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KANSAS— THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION- 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, 
 
 OF I]SrDIA.lSrA., 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 MARCH 30, 1858. 
 
 i 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
 
 •^ 1858. 
 

 fV 
 
SPEECH OF MR. COLFAX. 
 
 Mr. Cbairman, -when the gentleman from Mis- 
 sissippi [Mr Barksdale] was upon the floor, a 
 little while ago, he put some ialerrogatories to 
 me. He wished to kuow whether, if Kansas came 
 here with a Constitution adopted by her people 
 recognising Slavery, I would vote for her admis- 
 sion under that Constitution ? I tell him now, 
 emphatically, in advance of the speech which I 
 have prepared, that I would not. "When the Mis- 
 souri compromise, that time-honored compact, 
 was repealed, I declared then, and I maintain it 
 now, that by no vote of mine shall that repeal 
 be carried out to what 1 feared was intended to 
 be its result; and, therefore, I would refuse to 
 admit Kansas as a slave State under any contin- 
 gency. But all who oppose the ratification of 
 the Lecompton Constitution do not agree on this 
 point ; and i pledge myself to the gentleman from 
 Mississippi, and other members trom the South 
 upon this floor, that if I do not prove that there 
 are sufiicient reasons, apart from Slavery, to de- 
 mand its rejection, that the Lecompton Consti- 
 tution is not republican in its form, that it does 
 not speak the voice nor the will of the people of 
 the Territory of Kansas, then T do not ask any 
 man, of any party, to join me in voting against it. 
 
 Nineteen years ago, the House of Representa- 
 tives was convulsed with an exciting question, 
 which threatened to prevent its organization, 
 which hazarded even the continuance of the 
 body itself, and which, afiecting as it did the 
 political majority of this branch of the National 
 Councils, and thus deciding which party should 
 wield its power, baflied all attempts at its adjust- 
 ment, until the strong mind of the " old man elo- 
 quent " brought it from chaos to order once more. 
 The incidents of that struggle must be fresh in 
 the minds of every Representative within the 
 sound of my voice ; for they were discussed at 
 every fireside throughout this broad land. Five 
 citizens of New Jersey presented themselves at 
 the bar of the House, with commissions certify- 
 ing their election as Representatives from that 
 State, signed by its Chief Magistrate, and attest- 
 ed by the broad seal of the State itself, the sym- 
 
 bol of its sovereignty. These commissions were 
 in the exact form required by law ; and the gen- 
 tlemen thus commissioned demanded that they 
 should be admitted to seats upon them during 
 the organization of the body, and till the proper 
 committee was appointed, before whom their 
 contestants could present their claims. No other 
 gentleman claimed to have legal commissions for 
 the seats on this floor belonging to New Jersey, 
 except one, whose right was uncontested ; but 
 five other citizens presented certificates signed 
 by an inferior officer of State and by two county 
 clerks, asserting that the votes of two townships 
 had been omitted in the executive computation, 
 which, if included with the others, would have 
 entitled them to the commissions given to their 
 adversaries. To this it was replied, by the tnem- 
 bers commissioned according to law, that gross 
 frauds and irregularities existed in the returns of 
 these townships, justifying their exclusion, as 
 they would show at the proper time ; but that, 
 meanwhile, they claimed the seats in this body 
 to which their legal credentials, the signature of 
 the Governor of their State, and its broad seal, 
 entitled them. Such is a fair abstract of the 
 points in controversy in the celebrated New Jer- 
 sey case. The application which I shall make of 
 them may already be apparent. 
 
 Then, a sovereign State, by a fulfilment of all 
 the formalities under which members are offi- 
 cially accredited to this body, demanded, under 
 the signature of its highest functionary, who, by 
 law, had the right thus to speak for his State, 
 that certain citizens thereof should be received 
 to membership here. But the remaining mem- 
 bers of the American Congress persistently, and 
 to the end, despite the excitement which reigned 
 here for two long weeks, resolved that they 
 should not be admitted into their midst; but 
 that, going behind these credentials, regular 
 though they were on their face, they would, at 
 all hazards, regardless of broad seals and guber- 
 natorial signatures, ascertain what was the act- 
 ual will of the people of New Jersey. And the 
 political majority of this body, with these claim- 
 
ants excladed, being adverse to their views, their 
 credentials, broad seal, executive i^ignature, and 
 all were fiaally thrown back into their faces, and 
 their uncertified contestants admitted in their 
 
 Now the scene has changed. A Constitution 
 is before us, not framed by the authority ot an 
 enablino- act, the last Congress having failed to 
 concur fn the passage of ons— not ratified by the 
 people interested, at any election in which the 
 right to choose, the simple power of saying yes 
 or no, had been conceded— but framed by a Con- 
 vention, elected under an imperfect, unfair, dis- 
 franchising, and therefore swindling, census and 
 registry, whose members represented, on an av- 
 erac^e, exactly thirty votes apiece— who needed 
 an army to protect them, while in session, from 
 the indignation of the people, whose organic law 
 they pretended to have been commissioned to 
 luake— who themselves conceded all that 1 have 
 charged against them, by submitting the Consti- 
 tution only to those who were willing to vote 
 for it and to swear besides to support it ; and 
 whose iU-shapen and illegitimate offspring was 
 repudiated as spurious by the overwhelming 
 majority of ten thousand, at a fair, open election, 
 authorized by the Governor and Legislature ot 
 the Territory. And yet this fraudulent instru- 
 ment, which no one here is hardy enough to 
 claim as the voice of the majority of the people 
 of the proposed State; which uo more speaks 
 their wiP than does the Constitution ot conquered 
 and enthralled France speak the will of the free- 
 men of America; and which every one, here or 
 elsewhere, knows full well is loathed and scorned 
 and repudiated by the people, who are to be 
 forced, with the bayonet, to live under it— this 
 instrument is pressed upon us for ratification, on 
 the technical ground that it emanated from a 
 body which was nominally a Convention, repre- 
 senting- the people of Kansas— that it has passed 
 the ordeal of a pretended, one-sided, submis- 
 sion ; and that we have, therefore, no right to go 
 behind it, and inquire whether it is or is not the 
 will of the people of that distant Territory. 
 
 But, sir, I propose to hold up to these defend- 
 ers of 'the Lecompton Constitution the emphatic 
 utterances of the leaders, the very magnates, of 
 their party upon this floor, during the discussion 
 of the celebrated New Jersey case, to which I 
 have referred; for, if it was right, if it was legal, 
 if it was constitutional, to look behind the regular 
 credentials of Representatives, and to decide, 
 before admitting them to seats, whether those 
 credentials actually spoke the voice of the people 
 interested, then are gentlemen on the other side 
 "estopped" (to use that favorite term of the 
 Lecomptonites) from arguing that, when an in- 
 strument of such vital, far-reaching importance, 
 as a State Constitution, is before us for ratifica- 
 tion, we may not also go behind even the fairest 
 face that it may wear on the outside, to see if it 
 is not a fraud and an outrage, a tyranny and a 
 ■wrong. 
 
 My quotations are from the eighth volume of 
 the Congressional Globe, session of 1839-'40. 
 
 And, first, to all the gentlemen, from the Presi- 
 dent down, who tell us so, complacently that the 
 
 Lecompton Convention was a legal body, that 
 their Constitution was a legal instrument, that 
 its formation has all been technically regular, 
 and that, therefore, we have no right to consider 
 the nearly unanimous protest against it by the 
 Territorial Legislature, and the overwhelming 
 repudiation of it by the people themselves, I 
 quote the outspoken language of Aaron Vander- 
 poel, then the leader of the Democratic delega- 
 tion here from the Empire State : 
 
 '•These (said he) were lis views and answers to the 
 technical poiiils— ihe mere quftiioiis ol' form— raised 
 liere, lo precluile u? from looking at ti e real truth and jus- 
 tice ot' llie casi " ♦ * * '-He implored the Hou.-e 
 1101 to ackiiowledt'e itself 50 imjioUnl,or so mystified by 
 form, as to be blindtd to svhslance, not lo promul^'aie to the 
 world tlial the poieiu voice and will of the people of a 
 sovereign Siaie, coii>tituiionally expressiv., could here 
 \)6 praciicnliy/rvstraled and drowned, even lor a season, 
 by thf yUifnl, squeakini; notes of form and ttchnieality" — 
 Co,i(freisionol Globe, )). 9. 1639. 
 
 That was the robust language in which a Dem- 
 ocratic champion of that era spurned the argu- 
 ment of ''form and technicality," and sought 
 rather, as he declared in another part of his 
 speech, to ascertain what was " the right and 
 truth and justice and conscience of the case." 
 
 Nor was this all. After him stood up the 
 champion of the Democratic delegation from 
 Ohio, who for years afterwards occupied a still 
 higher seat in the other end of this Capitol, and 
 who now presides as the Executive of the Golden 
 State. Said John B. Weller : 
 
 '• His okject was to do full and ample justice lo these 
 men and lo the people of New Jersey ; ai\<l he was not 
 to he tied don-n by Joims or stand upon tecknicalities. when 
 lid iaw a grosis Iiaud pracfced upon liie iigh s of a peo- 
 ple of a fovere-gii State." * * * - Wnenevtr he saw 
 an elFon made to disiegard the expre-:sed tvill of the people, 
 and trample upon their eoiistitul,oiii.l figlils. ne would be 
 heard in ihtii defence. Ves, sir, as long us Gud gives me 
 a voice to speak, tnat voice shall be heard i . vindicating 
 the cause of an outraged and insulted jieople.'"— Ibid., p. 10. 
 
 That voice, Mr. Chairman, is still spared to its 
 owner; and as it spoke so emphatically, when 
 merely a representation in a single Congress was 
 at issue, I shall look to hear the solemn pledge 
 which I have quoted most eloquently redeemed 
 when John B. Weller, from the Pacific coast, 
 lifts his voice in vindication of " the cause of an 
 outraged and insulted people," and condemns, in 
 the severe language which he so well knows 
 how to use, and will use if he is faithful to his 
 vow, the imposition of an odious Constitution 
 upon a protesting and indignant community. 
 
 Virginia, too, in that day, spoke in a^ difl'erent 
 tone from her Representatives of 1358, but in 
 striking accordance with the fearless declara- 
 tions of her present Chief Magistrate. George 
 C. Diomgoole — and I need not state here what 
 rank he held among the statesmen of the Old 
 Dominion — uttered language which was both 
 truthful and prophetic. Listen to his words of 
 warning : .^ 
 
 "Ifvou establish the principle ihatiliecredeniials given 
 hv the State authorities, no matter hon- fraudulent, no mat- 
 ter how much at variance with the wili of the propU of tfie 
 %tae h" expressed in the elections, shall ouiweign the 
 popular^ voice, yov strike at tlte e.rislence of the 'Ucuve 
 frlnchise, ana dest.oy .very pr.nc.ple that makes De- 
 mocracy both lovely and practicable."— Page o9. 
 
 And yet the successors of Dromgoole tell us 
 that we cannot go behind the official certificate 
 
of John Calhoun, to ascertain whether the instru- 
 ment he bears is or is not " at rariance with the 
 will of the people." To them comes the stern 
 condsranation from their eloquent predecessor, 
 who, though dead, yet speaketh — " You strike at 
 the existence of the elective franchise, and de- 
 stroy every principle that makes Democracy both 
 lovely and practicable." 
 
 Time will not permit more copious quotations, 
 but I must callt^ret another witness upon the 
 stand, who "still lives'' in his own State of South 
 Carolina. I allude to Francis W. Pickens, to 
 whom the President not long since tendered one 
 of his most important foreign missions, and who 
 should therefore be good authority at the White 
 House, as well as with his successors here. Mr. 
 Pickens thus spoke in the same debate, says the 
 Globe: 
 
 "Heasserted Mfp8?t'fro/"(A« iihuse tstake what course 
 it thouprbt proper, ll m'ght pass by the great seal of the 
 State of New Jersey as insufficient evidence, hikI it was ac- 
 countable to nobody but its own constituents." — Page IS 
 
 And it cannot be denied that our obligation to 
 admit Representatives here is more imperative 
 than to admit new States. We must do the 
 former; but the Constitution declares that we 
 mai/ do the latter; and if we mat/, we certainly 
 also 711(11/ not. A rightful Representative we are 
 bound to admit without compromise or stipula- 
 tion. Even a legal State we may admit or reject, 
 as we see proper; and if we admit, can do it with 
 or without conditions. 
 
 But the warning of this eminent State-rights 
 Democrat was still more impressive than Mr. 
 Dromgoole's. Let it ring in the ears of those 
 who now spurn the will of the majority, for its 
 truthfulness has lost nothing by age: 
 
 "He called," say^ the Congressional Globe, ''upon gen- 
 tletnen lo bewase how ihey set at (((fiance the will of the 
 people. when cU arlij expresstd. He did not desire lo preach 
 revolutionary doctrine, but he was ready lo declare a great 
 truth, that hi-ilory ■ivould 1 ear him out in, which was, thai 
 the thunder of" Heaven mijiht sometimes be heard to roll 
 in the indignant murmurs of an outraged but free people.'^ 
 * * * '■ When the pe''p!e come to decide upon that 
 question, they will tear off and trample in the dust the tech- 
 nicaiities o^ special count y coicr t plead ing, which are thrown 
 around us here for party purposes oro'herwise." — Ptige 13. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this retrospect of what used 
 to be Democratic argument in the oldeu time, 
 without quoting an extract from one of the edi- 
 torials of the Lecompton organ here, the Wash- 
 ington Union, but a fortnight since, and the em- 
 phatic and truthful reply to it from the lips of 
 one of the Democratic champions of the debate 
 of 1839. Says the Union, in an article showing 
 the perfect indiiference it exhibited to what was 
 the desire of the majority of the people of Kan- 
 sas : 
 
 ■'TPe do not care whether the people like or dislike the Con- 
 stitution. We are unwilling to take any more testimony. 
 The ease has been closed ; the judgment entered up ; and 
 the execution is now in the hands of the officers." 
 
 Said John B. Weller, in the famous New Jer- 
 sey debate, prophetically and justly characteri- 
 zing such sentiments as these: 
 
 "They [bis opponents] had always practiced upon the 
 principle of the incapaciiy of the people to govf rii them- 
 selves — that the minority should rule. That was the corner- 
 stone OF Federalism.''— Page 10 
 
 Ho\^ appropriately, too, does the language of 
 Governer Weller reply to the bold avowal of a 
 
 champion of the Lecompton Constitution in the 
 other branch of Congress, [Mr. Hammond, of 
 South Carolina,] who in that famous speech of 
 his justified " the rule of the minority," as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " If this was a minority Constitution, I do i ot know that 
 that would be an objection to it. Consiiiulions are made 
 for minorities. l'erh:i];)!t rtiinorities oiieht to have the right 
 to make Constitutions, for they are administered by majori- 
 ties." 
 
 The brief hour allotted to me speeds so rapidly 
 away, that I must hasten to another branch of the 
 discussion. The stronghold, the very citadel of 
 the supporters of the Lecompton Constitution is 
 the argument that the Free State men have thrown 
 away their opportunity to vindicate their princi- 
 ples by failing to vote, and have therefore no right 
 to complain. To every appeal for justice to Kan- 
 sas — to every denunciation of this great wrong — 
 the ready answer is, "Why did your friends fail 
 to vote?" It is the key-note of every Lecomp- 
 ton speech; it is the burden of the President's 
 message ; it is the staple of those editorials, able 
 but utterly sophistical and falLicious, with which 
 the Government organ abounds ; it is the inspi- 
 ration of its echoes all over the land. Cabinet 
 officers ask, in their letters to political conclaves, 
 " What right have those to complain who did 
 not vote?" Custom-house officers join in the 
 melody of this stereotyped tune ; and postmas- 
 ters, who do not swell the chorus with cordial 
 alacrity, find their tifliuial windpipes suddenly 
 stopped, so that others may sit in their gates and 
 proclaim to the people this fundamental argu- 
 ment of Lecomptonism. The answer is plain, 
 and I shall strive to make it thorough, although 
 it will compel me to show that the President has 
 either willfully, or, what is even worse, ignorant- 
 ly, misstated historical facts. 
 
 It is not needful to speak at much length of 
 the first important election in the Territory of 
 Kansas, on the 30th of March, 1855, when the 
 people, under the organic act, were called upon 
 to elect their first Legislature. It was an elec- 
 tion of vital, commanding importance. On that 
 body would devolve the enactment of an entire 
 civil, criminal, and miscellaneous code of laws, 
 which would embody the wishes and protect the 
 interests of the pioneer settlers of the Territory. 
 It would also be required to enact statutes gov- 
 erning future elections, to appoint or provide for 
 the election of the various county and township 
 officers who were to assist in putting the ma- 
 chinery of Government in operation ; to establish 
 counties and county seats ; to select a site for the 
 capital ; and, in a word, by representatives fairly 
 chosen, to concentrate the popular w ill into a 
 body, which, in every free land, spetiks with po- 
 tential voice, because it springs from the hearts 
 and votes of the people for whom it acts. Need 
 I repeat the history of that organized invasion 
 from a neighboring StatCj as large in numbers 
 as the army with which Zachary Taylor achieved 
 the crowning victory of his life at Buena Vista ; 
 which, with all the equipage and paraphernalia 
 of war, surrounded the various polls, drove the 
 actual voters fiom their own ballot-boxes with 
 violence and imprecations ; forced unsubservient 
 election judges to carry out their will, or, with 
 
6 
 
 pistols at their breasts, gave them fire minutes 
 to die or to yield their places to their serviceable 
 tools ; stuffed the ballot-boxes with nearly five 
 thousand fraudulent, illegal, ruffian votes, elect- 
 ing an entire Pro-Slavery Legislature, with the 
 exception of a single Representative from a dis- 
 tant precinct in the interior ; and then returned 
 to their Missouri homes with drums beating and 
 banners flying, exulting over this unparalleled 
 outrage which they hailed as a brilliant victory? 
 Though, at the risk of life, a few districts were 
 contested, and new elections ordered, this bogus 
 Legislature, when it met, promptly repudiated 
 every one chosen at the second election, and in- 
 stalled in their stead the persons elected by the 
 invading army, thus appropriately " perfecting 
 their organization." And this was the first step 
 in the progress of afi'airs which has so fittingly 
 culminated in the Lecompton juggle, which, as 
 it did not have the people for its sponsor at the 
 baptismal font, appears before us with John Cal- 
 houn as its foster-father, and the President as 
 its next friend, sticking closer than a brother. 
 
 I pass over, for the present, the infamous code 
 of laws which this sham Legislature enacted, to 
 oppress and degrade the free people, whose legis- 
 lative rights it had so shamelessly stolen; (con- 
 fessed by eminent Democratic Senators to be a 
 disgrace to the age ; and yet, which, enshrined 
 and guarantied and sustained as they are in the 
 Lecompton Constitution, do not render that in- 
 strument less palatable to these very same gen- 
 tlemen now ;) for I wish here specially to refer to 
 the various elections which followed. Bold and 
 reckless in their determination to maintain their 
 ill-gotten power, this Territorial Legislature not 
 .only withheld from the people for two and a half 
 years the election of all their county, township, 
 and election officers, filling all these posts from 
 the pitiful minority, which, with the power of the 
 General Government at their back, sustained this 
 shameless usurpation ; but they fenced up the way 
 to the ballot-boxes of future elections, by restric- 
 tions purposely intended to exclude and disfran- 
 chise the majority of the people of Kansas. Tax 
 laws were passed, to defray the expenses, amongst 
 other equally repulsive cl^rges, of the so-called 
 militia, Avho roam over the Territory with Gov- 
 ernment muskets, harassing the Free State set- 
 tlers, destroying and stealing their property, com- 
 mitting that last inexpressible outrage on their 
 wives and daughters, sacking towns, and burning 
 houses ; and they made the payment of these taxes 
 an essential prerequisite forthe elective franchise. 
 But, worse than this even, they added unconstitu- 
 tional test oaths as another qualification, which 
 they knew no Free State man, who was worthy 
 to be called a man, wouli consent to take; and 
 with these restrictions, and their own creatures 
 presiding at the ballot-boxes, they felt that they 
 were safe. Sir, these disgraceful facts, which 
 banished from the polls the liberty-loving people 
 of Kansas, cannot be unknown to the President ; 
 and yet, when speaking of the election of Octo- 
 ber, 185G,at which he claims that the people, at 
 the polls, decided in favor of a Constitutional 
 Convention, he coolly says : 
 
 "It is true that at this election the enemies of the 
 Territorial Government did not vote, because they were 
 then engaged at Topeka," &c. — Congrtssional Globe edi- 
 tion,p.5. 
 
 It is eminently fitting that the first point in fa- 
 vor of the legality and regularity of the Lecomp- 
 ton Constitution, which is cited by the President, 
 should be a meager vote at ballot-boxes not pre- 
 sided over by impartial judges chosen by the 
 people, but guarded by the tools of the usurpa- 
 tion, and hedged in by test oaftis, which even 
 the usurping despot of France has not yet im- 
 posed on the voters of his empire. 
 
 The Convention having been thus called, the 
 usurping Legislature, yet unwilling to concede the 
 people a fair, honest, open ballot-box, though 
 compelled, as they were that winter, to repeal 
 the test oath, by the odium which it had justly 
 incurred, looked around for some new plan to 
 prevent a Free State majority, and at last devised 
 the registry, which should limit the franchise at 
 the election of delegates to those who were 
 placed upon it, and which is well known in 
 Kansas history as the census swindle. No other 
 State Constitution had ever thus been framed — 
 utterly disfranchising, as this enactment did, 
 every voter whom hostile officers, not elected by 
 the people, either neglected or refused to enroll. 
 Besides the nineteen counties whose people were 
 all ignored, and the facts in regard to which are 
 now so well known to the public, the registry in 
 the other counties shows that there was a method 
 in their madness and wickedness. In the flourish- 
 ing town of Topeka, not a soul was enrolled. 
 In Leavenworth, all the workmen in the Pro- 
 Slavery printing office were duly included in the 
 registry, while not a single one in the Free State 
 printingf office was discoverable by the deputy 
 sheriff. Henry J. Adams, the mayor of Leaven- 
 worth itself, was omitted. So was Marcus J. 
 Parrott, who, from bis triumphant election here 
 at the first fair election ever held in Kansas, the 
 succeeding October, must have been known even 
 then to some few citizens of the Territory, though 
 the bogus officer was oblivious to his existence. 
 Nay, more: this very oflicial failed to find out 
 that such a man lived in Leavenworth as his own 
 landlord. Doctor Morris, who was therefore dis- 
 franchised by not being on his sacred registry, 
 because he happened to prefer Freedom to Sla- 
 very. And Judge Johnson, of Kansas, a most 
 unimpeachable witness, declares, that of the nine 
 thousand persons purported to be registered, 
 from four to five thousand were citizens of Mis- 
 souri, whose names were included expressly to be 
 used in case they were needed at the ballot-box. 
 And this census swindle is most appropriately 
 another step in the fraudulent formation of this 
 Lecompton Constitution — of which the President, 
 however, says in his message: 
 
 " It is nwpossiBLE that any people could have proceeded 
 with MORE KEGULAliiTY in the I'ormHlion ol' a (Jonstilution 
 than the people of Kansas have done." — Vage 4. 
 
 This census having been thus completed, with 
 half the counties omitted, the registry in the 
 others wilfully and interuionally one-sided and 
 fraudulent, and thousands of Missourians added 
 to it to swell its aggregate, and to make success 
 certain in every possible contingency, the elec- 
 
tion of delegates was the next act in the drama. 
 And here I quote, from the President's message, 
 what he says of this election, as I am compelled 
 to make a direct issue with him upon the facts 
 involved, and shall produce my testimony to dis- 
 prove his allegations. Says the President : 
 
 "The enemies of ihe Territorial Government determin- 
 eJ still to resist the authority of Congress. They refused 
 to vote for delegates to the Convention; not because, from 
 circumstances which I need not detail, (Aere was an otnis- 
 sion to register the co7nparatwely few i-o/ers who were in- 
 habitants of certain counties of Kansas in the early 
 spring of 1?57; but because they had predetermined, at all 
 hazards, to adhere to their revolutionary organization, and 
 defeat the establishment of any other Constitution than 
 that which they had framed at Topeka. The election 
 ■was therefor-' suffered to pass by default ; but of this re- 
 sult the qualifiifd electors, who refused to vote, can never 
 justly complain.'" — Page 5. 
 
 I could answer this by saying that, as all 
 three sessions of the Thirty-fourth Congress had 
 expired, without the passage of any of the acts 
 proposed in either House, to authorize the form- 
 ation of a State Constitution, those who there- 
 upon declined to participate in the unauthorized 
 action of the Territorial Legislature for that pur- 
 pose, reaWj . maintained, instead of resisting, "the 
 authority of Congress." But I put the issue with 
 the President on even higher grounds, on the 
 very facts alleged in his statement. 
 
 On the 24th of April last. Acting Governor 
 Stanton, within a few days after his arrival in 
 Kansas, having heard as yet only the apocryphal 
 statements of the enslavers of that Territory, the 
 leaders of that minority which basked in the 
 sunshine of Presidential favor, proceeded to Law- 
 rence, and there, at the request of its citizens, 
 made a public address. He concedes now, with 
 a frankness that does him honor, that he had 
 not, for several months after this time, any con- 
 ception of the enormity of the minority, who 
 having, by fraud and violence, obtained posses- 
 sion of the forms of law, used them systematically 
 for still further injustice to the rights of the peo- 
 ple. But, like a bold and brave man, as he is, 
 he frankly told the citizens of Lawrence that he 
 had come to Kansas determined to enforce the 
 Territorial laws. He was met by equally res- 
 olute replies, that while they would submit, as 
 they always did, to any oppression by the offi- 
 cers or soldiers of the United States Government, 
 no power on earth could induce or compel them 
 to yield allegiance to a felon code, imposed on 
 them by a foreign invasion, which had driven 
 them from their own ballot-boxes with contumely 
 and violence, and then used the power they had 
 stolen to oppress and degrade those they had 
 robbed. But having appealed to them to redress 
 their grievances, if they had any, at the polls, he 
 was surprised to find the Free State leaders will- 
 ing and even anxious to do so, if a fair and hon- 
 est election was guarantied. He asked them to 
 put their proffer in writing, and the next day it 
 was done. Although this was extensively pub- 
 lished in the newspaper press of the day, and I 
 have one here with me to prove this fact, and to 
 show that the proffer was not kept a secret, I 
 prefer to read it from an attested manuscript 
 copy, furnished me by Governor Robinson, who 
 heads its list of signatures : 
 
 Lawrence, Aprils, 1857. 
 Deab Sir: In your address to the people of Lawrence, 
 last evening, we understood you to say, in substance, that 
 you would enforce the laws enacted by a Legislature 
 elected by the people of an adjoining Slate, ur.til they 
 shouiti be repealed; also, if the laws sre ui, just or dis- 
 tasteful, our remedy is the ballot-box. History has indel- 
 ibly recorded the fact, which General McLean admitted 
 in our presence last evening, that the ballot-box was 
 taken i"rom tlie people of Kansas Territory on the 30th 
 March, 1S55, and has not to this day been returned. From 
 that time until the present, the people have had no voice 
 whatever in making laws, or in selecting off cers to ad- 
 minister them, notwithstanding the world-wide declara- 
 tion, by the Administration at Washington and its friends 
 elsewhere, that the people shoull be perfectly free to reg- 
 ulate their own institutions in their own way, subject 
 only to the Constitution of the United Slates. 
 
 We are now invited to participate in an election of 
 delegates to a Convention, to meet September next, to 
 frame a Constitution and State Government. We are told 
 that the election law is a good one; that the voice of the 
 actual settlers can be heard at the polls, and that justice 
 will be meted out to all panics. We regret that the past 
 conduct of the officers to superintend this election has not 
 been such as to permit us to believe that they will secure 
 a fair vole of the people, and the fact that many well- 
 known citizens in Kansas are omitted from the registry 
 list, and that as well-known citizens ajid residents of 
 Missouri are registered, is conclusive proof to us that a 
 fair election is not intended and will not be permitted by 
 the officers who have thus far had the matter in charge. 
 But if a fair election is intended, notwithstanding the body 
 of men calling it was not elected by the people of Kan- 
 sas, andwiotwithstanding the people have already framed 
 a Constitution of which a large majority approve, we, the 
 undersigned, are willing to overlook the past, and go into 
 the election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention, 
 should a Convention of the people of Kansas convene, if 
 the following course be adopted by the efficers of the 
 election, 'o v.'it : 
 
 First. Two persons shall be selected in each township 
 or district, to correct the registry list, one by the Pro-Sla- 
 very and one by the Free State party, who shall proceed 
 in company to take the census and register all legal vo- 
 ters, and the probate judges shall correct the first lists, 
 and the apportionment of delegates shall be made accord- 
 ing to the returns thus made. 
 
 Second. Four judges of election shall be selected for 
 each voting precinct, two of the Pro- Slavery and two of 
 the Free State party, and the names of three of said 
 judges shall be required to have a certificate of election 
 to entitle a person to a seat in the Convention, 
 
 We think that your Excellency will at once perceive 
 that some such course must be pursued to correct the 
 list, or no correction can be made. We are informed by 
 creditable reports that, in some districts, nonresidents, lo 
 the number of thousands, have already been registered, 
 while actual Free State settlers have been refused; and 
 how else can the lists be corrected, than by a retaking 
 of the census by some person or persons who have regard 
 for an oath? Tesiimony of a negative character can 
 avail nothing; and to obtain positive tesiimony with ref- 
 erence to the residence of those enlisted from another 
 Slate, would be impossible in the short time remaining 
 before the election 
 
 That you have the power to take any course you may 
 think proper to secure o fair election, we have no doubt. 
 It is not material that the letter of the law calling the 
 election should be strictly followed ; indeed, no law at all 
 is requisite, so that the will of a majority of the people can 
 be ascertained. Congress can give legality to a Consli- 
 tulion formed in accordance wiih a previous Territorial 
 a^t or without one; and we trust your Excellency will 
 restore 'he ballot-box to the people of Kansas in all its 
 purity, at any risk of informality on minor and non-esseii- 
 lial provisions of the election regulations. 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 
 C. Robinson. G. W. Smith. 
 
 William Hutchinson. George F. Earle. 
 
 Ed. Clark. Joseph Crackliu. 
 
 Ephraim Nute, jun. G.Jenkins. 
 
 John Hutchinson. S. S Emory. 
 
 G. C. Brackett. J. H. Wakefie.'d. 
 
 E. D. Ladd. G. A. Finley. 
 
 C. A.Babcock. 
 Hon. F. P. Stanton, Acting Governor, Kansaj Territory. 
 A true copy. Auest : S. C. Smith. 
 
8 
 
 "The people haviiifr, by n direct vote, ordered the call- 
 ing of a Conveiilim lo form a Coiisliiution. the Abolition 
 agitators and di^tiirl)ers refused to voU at the election of 
 membeis of said Convention, and then, after an obstinate 
 refusal, raised an oulcry that the Convention was unjust- 
 ly constituted, inasmuch as they were not represented 
 lUcrein."— Se«a<« Report, p. 14. 
 
 I Bubmit this frank and manly document as 
 proof beyond all contradiction that the charge of 
 the President, reiterated in the report of the Sen- 
 ate's Territorial Committee, is 7ioi in accordance 
 with the fects as they exist. All that the lead- 
 ing Free State men asked or desired was a per- 
 fect registry and an honest election. Though 
 the majority of the people, they claimed only 
 equal rights with their opponents — one man of 
 each party to fill up the registry, and make the 
 census complete. The probate judge, the very 
 officer and the only one authorized by the law to 
 correct the census, to add to it the names of the 
 citizens thus mutually ascertained by a chosen 
 representative of the two contending parties in 
 each precinct, and each party to have one-half 
 of the election judges. What could have been 
 fairer, if an honest, unfettered expression of all 
 the legal voters of Kansas was really desired ? 
 And even if the requirement in the election law 
 for three election judges forbade their equal di- 
 vision, and the addition of one to each election 
 board was considered impracticable, the com- 
 pletion and filling up of the registry, which was 
 to be the test of the elective franchise, was per- 
 fectly attainable, for the election was not to be 
 held for fifty-three days afterwards. , 
 
 It is well known in Kansas that Gov. Stanton 
 was struck, as he might well have been, with the 
 fairness and justice of this profifer, and promised 
 them a reply in writing. This, to use the lan- 
 guage of the President in arguing this very 
 point, " was the propitious moment for settling 
 all difficulties in Kansas." But when Gov. Stanton 
 returned to Lecompton, and consulted with the 
 men there who had taken such pains thus far to 
 stifle the honest expression of the popular will 
 so &s to perpetuate their ill-gotten power, they 
 insisted on its refusal ; and, five days afterwards, 
 he replied in an argumentative letter, declining 
 to interpose his authority, without which the 
 plan had no prospect of accomplishment. And, 
 a month later, the apportionment was made ; 
 that apportionment which Gov. Stanton has so 
 frankly declared he would have utterly re- 
 fused to proclaim, if he had then known what he 
 has since learned, the base plot of the engineers 
 of this gigantic fraud. I do not allude to this 
 refusal to arraign the conduct of Gov. Stanton, 
 much as it is to be regretted, but to show that 
 it was the furthest thing possible from the wish 
 of the enslavers of Kansas, who were then his 
 only counsellors, to allow even a single fair op- 
 portunity of voting to be given, in the whole pro- 
 cession of events which culminated in the Le- 
 compton Constitution. And in full view of this 
 fact, is it not extraordinary, to say the least, that 
 a committee in the other end of the Capitol, 
 who knew of this correspondence, as they quoted 
 copiously from Gov. Stanton's repli/ to this prof- 
 fer, should use the following language afterwards 
 in their report : 
 
 And this same idea is even more oflfensively 
 repeated in a subsequent part of the report : 
 
 So. ao^ain, when the members of the Convention were 
 elected, the AboUtionisti shrunk from the contest. So, also, 
 when the question came up, whether tnere should or should 
 not be a clause retaint d in the Constitution allowing Sla- 
 very to be established in Kansas, they again shrunk from 
 the contest, conscious of their weakness, or f{om sinister 
 political design."— Senate Report,^. 16. 
 
 The election was held, but during its penden- 
 cy Democratic meetings resolved and re-resolved, 
 and promised over and over again, that the Con- 
 stitution, when formed, should be submitted for 
 ratification or rejection to a full vote of the peo- 
 ple. Numerous candidates for delegates, inclu- 
 ding the man who walks the streets of this city 
 with the entire and despotic power in his own 
 hands, of deciding who shall be the Governor, 
 State officers, and Legislature, of the new State 
 of Kansas, solemnly pledged themselves to the 
 same action, and declared that the rumored in- 
 tention to withhold the Constitution from the 
 popular verdict was all a Republican lie. Gov. 
 Walker and Gov. Stanton traversed the Territo- 
 ry, reiterating the pledge that the people should 
 have the opportunity of deciding for or against 
 the organic law under which they were to live, 
 before it should be submitted to Congress. And 
 the following extract from the instructions of the 
 Administration to Gov. Walker was presented to 
 the people of Kansas, as a voucher more solemn 
 and sacred than any other which could possibly 
 be given : 
 
 '• When such Constitution shall be submitted to the peo- 
 ple of the Territory, ihey must be protected in the exer- 
 cise of their right ofvotins for or against that instrument, 
 and the fair expression of the popular will must not be in- 
 terrupted by fraud or violence." 
 
 I look in vain in the President's Lecompton 
 message for this most important point in the his- 
 tory, which he has written for our instruction, of 
 the Constitution which he presses upon us for 
 adoption. But the people, who regard Presiden- 
 tial pledges as of too much importance and so- 
 lemnity to be cast aside, like actors' robes, after 
 they have accomplished their purpose, find in 
 this, which I have quoted, the following points, 
 which Presidents, Senators, Representatives, or 
 organs, cannot write down : 
 
 1. That on March 30, 1857, the President of 
 the United States regarded a submission of the 
 Constitution to a popular vote as a " right." 
 
 2. That this "right" extended to "voting fob 
 
 Ott AGAINST THAT INSTRUMENT." 
 
 3. That to "interrupt" "the fair expression 
 of the popular will " is nothing less than " fraud." 
 
 I appeal, therefore, from the Lecompton mes- 
 sage to the Presidential instructions to his Exec- 
 utive in Kansas — from the James Buchanan of 
 March, 1858, to the James Buchanan of March, 
 1857; and I have no fears of the popular verdict 
 on that appeal. 
 
 I pass rapidly over the subsequent history. 
 The delegates, elected by an aggregate vote not 
 equal to a common county in all, assemble at 
 Lecompton, and adjourn over till after the elec- 
 tion of October, 1857. For the first time in 
 Kansas, a fair election was held. The Free State 
 men swept the field; and though the old game 
 of fraud was played to the last, by forged re- 
 
9 
 
 , turns, which, if admitted, would have continued 
 the legislative power of the' Territory in the 
 hands of the reckless men whom the people by 
 
 • an overwhelming vote had repudiated, the Con- 
 vention reassembled with a full and unmistakable 
 knowledge of the actual will of the people whom 
 they pretended to represent. I intend to speak 
 hereafter of some of the details of the instru- 
 ment they framed; but I wish to devote this 
 part of my remarks to the history of the elec- 
 tions by virtue of which this Coastitution is now 
 here, and which the President eulogizes as so 
 fairly conducted that it would be impossible for 
 the people to have proceeded more regularly in 
 this work. Instead of either framing their Con- 
 stitution in accordance with the known will of 
 the people who were to live under it, or submit- 
 ting it when framed to their adoption or rejection, 
 they outraged their own pledges — the pledges of 
 the Executive officers in Kansas, which they 
 heard made to the people without dissent — and 
 the pledges of the President, by submitting it 
 '■'■for the Constitution with Slavery," or "/or the 
 Constitution with no Slavery ; " and fettering 
 even this restricted choice by the extraordinary 
 provision that no one should be allowed to vote 
 at all, unless he was willing to take an oath to 
 support the yet unadopted Constitution, under 
 the pains and penalties of perjury. I must quote 
 here again from the President: 
 
 '•The question of Slavery wag submitted lo an ileclion 
 of the people of Kansas, on the 31-t December last, in 
 obedience to the mandate of the Constitution. Ht re again 
 a /afrop/iortMn*^!/ was presented to <ii<3 adherents of the 
 Topeka Constitution, if they were the majority, to decide 
 this exciting question 'in their own way,' and thus re- 
 store peace to the distracted Territory; but they again 
 refused to exercise their right of popular sovereignty, 
 and again suffered the election to pass by default," * * 
 "They did not think proper to submit the whole of this 
 Constitution to a popular vote; but they did submit the 
 question whether Kansas should be a free or a slave Slate 
 lo the people." 
 
 The President must have read the Lecompton 
 Constitution, and have seen there that even if the 
 "Constitution with wo Slavery" was adopted, it 
 was still expressly enacted in the schedule, that, 
 notwithstanding that vote, "the right ot property 
 in slaves now in this Territory shall in no manner 
 be interfered with " — (Section seven of schedule ; ) 
 and again, in section fourteen of schedule, that 
 whatever amendments may hereafter be adopted 
 to the Constitution, " no alteration shall ever be 
 made to affect the rights of property in the own- 
 ership of slaves." And yet, though he argues, 
 with apparent gratification, that "Kansas is, at 
 this moment, as much a slave State as Georgia 
 or South Carolina," he declares (even in full 
 view of these provisions in the Kansas Consti- 
 tution, which every voter who approached '^he 
 ballot-box was compelled to ratify if he voted at 
 all, and swear to support besides) that the Con- 
 vention fairly submitted to the people the ques- 
 tion whether Kansas should be a free or a slave 
 State. 
 
 An important point must not be omitted in 
 this rapid review: that no instance exists, during 
 our entire history as- a nation, that I can find by 
 the most diligent search, where a special clause 
 of a new Constitution was submitted to a popu- 
 
 lar vote, that the whole instrument was not also 
 submitted to the same ordeal at the same time. 
 And the reason is, that nowhere else in this 
 whole land have the framers of a Constitution 
 sought or desired to impose it upon a people, 
 against their well-known hatred and detestation 
 of its provisions. Where Constitutions, in pre- 
 vious generations, have not been submitted to 
 the people, it has been where the assent to their 
 principles on the part of the people has been well 
 known and undeniable. This Lecompton fraud 
 is, I rejoice to say, the first instance of the kind 
 in our country, and I trust that it will be so 
 utterly repudiated that it will be the last, ily 
 views in regard to the extension of Slavery are 
 known to my fellow-members, And need not be 
 repeated; for this is not a question whether Af- 
 ricans are to be slaves, but whether freemen, of 
 your own race and color, are to be made the serfs 
 of the Lecompton usurpers ; whether, in a word, 
 the majority of the people of Kansas have any 
 rights that Congress is bound to respect. 
 
 Resuming this almost completed history of 
 Kansas elections, I must quote a remarkable 
 admission of the President, where he is speaking 
 of the future power of the people to amend the 
 Constitution — an admission which destroys his 
 whole case, utterly and irretrievably : 
 
 ''The will of the majority is supreme and irresistible, 
 when expressed in an orderly and lawful manner. They 
 can make and unmake Constitu'ioiis at pleasure. It would 
 he absurd lo tay that they can impose fetters upon their 
 own power which they Laiinot afterwards remove." — L&- 
 comTpU>n Message, p. 7, 
 
 The President's whole argument previous to 
 this admission was, that the Legislature, having 
 passed an act calling a Constitutional Conven- 
 tion, had thereby surrendered to that body all 
 power over the instrument they were commis- 
 sioned to make ; but I meet him on this new 
 ground that he has taken, and ask, in his own 
 language, if it is not " absurd to say that they 
 can impose fetters upon their own power which 
 they cannot afterwards remove ? " What are 
 the facts ? Be/ore any vote was taken upon the 
 Constitution — before, by its own terms, it had 
 gone into effect, or possessed the slightest vital- 
 ity — for, by section sixteen of the schedule, it 
 was "to be in force from and after its ratifica- 
 tion by the people, as hereinbefore provided " — 
 the same legislative authority which called it 
 into existence, convened and ordered a vote of 
 the people for or against its adoption ; and, on 
 the 4th of January, a majority of ten thousand of 
 the people of Kansas branded it with an indig- 
 nant repudiation. If their previous action, there- 
 fore, had been construed to impose any "fetters" 
 upon the people, their action before the Conven- 
 tion's election on the 21st of December removed 
 these fetters, and enabled the people to speak 
 their will unmistakably. 
 
 But, again; if a Legislature of the people, after 
 a Constitution has been adopted, ratified, and 
 confirmed, both at home and by Congress and 
 the Executive, have then the power to proceed, 
 contrary to the terms of the instrument itself, in 
 the necessary steps to amend or overthrow it, as 
 the President argues "the Legislature already 
 elected may, at its very first session," proceed to 
 
 I 
 
10 
 
 do, is it not extraordinary that they have not this 
 same power before it has gone into force at all ? 
 Is not this position, to use the President's expres- 
 sive language, "absurd?" 
 
 But I have still another point to make, on this 
 head, which will leave the President and his 
 friends no room to escape from the position he 
 has taken above. They may say that the lan- 
 guage is, that " the will of the majority " must be 
 "expressed in an orderly and lawful manner;" 
 and that the election of the 4th of January does 
 not comply with this condition. The President, 
 in his message, though refusing, as he did also 
 in his instructions to Governor Denver, to recog- 
 nise its result as material, says, "it was peace- 
 ably conducted, under my instructions." But still 
 more conclusive is the following extract from the 
 instructions to Governor Denver, which were 
 dated December 11, 1857, ten days before there 
 had been any voting on the Constitution at all, 
 in full view of the fact that a bill would proba- 
 bly be passed by the Legislature, authorizing the 
 people to vote for or against it. Speaking of the 
 Governor's duty, the instructions say : 
 
 "It extends, of course, to the proteetion of all citizens 
 in the exercise of their just rights, and applies fo one leaal 
 election as lee'l as to another. The Territorial Le§rislature 
 doubtless convened on the 7th instant, and while it re- 
 mains in session its members are eniiiled to he secure 
 and free in their deliberations. lis rightful action must 
 also be respented. Should it authorize an election by the 
 people for any purpose, this election should be held without 
 interruption, no less than those authorized by ihe Convention. 
 While the peace of the Territory is preserved, and the 
 freedom of election is secure, there need be no fear of 
 disastrous consequences." • # * "From whatever 
 quarter it is attempted to interfere by violence wuh the 
 elections authorized by the Constiiuiional Convention, c?- 
 which may be authorized by the Legislature, the attempt 
 must be resisted, and the security of the elections main- 
 tained." 
 
 Whatever, therefore, the President may argue 
 as to the inefficacy of that vote, these instruc- 
 tions recognise it as a " legal election," as a 
 "just right" of the people, as "rightful action 
 by the Legislature," and as entitled to precisely 
 the same protection as the elections authorized 
 by the Convention. And this being conceded by 
 the President, I contend that that election is de- 
 cisive of "the will of the majority;" that that 
 will has been " expressed in an orderly and law- 
 ful manner;" that the people, whom the Presi- 
 dent says "can make or unmake Constitutions at 
 pleasure," have decidedly unmade this one, at an 
 election " peaceably conducted under the Pres- 
 ident's instructions;" and that if they ever did 
 "impose fetters upon their own power," by au- 
 thorizing this Convention to meet, it is "absurd" 
 to say that they " cannot afterwards remove " 
 them, as they have done so decisively by repu- 
 diating the Convention's work. 
 
 I must, before passing to another point, expose 
 the absolute and emphatic contradiction, on a 
 vital point, of the two champions iir Congress of 
 this Lecompton Constitution. I allude to the 
 atithors of the Senatorial report from the Com- 
 
 Sittee on Territories, and the yet undelivered 
 ouse report from the Select Kansas Committee, 
 as published by its author, Mr. Stephens, of 
 Georgia, in the Union. It is in regard to the 
 right and power of the Legislature calling the 
 
 Says Mr. Stephens, 
 of Georgia, in his re- 
 port from the Select 
 Committee of the House: 
 
 "The Legislature did call 
 a Convention. They could 
 have required them to sub- 
 mit their vote to the people. 
 This was a matter for their 
 own diserelirjn; but this 
 they did not do." 
 
 Convention, to restrict its authority, or to stipu- 
 late, in advance, that their work should be sub- 
 mitted to the popular vote. 
 
 Says Senator Green, 
 of Missouri, in his re- 
 port, speaking of the 
 failure to require the 
 submission of the Con- 
 stitution : 
 
 "If the Legislature could 
 direct ihe Convention what 
 ihey should do on one sub- 
 ject, it might with equal pro- 
 priety have given com- 
 mands on all other subjects. 
 This would have been a fla- 
 grant vioUtion of all rules 
 of right and of justice to the 
 people." 
 
 I would respectfully suggest that, before these 
 champions of Convention omnipotence go before 
 the people on this issue, they should revise their 
 reports so as to make them agree instead of an- 
 tagonizing on this essential question ; jnd settle 
 the point, whether a condition that a Constitu- 
 tion should be submitted to the people who are 
 to live under it, would or would not be "a fla- 
 grant violation of all rules of right and of 
 justice to the people." 
 
 The next question which confronts us in the 
 discussion of this question is, whether the Con- 
 stitution is "republican in form." The report of 
 the Senate's Committee on Territories, on page 
 10, after discussing the Slavery clause, says : 
 
 "No real or valid exception can be taken to any other 
 part of the Constitution. On this subject. President 
 Buchanan has well said, in his message : 
 
 " 'In fact, the general provisions of our recent State 
 Constitutions, after an experience of eighty years, are 
 so similar and so excellent, that it would be difficult to go 
 far wrong at the present day in framing anew Constitu- 
 tion.'" 
 
 Yes, Mr. Buchanan ; but if there is one pro- 
 vision more than another, in our recent State 
 Constitutions, in which there has been a univer- 
 sal concurrence of sentiment, it has been in their 
 submission to the people. All parties, all sec- 
 tions, all States, have agreed upon this " ex- 
 cellent " provision. Though in the earlier days 
 of the Republic, when the public sentiment was 
 unequivocal. State Constitutions were allowed to 
 go into operation by general consent and uni- 
 versal acquiescence, yet, for over twenty years, 
 no Constitution has gone into operation, in any 
 new State or old, without having been submit- 
 ted to the ordeal of a popular ratification or re- 
 jection. This forms the only exception, during 
 the present generation ; and the following rea- 
 son, very frankly given by the President, on page 
 4 of- his Lecompton message, does not strike me 
 as either "excellent" or truly Democratic : 
 
 " Had the whole Lecompton Constitution been submit' 
 ted to the people, the adherents of this [Topeka] organ- 
 i/.auon would doubtless have voted against it." 
 
 But, sir, besides the fact that the Constitution 
 is not really republican, because it does not rep- 
 resent the actual and well-knovrn will of the 
 people, I dissent from the Senatorial report, in 
 its assumption that " no real or valid exception 
 can be taken to any other part of the Constitu- 
 
11 
 
 tion," besides its provisions in favor of perpetual ' 
 and irrepealable Slavery. 
 
 And first, the Constitution flatly contradicts 
 itself on a most essential point. In section one, i 
 of article seven, it is declared that " the right of 1 
 property is before and higher than any constitu- 
 tional sanction " — a new higher law — while sec- 
 tion two, article twelve, authorizes even a soul- ; 
 less corporation to take and pay for private | 
 property, even against the consent of the owner, 
 if a jury, which is usually rather inferior in power i 
 to a Constitution, only consents. 
 
 And secondly, these sagacious Constitution- 
 makers, in their deep interest for the people, 
 enact, in section five of article twelve, that no 
 bank bill shall go into force unless it is submit- 
 ted to a vote of the people, after its passage by 
 the Legislature, and shall be approved by a ma- 
 jority of the electors voting at such elections, 
 while they themselves refuse to submit their own 
 work, binding up though it does all the institu- 
 tions, the legislation, and the interests of the 
 people, to this test, which they command here- 
 after, on a single question. Such gross and 
 shameless inconsistency cannot receive the sanc- 
 tion of my vote. To be consistent with their 
 idea of a "fair submission," they should have 
 provided that the Legislature should order a vote 
 " for banks with branches," and "for banks with- 
 out branches," and exclude all votes of anti-bank 
 men by requiring the voters to swear fealty to 
 the banks before they could be allowed to choose 
 between the two. 
 
 And thirdly, a single word in this Constitution 
 indicates the animus of its framers. The Consti- 
 tution of the United States allows the writ of 
 habeas corpus to be suspended only " in cases of 
 rebellion or invasion;" but the Kansas Consti- 
 tution (section fourteen, bill of rights) authorizes 
 it to be suspended " in cases of rebellion, insur- 
 rection, or invasion." The unconstitutional addi- 
 tion of that single word, " ixscrrection," so 
 capable of latitudinous construction, becomes 
 doubly significant when we remember what these 
 same men have considered "insurrections" du- 
 ring the past four years. And section twelve 
 allows them also to dispense with grand juries 
 or impeachments, even in capital or infamous 
 offences, " in cases of rebellion, insurrection, or 
 invasion." With the habeas corpus, indictments, 
 and impeachments, all brushed aside, they can 
 indeed be " a law unto themselves," and become 
 the irresponsible and unrestricted Robespierres 
 of the State. 
 
 And fourthly, in full view of the fact that, be- 
 fore the Constitution was framed, or even fairly 
 commenced, the people, by a vote six times 
 greater than that by which the delegates had 
 been chosen, had elected a Legislature, which, 
 by the act of Congress, approved by the Presi- 
 dent, had been clothed with full power of legis- 
 lation on all rightful subjects, they attempted to 
 legislate through their Constitution, even before 
 its ratification by Congress, and to trammel and 
 restrict the legal power and authority of a legis- 
 lative body, whose commissions sprang from as 
 high an authority, at least, as theirs. They de- 
 clare, in section two of the schedule, that all 
 
 laws then in force shall continue in full force 
 until the State Legislature, to be elected under 
 the Constitution, should assemble. Such arro- 
 gance is in fit unison with the conduct of the 
 reckless men who framed this instrument in 
 open, undisguised contempt of the known will of^ 
 Kansas, and who ask us to force it down the 
 throats of the people they seek to punish by its 
 adoption. But there is an object in this, and it 
 was to prevent the repeal or amendment of that 
 atrocious code which for years this usurpation 
 had been vainly striving to enforce on the people 
 of Kansas. Some of its features 1 quote from a 
 speech I had the honor of delivering during the 
 last Congress ; and those who vote to ratify this 
 rejected Constitution, give their willing suffrages 
 to also maintain and uphold those laws which 
 the Constitution so jealously preserves from 
 amendment or repeal : 
 
 "I will now invite your alfention to a contrast in the 
 penal code of this Territory, singular in its character, to 
 say the very least. Section five of the act punishinsr 
 offences ags.inst slave property, page 604, enacts as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 '• ' If any peri'on shall aid or assist in entic insr^ decoyinar, 
 or persuading, or carrying awav, or sending out of this 
 Territory, any slave beloiising to another, with intent to 
 procure or effect the freedom of ^uch slave, or with intent 
 to deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, 
 he shall be adju(%ed suiliy of grand larceny, and, on 
 conviction thereof, shall suffer death. or be imprisoned at 
 hard labor for not less than ten years.' 
 
 " A person who, by a Pro-Slavery pacVed jary. is con- 
 victed of aiding inpersuadintroul of the Territory a slave 
 belonging to another, is to suffer at least twice as severe a 
 penally as he who is convicted of committing the vilest 
 outrage that the mind of man can conceive of on the per- 
 son of your wife, sister, or daughter ! Nay, the contrast 
 is still stronger. The jury, in the first instance, are au- 
 thorized even to inflict the punishment of death — in the lat- 
 ter, see page 208, the penalty is ' not less than five years.' 
 Such is tie contrast in Kansas between the protection of 
 a wife's or daughter's honor and happiness, and that 
 which is thrown as a protecting aegis over the property 
 of the slaveholder! 
 
 "Again, on page 208, you will find that the ruffian who 
 commits malicious mayhem, that is, without provocation, 
 knocksyoudown in the street, cats offyour nose and ears, 
 and plucks out your eyes, is punished ' not less than five 
 nor more than ten years;' the same degree of punishment 
 that is meted out in section seven of the above act, page 
 605, on a person who should aid, or assist, or even 'har- 
 bor,' an escaped slave I 
 
 " On page 209, you will find that the man who sits at 
 your bedside, when you are prostrated by disease, and, 
 taking advantage of your confidence and helplessness, 
 administers 7)owon to you, but whereby death does not 
 happen to ensue, is to be punished ' not less than five nor 
 more than ten yeais,' though it is murder in the heart, if 
 not the deed. And this is precisely the snme penalty as 
 that prescribed by the eleventh section (quoted in my re- 
 marks above on the five violations of the Constitution) 
 against one who but brings into the Territory any book, 
 paper, or handbill, containing any 'sentiment' 'calcula- 
 ted,' in the eyes of a Pro-Slavery jury, to make slaves 
 ' disorderly.' The man who takes into the Territory Jef- 
 ferson's ' Notes on Virginia ' can be, under this law, hur- 
 ried away to '.he chain-gang, and manacled, arm to arm, 
 with the murderous poisoner. 
 
 ''On page 210, the kidnapping mid confinement of a. free 
 white person, for any purpcse. even, if a man, to sell him 
 into slavery, or, if a woman, for a still baser purpose, is 
 to be punished ' not exceeding ten years.' Dfcoying and 
 enticing a^ay a child under twe;ve years of age from iis 
 parents, ' not less than six months and not exceeding five 
 years.' 'BuX decoying and enticing (mark the similarity 
 of the language I) a slave from his master is punished by 
 death, or confinement not less than ten years. Here is 
 the section, page 604 : 
 
 "'Sec. 4 If any person shall entice, decoy or carry 
 away out of this Territory, any slave belonging to anoth- 
 er, with intent to deprive theownerthereof of the services 
 of such slave, nr with intent to effect or procure the 
 freedom of such slave, he shall be adjudged guilty of 
 
12 
 
 grand larceny, and, on conviction thereof, shall svjffer 
 DEATH, or be unprisoned at hard labor for not less than ten 
 years.'' '■' 
 
 And .fifhl^, this Constitution, section three, 
 article ten, expressly empowers the Legislature, 
 , besides poll taxes, income taxes, and uniform 
 taxation on property of all kinds, to levy addi- 
 tional taxes on " all persons pursuing any occu- 
 pation, trade, or profession." Under this, the gen- 
 tleman or the sluggard, who is too wealthy or 
 too lazy to work, is to be exempt from this tax 
 on industry, while the mechanic, the laborer, the 
 manufacturer — in a word, the men who earn 
 their living by the sweat of their brow — are to 
 pay a tax for so doing, over and above all the 
 other taxes which they share in common with 
 their fellow-citizens of every degree. Before I 
 will vote to ratify or endorse so shameless and 
 insulting a discrimination against the free labor- 
 ers and working men of Kansas, my tongue shall 
 palsy in my mouth. Let gentlemen on the other 
 side, who insist that we cannot look behind the 
 Constitution to see how it was formed or adopted, 
 shut their eyes, if they can, to this unrepublican 
 provision which stares on them from its face. 
 
 Nor is this all. The Lecompton delegates ap- 
 peared as anxious to rob the United States of 
 their lands in the Territory as they had the peo- 
 ple of Kansas of their rights. And they have 
 sent us an ordinance declaring that, to induce 
 the new State to yield the right she claims of 
 taxing the unsold Government lands within her 
 borders, four sections out of each township, 
 instead of the usual number of one, must be 
 given her for schools ; all the salt, gold, silver, 
 and lead mines ; seventy-two sections for a col- 
 lege ; and an enormous railroad grant, besides, of 
 alternate sections of land, for a breadth of 
 twenty-four miles wide, through the Territory 
 from east to west, and another of the same 
 extent from north to south. It is well known 
 that this wholesale "land-grab" would kill the 
 Lecompton Constitution in Congress, if coupled 
 with it here ; and hence the President has sent 
 it to us in a separate form from the main body of 
 the Constitution itself; and the Senate report 
 says : 
 
 "Tlie commiuee do not approve the ordinance accom- 
 pyin? the Corstitution, and report against its allowance ; 
 hut they do not regard it as any part of the Constitution. 
 nor willits approval or disapproviil by Congress afTeC 
 the validity of that Constitution, if the State be admitted 
 into the Union as recommended." 
 
 The friends of this Lecompton fraud cannot, 
 however, rid themselves of this undesirable hand- 
 iwork of the usurpers. I shall prove that it is 
 part and parcel of the Constitution, inseparable 
 from it, and will be ratified fully and unequivo- 
 cally if the State is admitted. For — 
 
 1. It is part of the proffer made by the framers 
 of the Lecompton Constitution, on which they 
 agree to come into the Union. * 
 
 2. It was framed by a body whose only author- 
 ity was to prepare a Constitution. 
 
 But still higher and more indisputable author- 
 ity is the positive testimony of the chief conspir- 
 ator, their own witness, John Calhoun, Pres- 
 ident of the Convention and bearer of the Con- 
 stitution, whose official certificate they are, by 
 
 their own argument, " estopped " from looking 
 behind. I quote this certificate, attached to the 
 ordinance, from page 48, Senate report: 
 
 '• The within is a IrDe and perfect copy of the ordinance 
 adopted by the Constitution'! Convention ai:d suumitted 
 ASPAKT OF THE Constitution by the JJoNTKSTtoN whi h 
 assembled at jL.ecom|>lun on the 5lh day of Sepii-mber, A. 
 D. 1657. "( CALHOUN. 
 
 " President Coiislitnlional Convention. 
 
 " Lecompton, Kansas Territory, January 14, 18.5S." 
 
 "Submitted as j^iart of the Constitution by the 
 Convention." Gentlemen, can you escape that? 
 Your Senate committee, in the teeth of this, and 
 to avoid saddling this extra weight on your con- 
 sciences, may say, " they do not jegard it as any 
 part of the Constitution." But the Lecompton 
 Convention declares that it is. Ps President and 
 mouthpiece certifies most unequivocally that it 
 is. Nay, more : he says it was part of the Con- 
 stitution which was submitted by the Convention. 
 It has been ratified by the people, therefore, ex- 
 actly as much as any other part. It is of as 
 much validity as any other section or article. 
 You cannot, you say, vary in the slightest degree 
 from the action of the Convention, not even to 
 consult the popular will, not even to adopt the 
 Constitution, subject to its satisfactory ratifica- 
 tion hereafter. Then you cannot vary their prof- 
 fer to you. You cannot accept part of the Con- 
 stitution, and reject part. The ordinance is declar- 
 ed, in an official certificate of the President of the 
 Convention which framed it, to be " part of the 
 Constitution ; " and you will be compelled, there- 
 fore, when you strike down the rights of the 
 people of Kansas, to strike, at the same time, a 
 heavy blow at the rights and interests of your 
 constituents there, and to sanction a land-theft 
 that, uncoupled from this model Constitution, 
 would not command five votes in this body. 
 
 I have not time to notice other provisions 
 equally objectionable, but which have been al- 
 ready widely criticised and condemned ; and I 
 must hasten to another branch of the discussion. 
 
 The report of the majority of the select com- 
 mittee of this House, as published by Mr. Ste- 
 phens, of Georgia, insists that no farther ena- 
 bling act was necessary to authorize the forma- 
 tion of a State Constitution than the original 
 Kansas-Nebraska law itself. In order not to do 
 him injustice, I quote his exact language : 
 
 "Another objection of the same class is, that no ena- 
 bling act was passed by Congress; or, in other words, 
 that the Legi.^l^ture of Kansas did not have the le-^al 
 right to call the Convention that formod the Consiilutio". 
 Thi^ obje«tion is equally untenable both on principle and 
 authority. The power to call a Convention to form a 
 State Constitution is clearly within the 'rightful sub- 
 jects' of legislation granted in the organic act." 
 
 Others in debate, in both branches of Congress, 
 have deduced the argument that a Congressional 
 enabling act was unnecessary, because of the 
 following language in another section of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska bill : 
 
 " And when admitted as a State or Slates, the said Ter- 
 ritory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into 
 the Union with or without Slavery, as their CoiistilutioH 
 may prescribe at the time of their admission." — United 
 States Laios, vol. Ill, p. 2s3. 
 
 But these gentlemen, perhaps, forget that pre- 
 cisely the same argument would authorize Utah 
 to demand admission without ai-y previous ena- 
 
13 
 
 bling act. The language of her organic act, on 
 this point, is exactly the same as that of Kansas, 
 and I copy it here to prove the fact : 
 
 "And, when adtnitled as a Slate, llie said Territory, or 
 any potlion of iliesame, shall be received iulo tlie Union 
 with or without Slavery, as their Constitution may pre- 
 scribe at the lime of their admission."— l/'/iifed States 
 Laics, vol. 9, p. 433. 
 
 But I prefer to meet the gentlemau from Geor- 
 gia on his own ground, -where he finds the power, 
 as above quoted from his report, in the follow- 
 ing section of the organic act : 
 
 "Sec. 24. That lite lesfislative power of the Territory 
 shall extend lo itll rigliiful sulijec s of le-islalion, con- 
 sistent with the Cons itutioii ol the Limed Stales anO tlie 
 provisions of this aci.""— Unittd Slatis Lau-x, vol. 10, p. 2;5 
 
 Passing over the question -whether the over- 
 throw of the Territorial Government established 
 by Congress is a " rightful subject of legisla- 
 tion, consistent with the provisions of this act " 
 -which established it, I reply to the gentleman 
 from Georgia, that Utah has precisely the same 
 authority, in the following section of her organic 
 act: 
 
 " Sec. G. The legislative power of the Territory shall 
 extend to all righilul subjects of legislation, consistent 
 ■with the Consiitulion oi the United Slates and the pro- 
 visions of this act.-" — United Siatts Laics, vol. 9, p. 434. 
 
 Do the gentleman from Georgia, and the other 
 prominent champions of the Administration, dare 
 to stand by their own argument, when applied to 
 the Territory of Utah V Will they maintain, 
 while asking us for appropriations tor the army 
 -which is to assist in sustaining and upholding 
 the new Territorial ofiBcers there, that the whole 
 Territorial Government itself can be superseded 
 or trammelled by the spontaneous formation of a 
 State Constitution in Utah, and the Lecompton- 
 like election, before even the instrument itself is 
 submitted to our inspection, of a Governor, State 
 officers. Judiciary, and Legislature? And yet, 
 the language of the two acts being identical on 
 the very point where he finds the authority for 
 Kansas, he must acknowledge its fallacy, or con- 
 cede a license to Utah utterly destructive of the 
 national authority in that rebellious Territory. 
 
 I leave the gentleman from Georgia to select 
 whichever horn of this dilemma he chooses, and 
 ask attention to the two following extracts from 
 the speeches of distinguished advocates of Le- 
 compton upon this floor. 
 
 The gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Lamar,] 
 in his speech on the 18th of January, lays down 
 the following proposition : 
 
 "The peop'e act in their sovereign capacity when 
 they elect delegates; and the delesates thus elected and 
 convened are, for all practical purposes, identical with 
 the people. Sir, I take higher grounds. 1 hold that the 
 highest embodiment of sovereignty, the most imposing 
 political assemblage known to our Consiitulion and laws, 
 is a convention of the people legally assembled, not en 
 masse — for such an assemblage is unknown in our repre- 
 sentative system — but by their delegates, legally elected. 
 When such a body, with no declared limiialion upon 
 their powers, are deputed lo form a Constitution, and 
 they execute their trust, the Constiiutioii. ipso facto, be- 
 comes the supreme laiv of the land, unquestionable and un- 
 changeable by any power on earth, save that which or- 
 dained it." « # * 
 
 " It [Kansas] is no longer a Territory of thefe United 
 States. She has, by your own authority and permission, 
 thrown ofl"ihe habiliments of Territoriil dependence, and 
 
 stand* row a State, clothed with all the attiibuies and 
 powers of aStaiCj and asks admission as an equal in this 
 noble Confederation of sovereignties. Vou may reject 
 her applicwiion, if you will ; but it will be at your own 
 peril. To ranand her to her Territorial condition you can- 
 not, any more ihan you can roll back to thtir hidden 
 sources the waters of the Alississippi. Kansas is a sf pa- 
 role, organiztd. living i^tate. wiih all the nerves and arie- 
 ries of life in full development and vigorous acii'/ity. 
 Between your laws and her people she can interpose the 
 broad ar.d radiant shield of Slate fovereignty, and may 
 laugh lo scorn your enabling acts." 
 
 The gentleman from Alabama, [Mr. Shorteu,] 
 just a month later, declared himself also as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "When the Kansas and Nebraska bill was passed, 
 this doctrine of ihe right of tlie people in the J'erntory to 
 establi-h a slave or a iree State, ano be admiiied inio 
 the Union free from all Congressional interference, was 
 adoptrd as a fundamental principle. That bill declares 
 that Kansas, as well as Nebraska, has the right of admis- 
 sion into the Union as a sovereign Siaie, with or without 
 Slavery, according lo the legally-expressed will of the 
 inajoriiy of Iter people. Kansas to-day prestnis herself 
 al the doi rs of ihi< Hall vi'iih her Consuiutioii, and de- 
 mands admission into the Union." ♦ # ♦ 
 
 '• If the organic act establishing a'Terriioriid Govern- 
 ment for Kansas was, as I contend, an enabling act, then 
 she is toda\ a sovereign, independent Stale, and the Feder- 
 al Territorial officers should be instantly wiihdraicn. She is 
 a free, independent, sovereign State, outside oi Ihe Union, 
 and by the consent of Congress." 
 
 These, sir, are bold sentiments, daringly ex- 
 pressed. But when you apply to them the 
 touchstone of Utah, their monstrous character, 
 their fatal results, are plainly exhibited to all 
 men. Even their authors themselves would 
 shrink from carrying them out. No more danger- 
 ous blow could be wielded at the authority of 
 the Federal Government in our Territories than 
 this. Endorse them by your ratification of the 
 Lecompton Constitution, for which they are the 
 chief argument, and you, gentlemen of the op- 
 posite side of the House, will be responsible for 
 the consequences in the other Territory which 
 you are striving to force back to its allegiance. 
 In the path that these gentlemen have marked 
 out for him, Brigham Young can walk, and 
 doubtless will. With precisely the same ena- 
 bling act that Kansas has, a vote of the people 
 could be at once taken on the propriety of form- 
 ing a State Constitution ; an election of delegates 
 to a Constitutional Convention ordered by a 
 unanimous vote of the Kansas Legislature, even 
 over the Governor's veto, as the Lecompton act 
 itself was; a Constitution framed, fair and re- 
 publican on its/ace; the whole completed within 
 a very few months ; and if Congress rejected it, 
 the rulers of Utah could tell you, in the language 
 of Mr. Lamar, that they are "no longer a Terri- 
 tory of the United States ; " that " you cannot re- 
 mand them to their Territorial condition ; " that 
 " between your laws and her people she will in- 
 terpose the broad and radiant shield of State 
 sovereignty;" and, in the language of Mr. 
 SuoRTKR, she could declare herself" a sovereign, 
 independent State," and could demand that " the 
 Federal Territorial oflicers should be instantly 
 withdrawn." 
 
 Do you say in reply, gentlemen on the other 
 side, that these are speeches of only two mem- 
 bers of your party, and do not bind the whole? 
 I will give you, in addition, the even weightier 
 declarations of the authorized exponents of your 
 
14 
 
 party, the organs of the Senate and House com- 
 mittees on this subject, to show you to what 
 arguments even your champions are compelled, 
 in their attempts to vindicate this Lecompton 
 Constitution. 
 
 The Senatorial Committee on Territories close 
 their report with the following summing up of 
 their argument: 
 
 " [ii conclusion, this committee is of opinion, that when 
 a Constuutioaofa iiewl>-formtd State, created out of our 
 own territory, is presented to Congress for admission into 
 the Union, it is no part o( the duiy or privilege of Congress 
 either lo afjirovt or disapprove the Conslituiion i'self, and 
 its various provisions, or any of them, but simply to see 
 whether it lie the legal Coiisluaiion of the new Stale ; 
 whether it be republican in form; whether the boundaries 
 proposed be admissible; and whether ihe number of in- 
 habiiaits be sufficieai lo justify independent Slate organi- 
 zations." 
 
 And the gentleman from Georgia, in his report 
 from the select committee of this body, also de- 
 clares : 
 
 " When a new State presents a Constilution for admis- 
 sion, Congress ha^ no more power lo inquire into tue 
 manner of its auoptiou than the matter of its substance. 
 The matter caniioi oe inquired into furiher than to see 
 that it is republican inform; and the mude aiiu manner 
 of its adoption cannot lie inquired into only so far as to 
 see thai it has been ibrmeu in such a way as the people 
 have legally estaOlished for themselves.''' 
 
 To such extraordinary positions do the neces- 
 sities of this extraordinary case unwittingly hur- 
 ry its ablest defenders. We, on the contrary, 
 who do not believe that Congress is so powerless, 
 so bereft of legislative discretion, so tongue-tied, 
 that it has not even "the privilege" of saying 
 "no," when a State asks lor admission, would 
 meet the application of Utah, did she come here 
 with a Constitution republican in form, with 
 proper boundaries and sufficient people, as we 
 meet this Lecompton fraud — by the declaration 
 that, in the exercise of our power and authority, 
 we decline admitting you into the partnership of 
 States, and remand you, for reasons good and 
 sufficient to ourselves, to your Territorial con- 
 dition. You, gentlemen, however, will be "estop- 
 ped '■' by the doctrines you have deliberately 
 endorsed ; and having ratified the humiliating 
 declaration of the Senate's report, that it is 
 neither your duty, nor even your " privilege," to 
 look behind a Constitution fair on its face, even 
 if you know it to be a "whited sepulchre," you 
 will have to welcome Utah into the Confederacy, 
 as the first fruits of your Lecompton doctrine of 
 1858, with Brigham Young and Heber C. Kim- 
 ball in your National Senate, to assist you in ap- 
 plying it to still other Territories of this Union. 
 
 Imagine, sir, George Washington sitting in the 
 White House ; that noble patriot, whose whole 
 career is a brilliant illustration of honor and pu- 
 rity in high places; and who doubts that if such 
 a Constitution as this had been submitted to him 
 for his sanction, he would have spurned from his 
 door with contempt and scorn the messenger who 
 bore it? Or, ask yourself what would have been 
 the indignant answer of Thomas Jeflferson, who 
 proclaimed, as the battle-cry of the Revolution, 
 that great truth enshrined in the Declaration 
 which has made his name immortal, and which 
 scattered to the winds the sophistries and tech- 
 nicalities of the royalists of our land, that " all 
 
 Governments derive their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed ;" not the implied con- 
 sent of enforced submission, but the actual, un- 
 deniable, unquestioned consent of the freemen 
 who are to bear its burdens and enjoy its bless- 
 ings. U a messenger had dared to enter the 
 portals of the White House when that stern 
 old man of iron will, Andrew Jackson, of Ten- 
 nessee, lived within it, and ask him to give his 
 endorsement and approval, the sanction of his 
 personal character and official influence, to a 
 Constitution reeking with fraud, which its fra- 
 mers were seeking to enforce on a people who 
 protested and denounced and loathed and repu- 
 diated it, and to go down to history as its volun- 
 tary advocate and champion, that messenger, I 
 will warrant, would have remembered the tor- 
 rent of rebuke with which he would have beea 
 overwhelmed, till the latest hour of his life. 
 
 I turn gladly, joyfully, from the consideration 
 of the extraordinary arguments to which I have 
 alluded, to a brighter, happier picture, if you will 
 only allow it to be painted. The President com- 
 plains that he is tired of Kansas troubles, and 
 desires peace. How easy is it to Jae obtained? 
 Not by lorcing, with despotic power and hireling 
 soldiery, a Constitution, hated and spurned by the 
 people, upon a Territory that will rise in arms 
 against it; not by surrendering the power and 
 authority of an infant State into the hands of a 
 pitiful minority of its citizens, who, by oppress- 
 ive laws, and persistently fraudulent elections, 
 have continued to wield the power which a shame- 
 less usurpation originally gave them ; but by 
 simply asking the people of Kansas, under your 
 own authority, if you insist on rejecting the vote 
 authorized by their Legislature, the simple and 
 yet essential question, " Do you desire Congress 
 to ratify the Lecompton Constitution, or the 
 new Constitution now being framed?" How 
 easy is the pathway to peace, when Justice is the 
 guide! How rugged and devious the jiathway 
 of error, when Wrong lights the road of her fol- 
 lowers with her lurid torch, I have endeavored 
 to show. 
 
 The people of Kansas, through every possible 
 avenue which has not been closed by their en- 
 slavers, have remonstrated to you against this 
 great wickedness. By ten thousand majority at 
 the polls, by the unanimous protest of their Leg- 
 islature, by public meetings, by their newspa- 
 per press, and by the voice of their Delegate 
 upon this floor, overwhelmingly elected less than 
 six months past, they ask you to repudiate this 
 fraud. Dragged here, bound hand and foot by 
 a Government office-liolder ; who, besides draw- 
 ing his pay as Surveyor General, acts also as 
 President of the Lecompton Convention ; who 
 becomes, by its insolent discarding of all your 
 Territorial officers, as well as the people's, the 
 recipient of all the returns, fraudulent as well as 
 genuine, and the canvasser of the votes — she ap- 
 peals to you to release her from the grasp of this 
 despot and dictator, and to let her go free. In 
 the language of an eloquent and gifted orator of 
 my own State, I say, " When she comes to us, let 
 it be as a willing bride, and not as a fettered and 
 manacled slave." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 LECOMPTOI VIE¥S 01 PREE LABOR. 
 
 Extracts from the Speech of Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, 
 in advocacy of the Lecompton Constitution, and in reply to Hon. 
 William H. Seward. Revised by himself. Delivered in the 
 United States Senate, March 4, 1858. — See Ap. to Cong. Glohe^ 
 pages 69 to 71. 
 
 "If this was a minority Constitution I do not 
 know that that would be an objection to it. 
 Constitutions are made for minorities. Perhaps 
 minorities ought to have the right to make Con- 
 stitutions, for they are administered by major- 
 ities." 
 
 " la all social systems there must be a class to 
 do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of 
 life. That is, a class requiring but a low order 
 of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are 
 vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must 
 have, or you would not have that other class 
 which leads progress, civilization, and refine- 
 ment. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society 
 and of political government; and you might as 
 well attempt to build a house in the air, as to 
 build either the one or the other, except on this 
 mud-sill." 
 
 "The diflference between us is, that our slaves 
 are hired for life and well compensated ; there is 
 no starvation, no begging, no want of employ- 
 ment, among our people, and not too much em- 
 ployment, either. Yours are hired by the day, 
 not cared for, and scantily compensated, which 
 may be proved in the most painful manner, at 
 any hour in any street in any of your large 
 towns. * * * Our slaves are black, of 
 another and inferior race. The status in which 
 we have placed them is an elevation. They are 
 elevated from the condition in which God first 
 created them, by being made our slaves. None 
 of that race on the whole face of the globe can 
 be compared with the slaves of the South. They 
 are happy, content, unaspiring, and utterly inca- 
 pable, from intellectual weakness, ever to give 
 us any trouble by their aspirations. Yours are 
 white, of your own race ; you are brothers of 
 one blood. They are your equals in natural en- 
 dowment of intellect, and they feel galled by 
 their degradation. Our slaves do not vote. We 
 give them no political power. Yours do vote, 
 
 and being the majority, they are the depositaries 
 of all your political power." 
 
 " Transient and temporary causes have thus far 
 been your preservation. The great West has 
 been open to your surplus population, and your 
 hordes of semi-barbarian immigrants, who are 
 crowding in year by year. They make a great 
 movement, and you call it progress. Whither? 
 It is progress ; but it is progress towards Vigilance 
 Committees. The South have sustained you iq 
 a great measure. You are our factors. You 
 bring and carry for us. One hundred and fifty 
 million dollars of our money passes annually 
 through your hands. Much of' it sticks ; all of it 
 assists to keep your machinery together and in 
 motion. Suppose we were to discharge you ; sup- 
 pose we were to take our business out of your 
 hands; we should consign you to anarchy and 
 poverty. You complain Okf the rule of the South : 
 that has been another cause that has preserved 
 you. We have kept the Government conservative 
 to the great purposes of Government. We have 
 placed her, and kept her, upon the Constitution ; 
 and that has been the cause of your peace and 
 prosperity. The Senator from New York says 
 that that is about to be at an end ; that you intend 
 to take the Government from us ; that it will 
 pass from our hands. Perhaps what he says is 
 true ; it may be ; but do not forget — it can never 
 be forgotten — it is written on the brightest page 
 of human history — that we, the slaveholders of the 
 South, took our country in her infancy, and, 
 after ruling her for sixty out of the seventy years 
 of her existence, we shall surrender her to you 
 without a stain upon her honor, boundless in 
 prosperity, incalculable in her strength, the won- 
 der and the admiration of the world. Time will 
 show what you will make of her; but no time 
 can ever diminish our glory or your responsi- 
 bility." 
 
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