical  facts  remain,  namely — 
that  no  acquisition  whatever  has  ever  been  made 
at  the  instance  of  the  Free  States,  and  with  a 
view  to  their  aggrandizement  ;  that  Louisiana 
and  Florida,  incidentally  acquired  for  general 
and  important  national  objects,  have  already 
yielded  to  the  Slave  States  three  States  of  their 
own  class,  while  Texas  was  avowedly  annexed  as 
a  means  of  security  to  Slavery,  and  one  Slave 
State  has  been  already  admitted  from  that  ac- 
quisition, and  Congress  has  stipulated  for  the  ad- 
mission of  four  more  :  that  by  way  of  equiva- 
lent for  the  admission  of  California  a  Free 
State,  the  Slave  States  have  obtained  a  virtual 
repeal  of  the  Mexican  law  which  forbade  Sla- 
very in  New  Mexico  and  Utah  ;  and  that,  as  a 
consequence  of  that  extraordinary  legislation. 
Congress  has  also  rescinded  the  prohibition  of 
Slavery,  which,  in  1820,  was  extended  over  all 
that  part  of  Louisiana,  except  Missouri,  which 
lies  north  of  36  =>  30'  of  north  latitude.  Sir, 
the  real  crime  of  the  Northern  States  is  this  : 
they  have  forty  degrees  too  much  of  north  lati- 
tude. 

I  dismiss  for  the  present  the  Preident's  first 
defense  against  the  accusation  of  the  new  State 
of  Kansas.  On  the  24th  of  January,  1856, 
when  no  important  event  had  happened  which 
was  unknown  at  the  date  of  the  President's  an- 
nual Message,  he  submitted  to  Congress  his 
second  defense  in  the  form  of  a  special  Messaga 
In  this  paper  the  President  deplores,  as  the 
cause  of  all  the  troubles  wliich  bavf  oocured  in 
Kansas,  delays  of  the  organization  of  the  TerrK 


tory,  which  have  been  permitted  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Reeder.  The  organic  law  was  passed 
by  Congress  on  the  31st  of  May,  1854  ;  but  on 
that  day  there  was  not  one  lawful  elector,  citi- 
zen, or  inhabitant  within  the  Territory,  while  the 
4uestion  whether  Slavery  or  universal  Freedom 
should  be  established  there,  was  devolved  practi- 
cally on  the  first  Legislative  bodies  to  be  elected 
by  the  people  who  were  to  become  thereafter  the 
inhabitants  of  Kansas.  The  election  fnr  the 
first  Legislative  bodies  was  appointed  by  the 
Governor  to  be  held  on  the  30th  of  March,  1855  ; 
and  the  2d  day  of  July,  1855,  was  designated 
for  the  organization  of  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly. The  only  civilized  community  that  was  in 
contact  with  the  new  Territory  was  Missouri,  a 
slaveholding  State,  at  whose  instance  the  prohi- 
bition of  Slavery  within  the  Territory  had  been 
abrogated,  so  that  she  might  attempt  to  colo- 
nize it  vvith  slaves.  Immigrants  were  invited 
not  only  from  all  pans  of  the  United  States,  but 
also  from  all  other  parts  of  the  world, with  a  pledge 
that  the  people  of  the  new  Territory  should  be 
left  perfectly  free  to  establish  or  prohibit  Sla- 
very A  special  election,  however,  was  held  within 
the  Territory  on  the  29th  day  of  November, 
1854,  without  any  preliminary  census  of  the  in- 
habitants, for  the  purpose  of  choosing  a  Dele- 
gate, who  might  sit,  without  a  right  to  vote,  in 
Congress,  during  the  second  session  of  the 
Thirty-third  Congress,  which  was  to  begin  on 
the  first  Monday  of  December,  1854,  and  to  end 
on  the  3d  day  of  March,  1855,  Mr.  J.  W.  Whit- 
field was  certified  to  be  elected.  'I  here  were 
vehement  complaints  of  illegality  in  the  elec- 
tion, but  this  title  was,  nevertheless,  not  con- 
tf.flted,  for  the  palpable  reasoas,  that  an  investi- 
gation under  the  circumstances  of  the  Territory, 
during  so  short  a  session  of  Congress,  would  be 
imp(jssible,  and  that  the  question,  was  of  incon- 
siderable magnitude.  Yet  the  President  la- 
ments that  the  Governor  neglected  to  order  the 
first  election  for  the  Legislative  Bodies  of  the 
new  Territory  to  be  held  simii'.taneously  with 
that  hurried  Congressional  election,  ile  sissigns 
his  reasons  :  "  Any  question  appertaining  W  the 
qualifications  of  persons  voting  as  the  people 
of  the  Territory  would  (in  that  case,  inciden- 
tally) have  necessarily  passed  under  the  super- 
vision of  Congress  (meaning  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives), and  would  have  been  determined 
before  conflicting  passions  had  been  inflamed 
by  time,  and  before  an  opportunity  would  have 
been  alForded  for  systematic  interference  by 
the  people  of  individual  States."  Could  the 
President,  in  any  explicit  arraiij^-^'^ient  of  words, 
more  distinctly  have  confessed  his  disappoint- 
ment in  failing  to  secure  a  merely  formal  election 
of  Legislative  bodies  within  the  Territory,  in 
fraud  of  the  organic  law,  of  the  people  of  Kan- 
sas, and  of  the  cause  of  natural  justice  and  hu- 
manity ?  The  President  then  proceeds  to  launch 
severe  denunciations  against  what  he  calls  a  pro- 
pagandist   attempt  to    colonize    the  'I'erritory 


with  opponents  of  Slavery.  The  whole  Amer- 
ican continent  has  been  undergoing  a  process  of 
colonization,  in  many  forms,  throughout  a  period 
of  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  only 
common  element  of  all  those  forms  was  propa- 
gandisra.  Were  not  the  voyages  of  Columbus 
propagandist  expeditions,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Pope  of  Rome  ?  Was  not  the  wide  occupa- 
tion of  Spanish  America,  a  propagandism  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  The  settlement  of  Mas- 
sachusetts by  the  Pilgrims  ;  of  the  New-Neth- 
erlands by  the  Reformers  of  Holland  ;  the  later 
plantation  of  the  Mohawk  valley  by  the  Pala- 
tines ;  the  establishment  of  Pennsylvania  by  the 
Friends  ;  the  missions  of  the  Moravians  at  Beth- 
lehem, in  the  same  state ;  the  foundation  of 
Maryland  by  Lord  Baltimore  and  his  colony 
of  British  Catholics  ;  the  settlement  of  James- 
town by  the  Cavaliers  and  Churchmen  of  Eng- 
land ;  that  of  South  Carolina  by  the  Hugue- 
nots. Were  not  all  these  propagandists  colo- 
nizations ?  Was  not  Texas  settled  by  a  colony 
of  slaveholders,  and  California  by  companies  of 
freemen  ?  Yet  never  before  did  any  Prince, 
King,  Emperor,  or  President,  denounce  such 
colonizations.  Does  any  law  of  nature  or  na- 
tations forbid  them  ?  Does  any  public  authority 
quarantine  on  the  ground  of  public  opinion,  the 
ships  which  are  continually  pouring  into  the 
gates  of  New  York  whole  religious  societies 
from  Ireland,  Wales,  Germany  and  Norway, 
with  their  pastors,  and  clerks,  and  choirs  ?  But 
the  President  charges  that  the  Propagandists 
entered  Kansas  with  a  design  to  "  anticipate  and 
force  the  determination  of  the  Slavery  ques- 
tion within  the  Territory,"  (in  favor  of  free- 
dom,) forgetting,  nevertheless,  that  he  has  only 
just  before  deplored  a  failure  of  his  own  to  an- 
ticipate and  favor  the  determination  of  that 
question  in  favor  of  Slavery,  by  a  ouptde  main, 
in  advance  even  of  their  departure  from  their 
homes  in  the  Atlantic  States  and  in  Europe. 
He  charges,  moreover,  that  the  Propagandists 
designed  to  "  prevent  the  free  and  natural  action 
of  the  inhabitants  in  the  intended  organiza- 
tion of  the  Territory,"  when,  in  fact,  they 
were  pursuing  the  only  free  and  natural  course  to 
organize  it,  by  immigrating  and  becoming  per- 
manent inhabitants,  citizens  and  electors  of  Kan- 
sas. Not  one  unlawful  or  turbulent  act  has  been 
hitherto  charged  against  any  one  of  the  propa- 
gandists of  Freedom.  Mark,  now,  an  extraor- 
dinary inconsistency  of  the  President.  On  the 
20th  of  June,  1854,  only  29  days  after  the  open- 
ing of  tlie  Territory,  and  before  one  of  these 
emigrants  had  reached  Kansas,  or  even  Mis- 
souri, a  propagandist  association  but  not  of 
emigrants,  named  the  Platte  County  Self-De- 
fensive Association,  assembled  at  Weston,  on 
the  Western  Border  of  Missouri,  in  the  inter- 
est of  Slavery ;  and  it  published,  through  the 
organ  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  at 
that  place,  a  resolution  that  "  when  called  upon 
i  by  any  citizens  of  Kansas,  its  members  would 


hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  assist  in  remov- 
ing any  and  all  emigrants  who  should  go  there 
under  the  aid  of  Northern  Emigi'ant  Socie- 
ties." This  association  afterward  often  made 
good  its  atrocious  threats,  by  violence  against 
the  property,  peace,  and  lives  of  unoffending  cit- 
izens of  Kansas.  But  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  so  far  from  denouncing  it,  does 
not  even  cote  its  existence.  The  majority  of  the 
Committee  on  Territories  ingeniously  elaborate 
the  President's  charge,  and  arraign  iSIassachu- 
setts,  her  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  and  her  emi- 
grants. What  has  Massachusetts  done  worthy 
of  censure?  Before  the  Kansas  organic  law 
was  passed  by  Congress,  Massachusetts,  on  ap- 
plication, granted  to  some  of  her  citizens  who 
were  engaged  in  "taking  up"  new  lands  in 
Western  regions,  one  of  those  common  charters 
which  are  used,  by  all  associations,  industrial, 
moral,  social,  scientific  and  religious,  now-a-days, 
instead  of  co-partnerships,  for  the  more  conve- 
nient transaction  of  their  fiscal  affiiirs.  The  ac- 
tual capital  is  some  $60,000.  Neither  the  grant- 
ing of  the  charter,  nor  any  legislative  action  of 
the  association  under  it  was  morally  wrong.  To 
emigrate  from  one  State  or  Territory  singly,  or 
in  company  with  others,  with  or  without  incor- 
poration by  statute,  is  a  right  of  every  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  as  it  is  a  right  of  every 
freeman  in  the  world.  The  State  that  denies 
this  right  is  a  tyranny — the  subject  to  whom  it 
is  denied  is  a  slave.  Such  free  emigration  is  the 
chief  element  of  American  progress  and  civili- 
zation Without  it  there  could  be  no  communi- 
ty, no  political  Territory,  no  State  in  Kansas. 
Without  it,  there  could  have  been  no  United 
States  of  America.  To  retain  and  carry  into 
Kansas  cherished  political,  as  well  as  moral,  so- 
cial, and  religious  convictions,  is  a  right  of  eve- 
ry emigrant.  Must  emigrants  to  that  Territory 
carry  there  only  their  peraons,  and  leave  behind 
their  minds  and  souls,  disembodied  and  wander- 
ing in  their  native  lands?  They  only  are  fit 
founders  of  a  State  who  exercise  independence 
of  opinion  ;  and  it  is  to  the  exercise  of  that  right 
that  our  new  States,  equally  with  all  the  older 
ones,  owe  their  intelligence  and  vigor. 

Tliere  are,  who,  distant  from  their  native  soil, 
Still  for  their  own  and  country's  glory  toil  ; 
While  some,  fast  rooted  to  their  parent's  spot. 
In  life  are  useless,  and  in  death,  forgot. 

It  is  not  morally  wrong  fur  Massachusetts  to 
aid  her  sons,  by  a  charter,  to  do  what  in  itself  is 
innocent  and  commendable.  The  President  and 
the  majority  of  the  Committee  maintain  that 
such  associations  are  in  violation  of  national  or 
at  least  of  international  laws.  Here  is  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  here  are  the 
Statutes  at  Large,  in  ten  volumes,  octavo.  Let 
the  President  or  his  defenders  point  out  the  in- 
hibition. They  specify,  particularly,  that  the 
action  of  the  State  violu*es  a  law  of  comity, 
which  regulates  the  intercou-se  of  independent 
States,  and  especially  the  intercourea  between 


the  members  of  the  Federal  Union.  Here  ara 
Vattel  and  Burlamaqui.  Let  them  point  out  Ib 
these  pages  this  law  of  comity.  There  is  no  law 
of  comity  which  forbids  nations  from  permitting 
and  encouraging  emigration,  on  the  ground  of 
opinion.  Moreover,  Slavery  is  an  outlaw  under 
the  law  of  nations.  Still  further,  the  Constitu- 
tion .of  the  United  States  has  expressly  incorpo- 
rated into  itself  all  of  the  laws  of  comity,  for 
regulating  the  intercourse  between  independent 
States,  which  it  deems  proper  to  adopt.  What- 
ever is  forbidden  expressly  by  the  Constitution 
is  unlawful.  Whatever  is  not  forbidden  is  law- 
ful. The  supposed  law  of  comity  is  not  incor- 
porated into  the  Constitution.  With  the  aid  of 
the  Committee  on  'J'erritories,  we  discover  that 
the  emigrants  from  Massachusetts  have  violated 
the  supposed  national  laws,  not  by  any  unlawful 
conduct  of  their  own,  but  by  provoking  the  un- 
lawful and  flagitious  conduct  of  the  invaders  of 
Kansas.  "  They  passed  through  Missouri  in 
large  numbers,  using  violent  language,  and  giv- 
ing unmistakable  indications  of  their  hostility  to 
the  domestic  institutions  of  that  State,"  and  thus 
"  they  created  apprehensions  that  the  object  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  was  to  abolitionize 
Kansas,  as  a  means  of  prosecuting  a  relentless 
warfare  upon  the  institution  of  Slavery  within 
the  limits  of  Missouri,  which  apprehensions  in- 
creasing with  the  progress  of  events,  ultimately 
became  settled  convictions  of  the  people  of 
Western  JVlissouri  "  Missouri  builds  railroads, " 
steamboats,  and  wharves.  It  cannot  be,  there- 
fore, that  the  mere  "  largeness  of  the  numbers" 
of  the  Eastern  travellers  offended  or  alarmed  the 
borderers.  I  confess  my  surprise  that  the  so- 
journers used  violent  language.  It  seems 'unlike 
them.  I  confess  my  greater  surprise  that  the 
borderers  were  disturbed  so  deeply  by  mere 
words.  It  seems  unlike  them.  Which  of  the 
domestic  institutions  of  Missouri  were  those 
against  which  the  travellers  manifested  deter- 
mined hostility  ?  Not  certainly  her  manufacto- 
ries, banks,  railroads,  churches  and  schools.  All 
these  are  domestic  institutions  held  in  high  res- 
pect by  the  men  of  Massachusetts,  and  are  just 
such  ones  as  these  emigrants  are  now  establish- 
ing in  Kansas.  It  was,  therefore,  African  Slavery 
alone,  a  peculiar  domestic  institution  of  Missouri, 
against  which  their  hostility  was  directed.  Waiv- 
ing a  suspicious  want  of  proof  of  the  unwise 
conduct  charged  against  them,  I  submit  that 
clearly  they  did  not  thereby  endanger  that  pecu- 
liar institution  in  Missouri,  for  they  passed  di- 
rectly through  that  State  into  Kansas.  How, 
then  were  the  borderers  provoked  ?  The  ilissou- 
rians  inferred  from  the  iangaage  and  demeanor 
of  the  travellers  that  they  would  abolitionize 
Kansas,  and  thereafter,  by  means  of  Kansas  abo- 
litionizcd,  prosecute  a  relentless  warfare  against 
Slavery  in  ^lissouri.  Far-seeing  statesmen  are 
these  Missouri  borderers,  but  less  deliberate 
than  far-sighted.  Kansas  was  not  to  be  abolition- 
ized.  It  had  never  been  otherwise  than  abaiition 


izcd  Abolitionized  Kansas  would  constitute  no 
means  for  the  prosecution  of  such  a  Avarfare. 
Missouri  lies  adjacent  to  abolitionized  Iowa  on 
the  north  and  to  abolitionized  Illinois  on  the 
east ;  yet  neither  of  those  States  has  ever  been 
used  for  such  designs  How  could  this  fearful 
enemy  prosecute  a  warfare  against  Slavery  in 
llissouri  ?  Only  by  buying  tlie  plantations  of 
her  citizens  at  their  own  prices,  an<l  so  qualify- 
ing themselves  to  speak  their  hostility  through 
the  ballot-boxes.  Could  apprehension  so  absurd 
justify  the  invasion  of  Kansas?  are  the  people 
of  Kansas  to  be  disfranchised  and  trodden  down 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  punish- 
ment for  any  extravagance  of  emigrants,  in  Mis- 
souri, on  the  way  to  that  Territory  ?  Such  is 
the  President's  second  defence,  so  far  as  it  pre- 
sents new  matter  in  avoidance  of  the  accusation 
of  the  new  State  of  Kansas.  I  proceed,  in  the 
third  place,  to  establish  the  truth  of  the  ac- 
cusations. Of  what  sort  must  the  proofs  be? 
Manifestly  only  such  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  permit  to  exist.  Not  engrossed  documents, 
authenticated  by  executive,  judicial  or  legislative 
officers.  The  transactions  occurred  in  an  unor- 
ganized country.  All  the  authorities  subse- 
quently established  in  the  Territory  are  impli- 
cated— all  the  complainants  disfranchised.  Only 
presumptive  evidences,  derived  from  the  cotem- 
poraneous  statements  and  actions  of  the  parties 
concerned,  can  be  required.  Such  presumptive 
evidence  is  derived  from  the  nature  and  charac- 
ter of  the  President's  defences.  Why  did  the 
President  plead  at  all  on  the  81st  of  December 
last,  when  the  new  state  of  Kansas  was  yet  un- 
organized, and  could  not  appear  here  to  prefer 
her  accusations  until  the  23d  of  March  ?  Why, 
if  he  must  answer  so  prematurely,  did  he  not 
plead  a  general  and  direct  denial  ?  If  he  must 
plead  specially,  why  did  he  not  set  forth  the 
facts,  instead  of  withholding  all  actual  informa- 
tion concerning  the  case  ?  Why,  since,  instead 
of  defending  j^himself,  he  must  implead  his  ac- 
cuser, did  he  not  state,  at  least,  the  ground  on 
which  that  accuser  claimed  to  justify  the  con- 
duct of  which  he  complained?  Why  did  he 
threaten  "  to  overcome  and  suppress"  the  peo- 
ple of  Kansas,  as  insurrectionists,  if  he  did  not 
mean  to  terrify  them,  and  to  prevent  their  ap- 
apearing  here,  or  at  least  to  prejudice  their 
cause?  Why  did  he  mock  them  with  a  pro- 
mise of  protection  thereafter  against  interfe- 
rence by  citizens  of  other  States,  if  they 
should  deport  themselves  peacefully  and  sub- 
missively to  the  Territorial  authorities,  if  no 
cause  for  apprehending  such  interference  had  al- 
ready been  given  by  previous  invasion  ?  Why 
did  he  labor  to  embarrass  his  accuser  by  identi- 
fying her  cause  with  the  subject  of  Abolition  of 
Slavery,  and  stigmatize  her  supporters  with  op- 
probrious epithets,  and  impute  to  them  depraved 
and  seditious  motives  ?  Why  did  he  interpose 
the  false  and  impertinent  issue  whether  one  State 
eould  intervene  by  its  laws  or  by  force  to  abo- 


lish Slavery  in  another  State  ?  Why  did  he  dis- 
tort the  Constitution,  and  present  it  as  express- 
ly guaranteeing  the  perpetuity  of  Slavery  ?  Why 
did  he  arraign  so  unnecessarily  and  so  un- 
justly, not  one,  but  all  of  the  original  Northern 
States  ?  Why  did  he  drag  into  this  case,  where 
only  Kansas  is  concerned,  a  studied,  partial  and 
prejudicial  history  of  the  past  enlargements  of 
the  nHtional  domain,  and  of  the  vast  contests 
between  the  Slave  States  and  the  Free  States 
in  their  rivalry  for  the  balance  of  power  ?  Why 
did  not  the  President  rest  content  with  one  such 
attack  on  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  new 
State  of  Kansas,  in  anticipating  her  coming,  if 
he  felt  assured  that  she  really  had  no  merit  on 
which  to  stand  ?  Why  did  he  submit  a  second 
plea  in  advance  ?  Why  in  this  plea  does  he  de- 
plore the  delays  which  prevented  the  Missouri 
borderers  from  effecting  the  conquest  of  Kansas, 
and  the  establishment  of  Slavery  therein,  at  the 
time  of  the  Congressional  election  held  in  No- 
vember, 1854,  in  fraud  of  the  Kansas  law,  and  of 
justice  and  humanity  ?  Why,  without  reason,  or 
authority  of  public  or  of  national  law,  does  he 
denounce  Massachusetts,  her  Emigrant  Aid  So- 
ciety, and  her  emigrants  ?  If  "  propagandist" 
emigrations  must  be  denounced,  why  does  he- 
spare  the  Platte  County  Self-Defensive  Associa- 
tion ?  Why  does  he  charge  Governor  Reeder 
with  "  failing  to  put  forth  all  his  energies  to  pro- 
vent  or  counteract  the  tendencies  to  illegality 
which  are  found  to  exist  in  all  imperfectly  or- 
ganized and  newly-associated  countries,"  if,  in- 
deed, no  "  illegality"  has  occurred  there?  While 
thus,  by  implication,  admitting  that  such  illegal- 
ity has  occurred  in  Kansas,  v,'hy  does  he  not  tell 
us  its  nature  and  extent  ?  Why,  when  Governor 
Reeder  was  implicated  in  personal  conduct,  not 
criminal,  but  incongruous  with  his  official  rela- 
tions, did  the  President  retain  him  in  office  until 
after  he  had  proclaimed  at  Easton  that  Kansas 
had  been  subjugated  by  the  borderers  of  Missou- 
ri, and  why,  after  he  had  done  so,  and  had  de- 
nounced the  Legislature,  did  the  President  re- 
move him  for  the  same  pre-existing  cause  only  ? 
Why  does  the  President  admit  that  the  election 
for  the  legislative  bodies  of  Kansas  was  held  un- 
der circumstances  inauspicious  to  a  truthful  and 
legal  result,  if  nevertheless,  the  result  attained  was 
indeed  a  truthful  and  legal  one  ?  On  what  evi- 
dence does  the  President  ground  his  statement 
that,  after  that  election,  there  were  mutual  com- 
plaints of  usurpation,  fraud,  and  violence,  when 
we  hear  from  no  other  quarter  of  such  com- 
plaints made  by  the  party  that  prevailed  ?  If 
there  were  such  mutual  accusations,  and  even  if 
they  rested  on  probable  grounds,  would  that  fact 
abate  the  right  of  the  people  of  Kansas  to  a 
government  of  their  own,  securing  a  safe  and 
well-ordered  freedom?  Why  does  the  Presi- 
dent argue  that  the  Governor  (Mr.  Reeder) 
alone  had  the  power  to  receive  and  consider  the 
returns  of  the  election  of  the  Legislative  bo- 
dies, and  that  he  certified  those  returns  in  fifteen 


8 


out  of  the  twenty-two  Districts,  when  he  knows 
that  the  Governor,  behig  his  own  ageift,  gave 
the  certificates  on  the  ground  that  the  returns 
were  technically  correct,  and  that  the  illegality 
complained  of  was  in  the  conduct  of  the  elec- 
tions and  in  making  up  of  the  returns  by  the 
judges,  and  that  the  terror  of  the  armed  inva- 
sion prevented  all  complaints  of  this  kind  from 
being  presented  to  the  Governor?  Why  does 
the  President  repose  on  the  fact  that  the  Gov- 
ernor, on  the  ground  of  informality  in  the  re- 
turns, rejected  the  members  who  were  chosen  in 
the  seven  other  Districts,  and  ordered  new  elec- 
tions therein,  and  certified  in  favor  of  the  per- 
sons then  chosen,  when  he  knows  that  the  ma- 
jority, elected  in  the  fifteen  districts,  expelled  at 
once  the  persons  chosen  at  such  second  elections, 
and  admitted  these  originally  returned  as  elected 
in  these  seven  Districts  on  the  ground  that  the 
Governor's  rejection  of  them,  and  the  second 
election  which  he  ordered,  were  unauthorized  and 
illegal?  Why  does  ihe  President,  although 
omitting  to  mention  this  last  fact,  nevertheless 
justify  the  expulsion  o:  these  newly-elected  mem- 
bers on  the  ground  that  it  was  authorized  by 
parliamentary  law,  when  he  knows  that  there 
was  no  parliamentary  or  other  law  existing  in 
the  Territory,  but  the  organic  act  of  Congress, 
which  conferred  no  such  power  on  the  Legisla- 
ture ?  Why  was  Governor  Reeder  replaced  by 
Mr.  Shannon,  who  immediately  proclaimed  that 
the  Legislative  bodies  which  his  predecessor  had 
denounced  were  the  legitimate  Legislature  of  the 
Territory  ?  Why  does  the  President  plead  that 
the  subject  of  the  alleged  Missourian  usurpa- 
tion and  tyranny  in  Kansas  was  one  which,  by 
its  nature,  appertained  exclusively  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  local  authorities  of  the  Territory, 
when,  if  the  charges  were  true,  there  were  no 
legitimate  local  authorities  within  the  Territory  ? 
Is  a  foreign  usurpation  in  a  defenceless  territory 
of  the  United  States  to  be  tolerated,  if  only  it 
be  successful  ?  And  is  the  Government  de  facto, 
by  whomsoever  usurped,  and  with  whatever  ty- 
ranny exercised,  entitled  to  demand  obedience 
from  the  people,  and  to  be  recognized  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  ?  _  Why  does  he 
plead,  that  "  whatever  irregularities  may  have 
occurred  it  is  now  too  late  to  raise  the  question?" 
Is  there  nothing  left  but  endurance  to  the  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States,  constituting  a  whole 
political  community  of  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren— an  incipient  American  State — subjugated 
and  oppressed  ?  Must  they  sit  down  in  peace, 
abandonetl,  contented,  and  despised  ?  Why 
does  he  plead,  that  "  at  least  it  is  a  question  as 
to  which,  neither  now  nor  at  any  previous  time, 
has  the  least  possible  legal  authority  been  pos- 
sessed by  the  President  of  the  United  States?" 
Did  any  magistrate  ever  before  make  such  an 
exhibition  of  ambitious  imbecility?  Cannot 
Congres,?  clothe  him  with  power  to  act,  and  is 
it  not  his  duty  to  ask  power  to  remove  usurpa- 
tion and  subvert  tyranny  in  a  Territory  of  the 


United  States  ?  Are  these  the  tone,  the  tenor, 
and  the  staple  of  a  defence,  where  the  accused  is 
guiltless,  and  the  crimes  charged  were  never 
committed  ?  The  President  virtually  confesses 
all  the  transacions  charged,  by  thus  presenting  a 
connected  system  of  maxims  and  principles,  in- 
vented to  justify  them.  I  proceed,  however,  to 
clinch  conviction  by  direct  and  positive  proofs  : 
First,  the  statements  of  the  party  which  has 
been  overborne.  General  Pomeroy  and  his  as- 
sociates, in  behalf  of  the  State  of  Kansas,  make 
this  representation  concerning  the  Congressional 
election  held  in  the  Territory  on  the  30th  of 
November,  ISSd  : 

"The  first  ballot  box  that  was  opened  upon  our  virgin  soil 
was  closed  to  us  by  overpowering  numbers  and  impending 
force.  So  bold  and  reckless  were  our  invaders,  tliat  they 
cared  not  to  conceal  their  attack.  They  came  upon  us,  not 
in  the  guise  of  voters,  to  steal  away  our  franchise,  but  boldly 
and  openly,  to  snatch  it  with  a  strong  hand.  Tliey  came  di- 
rectly from  their  own  homes,  and  in  compact  and  organized 
bands,  with  arms  in  hand  and  provisions  for  the  expedition, 
marched  to  our  polls,  and  when  their  work  was  done,  return- 
ed whence  they  came.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the 
details;  it  is  enough  to  say  that  in  three  distiots,  in  which, 
by  the  most  irrefragable  evidence,  there  were  not  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  voters,  most  of  whom  refused  to  participate  in 
the  mockery  of  the  elective  franchise,  these  invaders  polled 
over  a  thousand  votes." 

In  regard  to  the  election  of  the  30th  of 
March,  1855,  the  same  parties  state  : 

"They  (the  Missourians)  arrived  at  their  several  destina- 
tions the  night  before  tne  election,  and  having  pitched  their 
camps  and  placed  their  sentries,  waited  for  the  coming  day. 
Baggage  wagons  were  there,  with  arms  and  ammunition 
enough  for  a  protracted  fight,  and  among  them  two  brass 
field-pieces,  ready  charged.  They  came  with  drums  beating 
and  flags  flying,  and  their  leaders  were  of  the  most  prominent 
and  conspicuous  men  of  their  respective  States.  In  the 
morning  they  surrounded  the  polls,  armed  with  guns,  bowie- 
knives,  and  revolvers,  and  declared  their  determination  to 
vote  at  all  hazards,  and  in  spite  of  all  consequences.  If  the 
judges  could  be  made  to  subserve  their  purposes,  and  re- 
ceive their  votes,  and  if  no  obstacle  was  cast  in  their  way. 
their  leaders  exerted  themselves  to  preserve  peace  and  ord'.r 
in  the  conduct  of  the  election ;  but.  at  the  same  time,  did 
not  hesitate  to  declare,  that  if  not  allowed  to  vote,  they  would 
proceed  to  any  extremity  in  destruction  of  property  and 
life.  If  the  control  of  the  polls  could  not  be  had  otherwise, 
the  judges  were  by  intimidation,  and,  if  necessary,  by  vio- 
lence prevented  from  performing  their  duty,  or,  it  unyield- 
ing in  this  respect,  were  driven  from  thi^ir  post,  and  the  va- 
cancy filled  in  form  by  the  persons  on  the  ground ;  and 
whenever  by  any  means  they  liad  obtained  the  control  of  the 
board,  the  foreigu  vote  was  promiscuously  poured  in,  with- 
out discrimination  or  reserve,  or  the  slightest  care  to  con- 
ceal its  nefarious  illegality.  At  one  of  tlie  polls,  two  of  the 
judges  having  manfully  stood  up  in  the  face  of  the  armed 
mob  and  declared  they  would  do  their  duty,  one  portion  of 
the  mob  commenced  to  tear  down  the  house,  another  pro- 
ceeded to  break  in  the  door  of  the  judge's  room,  while  others, 
with  drawn  knives,  posted  themselves  at  the  window,  with 
the  proclaimed  purpjse  of  killing  any  voter  who  would  al- 
low himself  to  be  sworn.  Voters  were  dragged  from  the  win- 
dow, because  they  would  not  show  their  tickets  or  vote  at  the 
dictation  of  the  mob  ;  and  the  invaders  declared  cpenly,  at 
the  p.ills,  that  they  would  cut  the  throats  of  the  judges  if 
they  did  not  receive  their  votes  without  requiring  an  oath  as 
to  their  residence.  The  room  was  finally  forced,  and  the 
judges,  surrounded  by  an  armed  and  excited  crowd,  were 
olfered  the  alternative  of  resignation  or  death,  and  five  min- 
utes were  allowed  for  their  decision.  The  ballot-box  was 
seized,  and,  amid  shouts  of  'Hurrah  for  Missouri,' was  car- 
ried into  the  mob.  The  two  menaced  judges  then  lelt  the 
ground,  together  with  all  the  resident  citizens,  except  a  few_ 
who  acted  in  the  outrage,  been  use  the  result  expected  from 
it  correspinded  to  their  own  views. 

"  When  an  excess  of  the  foreign  force  was  found  to  be  had 
at  one  pjll,  detachments  were  sent  to  the  others.  *  *  * 
A  minister  of  the  Gospel,  who  refused  to  accede  to  the  de- 
mands of  a  similar  mob  of  some  four  liundred  armed  and  or- 
ganized men,  was  driven  by  violence  from  his  post,  and  the 
vacancy  filled  by  themselves.  •  *  »  *  Another  clergy- 
man, for  the  expression  of  his  opinion,  was  assaulted  and 
beaten.  •  *  •  *  The  inhabitants  of  the  District,  power- 
less to  resist  the  abundant  supp  y  of  arms  and  animuuition, 
organized  prtparation,  and  overwhelming  numbers  of  the 
foreigners,  lelt  the  p^lls  without  voting.  *  *  •  *  In  the 
La  rence  District,  one  voter  was  fired  at  as  he  was  driven 
from  the  election  ground.  •  «  *  »  Finding  they  had  a 
I  greater  force  tlian  was  necessary  for  that  poll,  some  2l!0  men 
1    were  drafted  from  the  number,  and  sent  oil'  under  the  proyer 


officers  to  another  district,  after  which  the"  still  polled  from 
this  caiup  700  votes.  *  *  •  *  In  tlie  Kouith  and  Seventh 
Districts,  the  invaders  came  together  in  an  armed  and  or- 
ganized body,  with  trains  of  fifty  wagons,  besides  liorsemen, 
and,  the  nigiit  before  election,  pitclied  their  cainps  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  polls,  and  liaviug  appointed  their  own  judges 
in  place  of  those  who,  from  intimidation  or  otherwise,  failed 
to  attend,  they  voted  without  any  proof  of  residence.  In 
these  two  election  districts,  where  tlie  census  sliows  lot) 
voters,  there  were  polled  314  votes,  and  last  fall  7ii5  votes,  al- 
though a  large  part  of  the  actual  residents  did  not  vote  on 
either  occasion  «  »  *  *  From  a  careful  examination  of 
the  returns,  we  are  satisfied  that  over  3,UU0  votes  were  thus 
east  by  the  citizens  and  residents  of  the  States." 

I  place  iu  opposition  to  those  statements  of 
the  party  that  was  overborne,  the  statements  of 
the  party  that  prevailed,  beginning  with  signals 
of  tlie  attack,  and  ending  with  celebrations  of 
the  victory. 

Gren.  Stringfellow  addressed  the  invaders  in 
Missouri,  on  the  eve  of  the  election  of  March  30, 
1855, thus  : 

"To  those  who  have  qualms  of  conscience  as  to  violating 
laws.  State  or  National,  the  time  has  come  when  such  impo- 
sitions must  be  disregarded,  as  your  rights  and  property  are 
in  danger;  and  I  advise  you,  one  and  all,  to  enter  every  elec- 
tion district  in  Kansas,  in  defiance  of  Reeder  and  his  vile 
myrmidons,  and  vote  at  the  point  of  the  bowie  knife  and  the 
revolver.  Neither  give  nor  take  quarter,  as  our  case  demands 
it.  It  is  enough  that  the  slaveholding  interest  wills  it,  from 
vfhich  there  is  no  appeal,  '^hat  right  has  Gov.  Reeder  to 
rule  Missourians  in  Kansas?  His  proclamation  and  pre- 
scribed oath  must  be  repudiated.  It  is  your  interest  to  do  so. 
Mind  that  Slavery  is  established  where  it  is  not  prohibited." 

T/ie  Kansas  Herald,  an  organ  of  both  the  Ad- 
ministration and  the  Pro-Slavery  party,  an- 
nounced the  result  of  the  legislative  election  in 
tbe  Territory  immediately  afterward  as  follows  : 

"  Yesterday  was  a  proud  and  glorious  day  for  the  friends 
of  Soutliern  rights.  The  triumph  of  the  Pro-Slavery  party  is 
complete  and  overwhelming.  Come  on.  Southern  men ! 
Bring  youi'  slaves,  and  fill  up  the  Territory!  Kansas  ia 
saved !" 

The  Squatter  Sovereign,  published  in  Missouri, 
thus  liiinounced  the  result  of  the  election,  the 
after  it  closed  : 

"  Indepbndence,  March  31, 1835. 
"Several  hundred  emigrants  from  Kansas  have  just  en- 
tered our  city.  They  were  preceded  by  the  Westport  and 
Independence  brass  bands.  They  came  in  at  the  west  side 
of  the  public  square,  and  proceeded  entirely  around  it.  the 
bands  cheering  us  with  fine  music,  and  the  emigrants  with 
good  news.  Immediately  following  the  bands  were  about 
two  hundred  horsemen  in  regular  order;  following  these 
were  one  hundred  and  fifty  wagons,  carriages,  &c  They 
gave  repeated  cheers  for  Kansas  and  Missouri.  They  report 
that  not  an  Anti  Slavery  man  will  be  in  the  Legislature  of 
Kansas.    We  have  made  a  clean  sweep." 

A  letter  written  at  Brunswick,  in  Missouri, 
dated  April  20, 1855,  and  published  in  The  New 
York  Herald,  a  Pro-Slavery  journal,  says  that 

"  From  five  to  seven  thousand  men  started  from  Missouri 
to  attend  the  election,  some  to  remove,  but  the  most  to  re- 
turn to  their  families,  with  an  intention,  if  they  liked  the 
Territory,  to  make  it  their  permanent  abode,  at  the  earliest 
moment  practicable.  But  they  intended  to  vote.  The  Mis- 
sourians were,  many  of  them,  Douglas  men.  There  were  150 
voters  from  this  county,  175  from  Howard,  100  from  Cooper. 
Indeed,  every  county  furnished  its  quota ;  and  when  they  set 
out  it  looked  like  an  army  *  •  They  were  armed.  *  *  * 
And,  as  there  were  no  houses  in  the  Territory,  they  carried 
tents.  Their  mission  was  a  peaceable  one— to  vote,  and  to 
drive  down  stakes  for  tlieir  future  homes.  After  the  election 
some  1.500  of  the  voters  sent  a  committee  to  Mr.  Reeder,  to 
ascertain  if  it  was  his  purpose  to  ratify  the  election.  He  an- 
swered that  it  was,  and  said  the  majority  at  an  election  must 
carry  the  day-  But  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  1500,  ap- 
prehending that  the  Governor  might  attempt  to  play  the  ty- 
rant—since his  conduct  had  already  been  insidious  and  un- 
just—wore on  their  hats  bunches  of  hemp.  They  were  re- 
solved, if  a  tyrant  attempted  to  trample  upon  the  rights  of 
the  sovereign  people,  to  hang  him." 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1855,  The  Squatter  Sov- 
ereign, an  organ  of  the  invasion  in  Missouri,  thus 
f'ave  utterance  to  its  spirit : 


day 


"  From  reports  now  received  ot!  IIt.i;i;^(!lcr,  lie  never  intends 
returning  to  our  borders.  Should  he  do  so,  we,  without  hes- 
itation, say  that  our  people  ought  to  hang  him  by  the  neck, 
like  a  traitorous  dog,  as  he  is,  so  soon  as  be  puts  his  unhal- 
lowed feet  upon  our  shores. 

"Vindicate  your  characters  and  the  Territory ;  and  should 
the  ungrateful  dog  dare  to  come  among  us  again,  hang  him 
to  the  first  rotten  tree. 

"  A  military  force  to  protect  the  ballot  box !  Let  President 
Pierce,  or  Gov.  Reeder,  or  any  other  power,  attempt  such  a 
course  in  this  or  any  other  portion  of  the  Union,  and  that  day 
will  ne^er  be  forgotten." 

Gov.  Reeder,  at  Easton,  in  Pennsylvania,  ou 
his  first  return  to  that  place  after  the  elections, 
declared  the  same  result  in  frank  and  candid 
M'ords,  which  cost  him  his  office,  namely  : 

"It  was.  indeed,  too  true  that  Kansas  had  been  invaded, 
conquered,  subjugated,  by  an  armed  force  from  beyond  her 
borders,  led  on  by  a  fanatical  spirit,  trampling  under  foot 
the  principles  of  the  Kansas  bill  and  the  riglit  of  EUflrage." 

The  Hon.  David  R.  Atchison,  a  direct  and 
outspoken  man,  who  never  shrinks  from  respon- 
sibility, and  who  is  confessedly  eminent  at  once 
as  a  political  leader  in  Missouri  and  as  a  leader 
of  the  Pro-Slavery  movement  therein  directed 
against  Kansas,  in  a  speech  reported  as  having 
been  made  to  his  fellow-citizens,  and  which,  sc 
far  as  I  know,  has  not  been  disavowed,  said  : 

"I  saw  it  with  my  own  eyes.  These  men  came  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  driving  or  expelling  you  from  the  Terri- 
tory. What  did  I  advise  you  to  do?  Why,  meet  them  at 
their  own  game.  When  the  first  election  came  off,  I  told  you 
to  go  over  and  vote  You  did  so,  and  beat  them.  We,  our 
party  in  Kansas,  nominated  Gen.  Whitfield.  They,  the  Abo- 
litionists, nominated  Flenniken  :  not  Planegan,  for  Flanegan 
was  a  good,  honest  man,  but  Flenniken.  Well,  the  next  day 
after  the  election,  that  same  Flenniken,  with  three  hundred 
of  his  Tiiters,  left  the  Territory,  and  has  never  returned — no, 
never  returned ! 

"  Well,  what  next?  Why,  an  election  for  members  of  the 
Legislature,  to  organize  the  Territory,  must  be  held.  What 
did  I  advise  you  to  do  then  ?  Why  meet  them  on  their  own 
ground,  and  beat  them  at  their  own  game  again  ;  and,  cold 
and  inclement  as  the  weather  was,  I  went  over  with  a  com- 
pany of  men.  My  object  in  going  was  not  to  vote;  I  had  not 
a  right  to  vote  unless  I  had  disfranchised  myself  in  Missouri. 
I  was  not  within  two  miles  of  a  v  ting  place.  My  object  in 
going  was  not  to  vote,  but  to  settle  a  difficulty  between  two 
of  our  candidates;  and  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North  said, 
and  published  it  abroad,  that  Atchison  was  there,  with  bowie 
knife  and  revolver  and  by  God  'twas  true.  I  never  did  go 
into  that  Territory,  I  never  intend  to  go  into  that  Territory 
without  being  prepared  for  all  such  kind  of  cattle.  Well,  we 
beat  them ;  and  Guv.  Reeder  gave  certificates  to  a  majcrity 
of  all  the  members  of  both  Houses  ;  and  then,  after  they  were 
organized,  as  everybody  will  admit,  they  were  the  only  com- 
petent persons  to  say  who  were  and  who  were  not  membera 
of  the  same." 

A  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.  If  Missourians 
voted  in  Kansas,  it  would  be  expected  that  the 
ballots  deposited  would  exceed  the  number  of 
electors.  Just  so  it  was.  We  have  seen  that  it 
was  so  asserted.  The  Executive  Journal,  re- 
cently obtained,  proves  that  in  four  districts, 
where  the  results  were  not  contested,  2,964  votes 
were  cast  on  the  30th  of  March,  although  only 
1,365  voters  were  there,  as  ascertained  by  the 
census.  Again  :  The  Legislature  chosen  on  the 
30th  of  March,  1855,  withdrew  from  the  interior 
of  the  Territory  to  a  place  inconvenient  to  its 
citizens,  and  on  the  border  of  Missouri.  There 
that  Legislature  enacted  laws  to  this  effect, 
namely :  forbidding  the  speaking,  writing,  or 
printing,  or  publishing  of  anything,  in  any  form, 
calculated  to  disaffect  slaves,  or  induce  them  to 
escape,  under  pain  of  not  less  than  five  ycare  im- 
prisonment with  hard  labor  ;  and  forbidding  free 
persons  from  maintaining,  by  speech,  writing,  or 


10 


printing,  or  publishing,  that  slaves  cannot  law- 
fully be  held  in  the  Territory,  under  pain  of  im- 
prisonment and  hard  labor  two  years.  The  Le- 
gislature further  enacted  that  no  person  "  consci- 
entiously opposed  to  holding  slaves,"  or  enter- 
taining doubts  of  the  legal  existence  of  Slavery 
in  Kansas,  sliall  sit  as  a  juror  in  the  trial  of  any 
cause  founded  on  a  breach  of  the  laws  which  I 
have  described:  '\  hey  further  provided  that  all 
officers  and  attorneys  should  be  sworn  not  only 
to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
but  also  to  support  and  sustain  the  organic  law 
of  the  Territory,  and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law; 
and  that  any  person  offering  to  vote  shall  be 
presumed  to  be  entitled  to  vote  until  the  contrary 
IS  shown  ;  and  if  any  one,  when  required,  shall 
refuse  to  take  an  oath  to  sustain  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  he  shall  not  be  permitted  to  vote. 
Although  they  passed  a  law  that  none  but  an 
inhabitant  who  had  paid  a  tax  should  vote,  yet 
they  made  no  time  of  residence  necessary,  and 
provided  for  the  immediate  payment  of  a  poll 
tax ;  so  virtually  declaring  that  on  the  eve  of  an 
election  the  people  of  a  neighboring  State  can 
come  in,  in  unlimited  numbers,  and,  by  taking 
up  a  residence  of  a  day  or  an  hour,  pay  a  poll 
tax,  and  thus  become  legal  voters,  and  then,  after 
voting,  return  to  their  own  State.  They  thus, 
in  practical  effect,  provided  for  the  people  of 
Missouri  to  control  future  elections  at  their  plea- 
3ure,  and  permitted  such  only  of  the  real  inhab- 
itants of  the  Territory  to  vote  as  arc  friendly  to 
the  holding  of  slaves.  They  permitted  no  elec- 
tion of  any  of  the  officers  in  the  Territory  to  be 
made  by  the  people  thereof,  but  created  the 
offices,  and  filled  tlaem,  or  appointed  officers  to 
fill  them,  for  long  periods.  They  provided  that 
the  next  annual  election  should  be  held  in  Octo- 
ber, 185G,  and  the  Assembly  should  meet  in  Jan- 
uary, 1857  ;  so  that  none  of  these  laws  could  be 
changed  until  the  lower  House  might  be  changed, 
in  1855*;  but  the  Council,  which  is  elected  for 
two  years,  could  not  be  changed  so  as  to  allow 
a  change  of  the  laws  or  officers  until  the  session 
of  1858,  however  much  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Territory  might  desire  it.  How  forcibly  do 
these  laws  illustrate  that  old  political  maxim  of 
the  English  nation,  that  a  Parliament  called  by 
a  conqueror  is  itself  conquered  and  enslaved! 
Who  but  foreigner,  usurpers,  and  t3Tants  could 
have  made  for  the  people  of  Kansas — a  people 
"  perfectly  free  " — such  laws  as  these  ?  Anato- 
mists will  describe  the  instrument,  and  even  the 
force  of  the  blow,  if  only  you  show  them  the 
wound.  Behold  the  proofs  on  which  the  allega- 
tions of  invasion,  usurpation,  and  tyranny,  made 
by  the  new  State  of  Kansas,  rest.  They  are, 
first :  The  President's  own  virtual  admission,  by 
defenses,  indirect,  irrelevant,  ill-tempered,  sophis- 
tical, and  evasive.  Second  :  An  absolute  agree- 
ment, concurrence,  and  harmony  between  the 
statements  of  the  conflicting  parties  who  were 
engaged  in  the  transactions  involved.  Third : 
The  consequences  of  those  transactions  exactly 


such  as  must  follow,  if  the  accusations  be  true, 
and  such  as  could  not  result  if  they  be  false. 

A  few  words,  however,  must  be  added,  to 
bring  more  distinctly  into  view,  the  President's 
complicity  in  these  transactions,  and  to  establish 
his  responsibility  therefor.  The  President  open- 
ly lent  his  official  influence  and  patronage  to  tho 
slaveholders  of  Missouri,  to  efiect  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  prohibition  of  Slavery  in  Kunzas, 
contained  in  the  Act  of  Congress  of  1820.  He 
knew  their  purposes  in  regard  to  the  elections  in 
Kansas.  He  never  interfered  to  prevent,  to  de- 
feat, or  to  hinder  them.  He  employed  his  official 
patronage  to  aid  them.  He  now  defends  and 
protects  the  usurpation  and  tyranny,  established 
by  the  invaders  in  Kansas,  with  all  the  influence 
of  his  exalted  station,  and  even  with  the  milita- 
ry power  of  the  Eepublic ;  and  he  argues  tho 
duty  of  the  people  there  to  submit  to  the  force- 
able  establishment  of  Slavery,  in  violation  of 
the  national  pledge,  which  he  concurred  in  giv- 
ing, that  they  should  be  left  perfectly  free  to  re- 
ject and  exclude  that  justly  obnoxious  sys- 
tem. It  thus  appears  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  holds  the  people  of  Kansas  pros- 
trate and  enslaved  at  his  feet.  To  complete  the 
painful  account  of  this  great  crime,  it  is  necessa- 
ry now  to  add  that  there  has  not  been  one  day 
nor  night,  since  the  Government  of  Kansas  was 
constituted  and  confided  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  either  the  properties,  or 
liberties,  or  even  the  lives,  of  its  citizens  have 
been  secure  against  the  violence  and  vengeance 
of  the  extreme  foreign  faction  which  he  upholds 
and  protects.  At  this  day,  Kansas  is  becoming 
more  distinctly  than  before,  the  scene  of  a  con- 
flict of  irreconcilable  opinions,  to  be  determined 
by  brute  force.  No  emigrant  goes  there  un- 
armed, no  citizen  dwells  there  in  safety  unarmed  ; 
armed  masses  of  men  are  proceeding  into  the 
Territory,  from  the  various  parts  of  the  United 
States,  to  complete  the  work  of  invasion  and 
tyranny  which  he  has  thus  begun,  under  circum- 
stances of  fraud  and  perfidy  unworthy  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  ruler  of  a  free  people.  This  gath- 
ering conflict  in  Kansas  divides  the  sympathies, 
interests,  passions,  and  prejudices  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  Whether  under  such  circum- 
stances,it  can  be  circumscribedwithin  the  limits  of 
the  Territory  of  Kansas,  must  be  determined  by 
statesmen  from  their  knowledge  of  the  course  of 
civil  commotions,  which  have  involved  questions 
of  moral  right  and  conscientious  duty,  as  well  as 
balances  of  political  power.  Whether,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  people  of  Kansas,  under  th*'se 
circumstances,  will  submit  to  this  tyranny  of  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  like  themselves, 
whose  term  of  political  power  is  nearly  expired, 
can  be  determined  by  considering  it  in  the  as- 
pect in  which  it  is  viewed  by  themselves. 
Speechless  here,  as  they  yet  are,  I  give  utterance 
to  their  united  voices,  and,  holding  in  my  hand 
the  arraignment  of  George  III ,  by  the  Congress 
of  1776,  I  impeach — in  the  words  of  that  im- 


11 


mortal    text— the     President    of  the    United 
States : 

"  II©  has  refused  to  pass  laws  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  people,  unless  they  would  relinquish  the  right  of  rep- 
reseutation  in  their  Legislature,  a  right  inestimable  to 
them,  and  formidable  to  tyrants  only : 

•'  lie  has  called  together  Legislative  bodies  at  a  place  un- 
usual, uncomfortable,  and  distant  from  the  depository  of 
Iheir  public  records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  fatiguing  them 
Into  a  compliance  with  his  measures: 

"  lie  has  prevented  Legislative  Houses  from  being  elect- 
ed, for  no  other  cause  than  his  conviction  that  they  would 
'  oppose  with  manly  firmness  his  invasions  on  the  rights  of 
the  people  :' 

"  lie  has  refused  for  a  long  time  after"  spurious  Legisla- 
tive houses  were  Imposed  by  himself,  by  usurpation,  on  the 
people  of  Kansas,  "  to  cause  others  to  be  elected,  whereby 
the  Legislative  powers,  Incapable  of  annihilation,  have  re- 
turned to  the  people  at  large  for  their  exercise,  the  State 
remaining  in  the  meantime  exposed  to  all  the  danger  of 
invasion  from  without,  ana  civil  war  within  : 

"  He  has  created  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and  sent 
hither  swarms  of  officers,  to  harrass  our  people  and  eat  out 
their  substance; 

"  He  has  kept  among  ns  in  times  of  peace,  standing  ar- 
mies, to  compel  our  submission  to  a  foreign"  Legislature, 
''  and  has  alTected  to  render  the  military  independent  of, 
and  superior  to,  the  civil  power: 

"He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  juris- 
diction foreign  to  our  constitution,  and  unacknowledged  by 
our  laws,  giving  his  assent  to  their  acts  of  pretended  Legis- 
lation : 

"  For  proteoUng"  Invaders  of  Kansas  "  from  punishment 
for  any  murders  which  they  sU^ll  commit  on  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  Territory ; 

"For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  American  law  In" 
this  Territory,  "  establishing  therein  an  arbitrary  Govern- 
ment, so  as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instru- 
ment for  introducing  the  same  absolute  rule  Into"  other 
Ttrrltories  : 

"  For  taking  away  our  Charter,  abolishing  our  most  valu- 
able laws,  arid  altering  fundamentally  the  powers  of  our 
Government : 

"For  suspendins:  our  own  Legislature,  and  declaring" 
an  usurping  Legislature,  constituted  by  Idmself,  "invested 
with  power  to  Legislate  for  us  in  all  cases  whatsoever." 

What  is  wanting  here  to  fill  up  the  comple- 
ment of  a  high  judicial  process  ?  Is  it  an  accu- 
ser ?  The  youngest  born  of  the  Republic  is  be- 
fore you  imploring  you  to  rescue  her  from  immo- 
lation on  the  altar  of  public  faction  Is  it  a 
crime  ?  Bethink  yourselves  what  it  is  that  has 
been  subverted  It  is  the  whole  of  a  complete 
and  rouuded-off  Republican  Government  of  a 
Territory,  indeed,  by  name,  but,  in  substance,  a 
civil  State.  Consider  the  effect.  The  people 
of  Kansas  were  "  perfectly  free."  They  now  are 
frev^  only  to  submit  and  obey.  Consider  whose 
system  that  Republican  Government  was,  and 
the  power  that  established  it.  It  was  one  of 
the  Constitutions  of  the  United  States,  estab- 
lishetl  by  an  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  Consider  what  a  ty^nnny  it  is  that  has 
been  built  on  that  atrocious  usurpation  It  is 
not  a  discriminating  tjTanny  that  selects  and 
punishes  one,  or  a  few,  or  even  many,  but  it  dis- 
franchises all,  and  reduces  every  citizen  to  abject 
Slavery.  Examine  the  code  created  by  the  Le- 
I  giglature.  All  the  statutes  of  the  State  of  Mis- 
j  Bouri  are  enacted  in  gross,  without  alteration  or 
amendment,  for  the  Government  of  Kansas ; 
and  then,  at  the  end,  the  hasty  bkmder  or  mis- 
j  nomer  is  corrected  by  an  explanatory  act,  that 
I  wherever  the  word  "  State"  occurs  it  means 
1  "  Territory."  And  what  a  code !  One  that 
not,  indeed,  the  fruits  of  the  womb,  but 


the  equally  important  element  of  a  State,  the 
fruits — the  immortal  fruits — of  the  mind  ;  a 
code  that  puts  in  peril  all  rights  and  liberties 
whatsoever,  by  denying  to  men  the  right  to 
know,  to  utter,  and  to  argue,  freely,  according 
to  conscience — a  right  in  itself  conservative  of 
all  other  rights  and  liberties.  I  do  not  wonder 
that  a  Senator  who  has  defended  those  laws 
here,  deemed,  it  necessary,  at  the  same  time,  to 
assail  The  New  York  Tribune.  If  transac- 
tions like  those  had  occurred  in  old  Rome,  simi- 
lar denunciations  would  have  fallen  on  the 
heads  of  the  Gracchi — the  Tribune  of  the  peo- 
ple. Is  an  oflender  wanting?  He  stands  be- 
fore you,  in  many  respects  the  most  eminent  man 
in  all  the  world — the  President  of  the  United 
States — the  constitutional  and  chosen  defender 
and  protector  of  the  people  who  have  been  sub- 
jugated and  enslaved.  Is  there  any  thing  of 
dignity  or  authority  wanting  to  this  tribunal  ? 
Where  elsewhere  shall  be  found  one  more  au- 
gust than  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ?  It 
is  the  ancient,  constant  and  undoubted  right  and 
usages  of  Parliaments — it  is  the  chief  purpose 
of  their  being — to  question  and  complain  of  all 
persons,  of  what  degree  soever,  found  grievous 
to  the  Commonwealth,  in  abusing  the  power 
and  trust  committed  to  them  by  the  People. 
Does  this  tribunal  need  a  motive?  We  have 
that,  too,  in  painful  reality.  These  usurpa- 
tions and  oppressions  have  hitherto  rested  with 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  those 
whom  he  has  abetted.  If  they  shall  be  left  un- 
redressed, they  will  henceforth  become,  by  adop« 
tion,  our  own.  The  conviction  of  the  otlending 
President  is  complete,  and  now  he  sinks  out 
of  view.  His  punishment  rests  w  th  the  People 
of  the  United  States,  whose  trust  he  has  be- 
trayed. His  conviction  was  only  incidental  to 
the  business  which  is  the  order  of  the  day  The 
order  of  the  day  is  the  redress  of  the  wrongs  of 
Kansas. 

How  like  unto  each  other  are  the  parallels  of 
tyranny  and  revolution  in  all  countries  and  in 
all  times !  Kansas  is  to-day  in  the  very  act  of 
revolution  against  a  tyranny  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  identical  in  all  its  prominent 
features  with  that  tyranny  of  the  King  of  Eng- 
land which  gave  birth  to  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. Kansas  has  instituted  a  revolution,  simply 
because  ordinary  remedies  can  never  be  applied 
in  great  political  emergencies,  'i  here  is  a  pro- 
found philosophy  that  belongs  to  Revolutions. 
According  to  that  Philosophy,  the  President  is 
assumed  by  the  people  of  Kansas  to  entertain 
a  resentment  which  can  never  be  appeased,  and 
his  power  consequently,  must  be  wholly  taken 
away.  Happily,  however,  for  Kansas,  and  for 
us,  her  revolution  is  one  that  was  anticipated 
and  sanctioned  and  provided  for  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  and  is,  therefore,  a 
peaceful  and  paradoxical  as  the  expression  may 
seem)  a  constitutional  one.  Never  before  havQ 
I  seen  occasion  so  great  for  admiring  the  wisdom 


12 


and  forecast  of  those  who  raised  that  noble  edi- 
fice of  Civil  Government.  'I  he  people  of  Kan- 
sas, deprived  of  their  sovereignty  by  a  domestic 
tyranny,  have,  nevertheless,  lawfully  rescued  it 
provisionally,  and,  so  exercising  it,  have  consti- 
tuted themselves  a  State,  and  applied  to  Con- 
gress to  admit  them  as  such  into  the  Federal 
Union.  Congress  has  power  to  admit  the  new 
State  thus  organized.  The  favorable  exercise 
of  that  power  will  terminate  and  crown  the  revo- 
lution. Once  a  State,  the  people  of  Kansas  can 
preserve  internal  order,  and  defend  themselves 
against  invasion.  Thus,  the  constitutional  re- 
medy is  as  effectual  as  it  is  peaceful  and  simple. 
This  is  the  remedy  for  the  evils  existing  in  the 
Territory  of  Kansas,  which  I  propose.  Happily, 
there  is  no  need  to  prove  it  to  be  either  a  lawful 
one  or  a  proper  one,  or  the  only  possible  one. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  Com- 
mittee on  Territories,  unanimously  concede  all  this 
broad  ground,  because  he  recommends  it,  and 
they  adopt  it.  Wherein,  then,  do  I  differ  from 
them  ?  Simply  thus :  I  propose  to  apply  the 
remedy  now,  by  admitting  the  new  State  with 
its  present  population  and  present  Constitution. 
My  opponents  insist  on  postponing  the  measure 
until  the  Territory  shall  be  conceded  by  the 
usurping  authorities  to  contain  93,700  inhabi- 
tants, and  until  those  authorities  shall  direct  and 
authorize  the  people  to  organize  a  new  State, 
under  a  new  Constitution.  In  other  words,  I 
propose  to  allow  the  people  of  Kansas  to  apply 
the  constitutional  remedy  at  once.  The  Presi- 
dent proposes  to  defer  it  indefinitely,  and  to 
commit  the  entire  application  of  it  to  the  hands 
of  the  Missouri  borderers.  He  confesses  the  in- 
adequacy of  that  course  by  asking  appropriations 
of  money  to  enable  him  to  maintain  and  preserve 
order  within  the  Territory  until  the  indefinite 
period  when  the  constitutional  remedy  shall  be 
applied.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  the 
delay  which  the  President  advises.  He  admits 
the  rightfulness  and  necessity  of  the  remedy.  It 
is  as  rightful  and  necessary  now  as  it  ever  will 
be.  It  is  demanded  by  the  condition  and  cir- 
cumstances of  the  people  of  Kansas  now.  You 
cannot  justly  postpone  any  more  than  you  can 
justly  deny  that  i-ight.  To  postpone  would  be 
a  denial.  The  President  will  need  no  grant  of 
money,  or  armed  men,  to  enforce  obedience  to 
law  when  you  shall  have  redressed  the  wrongs  of 
which  the  people  complain.  Even  under  Gov- 
ernments less  free  than  our  own,  there  is  no  need 
of  power  where  justice  holds  the  helm.  When 
justice  is  impartially  administered,  the  obedience 
of  the  subject  or  citizen  will  be  voluntary,  cheer- 
'  ful,  and  practically  unlimited.  Freedom  justly 
due  cannot  be  conceded  toosoon.  'I'rue  Freedom 
exists,  the  utmost  bounds  of  .  civil  liberty  are 
obtained  only  where  complaints  are  freely  heard, 
deeply  considered,  and  speedily  redressed.  So 
only  can  you  restore  to  Kansas  the  perfect  free- 
dom which  you  pledged,  and  she  has  lost.  The 
Constitution  does  not  prescribe  93,700,  or  any 


other  number  of  people,  as  necessary  to  consti- 
tute a  State,  Besides,  under  the  present  ratio 
of  increase,  Kansas,  whose  population  now  is 
40,000,  will  number  100,000  in  a  fow  months. 
The  point  made  co^  -xerning  numbers  is  therefore 
practically  unimportant  and  frivolous.  The 
President  objects  that  the  past  proceedings,  by 
which  the  new  State  of  Kansas  was  organized, 
were  irregular  in  three  respects :  First,  That 
they  were  instituted,  conducted  and  completed, 
without  a  previous  permission  by  Congress,  or 
by  the  local  authorities  within  the  Territory. 
Secondly,  That  they  were  instituted,  conducted, 
and  completed  by  a  party,  and  not  by  the  whole 
people  of  Kansas ;  and.  Thirdly,  That  the  new 
State  holds  an  attitude  of  defiance  and  insubor- 
dination towards  the  Territorial  authorities  and 
the  Federal  Union.  I  reply.  First,  'I  hat  if  the 
proceedings  in  question  were  irregular  and  par- 
tisan like  and  factious,  the  exigencies  of  the  case 
would  at  least  excuse  the  faults,  and  Congress 
has  unlimited  discretion  to  waive  them.  Second- 
ly :  'I  he  proceedings  were  not  thus  irregular, 
partisanlike,  and  factious,  because  no  act  of 
Congress  forbade  them — no  act  of  the  Territo- 
rial Legislature  forbade  them,  directly  or  by  im- 
plication— nor  had  the  'J  erritorial  Legislature 
power  either  to  authorize  or  to  prohibit  them. 
The  proceedings  were,  indeed,  instituted  by  a 
party  who  favored  them.  But  they  were  prose- 
cuted and  consummated  in  the  customary  forma 
of  popular  elections,  which  were  open  to  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Territory  qualified  to  vote  by 
the  organic  law,  and  by  no  others ;  and  they 
have  in  no  case  come  into  conflict,  nor  does  the 
new  State  now  act  or  assume  to  engage  in  con-^ 
flict  with  either  the  Territorial  authorities  or  the 
Government  of  the  Union.  'I  hird  :  'I  here  can  be 
no  irregularity  where  there  is  no  law  prescribing 
what  shall  be  regular.  Congress  had  passed  no 
law  establishing  regulations  for  the  organiza- 
tion or  admission  of  new  States.  Precedents 
in  such  cases,  being  without  foundation  in  law, 
are  without  authority.  This  is  a  country  whose 
Government  is  regulated,  not  by  precedents,  but 
by  Constitutions.  But  if  precedents  were  ne- 
cessary, they  are  found  in  the  cases  of  I  exas  and 
California,  each  of  which  was  organized  and  ad- 
mitted, subject  to  the  same  alleged  irregularities. 
The  majority  of  the  Committee  on  Territories, 
in  behalf  of  the  President,  interpose  one  further 
objection,  by  tracing  this  new  State  organiza- 
tion to  the  influence  of  a  secret,  armed,  political 
society.  Secrecy  and  combination,  with  extra- 
judicial oaths  and  armed  power,  were  the  engine- 
ry of  the  Missouri  borderers  in  eflecting  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  people  of  Kansas,  as  that  machin- 
ery is  always  employed  in  the  commission  of  po» 
litical  crimes.  How  far  it  was  lawful  or  morally 
right  for  the  people  of  Kansas  to  employ  the 
same  agencies  for  the  defence  of  their  lives  and 
liberties,  may  be  a  question  for  casuists,  but 
certainly  is  not  one  for  me.  I  can  freely  confess, 
however,  my  deep  regret  that  secret  societies  for 


13 


any  purpose  -whatsoever  have  obtained  a  place 
among  political  organizations  within  the  Re- 
public ;  and  it  is  my  hope  that  the  experience 
which  we  have  now  so  distinctly  had,  that  they 
can  be  but  too  easily  adapted  to  unlawful,  sedi- 
tious, and  dangerous  enterprises,  while  they 
bring  down  suspicion  and  censure  on  high  and 
noble  causes  when  identified  with  them,  may  be 
suflScient  to  induce  a  general  discontinuance  of 
them.  Will  the  Senate  hesitate  for  an  hour  be- 
tween the  alternatives  before  them  ? 

The  passions  of  the  American  People  find 
healthful  exercise  in  peaceful  colonizations,  and 
the  construction  of  railroads,  and  the  building 
tip  and  multiplying  of  republican  institutions. 
The  Territory  of  Kansas  lies  across  the  path 
through  which  railroads  must  be  built,  and  along 
which  such  institutions  must  be  founded,without 
delay,  in  order  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  our 
Empire.  Shall  we  suppress  enterprises  so  be- 
nevolent and  so  healthful,  and  inflame  our  coun- 
try with  that  fever  of  intestine  war  which  ex- 
hausts and  consumes  not  more  the  wealth  and 
strength  than  the  virtue  and  freedom  of  a  na- 
tion ?  Shall  we  confess  that  the  proclamation 
of  popular  sovereignty  within  the  Territory  of 
Kansas  was  not  merely  a  failure,  but  was  a  pre- 
tense and  a  fraud  ?  Or  will  Senators  now  con- 
tend that  the  people  of  Kansas,  destitute  as  they 
are  of  a  Legislature  of  their  own,  of  Executive 
authorities  of  their  own,  of  Judicial  authorities 
of  their  own,  of  a  militia  of  their  own,  of 
revenues  of  their  own,  subject  to  disposal 
by  themselves,  practically  deprived  as  they 
are  of  the  rights  of  voting,  serving  as  jurors, 
and  of  writing,  printing,  and  speaking  their 
own  opinions,  are  nevertheless  in  the  enjoy- 
ment and  exercise  of  popular  sovereignty? 
Shall  we  confess  before  the  world,  after  so 
brief  a  trial,  that  this  great  political  sys- 
tem of  ours  is  inadequate  either  to  enable  the 
majority  to  control  through  the  operation  of 
opinion,  without  force,  or  to  give  security  to  the 
citizen  against  domestic  tyranny  and  violence  ? 
Are  we  prepared  so  soon  to  relinquish  our  sim- 
ple and  beautiful  systems  of  republican  govern- 
ment, and  to  substitute  in  their  place  the  ma- 
chinery of  usurpation  and  despotism  ?  The  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  can  refuse  admission 
to  Kansas  only  on  the  ground  that  it  will  not  re- 
linquish the  hope  of  carrying  African  Slavery 
into  that  new  Territory.  If  you  are  prepared  to 
assume  that  ground,  why  not  do  it  manfully  and 
consistently,  and  establish  Slavery  there  by  a 
direct  and  explicit  act  of  Congress  ?  But  have 
we  come  to  that  stage  of  demoralization  and 
degeneracy  so  soon  ?  We,  who  commenced  our 
political  existence  and  gained  the  sympathies  of 
the  world  by  proclaiming  to  other  nations  that 
we  held  "  These  truths  to  be  self-evident :  That 
all  men  are  born  equal,  and  have  certain  inalien- 
able rights  ;  and  that  among  these  rights  are 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  We, 
who  in  the  spirit  of  that  declaration  have  as- 


sumed to  teach  and  to  illustrate,  for  the  benefit 

of  mankind,  a  higher  and  better  civilization  than 
they  have  hitherto  known !  If  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  shall  persist  in  this  attempt, 
then  they  shall  at  least  allow  me  to  predict  its 
results.  Either  you  will  not  establish  African 
Slavery  in  Kansas,  or  you  will  do  it  at  the  cost 
of  the  sacrifice  of  all  the  existing  liberties  of  the 
American  people.  P>en  if  Slavery  were,  what 
it  is  not,  a  boon  to  the  people  of  Kansas,  they 
would  reject  it  if  enforced  upon  their  acceptance 
by  Federal  guns.  The  attempt  is  in  conflict 
with  all  the  tendencies  of  the  age.  African 
Slavery  has  for  the  last  fifty  years  been  giving 
way,  as  well  in  this  country  as  in  the  islands  and 
on  the  main  land  throughout  this  hemisphere. 
The  political  power  and  prestige  of  Slavery  in 
the  United  States  are  passing  away.  The  Slave 
States  practically  governed  the  Union  directly 
for  fifty  years.  They  govern  it  now  only  indi- 
rectly, through  the  agency  of  Northern  hands 
temporarily  enlisted  in  their  support,  So  much, 
owing  to  the  decline  of  their  power,  they  have 
already  conceded  to  the  Free  States.  The  next 
step,  if  they  persist  in  their  present  couree,  will 
be  the  resumption  and  exercise  by  the  Free 
States  of  the  control  of  the  Government,  with- 
out such  concessions  as  they  have  hitherto  made 
to  made  to  obtain  it.  Throughout  a  period  of 
nearly  twenty  years,  the  defenders  of  Slavery 
screened  it  from  discussion  in  the  national  coun- 
cils. Now,  they  practically  confess  to  the  ne- 
cessity for  defending  it  here,  by  initiating  discus- 
sion themselves.  They  have  at  once  thrown 
away  their  most  successful  weapon,  compromise, 
and  worn  out  that  one  which  was  next  in  efl'cct- 
iveness,  threats  of  secession  from  the  Union.  It 
is  under  such  unpropitious  circumstances  that 
they  begin  the  new  experiment  of  extending 
Slavery  into  Free  Territory  by  force,  by  the 
armed  power  of  the  Federal  Government.  You 
will  need  many  votes  from  Free  States  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  even  some  votes 
from  those  States  in  this  House, to  send  an  army 
with  a  retinue  of  slaves  in  its  train  into  Kansas. 
Have  you  counted  up  your  votes  in  the  two 
Houses  ?  Have  you  calculated  how  long  those 
who  shall  cast  such  votes  will  retain  their  places 
in  the  National  Legislature  ?  But  I  will  grant 
for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  that  with  Federal 
battalions  you  can  carry  Slavery  into  Kansas, 
and  maintain  it  there.  Are  you  quite  confident 
that  this  republican  form  of  Government  can 
then  be  upheld  and  preserved  ?  You  will  then 
yourselves  have  introduced  the  Trojan  horse.  No 
republican  Government  ever  has  endured,  with 
standing  armies  maintained  in  its  bosom  to  en- 
force submission  to  its  laws.  A  people  who  h<tve 
once  learned  to  relinquish  their  rights,  under  com- 
pulsion, will  not  be  long  in  forgetting  that  they 
ever  had  any.  In  extending  Slavery  into  Kan- 
sas, therefore,  by  arms,  you  will  subvert  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Senators  of  the  Free 
States,  I  appeal  to  you.  Believe  ye  the  prophets? 


14 


I  Tciiow  you  do.  Tou  know,  then,  that  Slavery 
neither  works  mines  and  quarries,  nor  founds 
cities,  nor  builds  ships,  nor  levies  armies,  nor 
mans  navies.  Why,  then,  will  you  insist  on 
closing  up  this  new  Territory  of  Kai  eas  against 
all  enriching  streams  of  immigration,  while  you 
pour  into  it" the  turbid  and  poisonous  waters  of 
African  Slavery  ?  Which  one  of  you  all,  whe- 
ther of  Connecticut,  of  Pennsylvania,  or  of  Illi- 
nois, or  of  Michigan,  would  consent  thus  to  ex- 
tinguish the  chief  light  of  civilization  within  the 
State  in  which  your  own  fortunes  are  cast,  and 
in  which  your  own  posterity  is  to  live?  Why  will 
you  pursue  a  policy  so  unkind,  so  ungenerous, 
and  so  unjust  toward  the  helpless,  defenseless, 
etruggling  Territory  of  Kansas,  inhabited  as  it  is 
by  our  own  brethren,  depending  on  you  for  pro- 
tection and  safety  ?  Will  Slavery  in  Kansas 
add  to  the  wealth  or  power  of  your  own  States, 
or  to  the  wealth,  power,  or  glory  of  the  Eepub- 
lic  ?  You  know  that  it  will  diminish  all  of  these. 
You  profess  a  desire  to  end  this  national  debate 
about  Slavery,  which  has  become,  for  you,  in- 
tolerable. Is  it  not  time  to  relinquish  that  hope? 
You  have  exhausted  the  virtue,  for  that  purpose, 
that  resided  in  compacts  and  platforms,  in  the 
suppression  of  the  right  of  petition  and  in  arbi- 
trary parliamentary  laws,  and  in  abnegation  of 
Federal  authority  over  the  subject  of  Slavery 
within  the  National  Territories.  Will  you  even 
thenend  thedebate  by  binding  Kansaswith  chains 
for  the  safety  of  Slavery  in  Missouri  ?  Even  then 
you  must  give  over  Utah  to  Slavery,  to  make 
it  secure  and  permanent  in  Kansas ;  and  you 
must  give  over  Oregon  and  Washington  to  both 
Polygamy  and  Slavery,  so  as  to  guarantee 
equally  the  one  "^nd  the  other  of  those  peculiar 
domestic  institutions  in  Utah  ;  and  so  yon  must 
go  on  sacrificing  on  the  shrine  of  peace  Terri- 
tory after  Territory,  until  the  prevailing  na- 
tionality of  freedom  and  of  virtue  shall  be  lost, 
and  the  vieious  anomalies,  which  you  have 
hitherto  vainly  hoped  Almighty  Wisdom  would 
remove  from  among  you  without  your  own  con- 
currence, shall  become  the  controlling  elements 
in  the  Republic.  He  who  found  a  river  in  his 
path,  and  sat  down  for  the  flood  to  pass  away, 
was  not  more  unwise  than  he  who  expects  the 
agitation  of  Slavery  to  cease  while  the  love  of 
Freedom  animates  the  bosoms  of  mankind.  The 
solemnity  of  the  occasion  draws  over  our  heads 
that  cloud  of  disunion  which  always  arises  when- 
ever the  subject  of  Slavery  is  agitated.  Still, 
tiie  debate  goes  en,  more  ardently,  earnestly  and 


mmiiii 

0  016  089  330  8  1 


angrily  than  eve 
merely  logic,  reproach,  menace,  retort  and  deti-~ 
ance,  but  sabres,  rifles  and  cannon.  Do  you  look 
through  this  incipient  war  quite  to  the  end,  and 
see  there  peace,  quiet  and  harmony,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Slavery  ?  If  so,  pray  enlighten  me,  and 
show  me  how  long  the  way  is  which  leads  to 
that  repose.  The  Free  States  are  loyal,  and 
they  always  will  remain  so.  Their  foothold  on 
this  Continent  is  firm  and  sure.  Their  ability  to 
maintain  themselves,  unaided,  under  the  presen-t 
jConstitution  is  established.  The  Slave  States, 
also,  have  been  loyal  hitherto,  and  I  hope  and 
trust  they  ever  may  remain  so.  But  if  disunion 
could  ever  come,  it  would  come  in  the  form  of  a 
secession  of  the  slaveholding  States;  and  it 
would  come,  then,  when  the  slaveholding  power, 
which  is  already  firmly  established  on  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  extends  a  thousand  miles  north- 
ward along  both  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  should 
Lave  fixed  its  grappling-irons  upon  the  fountains 
of  the  Missouri  and  the  slopes  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Then  that  power  would  either  be 
intolerably  supreme  in  this  Republic,'or  it  would 
strike  for  independence  or  exclusive  domination. 
Then  tlie  Free  States  and  the  Slave  States  of 
the  Atlantic,  divided  and  warring  with  each 
other,  would  disgust  the  Free  States  of  the  Paci- 
fic, and  they  would  have  abundant  cause  and 
justification  for  withdrawing  from  a  Union  pro- 
ductive no  longer  of  peace,  safety,  and  liberty 
to  themselves,  and  no  longer  holding  up  the  che- 
rished hopes  of  mankind.  Mr.  President,  the 
Continental  Congress  of  1787,  on  resigning  the 
trust,  which  it  had  discharged  with  signal  fideli- 
ty, into  the  hands  of  the  authorities  elected  un- 
der the  new  Constitution,  and  in  taking  leave  of 
their  constituents,  addressed  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States  this  memorable  injunction: 
"  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  cause  of  the 
United  States  has  always  been  the  cause  of  hu- 
man nature."  Let  us  recall  that  precious  moni- 
tion ;  let  us  examine  the  ways  which  wo  Lave 
pursued  hitherto,  under  the  light  thrown  upon 
them  by  that  instruction.  We  shall  find, in  doing 
so,  tliat  we  Lave  forgotten  moral  right  in  the 
pursuit  of  material  greatness,  and  we  shall  ceaise 
henceforth  from  practising  upon  ourselves  the 
miserable  delusion  that  we  can  safely  extend 
Empire,  when  we  shall  have  become  reckless  of 
the  obligations  of  Eternal  Justice,  and  faithless 
to  the  interests  of  Universal  Freedom. 

Mr.  Clay  obtained  the  floor,  and  the  Senate 
adjourned 


LIBRAR' 


0  0^ 


LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS 


Hill 

0  016  089  330  8  •