THEY "STOOP TO CONQUER;" OR, THE ENGLISH SWINDLE. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 \ 
 
 SENATOR WADE, OF OHIO. 
 
 Delivered in the United States Senate, April 27, 1858. 
 
 Mr. President : It is not my purpose 
 at this tiuie, after the general question 
 has heen so ehaborately discussed, to do- 
 tain the Senate at any length by any- 
 tliing that I may have to say at this pe- 
 riod of the debate. But, sir, we have 
 now before us, as we are told, a new 
 proposition altogether. We are told that 
 it is in the nature of a new bill, having 
 but very little connection with anything 
 that has preceded it. I must confess 
 that I am astonished at the nature of the 
 proposition which the gentlemen com- 
 posing the committee of conference have 
 brought in for our consideration. Un- 
 trammelled as the committee seem to have 
 been by anything that has been done — 
 so they say — and being about to initiate 
 a new proposition altogether, the fact 
 that their minds should have fastened 
 upon such a thing as this, is well calcu- 
 lated, I think, to surprise anybody. If 
 justice, right, and equal regard to the 
 institutions of the South and of the 
 North, were to be considered by that 
 committee, it appears to me that an un- 
 sophisticated man might, in five minutes, 
 have brought in a proposition against 
 which there would have been no dissent- 
 ing voice in either branch of your Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 We had been divided here upon ques- 
 tions with regard to the will and wishes 
 of the people of Kansas as to the Con- 
 stitution under which they should live. 
 It was contended on the one side that 
 
 the people, acting through the forms of 
 law, had framed a Constitution which 
 ought to be obligatory. On the other 
 hand, that Constitution was assailed here 
 by the Opposition, upon the ground that 
 it was an utter perversion of the will of 
 the majority of the people of Kansas ; 
 that it was got up by trickery and by 
 fraud, and that the majority of the peo- 
 ple ought not to be governed by it. Thus 
 we were at issue upon this thing called thf- 
 Lecompton Constitution. A portion of 
 the people had called a Convention, which 
 framed this instrument, and called it a 
 Constitution. The people had previouslv 
 met and framed another Constitution 
 which they called their Constitution, and 
 which they said embodied the will of thf 
 great mass of the people of Kansas, i 
 allude to the Topeka Constitution. 
 
 Now, sir, when this committee were 
 about to pass by all the propositions that 
 had gone before, and to substitute a new 
 bill, how easy it would have been for 
 them to say, in perfect justice and fair- 
 ness to all, " we will not take the first 
 Constitution made at Topeka, because it 
 is denied on the other side to be the will of 
 the people ; we will not take the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution, because it is alleged to 
 be fraudulent, and not to embody tli< 
 will of the people; but we will throv 
 both aside, and we will provide, under 
 every safeguard that can secure an hon- 
 est and fair election, for submitting this 
 complicated and vexatious question agaii; 
 
to the people, and they shall be at lib- 
 erty to frame their Constitution." For 
 that purpose the committee might have 
 selected any precedent they wished — 
 they mij^dit have taken the enabling act 
 for Minnesota, or any similar one, and 
 they would have found no objection to it. 
 We should all have voted for a proposi- 
 tion of that kind, just to all parties ; we 
 should have permitted the people to come 
 up now fairly to the work of framing a 
 Constitution ; we should have said to 
 them, " make it republican in form ; sub- 
 mit it to our consideration ; and if we 
 find it to be such, we will admit you with 
 it." 
 
 Why did it not occur to this commit- 
 tee that that was the way to settle the 
 controversy, if a settlement of it was in- 
 deed desired? The proposition which 
 they have made, while it seems to me in 
 a certain aspect to be humiliating to the 
 South, is unjust, if not an open insult, to 
 the North. It is humiliating to the South 
 because it is a total and entire abandon- 
 ment of the principle on which many of 
 them staked their determination not to 
 exist in the Union at all ; for they said, 
 *'let us have the Lecompton Constitu- 
 tion, or we will go out of the Union our- 
 selves." Tj^at proposition they have 
 surrendered ; they have given it up ; they 
 do not pretend that they can stand by it, 
 unless it is in some sort submitted and 
 thrown back to the people to pass upon. 
 So far it is right; so far it is just ; and 
 I was glad to see the committee yield 
 thus for to the reasons and arguments 
 which had been addressed to them, show- 
 ing that their Lecompton concern was 
 fraudulent ; that it did not embody the 
 will of the people ; that it was a fraud ; 
 and that their legal position was fraught 
 with tyranny and danger in all subse- 
 quent time. That position has been re- 
 pudiated and abandoned by them. We 
 hear no more of the omnipotence of Con- 
 ventions assembled to frame Constitu- 
 tions. We hear no more of their being 
 armed with supreme power to put upon 
 the necks of a people just such a Con- 
 stitution as they please, without the peo- 
 ple having power to get rid of it. That 
 was the position we heard rung in our 
 
 ears from Southern gentlemen day after 
 day, but a little while ago. Now they 
 have thrown this absurd position to the 
 winds, and I thank God for it. They 
 seem to admit that the people, after all, 
 must have the right, in some shape, to 
 pass upon the institutions under which 
 they are to live. So far, it is a great im- 
 provement on the Lecompton concern. 
 But if the people are to pass upon the 
 Lecompton Constitution, why not let 
 them do it directly ? Will any man be 
 deceived by the verbiage in which this 
 proposition is couched? Have you not 
 left the people to pass upon it? If so, 
 why not submit it in such a plain and 
 fair manner that the people can all un- 
 derstand it? 
 
 Sir, this proposition reads upon its 
 face as though it was a premium for votes. 
 Are the people to vote directly upon the 
 Constitution under which they live ? Not 
 by any means ; but they are to vote 
 upon a grant of land ; they are to vote 
 whether they will accept a gift from the 
 Government of five or six million acres 
 of land ; and if they decide to take the 
 land, that decision is to drag after it the 
 Lecompton Constitution, that the}" have 
 repudiated over and over again. Was 
 ever any such thing as this concocted 
 by a statesman, for the action of the 
 people? Is. a land grant the princi- 
 pal thing in framing a State Consti- 
 tution? Sir, it seems to be a bid 
 of land for liberty, a bribe held out. 
 " V\ ill you, people of Kansas, surrender 
 your liberties for land? " That is the 
 question ; it cannot be disguised. I im- 
 pugn directly the motives of no man, but 
 I state what the efiect of this action will 
 be. How will it appear to the world, 
 say what you will about it ? If the peo- 
 ple will vote themselves so much land^ 
 then they surrender themselves to a slave 
 Constitution, which you and I know they 
 have repudiated over and over again. It 
 is not competent for me to state the mo- 
 tives which have prompted to such ac- 
 tion as this ; but you vote for the inci- 
 dent, and the principal is to follow. 
 How absurd and inconsequential ! Why, 
 Mr. President, if I should make just 
 such a proposition as that, to obtain your 
 
vote upon a private bill, and it should 
 come out to the worhl that I had done it, 
 I presume every just-minded Senator 
 here woukl vote promptly to expel me 
 from the body, as unworthy of a seat in it. 
 The offer is : " So much land if you vote 
 » for this Constitution ; if you vote against 
 
 ^ it, you shall have neither land nor any- 
 thing else." 
 
 ^ Mr. President, I recollect well that in 
 
 ^ the course of some observations which I 
 made not long ago, you, sir, [Mr. Biggs 
 
 i in the chair,] put the question to me : 
 
 %, Suppose a slave Constitution were pre- 
 sented to Congress, would I vote for it? 
 
 22 I recollect well the answer I made to 
 you, and 3'our apparent surprise at the 
 
 - absurdity of the answer. Yet I find the 
 President of this body to-day assuming 
 my position, and voting for the same 
 proposition, only reversing its applica- 
 tion. I would not vote for the admis- 
 sion of a slave Constitution ; nor will 
 you vote for a free one. I do not com- 
 plain of you ; I cannot complain of )'ou, 
 because I occupy about the same ground 
 that you will do an hour hence, when 
 the vote is taken, except that practically 
 our positions are reversed in the appli- 
 cation of them. You come from a slave 
 State, and I from a free State. The 
 countr)'' will understand the positions we 
 all occupy on this subject, and J do not 
 care how soon they are understood by 
 all. 
 
 Mr. President, it has been sought to 
 break the force of the objections to this 
 scheme by saying that there was uncer- 
 tainty about the people of Kansas ac- 
 cepting the grant proposed in your 
 original bill. This is a strange apology, 
 and it comes at a strange and an unfor- 
 tunate time. Sir, do you not know that 
 the subject was mooted in the Committee 
 on Territories, and it was said that no 
 kind of objection could arise from any 
 sucii thing ; that we had a right to modi- 
 fy the ordinance, and make what grant 
 of land we pleased to the Territory ; and 
 if they rejected the Constitution on ac- 
 count of our not giving them as mucli 
 as they thought they were entitled 
 to, they would not be a State ; but if 
 they accepted the Constitution by or- 
 
 ganizing under it, subject to the pro- 
 vision wc had made, that was an end of 
 it 7 How happens it now that you make 
 this whole controversy turn, as it were, 
 on the uncertainty whether the people 
 will accept a donation such as you have 
 made to every other State 1 Why in the 
 name of Heaven is it now paraded here 
 as the main reason why you have re- 
 versed your action ? 
 
 Mr. Green. The Committee on Ter- 
 ritories never did say that it was the 
 right of the committee or of Congress to 
 dictate the terms upon which the State 
 should be admitted. They have always 
 claimed that ; but on the question of 
 contract on the subject of lands, it was 
 matter of agreement. The foi'mation 
 and adoption of a Constitution, the com- 
 mittee held, was a question with which 
 the Senate and House of Representatives 
 had nothing to do ; and that has been 
 the point all the time. I think, there- 
 fore, the Senator does injustice to the 
 committee when he says that they thought 
 the subject of the grant of lands was a 
 proper matter for the consideration of 
 the Convention of the Territory. Not 
 so ; it is a matter of agreement, propo- 
 sition, acceptance ; but the Constitution 
 is a different thing; that is a finality 
 alread}^ 
 
 Mr. Wade. I do not deny that. 
 That is just exactly what we did agree. 
 We agreed that it was a proposed com- 
 pact, and that if the proposition on our 
 part should be accepted by the organiza- 
 tion of a State Government under it, it 
 would be very well, and their action un- 
 der it would show their agreement to our 
 projiosed contract. That is what we 
 agreed to in committee, and it is a sound 
 principle of law ; and the idea of repu- 
 diating it is not twenty-four hours old. 
 That is how we agreed ; and yet the 
 Senator from Virginia rises here, and, to 
 apologize for this misshapen production of 
 the committee of conference, makes it all 
 to turn on the uncertainty of whether the 
 people of Kansas would accept this prop- 
 osition. I might ask that Senator, or 
 any other who has had anything to do 
 with this subject, if that matter labored 
 in your mind, how in the name of Heaven 
 
did you suffer your Lecompton bill to be 
 [abated here day after day, -week after 
 «veek, and I do not know but I might 
 ay month after month, without suggest- 
 ng the great difficulty which must inter- 
 rupt the whole proceedings, and lead 
 you to surrender all you had done, and 
 6et up a scheme entirely new 1 You did 
 not apprehend any such thing, as you 
 went on with your Lecompton bill. The 
 Senator from Virginia never suggested 
 then that there was any trouble about 
 :he land grants that were provided for 
 in that bill. You voted .it through this 
 body. It ran as smooth as oil. No 
 man said there was any difficulty about 
 that, nor could it be said ; because so 
 far as the ordinance was concerned, and 
 the land grant was involved, the bill 
 stood on exactly the same principles as 
 every other Territorial bill, and granted 
 iio more, no less. Why, then, seek to 
 cover up this enormity under so plain a 
 proposition as that? Sir, the people 
 will understand it, whether gentlemen 
 here will understand it or not. It is in 
 the nature of a bribe. It is not expected 
 that the unsophisticated people, through 
 the whole wilderness of Kansas, will be 
 able, like lawyers, to scan closely, and 
 understand critically, the import of this 
 grant. I will not say that the fact that 
 it was known they would not understand 
 it, constituted the reason why a question 
 so simple as the adoption or the rejection 
 (if the Lecompton Constitution is made 
 to turn on the fact whether the people 
 will accept a donation of lands ; but it 
 ^oks very much like it. It would be 
 jut of order for me to say it was so in- 
 tended ; but that will be its effect. 
 
 Well, sir, that is the nature of the 
 proposition. I have said it is humilia- 
 ting to the high-minded South, because 
 it is a total surrender of the position 
 upon which they planted themselves, and 
 swore in their councils they would stake 
 their institutions. You have given it up ; 
 you have surrendered Lecompton, in this 
 miserable way to be sure, into the hands 
 of the people of Kansas, to reject it if 
 J-hey please, and as I trust in God they 
 *-hey will. Therein, sir, you lie in the 
 dust. Southern chivalry is here in these 
 
 Halls, begging men to vote for a misera- 
 ble proposition, well calculated to mis- 
 lead the people. I am sorry for it. 1 
 have respected their highmindedness. I 
 have always hoped heretofore that they 
 were above consenting to arrangements 
 that could not stand out in open day. 1 
 do not say that anything sinister is in- 
 tended in this proposition, but I know it 
 is well calculated in itself to deceive the 
 people, and therefore I pronounce it hu- 
 miliating to the South. I say, further, 
 it is unjust, if not an open insult, to the 
 North. Why? I can tell you nothing 
 new, after the proposition has been so 
 ably handled by the honorable Senator 
 from Kentucky and the honorable Sen- 
 ator from Vermont, who have preceded 
 me. They have made it too palpably 
 plain for me to stand here long in elab- 
 orating this point. Here stands out be- 
 fore the whole world the most glaring 
 injustice, the most palpable wrong; and 
 no man dare face me down here, and say 
 that you place Slavery and Liberty upon 
 equal foundations by this measure. You 
 talk of the equality of the States. W' hy, 
 sir, you are trampling the free States 
 into the dust, and offering bribes to Sla- 
 very. It will not do. Whether we un- 
 derstand it or not, God knows the people 
 of the United States, the honest people, 
 will understand it. 
 
 I have said, and I still say, that this 
 proposition is flagrantly unjust to the 
 North, and, I think, an open insult. 
 Well might the Senator from Kentucky 
 ask, what would the South think of a 
 proposition like this on the other side ? 
 I have too good an opinion of you to be- 
 lieve that you would bear it as meekly 
 as we shall. I believe that you would 
 conduct yourselves, in reference to such 
 a nefarious proposition, in a manner more 
 fraught with honor to your section than 
 I fear we shall. I wish to God we had 
 men as fearless to stand up for the right, 
 as you have to stand up for the wrong. 
 I honor you for the manner in which you 
 stand up to what you say you regard as 
 your rights. Well might the Senator 
 from Kentucky ask, what would you 
 think of such a proposition, if the case 
 were reversed ? There is not a Southern 
 
man who -will not die in his trades before 
 he would surrender to a proposition so 
 insulting to the South as this manifestly 
 is to the North. I know you would not, 
 and I give you all honor for it, because in 
 that, if in nothing else, God knows I sym- 
 pathize with you ; you are right in it. 
 
 The proposition now offered to the 
 people of Kansas is this : " You shall 
 have six million acres of land, and im- 
 mediate admission into the Union, if you 
 will take Slavery ; but if you prefer a 
 free State, you shall be excluded ; you 
 shall be treated as outside barbarians, 
 unworthy to be members of this Union 
 for an indefinite length of time to come." 
 It is undeniable ; it stands out gross, 
 palpable, upon the face of j'our record, 
 and cannot be disguised. It required a 
 good deal of assurance, a good deal of 
 eff'rontery, to bring in a proposition like 
 this ; but you knew the material to which 
 you were addressing it too well to fear 
 the consequences. You say by this prop- 
 osition, if Congress adopts it, " Come in, 
 ye people of Kansas ; here are millions 
 of acres of land ; here is immediate ad- 
 mission if you prefer Slavery; but if, on 
 the other hand, you prefer Liberty, you 
 are unworthy of admission, you are not 
 numerous enough to be admitted." One 
 slaveholder, for the purpose of the admis- 
 sion of a Territory as a State .is worth 
 more than twenty free men. '"'hat is the 
 naked proposition which you have brought 
 here for the consideration of Northern 
 men, and I pei'ceive that you will have 
 Northern men who will go with you even 
 for this. You will have them, and you 
 knew you would ; because you knew you 
 could not make a proposition, however 
 fatal to the rights, however fatal to the 
 honor of the North, without finding here 
 men who would stoop to it. When I 
 contrast the high chivalric honor of the 
 South in this particular with the North, 
 I sometimes wish to change places with 
 them. Here is a proposition offering a 
 premium to Slavery, and immediate ad- 
 mission without inquiry as to the num- 
 bers, if the people of Kansas will come 
 here as a slave State ; but if they decide 
 on the side of Freedom, they are to be 
 indefinitely postponed until a census shall 
 
 be taken at the will of a craven and be- 
 sotted Executive. That is the proposi- 
 tion offered to the high-minded people of 
 that section from which I come. They 
 will spurn it, though I perceive that some 
 of their Representatives are about to 
 take it. 
 
 Now, what are to be the consequences 
 of the passage of this proposition? I 
 must judge from what has preceded it. 
 I do not know but that I may be unchar- 
 itable in my supposition ; but when I 
 look at your candle-box frauds, at your 
 Cincinnati Dirc-ctory frauds, all adopted 
 by your Executive, and the agents who 
 commit the frauds applauded and foisted 
 into high offices of power and respecta- 
 bility, how can I repose confidence in 
 youl When I see the just arrangement 
 which had been made by that just man, 
 the lover of equality and justice to all 
 parties and to all sections, the Senator 
 from Kentucky, stricken out, and an- 
 other man added to the board to super- 
 vise the election — a man who was no 
 more wanted there than a fifth wheel to a 
 coach, for jon had a full board before — I 
 ask this committee, and I wish them to 
 answer me now, why did you place the 
 district attorney of the Territory on that 
 board of commissioners'? I repeat the 
 question, why did you do it? Was it 
 not right before ? A corrupt Executive 
 was allowed to appoint tAvo. Was it 
 wrong that the people should appoint two 
 more? Why give your Executive the 
 appointment of a majority of the board, 
 and full power over tlie people, to trample 
 them in the dust? Answer me that, if 
 you can ! I pause, but I pause in vain, 
 for a reply. What shall I say, then? 
 Sir, it savors too much of the candle-box 
 and of the Cincinnati Directory. Is it 
 intended, at all hazards, against the vote 
 of the people, and in defiance of their 
 wishes, to forge a majority, to make a 
 false return to the President that you 
 have outvoted the Free-State men, and 
 that Lecompton is adopted? Was that 
 the anchor you had thrown to the wind- 
 ward, in giving a complete majority to 
 your own party in that board, and not 
 trusting the people on equal terms with 
 the Executive? 
 
6 
 
 Sir, I have no fears of the people of 
 Kansas if 3'ou give them any chance, 
 even if you ■will be honest in counting 
 their votes ; bat here the matter is left 
 to the President of the United States, 
 ■who censured his Governor because he 
 had refused to yield to an outrageous, 
 notorious, palpable, undisputed fraud, 
 and ultimately compelled him to resign. 
 I say, when such things are done, ■what 
 may we not suspect 1 I can hardly real- 
 ize that I am in the Senate of the United 
 States, ■when propositions calculated to 
 blind the people, propositions calculated 
 to hold out false colors, are presented in 
 this way. In this scheme, you have evi- 
 dently folloAved, as far as you could, the 
 bill presented by the Senator from Ken- 
 tucky ; but you have amended that most 
 just chiuse of his, upon which the hon- 
 esty of the whole transaction turned, in 
 order that you might still keep in the 
 hands of those who have proved them- 
 selves to be unworthy of such a trust, 
 the power to decide against the people, 
 as tliey have done heretofore, the fate of 
 the new State. 
 
 Now, sir, I am not so much of an enemy 
 to the people of the South as they sup- 
 pose. I think they will never gain any- 
 thing by such a proposition as this. It 
 is not because I suppose they will, that 
 I manifest this zeal against it ; but be- 
 cause, like the Senator from Kentucky, 
 I know that the safety, the permanency, 
 the true glory of our institutions, must 
 be built upon the solid foundations of 
 eternal right and justice ; and this trick- 
 ery, these frauds, although they may 
 serve the purpose of a party for a day, 
 are fraught with danger to the whole 
 community, and will finally result in dis- 
 astrous consequences, even to those for 
 whose benefit they seem to be perpetra- 
 ted. 
 
 Mr. President, I have now said all 
 that I intended to say, and much more, 
 because when I see a proposition that 
 appears to be unfair, and, I will say, 
 that appears to be dishonest, I cannot 
 retain exactly that equanimity that per- 
 haps I ought. It may be all fair and all 
 right, but I must announce the imprcs- 
 bions that I deliberately have on that 
 
 subject. I think it is palpably wrong—' 
 wrong to the high-minded people of the 
 South, who, I am sure, when they under- 
 stand it, will trample it beneath their 
 feet as an unclean thing — unjust, pal- 
 pably unjust, to the North, whom it 
 |)hices on a footing of inequality. Sir, 
 if I did seek the destruction of the insti- 
 tutions of the South, I could devise no 
 way more facile than that you have your- 
 selves marked out ; for, being in the mi- 
 nority, whenever you shall liave divested 
 3'ourselves of that character which wc« 
 have conceded to you — that you are high- 
 minded, honorable men — you will have 
 lost the great stake in the Government 
 that would ever enable you, as long as 
 you practiced on these principles, to en- 
 joy your full share in the councils of this 
 nation, and even more. As I said, I do 
 not know but that this proposition may 
 be right ; but its appearance is absolutely 
 and deliberately wrong. 
 
 Now, Mr. President, I regret that 
 such a proposition should have been 
 brought in here. Why would you not 
 let Leeompton die, if you had not the 
 force to put it through ? I would infi- 
 nitely prefer, for the honor of the nation, 
 both North and South, that you had the 
 force in both branches to put your 
 Leeompton Constitution through here, 
 rather than have been compelled to re- 
 sort to this indirection, in order to ac- 
 complish the same result ; because its 
 effect in demoralizing the nation, per- 
 verse and iniquitous as I think it was, 
 would have been infinitely less than by 
 this mons'ter of a proposition. 
 
 But I have said that it was no part of 
 my purpose to detain tlie Senate. I 
 have very feebly expressed the feelings 
 that I entertain in regard to this propo- 
 sition. I do not believe you can seduce 
 the noble-minded people of Kansas*, who 
 have withstood all your persecutions so 
 long, to succumb to such a scheme as 
 this. You have exercised the whole 
 powers of your Government ; you have 
 invoked your armies, and let them loose 
 upon the defenceless people there ; you 
 have inflicted upon them hardships, and 
 pursued them with a relentless persecu- 
 tion that I have never known before, and 
 
I 
 
 hardly ever read of in history ; and yet 
 they stand unconquered and unconquer- 
 able. It only remains to determine" 
 ■whether appliances to their cupidity, 
 arts of deception, can work out a fall for 
 a people who have so nobly withstood all 
 your force. I know well you cannot 
 force them to it. Their intelligence is 
 great, and I think they will be capable 
 of seeing through this nefarious net, 
 which is calculated to lower them, to 
 degrade them, to a condition of servitude. 
 I do not believe you will effect it. I have 
 a better opinion of those noble spirits. I 
 think the controversy will result in your 
 most ignominious defeat before the peo- 
 ple of Kansas. The only danger I ap- 
 prehend is from the arrangement of this 
 scheme by which you put the whole 
 
 power of controlling the election into the 
 hands of a corrupt Executive. The 
 people are against you in overwhelming 
 numbers. The only doubt is, whether 
 the executive officers aviII count their 
 votes aright. I am willing to venture 
 that people, Avith all the skill in weaving 
 nets for their destruction that you can 
 devise, provided at last you leave them 
 to be counted according to their num- 
 bers, and make fair, and not John Cal- 
 houn, returns. 
 
 Mr. President, I have no fears for the 
 result of this measure. The noble- 
 hearted, brave, and liberty-loving people 
 of Kansas will spurn the infamous prop- 
 osition, as the Saviour of the world did 
 one in all respects similar in principle, 
 and emanating from a like source. 
 
016 094 455 9 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 BUELL & BLANCHARD,^ PRINTERS. 
 1858.