/^ /^ /^ F 685 .H17 Copy 1 CIRCULAR LETTER TO THE ELECTORS OF THE FIRST CONGRESSIOXAL DISTRICT >iy OF IOWA. ;.., ^^ /^ ^ C Fellow Citizens The opinions expressed by one or two of the Democratic papers of my dis- trict, with reference to my vole upon the amendment olTered by Mr. Du.n>', of Indiana, to the "Kansas investigating committee resolutions," make it necessary for me to place before you a full statement of the history of those resolutions, the motives and reasons which governed me in the course I pursued, and what, in my opinion, will be the effect of that investigation. It is not from the fact, that any great principle is involved in a "vote to in- vestigate," that gentlemen have seen proper to condemn my course, but because my vote stands recorded among those with whose politics I have no sentiments in common, and with whom it seems dangerous to coincide even upon a ques- tion of investigation. I stand upon the Democratic platform: I entertain princi- ples which are dear to me, and which I cannot forsake under any circumstances, because, in my opinion, they lie at the foundation of Democracy, and are necessary to the perpetuity of the Constitution and the Union. I hold the principles of the Black Republicans to be entirely sectional, inimical to the Constitution, and dangerous to the Union. As such I have opposed, and shall continue to oppose, them in every form in which they make their appearance. I believe that the Democratic is the only national party in existence ; that its special mission is to hold the helm of the ship of State firmly, through sunshine and through storm, and to steer her safely amidst the rocks and whirlpools of Abo- lition fanaticism and the reefs and currents of Know Nothingism ; to preserve unscathed the Constitution and the Union, and to sustain and administer the Government with the spirit and patriotism of Washington, Jefferson, and Jack- son. Democracy maintains the great principle of " the political equality of the people and of the States." It sympathizes with the oppressed of our race everywhere, and clothes them with/r|d returns of niombers and de]e Jes \\^p n .' . / "'^ "^"" ^^'I'^fiC'-^'ion-S elections, They are the poll-books kept bv Uu^ boa.vl of ^ '""■' ''' ? ''?'^ '■'-^'"'■"«- What are they were received 'at the poll. Cmay inm, e wl.^r n" h''''^ '"'^ ^'^'^',' ^''"^^ ^'^^ ^"'"^^ «« '^'-T ciuahfications. We Lay inquir tLr.Hl'e.t .,'';?. f "^f'^^^^V,"^ ^''*^ constitutional i"ing the returns and heariniparol U in nv n r r '"^''"'^'-'V'^^ ^^'^^ duly elected by exam- oxtends no further. What%lSd 1 e th c^ih on'orth ^'V"''"'T^'"'^^^ ' 0"'-^"thori.v sought any opportunity to contest arelec^ion en I?l . ' ^^?"'' 'f *^^'''T individual who the election was held Is liable to tSe SiecSons Um Zvl". '"'^ '"^ 'h' ^'l'^ '^^^^ '''"^'' ^^^^^^h Suppose that a law should pass a Lc-Snr hi have been urged in the case before us.' afterwards, upon a contest foi the s".t S^ he me n'l/n''^ "^ ^1 ''"^^' ''"''- '^^PP^^' 'hat ascertained he had never been e £0^^ wn ,M ,1,^1 . ^^'^ '^^'' ''"" ^'°'^' '^'^^ ^<- should be "ot be pretended tiiat the law could f^thai^^^^ ""T ^T?' % """''^ ' ^" «"ch a case it wiU reach a small error, so vi 1 in Us coni miencel ' '^'"^""''^ '"r^'"'- ^l^^n, if we cannot character unless special jurisdiction lui'C^^erus"""'' "''^'^'' ^ ^"^-"^'- «"^ "^^ ^'^ -"« this h^l: ":;; s^dVs'iariis.s';"':^' "° ^^^ t pr'''^^'' - --''^?'^- -se whe™ the law under wiiich a n/JXr t" "en e Sranrocc^ '"^^t-^^ '''''" ''^'^' ^'-^ passed authority of that kind it seems to me tW wl occupies his seat; and in the absence of exercise it for the first time iiXhisToiy^lo'u^Go'r^^^^^^^^^ "''^" "^ undertake to whdt'^Lro^'lhTti;: wIn:nlT"^ ^ad been a<,opted,I vo.e. to lay the House wa upon the ado ot'im o /h ' .'"-^ '''' '^ '>' ^"^^''"" "^^" before the a.nina,ion of'the::':irUhr;; r/^^^^^^ An ex- the committee to " inn,.i.« ;».^ 1 "^ 1 "^"^"' '" "'eir character, authorizmo- Kansasr ..c. ^ a'nd t^^ cro^r^uhih-:';:::,::^^;^^ '- -'-' '- '^^ ^'-^^- - re;:^t:ir;hV?;(5:^JSo c^ilS^S S'S^l^^o^^/^" '^^^^ ^^-^^'^^^^ -^^^ investigation they without dehni,; t^vX-'^r:;.::^.!:^;^;':;!^!;^ '-t r ''- """!f' for tak.n^r such evidence as either Wha 1 ■ d or r!.. . T^- ^"^ "°' ^'""''^^ pa>nas shall issue for witnesses at e iVp tb "''''^ ^'''"■^' °'' ^^'""^ ''"»'- olutions are entirel/si le, t m o . tb! , ''"■ ""-^?««''"" ^^ demand. The res- for which the teJt!! ' ' o' V 's ^ " Tfl ^^en T Tr^'^'l " '-^ "^^ ^^^^^^ -e^^ei.. .he commLe a. .»:r^.r ;:^:R:ct tld^^^f t^ us/^ 111: name ofMr-DuNi. in s len Von te '; I " ' '",'''' '^''.''^ ^'^^l' ^^ P^^''^^^ ^'-e ons Republican partisan Fo tl i fcou se rl?;" 'S'^^^^'"^'- '"-'-^1- The country nil! understand and t rlTt ,b ^'^'^ '"^"''"'' "''' responsible. to its merits, prep re? s .c on wf. ''^^'"^J^"^' ^^P'^^'- " h«» made, according c/e«ceo^/^t; vhrpurevXts n^ '" "^""r! '1,^^'^-^^ U. \uhat con^^ was adopted and the Government organized was tlie political equality of the States and the people. Tlie territory of the United States has been acquired at the common expense, and, when acquired, became the common property of all the Slates, subject to be retained or disposed of for the common benefit and for common use. By tlie compromise Conc/ress assumed to draw a dividing line between legal institutions — between political rights and between rights of property. They assumed that, north of 36° 30', involuntary servitude should not exist, but that it might exist in all territory south of it — thus destroying legal equality, and introducing a new cause of moral and political strife. Congress by this act atiirmed that some great necessity existed for such legislation, and that necessity consisted in the important duty of preventing the extension of a great evil. The South having the institution by virtue of her law, and the ter- ritory soutli being thus left free to her citizens to occupy with tlieir property, they were necessarily deeply interested in protecting the institution. Property is timid; and slave properly perhaps more than any other receives the watchful care and protecting hand of the owner. The North, forbidden the institution, educated by the law and the reasons which produced the law, to reject and condemn slavery, their persecutions and denunciations of tlie South and its institutions are but the natural result of tlie compromise legislation. The results wliich have followed were prophetically foreseen and described by Jelferson in his letters to Adams Short, and Holmes, extracts from which, and from Mr. Adams's answer, I insert to show the opin- ions of that great apostle of Democracy upon this exciting subject, and with what unerring certainty he calculated the effect which would follow that fatal line of division : MoNTicELLo, December 10, 1819. Dear Sir: I have to acknowlpdge the receipt of your favor of November the 23d. The banks, bankrupt law, manufactures, Spanish treaty, are nothing. These are occurrences ■which, like waves in a storm, will pass under the ship; but the Missouri question is a breaker on v.hich we lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what more God only knows. From the battle of Bunker Hill to the treaty of Paris we never had so ominous a question. It even damps the joy with which I hear of your hio'h health, and welcomes to me the conse- quences of my want of it. I thank God that I shall not live to witness its issue. To John Adams. Extract from John ^idams's reply to Tliomas Jefferson. MoNTiziLLO, Z)ecem&«r 21, 1819. Dear Sir: The Missouri question, //tope, will follow the other waves under the ship, and do no harm. I know it is high treason to express a doubt of the perpetual duration of our vast American empire, and our free institutions; and I say, as devoutly as fatlier Paul, esto perpetna ; but I am sometimes Cassandra enough to dream that another Hamilton and another Burr might rend this mighty fabric in twain, or perhaps into a leash; and a few more choice spirits of the same stamp might produce as many nations in North America as ihei-e are in Europe. MoxTicELLO, March 12, 1820. I thank you, dear sir, for the information in your favor of the 4th instant, of the settlement, for the present, of the Missouri question. I am so completely withdrawn from all attention to public matters, that nothing less could arouse me than the definition of a geographical line, which, on an abstract principle, is to become the line of separation of these States, and to render desperate the hope, that man can ever enjoy the two blessings of peace and self-gov- ernment. The question sZcep5 for the present, but is ?io< (Zeati. * # * * * To H. Nelson, Esq. Thomas Jefferson to JVilliatn Short. MoNTicELLO, Jpril 13, 1820. Dear Sir: # * # Although I had laid down as a law to myself never to write, talk, or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore had cfiased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm. The old schism of Federal and Republican threatened nothing, because it extended in every State, and united them together by the fraternization of party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, witli a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual andmoral batreda.s would render separation prefer- able to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of this question, not by the time which has been so confidently counted on — the laws of nature control this — but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or more prob- ably the Mississippi, upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is that] shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing nway the fruits of their fathers' sacrifices of lifu and fortune, and of rendering desperate the experimeiU which was to decide ultimately, whether man is capable of self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the medal of their predecessors. Jefferson to John Holmes. "MoNTicELLO, ^pril 22, 1820. "I thank you, dear sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of the letter to your constituents, on the Missouri question. It is a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or pay any attention to public afiairs, confident they were in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from whicli I am not far distant. But this momt'ntous question, lilce a fire-hell in the night, aicakened and filled me u-ith terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed indeed for the moment; but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obUteraled; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." «*#*###**#♦ *# " An abstinence, too, from this act of power, would remove the jealousy excited by the un- dertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the Constitu- tion has taken from them and given to the General Government. Could Congress, for exam- ple, say that the non-freemen of Connecticut should be freemen, or that they shall not emi- grate into any other Stater " Since the adoption of that line, there has been constant crimination and recrimination between tlie North and South; periodical excitements and threatened dissolution of the Union have followed in fearful and rapid .succes- sion, until in Rlassachusetts, and in many other places in the North, the Con- stitution and laws of the United States are disregarded, and the con>litutional riirhts of the people of the South openly violated. So violent and dangerous has this state of I'eeling bpcoiiie, that all true patriots are fearful that sosne great catastrophe to the Republic will be the result. ^^Dissolution of the Union'' has grown to bo a familiar phrase north as well as south, and men lose siglit of that great warning given us by one of the patriots of the Revolution: "Frown with indignity upon the first dawning of an attempt to separate any portion of this Union from the rest." Most fortunately the passasre of the compromise measures of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, restored the original political equality of the States; placed their common |)roperty open to the common use, and reestab- lishecj that great fundamental principle of " snlf-government by the people, of the Ter7-it()ries." This result was not accomplished without a des])erate struggle in Congress, and a high sectional excitement among the people — a result cheap at any price short of the dissolution of the Union. Misrepresentation, denunciation, and excitement, followed so rapidly the pas- sage of the Kansas act, lliat portions of the people of the North, excited by the politicians of the country, did not stop to examine the provisions of the bill, nor wait for its practical workings to settle its great importance ; but at once determined to prevent the provisions of the act from being carried into practical effect. They claimed " that the people of the Territories" ought not " to be permitted to form their domestic institutions in (heir own way, subject only to the Constitution;" but that Congress should fashion and control their domestic institutions, and when they become States dictate their fundamental law. And to effect this result popular sovereignty in the Territories must be made unpopu- lar — must be brought into disrepute llirougiiout the Republic. To this end, Massachusetts, in her capacity as a sovereign State, by the pas- sage of her personal-liberty bill, having nullified that portion of the Constitution which requires " fugitives from service to be delivered up on the a])plication of the party to whom such service is due," and the fugitive-slave law, which received the approval of the great Webster, of Clay, of Douglas, Cass, and Mason, and most of the other great minds of the country, proceeded to enact a law incor- porating an emigrant aid society, with $20,000 000 capital, to control Kansas. Lecturers were sent out through the country to create sympathy and take con- tributions; to send men, and implements, and munitions of war to that Territory, to form such institutions as Massachusetts and the East desired, no matter whether they were such as the true emigrant might find for his welfare after be- coming acquainted with the country, or not. It is claimed that a large company, composed of citizens of Missouri, went into Kansas, and at some of the polls controlled the election. This is denied on the part of the Missourians ; but, even if it be true, it was but an instance among several of like character which occurred at Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, and other localities, which, although unjustifiable, bear no comparison in importance to the cool, reflecting legislation of a sovereign State making W'ar upon the constitutional rights of her sisters in the Confederacy. I voted for an investigation, that the great question of temporary colonization by a sovereign State of a sister State or Territory for political purposes, might be authoritatively discussed in Congress, and the judgment of the American people pronounced upon it. And who can doubt but the position of the Democracy will be tri- umphantly sustained ? I believed that, for the purpose of protecting and perpet- uating the glorious principle of self-government, it was our duty to inquire into the facts relating to Kansas, that we might see whether any further legislation was necessary to protect the Territories against improper and illegal outside influences, whether such influences emanated from " emigrant aid societies," voluntary contributions in money, or Sharpe's rifles, or from the citizens of any of the adjoining Slates. The restoration of the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska act has cost the Democratic party too much, and is too vitally important not to demand at our hands protection, preservation, and perpetuity. I voted for Mr. Dunn's resolu- tions for this purpose, and this purpose alone. I so declared at the time before the House, and also declared that the investigation could not be made and ap- plied to the contested election. I quote fiom my remarks upon that occasion : "Mr. Speaker, if an impartial tribunal can be secured, I shall vote for this investigation. I shall vote for it in order to ascertain whether any wrong has been done, and, if any, that it may be redressed. I love the great principle of political equality and the sovereignty of the people which is set forth in the Kansas-Nebraska art. Give the people the power, and they "will always do the best with it; they will hastily amend any great error into which they may be led. I wish to see that great principle of popular sovereignty protected as v^'ell against citizens of any of the States as from moneyed monopolies, millionaires of the East, and itinerant fanatics. " " Wc know that those emigrant aid associations were got up for the purpose of controlling the institutions of Kansas. Suppose that, on some great political question, the people of Tennessee are nearly equally divided, and that one hundred votes either way will make a de- cision; suppose it was for the interest of Massachusetts that that question should be decided in a particular manner; suppose, further, that she incorporated a moneyed institution, pro- vided the means, and had one hundred and ten voters sent in time to control the election of Tennessee, would there be any dillerence in the violation of the great principle of popular sovereignty in that case from that of the case of Kansas.' LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 8 "I am anxious, as I have already suggested, that g-'^Yg'''''r^g'''''^'ij[jJi'"''"'ii'll ity shall be sustained. I have no doubt that it was the i.. tlOO 3ZD 1^^ j^g. Nebraska act to give the people of the Territory the power to create their own domesiic insti- tutions, and to protect them in the exercise of that power. If the people are liable now to an interference with the exercise of this power, I hope an investigation may be had, in order to ascertain the fact. If it be found to be so, then, before the adjournment of this session, 1 trust that amendment will be made to the organic act, so that there will be hereafter pro visipn against such outside influence on the territorial elections. For this purpose, and it only, I Bhall vote for an investigation." ^ Fellow-citizens, I have no sentiments in common with the peculiar institu- tion. My course has been dictated by an ardent devotion to the Constitution and Union. I have, as briefly as was consistent laid before you the history of my action upon these resolutions. I have endeavored to show you the dangerous results which our greatest statesmen said would follow, and which hav© followed, the INIissouri compromise, and the necessity which existed for its repeal, and the reestablishment of the equality of the States, and the sovereignty of the people of the Territories. I have endeavored to show the necessity of a just course at this time to protect these principles ; and in the midst of the wild clamor for the restoration of the Missouri compromise, it is our duty as Dem- ocrats, not to permit the principles of the Kansas act to be brought into disrepute by outside issues or foreign influence. For this purpose I voted to collect evidence, and have it reported to the House — for this vote I am charged with misrepresenting you. I have confidence in your Democracy, in your intelli- gence, and in your love of truth; and I confidently submit to you, whether my vote for the purposes avowed is not right. It is also charged that my vote is inconsistent with the sentiments of my speech : those who make this charge, have done so without a full examination of the subject. There were three distinct propositions before the House at the time that speech was made : 1. The Black Republican proposition, to give the committee power to send for persons and papers. 2. Bennett's proposition, to appoint a committee of two to take testimony in relation to the contested seat. 3. Dunn's resolutions, to collect evidence generally. I opposed the resolution to send for persons and papers, and denied the right of the House to inquire into the legality of the election of the members of the Kansas Legislature for the purpose of applying it to Whitfield's election. I sustained Mr. Bennett's resolution as far as possible. I opposed Mr. Dunn's resolutions, in hopes to get the matter into a more favorable shape, until it was the only proposition before the House ; and then, it being general in its character, I voted for it. If any gentleman will apply my remarks to the three propositions, he will find the speech and the vote entirely consistent and Democratic; and I submit the whole subject to your candid consideration. I have endeavored to represent you faithfully, according to tlie best of my ability. 1 have labored for the success of Democratic principles all my life, and have examined them in vain if a vote "to collect evidence" is anti-Democratic, or wrong. But, if I have so far mistaken your principles and wishes, that this vote, given under the circumstances and for the reasons avowed, misrepresents you, it will cause no murmuring on my part to resign the trust you have confided to my charge. Faithfully yours, A. HALL. Washington, May 5, 1856. i'riiued at Uie Office of the Congres-sional Globe.