SPEECH *fI. OF WIiLLIA3M H11.< SEWARD, * j t ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. FOR THE IIM,EDIATE AIMISSION OF KANSAS INTO TIIE UNION. SENATE OF THE UINITED STATES, APRIL 9, 1856. Mr. PRSItDENT: To obtain empire is easy and modeled and authorized them to establish, under common; to govern it well is difficult and rare in- the protection of the United States. Notwith dfleed. I salute the Congress ot the United States in standing this latter pledge, when the newly asso the exercise of its most important function, that ciated people of Kansas, in 1855, were proceed of extending the Federal Constitution over added ing with the machinery of popular elections, in the domains, and I salute especially the Senate in the manner prescribed by Congress, to choose legisla most august of all its manifold characters, itself tive bodies for the purpose of organizing that a Congress of thirty-one fiee, equal, sovereign republican Government, armed bands of invaders States, assembled to decide whether the majestic from the State of Missouri entered the Territory, and fraternal circle shall be opened to receive seized the polls, overpowered or drove away the yet another free, equal, and sovereign State. inhabitants, usurped the elective franchise, de The Constitution prescribes only two qualifica- posited false and spurious ballots without regard tions for new States, namely-a substantial civil to regularity of qualification or of numbers, pro — community. and a republican Government. Kan- cured official certificates of the result by fraud sas has both of these. and force, and thus created and constituted legis The circumstances of Kansas, and her relations lative bodies to act for and in the name of the towards the Union, are peculiar, anomalous, and people of the Territory. These legislative bodies deeply interestitng. The United States acquired afterward assembled, assumed to be a legitimate the province of Louisiiana, (which included the Legislature, set forth a code of municipal laws, present Territory of Kansas,) from France, in created public offices and filled them with officers 1803, by a treaty, in which they agreed that its appointed for considerable periods by themselves, inhabitants should be incorpora:tted into the Fed- and thus established a complete and effective eral Union, and admitted as soon as possible, ac- foreign tyranny over the people of the Territory. cording to the principles of the Constitution, to These high-handed transactions were consummathe enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and ted with the expressed purpose of establishing immunities, of citizens of the United States. African Slavery as a permanent institutionwithin Nevertheless, Kansas was in 1820 assigned as a the Territory by force, in violation of the natural home for an indefinite period to several savage rights of the people solemnly guarantied to them Indian tribes, and closed against immigration and by the Congress of the United States. The Presall other than aboriginal civilization, but not ident of the United States has been an accessory — without a contemporaneous pledge to the Ameri- to these political transactions, with full complicity ca-.'eople and to mankind, that neither Slavery in regard to the purpose for which they were nor i iuntary servitude - shouild be tolerated committed. Hle has adopted the usurpation, and therein foreer In 1 854, Conoressdirected aremo- made it his own, and he is now maintaining it val of the Indian tribes, and organized and opened with the military arm of the Republic. Thus KanKansas to civilization, but by the same act re- sas has been revolutionized, and she now liessubscinded the pledge of perpetual dedication to jugated and prostrate atthe foot of the President Freedom, and substituted for it another, which de- of the United States, while he, through the agency claretid that the [future] people of Kansas should of a foreign tyranny established within her borbe left perfectly free to establish or to exclude ders, is forcibly introducing and establishing Slavery, as they should decide through the action Slavery the e, in contempt and defiance of the of a republican Government which Congress organic law. These extraordinary transactions I k4 ('- 7t'. i . , v x I, —-, I e, .,;, -k :, 1. I I 2 have been attended by civil commotions, in sas into the Union. All these proceedings had which property, life, and liberty, have been ex- been based on the grounds that the Territorial posed to violence, and these commotions still con- authorities of Kansas had been established by tinue to threaten not only the Territory itself, but armed foreign usurpation, and were nevertheless also the adjacent States, with the calamities and sustained by the President of the United States. disasters of civil war. A constitutional obligation required the President I am fully aware of the gravity of the charges "to give to( Congress," in his annual message, against the President of the United States which "information of the state of the Union." Here this statement of the condition and relations of is all "the information" which the President Kansas imports. I shall proceed, without fear gave to Congress concerning the eventsin Kansas, and without reserve, to ma.ke them good. The and its relations to the Union: maxim, that a sacred veil must be drawn over I"In tile Territory of Kansas there have been the' beginning of all (]overnments, does not hold' acts prejudicial to good order, but as yet none under our system. I shall first call the accuser' have occurred under circumstances to justify into the presence of the Senate-then examine'the interpositiol of the Federal Executive. the defences which the President has made-and.' That could only be in case of obstruction to list, submit the evidences by which he is con-' Federal law, or of organized resistance to Terri*a ited..!' torial law, assuming the character of insurrec The people of Kansas know whether these' tion, which, if it should occur, it would be my eharges are true or false. They have adopted duty promptly to overcome and suppress. I themn, and, on the A,round of the high political' cherish the hope, howvever, that the occurrence necessity which the wrongs they have endured, of any such untoward event will be prevented '.red are yet enduring, and the dangers through' by the sound sense of the people of the Terri which they have alreadypassed, and the perils to tory, who, by its organic law, possessing the which they are yet exposed, have created theyhave' right to determine their own domestic institu provisionally organized themselves as a State, and'tions, are eintitled, while deporting themselves tihat State is now here, by its two chosen Senators' peacefully, to the firee exercise of that right, and and one Representative, standing outside. Lt the' must be protected in the enjoymient of it, with doors of Congress, applying to be admintted into'out interference on the part of the citizens of the Union, as a means of relief indispenstble ifr' any of the States." the purposes of peace, freedom, and safety. This This information implies, that no invasion, new State is the President's responsible accuser. usurpation, or tyranny, has been committed The President of the United States, without within the Territory by strangers; and that the waiting for the appearance of his accuser at the j provisional State organizationi now going forward oapital, anticipated the accusations, and submitted is not only unnecessary, but also prejudicial to his defences against them to Corgress. The first good order, and insurrectionary. It nienaces the one of these defences was contatined in his annual people of Kansas with a threat, that the Presi messatge, which was communicated to Congress dent Will "overcome and suppress" them. It on the 30th of December, 1855. I examine it. mocks thiem with a promise, that, if they shall You shall see at once that the President's mind hereafter deport themselves properly, under the was oppressed-was full of something, too large control cf authorities by whi(h they have been and burdensome to be concealed, and yet too disfranchised, in determining institutions whiclh critical to be told. have been already forcibly determined for theni' Mark, if you please, the state of the case at by foreign invasion, that then they "mustbe pro that time. So early as August, l855, the peoe- tected against interference by citizens of any of pie of Kansas had denounced the Legislature. the States'." They had at voluntary elections chosen Mir. A. H. The President, however, not, content with a leeder to represent them in thie present Congress, statement so obscure and unfair, devotes a third instead of J. W. Whitfield, who held a certificate part of the annual ]message to argumentative of election under the authority of the Legisl,tture. speculations bearing on tLbe character of hit They had also, on the 23d day of October, 1855, accuser. Each State has twio and no more by similar voluntary elections, constituted at Senators in the Senate of the United States.. Top)eka an organic Convention, which framed a In determining the apportic;nment of Itcpresent Constitution for the projected State. They had atives in the House of Representatives, and in the also, on the 15th of December, 1.855, at similar electoral colleges among the States, three-fifths voluntary elections, adopted that Constitution, of all the slaves in any State are enumeratetL and its tenor was fully known. It provided for The slaveholding or non-slaveholding character elections to be held throughout the new State on of a State is deternmined, not at the time of iti the 15th of January, 1856, to fill the offices admission into the Union as a State, but at'that, ereated by it, and it also required the Executive earlier period of its political life in which, being and Legislative officers, thus to be chosen, to called a Territory, it is politically dependent on assemble at Topeka on the 4th day of March, the United States, or on some foreign sovereign~ l856~, to inaugurate the new State provisionally, Slavery is tolerated in some of the States, and[ and to take the necessary means for the appoint- forbidden in others. Affecting the industrial and meat of Senators, who, together with a Repre- economical systems of the several States, as sentative already chosen, should submit the Con- Slaveiy and Freedom do, this diversity of pro stitution to Congress at an early day, and tice concerning them early worked out a corree apply for the admission of the State of Kan- ponding 4ifference of conditi:~us, interet~s my 3 tice andr humanity, obnoxious to prejudice, be cause they conflict inconveniently with existing material, social, and political interest. It belongs to others than statesmen, charged whit the care o present interests, to conduct the social reformation of mankind in its broadest bearings. I leave to Abolitionists their own work of self-vindication. I ulay, however, remind slaveholders that there is a time when oppression and persecution cease to be effectual against such movements; and then the odium they have before unjustly incurred be comes an eleme nt of stre ngth and power. Chris tianity, blindly maligned during three centuries, by Praetors, Gover n or s, Senates, Councils, and Eui perors, towered above its enemies in a fourth; and eve n the cross on w hi ch its Founder had expi red, and which the r efore was the e mblem of its shame, became the sign unde r w hich it went forth e ver more thereafter, conquering and to conquer. Abo lition is yet only in its first century. The President raises i n his de fence a false issue, and elaborates an irrelevant argument tIo prove that Cong ress has no right or power, nor has any sis ter State any right or powe r, to interfere within a slave State, by legislation or force, to abol i sh Slave ry therein-,,is if you, or I, or a ny other responsible man, ever mainta,ined the co n trary. The President distorts the Constitution fromt its simple te xt, so as to matke it expressly and di rectly defend, protctt, and guara nty African Slolaery. Thus he alleges that a the Gover nment" which resulted from the Revolution was a" Fed eral Republic of the free white men of the Colo nies,'? whereas, on the contr ary, the Declaration oft Iolnependence asserts the political equalitc y of all men, and even -the Constitution itself carefully avoids any political recognition not merely of Slavery, but of the diversity of races. Tile Pres idenit represents the Fathers as having contem plated and provided for a permanent increase of the number of slaves in some of the States, and . therefore forbidden Congress to touch Slaverv in the way of attack or offence, and as having there fore also placed it under the general safeguard of the Constitution; whereas the Fathers, by authorizing Congress to abolish the African slave trade after 1808, as a means of attack, inflicted on Slavery in the States a blow. of which they expected it to languish immediately, and ultima ttely to expire. The President closes his defence in the annual message with a deliberate assault, very incongruous in such a place, upon some of the Northern -'States. At the same time he abstains, with marked ciautioni, from naming the accused States. They, ho wever, receive a compliment at his hands, by wa:ty of giving keenness to his rebuke, which enable) us to identify them. They are Northern States; which "-ere conspicuous in founding the Republic."' All of the original Northern States wtere conspiculous in that great transaction. All of them, therefore, are accused. The- offenee charged is} that they- disregard their constitution~al obligations~ and although "con'scions of ' their inability to heal admitted and palpable so' ci~al evils of their own confessedly w~ithin t~ho/r ' juri. diction~ they engage in an offen~siver, hope anbitions, among the States, and divided and araeyed them into two classes. The balance of p ol i tic al power betwee n these two classes in the F, ederal system is sensibly affected by the acces sion of any new St ate to either of them. Each Stat e therefore watches jealously the settlement, growth, and inchoate slaveholding and non-slatve holding characters of T erritories, which may ulti nately comne int o t he U tnion as States. It has re sulted f rom these circumstances, tha t Slavery, in rela tions purely hpolitical and absolutely F1ederal, is an element which enters with more or less ac tivit ry into mny national questions of finance, of revenue, of expewditu re, of protec tion, of f re e trade, of patronage, of peace, of Star, of.annexa tion, of defence, a nd of conquest, and modifies o pinions concern ing constructions of the Constitu ti on, aind the distribution of powers between the Cunion and the sexieral States by which it is consti tuted. Slavery, under these political and Federal aspects alone, enters into the tr ansactions in Kan s.s, with which the Presid ent a nd Csong ress a re concerned. NSevertheless, he disingenuously alladesa to thope ptransactions in his defteonce, as if t hey w ere identified with that moral discussion of Slavery which he re g.ards as odious and alafrniing, and wi thout ans other claim to consideration. Thus he alludes to t he que stio n before us as belongi ng to a " political agitation" " concernI ing a ma tt er which consists to a great extent of ' exaggera tion of inev it a ble evils, or over-zeal in social improvement, or mcere in i agination of grievance, hivtilng but a remote connection with any of the con.stitutional functions of the Fede oral Governmenlt, and mernacing the stability of the Constitutioin and the integrity of the ' Union.:' In like minner the President assails and stigmatizes those who defend and4 mtiistain the Callse of Kiinst,s, ts i' raen of naxrrovw views and ' sectional purpos,es,"' engaged in those wild and chlimeric-l schemes of social ch ange which are ' generated one after' Inother in the unstable mninds of visionary sop'uists and interested a' ators" ' mad men, r::tisinrl, the stoirim of frenzy and fact Lion," Hi sectional agitators," "lenem,iies of the Con stitutioln, who have surrendered thel-3elves so far to a fatiaticail devotion to the supposed inite.' ests of the relatively few Africans in the tUnited iStates a.s totally to abandon arid disreg,ard the interests of the twenty-,i ve nmillions of Americans and tramrple under fo)ot the injunctions of moral ' and conistitutional oblig,ation, and to engage in ' plans of vindictive hostility against those who { are associateda with them in the enjoyment of the common heritage of our free institution. —." Sir, the Presidenit's defence on this occasion, if not a natter simply persontl, is al least one of temnporar;.y and ephemeral importance. Poisibly, -all the advantages he will gain by transferrinig to his axcuser a portion of the popular prejuidice against Abolition and Abolitionisk%, can be 3pared to himn. It would be wise, haowever, for those whose interests are inseparable from Slavsery7 to reflect that Abolition a,ill gain an equiv alent benefit from the identification of the President's defence with their cti~erished institutiona. Abolition is a slow but irrepressible uapri~sing of principle~s of: natural jus 4 'which, though so deeply unjulst, was perhaps needful to arouse them to their duty in this' great emergency. The President, in this connection, reviews the acquisitions of new domain, the organization of new Territories, and the admission of new States, and arrives at results which must be as agreeably surprising to the slave States, as they are as tounding to the free States. He finds that the former have been altogether guiltless of political ambition, while he convicts the latter not only of unjust territorial aggrandizement, but also of false and fraudulent clamor against the slave States, to cover their own aggressions. Not withstanding the President's elaborated miscon cepti)ns, these historical facts remain, namely that no acquisition whatever has ever been made at the instance of the free States, and with a view to their aggrandizement: that Louisiana and Florida, incidentally acquired for general and important national objects, have already yielded to the slave States three States of their own class, while Texas was avowedly annexed as a means of security to Slavery, and one slave State has been already admitted from that acquisition, and Congress has stipulated for the admission of four more: that by way of equivalent for the admission of California a free State, the slave States have obtained a virtual repeal of the Mexi can law which forbade Slavery in New Mexico and Utah; and that, as a consequence of that extr aordinary legislation, Congress has also rescinded the prohibition of S'aiery, which, in 1820, was extended over all of that part of Louisiana, except Missouri, vlwhich lies north of 36~ 30/ of north,latitude. Sir, the real crime of the Northern States is this: they are forty degrees too high on the are of north latitude. hI dismiss for the present the President's first defen ce againstf the accus ation of the new State of Kansas. On the 24th of January, 1856, when no important event had happened which was unknown at the date of the President's annual message, he submitted to Congress his second defence, in the form of a special message. In this paper, the President deplores, as the cause of all the troubles which1I have occurred in Kansas, delays of the organization of the Telrritory,. which have been permitted by the Governor, MIr. Reeder. The organic law was passed by Congress oll the 31st of Mray, 1854, but on that day there was not one lawftil elector, citizen, or inhabitant, within the Territory, while the question, whether Slavery or universal Freedom should be established there, was devolved practically on the first Legislative bodies to be elected by the people who were to become thereafter the inhabitants of Kansas. The election for the first Legislative bodies was appointed by the Governor to be held on the 30th of March, 1855; and the 2d day of July, 1855, was designated for the organization of the Legislative Assembly. The onlly civilized commulnity that was in contact with the new Territory. was Missouri, a slaveholding State, at whose instance the prohibition of Slavery within the Territory had been abrogated, so that she might attempt to colonize it withi slaves. Immigrants l Iess, and, illegal undertaking, to reform the do rmestic institutions of the Southern States, at the peril of the very existence of the Constitution, ' and of all the countless benefits w hic h i t has conferred." a I challenge the President to the proof, in behalf of Massachusetts; alth ough I have only the interest common to all Americans and to all m en in her great fame. What one c orporate or social evil is there, of which she is conscious, and consci ous also of inability to heal it? Is it ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, vice, crime, public disorder, poverty or disease, afflict ino the mind sor the bodies of her people? There she s tands. Survey her universities, colleges, academies, observatories, primary schools, Sutnday schools, penal codes, and penitentiaries. Descend into her quarries, walk over her ofield s and through h er gardens, observe her manufdactories of a thousand va rious fabrics, watch her steamers as cending every river and inlet oii your own coast, and her ships displ iying their ecanvass on every sea; follow her f ishermen in theiradventurous voya.ges fr om he r ow n and adjacent bays t o the icy ocean under either p ole; and then return and enter her hospitals, which cure or relieve suffering hu mianity in evsery condition and at every period of life, from the lyin g-in to the second childhood, and which not only restore sight to the blin d, and hearinm to the deaf, and speech to the d umb, but also bring back wandering reason to the insane, and teach even the idiot to think! Massachusetts, sir, is a model of States, worthy of all honor; and though she was most conspicuous of all the States in the establishment of republican institutions liere, she is even more conspicuous still for the municipal wisdom with which she has made them contribute to the welfare of her people, and to the greatness of the Replublic itself. In behalf of New York, for whom it is my right and duty to speak, I defy the Presidential accuser. Mark her tranquil magnanimity, which becomes a State'for whose delivery from tyranny Schuyler devised and labored, who received her political Constitution from Hamilton, her intellectual and physical development from Clinton, and her lessons in humanity from Jay. As she waves her wand over the continent, trade forsakes the broad natural channels which conveyed it before to the Delaware and Chesapeake, bays and to the Gulfs of St. Lawrence and Mexico, and obedient to her' command pours itself through her artificial channels into her own once obscure seaport. She stretches her strand ag'din,tow,vards the ocean, and the commerce of all the continents concentrates itself at her feet; and with it, strong an,id full floods of immigr.tion ride in, contributing labor, capital, art, valor,. and enterprise, to perfect and embellish our ever-widening.empire. When, and on what occasion, has Massachusetts or New York officiously and illegallv intruded herself w;.thin the jurisdiction of sister States, to modify or reform their institutions? No, no, sir. Their faults have been quite different. Theyhbi,ve conceded too often and too much for their own just dignity and influence in Federal Administration, to the querulous complaints of the States in whose behalf the President arraigns them. I thank the President f'or the insult 16 5 law of nature or nations forbid them? Does any public authority quarantine, on the ground of opinion, the ships which are continually pouring in,o l he gates of New York whole religious so cieties from Ireland, Wales, Germany, and Nor way, with their pastors, and clerks, and choirs? But the President charges that the propagand ists entered Kansas with a design to "anticipate ' and force the determination of the Slavery ' question within the Territory," (in favor of Free dom,) forgetting, nevertheless, that he has only just before deplored a failure of his own to anti cipate and force the determination of that question in favor of Slavery, by a coup-dc-main, in advance even of their departure from their homeg in the Atlantic States and in Europe. He charges, moreover, that the propagandists designed to "prevent the free and natural action of the in'habitants in the intended organization of the ' Territory," when, in fact, they were pursuing the only free and natural course to organize it by immigrating and becoming permanent inhabitants, citizens, and electors, of Kansas. Not one unlawful or turbulent act has been hitherto charged against any one of the propagandists of Freedom. MAlark, now, an extraordinary inconsist ency of the President. On the 29th of June, 1854, only twenty-nine days after the opening of the Territory, and before one of these emigrants had reached Kansas, or even Missouri, a propaganda ist association, but not of emigrants, named the Platte County Self-Defensive Association, assenmbled at Weston, on the western border of Missouri, in the interest of Slavery; and it published, throuTh the organ of t he Pr esident of the United States at that place, a resolution, that "when ' called upon by any citizen of Kansas, its mem'bers would hold themselves in readiness to ' assist in removing any and all emigrants who ' should go there under the aid of Northern Emi'grant Societies." This association afterward often made good its atrocious threats, by violence against the property, peace, and lives, of unoffending citizens of Kansas. But the President of the United States, so far fiom denouncing it, does not even note its existence. The majority of the Committee on Territories ingeniously elaborate the President's charge, and arraign Masscbahusetts, her Emigrant Aid Society, and her emigrants. What has Massachusetts done, worthy of censure? Before the Kansas organic law was passed by Congress, Mlassachusetts, on application, granted to some of her citizens, who were engaged in "taking up" new lands in Western regions, one of those common charters which are used by all associations, industrial, moral, social, scientific, and religious, now-a-days, instead of copartnerships, for the more convenient transaction of their fiscal affairs. The actual capital is some $60,000. Neither the granting of the charter, nor any legislative action of the association under it, was morally wrong. To emigrate from one State or Territory singly, or in company with others, with or without in_ corpo~ration by statute, is a right of every citizen of the United States, as it is a right of every freeman: in the world. The State that denies this right is a tyranny —the subject to whom it is de were invited not only from all parts of the United States, but also from all other parts of the world, with a pledge that the people of the new Territory should be left perfectly free to establish or pro hibit Slavery. A special election, however, was held within the Territor y o n the 29th day of No vember, 1854, without any preliminary census of the inhab ita nts, for the purpose of choosing a D e legate who miglit sit without a right to vote in Congress, during the second sessio n of the Thir ty-third Congr ess whic h was to begin on the first Maonday of D ecember, 1 854, an d to end on the third day of larch, 1855. Mr. J. W. Whi tfield was certified to b e elected. There were vehement complaints of illegality in the ele c tio n, but his title was neverthel ess not contested, for the pal pable reasons, that a,n investigation under the circums t ances of the Ter rito, r so shor t a s ess i on of Congress, would be impossible, and that the questi on wa s of i nconsi d erabl e m agnitude. Yen t the Pr esident laments that th e Gov erno r neglected to or der the first election for the Legis lative b odie s of the new Territo r tory to be held simultaneously with that hurried? Congressional election. I Ne assigns his reaso ns: "A ny qu est ion a pp ertaining t o the qualifications of persons ' votin a s the people of th e Territory would (in ' that case, incidentally) have necessarily passed tund e r the supervision of Congre s s, (mea ning the House of Representatives,) and would have been ' deter mined b ef o re conflicting passion s hadabeen inflame d b y time, and before an opportunity ' wou ld hav e be en a fforded for systematic interfer e nce b y the p eople of individu al States." Coould t he P resident, in any explicit arrangement of wor ds, more distinctly h av e confessed his disappoiantmen t in failing to secure a merely formal election of Legislative bodies within the Territory, in f raud of the oroai- law of the peopld e Sa of Kansas, and of the cause of natural justice and humanity? The President then proceeds to launch severe denunciations against what he calls a propagatndist attempt to colonize the Territory with opponents of Slavery. The whole American Continent has been undergoing a process of colonization, in many forms, throughout a period of three hundred and fifty years. The only conmon elect ment of all those forms was propagandism. Were not the voyages of Columbus progagandist expeditions, under the auspices of the Pope of Rome? Was not-the wide occupation of Spanish America a propag,andism of the Catholic Church? The settlement of MIassachusetts by the Pilgrims; of the New Netherlands by the Refprmers of Holland; the later plantation of the MAohawvk valley by the Palatines; the establishment of Pennsylvania by the Friends; the mission of the Moravians at Bethlehem, in the same State; the foundation of Maryland by Lord B.alti'more and his colony of British Catholics; the settlement of Jamestown by the Cavaliers and Churchmen ofF England;* that of Soulth Carolina by the ttuguenots: Were not all these propagandist colonizations? Was not Texas settled by a colony of slaveholders, and Ca;lifbrnia by companies of freemen? Yet never before did any Prince, King, Emlperor, or President, denounce such colonizations. Does any 4, 6 nied is a slave. Such free emigration is the chief element of American progress and civilization. Without it, there could be no community, no politi cal Territory, no State in K ansas. With o ut it, there could have been no United States of America. T o retain and ca rry into Kansas cherished polit i-cal as well as moral, social, and religious con -ictions, is a right of every emigrant. Must emi grants t o that Territory carry there only their persons, and leav e behind their m inds and souls, disembodied and wandering in their native lands? They o nly are fit founders of aa State who exercise independence of opi nion; and i t i s to the exercise of that rig h t that our new States, equally with.ll the older ones, owe t heir intelligence afnd vigor. "Tllere are, who. distanlt fro cm their native soil, r Stoill for toeir own ali euontry's rd tbil; Wlhile some, fast rooted to their parent spot, Ili life are useless, and in death. flrgot." It is not morally wrong for Massachusetts to tid her son s, by a charter, to do what i n it self is innocent s~nd com mend able. The President and th ae m ajority -of the commi ttee maintain that such associations are in v iola tion of n ational or at least of inter n ational laws. Here is the Constitu tion of the Uni ted States, and here are the Stat utes at Large, in ten volumes octavo. Let the Pr esiden t or his defenders point out the i n hibi tion. They specify, particularly, that the action of th e State violate s a l aw of comity, which regul ates the intercourse of independent States, and especially the intercourse between the mem bers of the Federal Union. Here are Vattel and Biurlamaqui. Let them point out in these pages this law of comity. There is no law of comity which forbids nations from permitting and en couraging emigration, on the ground of opinion. Mloreover, Slavery is an outlaw under the law of nations. Still further, the Constitution of the United States has expressly incorporated into itself all of the laws of comity, for regulating the intercourse between independent States, which it deems proper to adopt. Whatever is forbidden expressly by the Constitution is unlawful. Whatever is not forbidden is lawfuil. The supposed law of comity is not incorporated into the Constitution. With the aid of the Committee on Territories, eve discover that the emigrants from Massachusetts have violated the supposed national laws, not by any unlawful conduct of their own, but by provoking the unlawful and flagitious conduct of the in-a-ders ofKansas. "They passed through Missouri 'in large numbers, using violent language, and ' giving unmistakable indications of their hostility ' to the domestic institutions of that State," and thus "they created apprehensions that the object ' of the Emigrant Aid Company was to abolitionize "Kansas, as a means of prosecuting a relentless ' the limits uion of Missouri, which apprehensieons, in' creasing with the progress of events, ultimlately ' became settled convictions of the people of ' western Missouri." Missouri builds railroads, steamnboats, and wharves. It cannot be, therefore, that the mere '"largeness of the numbers" of the Eastern trav ellers offienlded or alarmed the bordeters. I con less my surprise that the sojourners used violent language. It seems unlike them. I confess my greater surprise that the borderers were disturbed so deeply by mere words. It seems unlike them. Which of the domestic institutions of Missouri were those against which the travellers nianifest ed determined hostility? Not certainly her man ufactories, banks, railroads, churches, and schools. All these are domestic institutions held in high respect by the men of Massachusetts,'and are just such ones as these emigrants are now establishing in Kansas. It was therefore African Slavery alone, a peculiar domestic institution of Missouri, against which their hostility was directed. Waiving a suspicious want of proof of the unwise conduct charged against them I submit that clearly they did not thereby endanger that pecu liar institution in Missouri, for they passed di rectly through that State into Kansas. Hlow, then, were the borderers provoked? The Mis3sourians inferre d, from the ilanguage and demeanor of the travellers, that they would esboli toninze K ansas, and thereafter, by meains of Kansats abolitionized. prosecute a r el entless arre against Slavery in Missouri. Far-seeing statesmen are thes e Missouri borderera, but less deliber ate th an fitr-sithted. Kansas wa s not to be abolitionized. It had never b een otherwise t han abolitionized. Abo litionized Kansas would constitute no means for the prosecution of such a warfaire. Missouri lies adjacent to abolitionized Iowa orn the north, and to abolitionized Illinois on the east, yet neither of those States has ever been used for such de signs. EHow could this fearful enemy prosecute a warfare against Slavery in Mlissouiri? Only by buying the plantations of her citizens at their own prices, and so qualifying themselves to speak their hostility through the ballot-boxes? Could apprehensions so absurd justify the invasion of Kansas? Are the people of Kansas to be disfran chised and trodden down by the President of the United States, in punishment for any extrava gance of emigrants, in Missouri, on the way to that Territory? Such is the President's second defence, so far as it presents new matter in avoid ance of the accu sation of the new State of Kansas. I proceed, in the third place, to establish the truth of the accusations. Of what sort must the proofs be'? Manifestly only such as the circum stances of the case permit to exist. Not e.nfg,rossed documents, authenticated by executive, judicial, or legislattive officers. The transactions occurred in an unorganized country. All the authorities sul)sequently established in the Territory are implicated, all the complainants disfranchised. Only presumptive evidence, derived from the contemporaneous statements and actions of the parties concerned, can be required. Such presumptive evidence is derived from the nature and character of the Presidenlt's defences. Wthy did the President plead at all on the 31st of December last, when the new State of Kansas was yet unorganized, and could nlot appear here to prefer her accusations until the 23d of la-zrch? Why, if he must answer so prematulrely, did he not plead a general and direct denial? If he 7 must plead specially, why did he not set forth the facts. instead of withholding all actual information concerning the case? Why, since, instead of defending himself, he must implead his ac cuser, did he not state, at least, the ground on which that accuser claimed to justify the conduct of which he complained? Why did lie threa'ten "to overcome and suppress" the people of Kansas, as insurrcectionists, if be did not mean to terrify them, and to prevent their appearing here, or at least to prejudice their cause? Why did he mock them with a promise of protection thereafter, against interference bv citizens of other States, if they should deport themselves peacefully and submissively to Ihe Territorial aruthorities, ifno cause for apprehending such interferience had already been given by previous invasion? Why did he labor to embarrass his accuser by identifying her cause with the subject of abolition of Slavery, and stigmatize her supporters with opprobrious epithets, and impute to them depraved and seditious motives? Why did he interpose the false and impertinent issue, whetheri one State could intervene by its laws or by force to abolish Slavery in another State? Why did he distort the Constitution, and present it as expressly gularantyiig the perpetuity of Slavery? Why did he arraign so unnecessarily and so unjustly, not one. but all of the original Northern States? Why did he drag into this case, where only Kansas is concerned, a studied, partial, and prejudicial history of the past enlargements of the national domain, and of the past contests between the slave States and the free States, in their rivalry for the balance of power? Why did not the President rest content with one such attack on the character and conduct of the new State of Kansas, in anticipating her coming, if he felt assured that she really had ino merit on which to stand? Why did he submit a second plea in advance? Why in this plea does he deplore the delays which prevented the MItissouri borderers fiom effecting the conquest of Kansas, and the establishment of Slavery therein, at the time of the Congressional election held in November, 1854, in fraud of the Kansas law, and of justice and humanity? Why, without reason, or authority of public or of national law, does he denounce Massachusetts, her Emigrant Aid Society, and her emigrants? If " propagandist" emigrations must be denounced, why does hlie spare the Platte County Self Defensive Association? Why does he charge Governor Reede-r with "failing to put forth all his energies to pioe' vent or counteract the tendencies to illegality which are found to exist in all imperfectlyorgan ized and newly associated countries," if, indeed, no " illegality" hlas occurred there 9 While thus, by implication, admitting that such illegality has occurred ini Kansas, why does he not tell us its nature and extent? Whly, when Gov. Reeder was implicated ill personal conduct, not criminal, but incongruous with his official relations, did the President retain him in office until after he had proclaimed at Easton that Kansas had been subjugated by the borderers of Missouri, and why, after he had done sot and had denounced the Legislature, did the President remove him for the same. pre-existing cause only? Why does the President ad.nit that the elect io n for the legislative bodies of Kansas w as he l d u nde r circumstances inauspicious to a truthful and legal result, if, neverthelessthe he result attained was indeed a truthfiul a nd lega l one? On what evidence does the President ground his statement. that after that election, there were vl'u/ual complaints of usurpation. fraud, and violence, when we hear from no other.quarter of such complaints made by the party that prevailed? If there were such mutual accusations, and evren if they rested on probable grounds, would that fact abate the right of the people of Kansas to a Government of their own, securing a sate and well-ordered freedom? Why does the President argue that the Governor (MAr. Reeder) alone had the power to receive and consider the returns of the election of the Legislativ-e bodies, and',hat he certified those returns in fifteen out of the twenty-two districts, when he knows that the Governor, being his own agent, gave the certificates, on the ground that the returns were technically correct, and that the illegality complained of was in the conduct of the elections, and in the making up of the returns b-)y the judges, and that the terror of the armed invasion prevented all complaints of this kind from being presented to the Governor? Why does the President repose on the fact that the Governor, on the ground of informality in the returns, rejected the members who were chosen in the seven other districts, and ordered new elections therein, and certified in favor of the persons then chosen, when he knows that the majority, elected in the fifteen districts, expelled at once the persons chosen at such second elections, and admitted those originally returned as elected in these seven districts, on the ground that the Governor's rejection of them, and the second elections which he ordered, were unauthorized and illegal? Why does the President, although omitting to mention this last fact, nevertheless justify- the expulsion of these newly elected members, on the ground that it was authorized by parliamentary law, when he knows that there was no parliamentary or other law existing in the Territory, but the organic act of Congress, which conferred no such power on the Legislature? Why was Governor Reeder replaced by Mr. Shannon, who immediately proclaimed that the Legislative bodies which his predecessor had denounced were the legitimate Legislature of the Territory? Why does the President plead that the sutbject of the alleged Missourian usurpation and tyranny in Kansas was one which, by its nature, appertained exclusively to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of the Territory, when, if the charges were true, there were no legitimate local authorities within the Territory? Is a foreign usurpation in a defenseless Territory of the United States to be tolerated, if only it be sucecessful? Anld is the Gov ernment de facto, by whomnsoev er usurped, and with whatever tyraan~ exercised, entitled to demand obedience frona the people, and to be recognised by the President of the United States? Why does he plead, that a whatever irregularities may have occurred, it is now too late to raise the question?"' Is ~here , 8 election; but at tlhe same time did not hesitate ' to declare, that if not allowed to vote, they L' would proceed to any extremity in destruction ' of property and life. If the control of the polls ' could not be had otherwise, the judges were by " intimidation, and, if necessary, by violence, pre' vented fronm performing their duty, or, if un' yield.ing in this respect, were driven from their ' post, and the vacancy filled in form by the per - sons on the ground; and whenever by any meangs ' they had obtained the control of the board, the ' foreign vote was promiscuously poured in, with' out discrimination or reserve, or the slightest ' care to conceal its nefarious illegality. At one ' of the polls, two of the judges having mian'fully stood up in the face of the armed mob, ' and declared they would do their duty, one por'tion of the mob commenced to tear down the ' house, another proceeded to break in the door ' of the judges' room, whilst others, with drawn ' knives, posted themselves at the window, with 'the proclaimed purpose of killing any voter who ' would allow himself to be sworn. Voters were ' dragged from the window, because they would ' not show their tickets, or vote at the dictation ' of the mob; and the invaders declared openly, ' at the p)olls, that they would cut the throats of 'the judges, if they did not receive their votes without requiring an oath as to their residence. 'The room was finally forced, and the judges, 'surrounded by an armed and excited crowd, 'were offered the alternative of resignation or ' death, and five minutes were allowed for their ' decision. The ballot-box was seized, and, amid ' shouts of'Hurrsh for Missouri,' was carried ' into the mob. The two rmenaced judges then ' left the ground, together with all the resident ' citizens, except a few who acted in the outrage, ' because the result expected from it corresponded ' to their own views. "'When an excess of theforeign force was found ' to be had at one poll, detachments were sent to 'the others. * * A minister of the 'Gospel, who refused to accede to the demands ' of a simril.ar mob of some 400 armed and organ' ized men, was driven by violence from his post, * and the vacancy filled by themselves. * * * '* Another clergyman, for the expression of ' his opinion, was assaulted and beaten. * * *ts * The inhabitants of the district, power' less to resist the abundant supply of arms and *' ammunition, organized preparation,:anid over' whelming numbers of the foreigners, left the ' polls without voting. i * * In the Law' renee district, one voter was fired at, as he was 'driven from the election ground. * * *> ' Finding they had a greater force than was ne' cessary for that poll, some 200 men were drafted ' from the number, and seft off under the proper ' officers to another district, after which they still ' polled from this camp 700 votes. * * In b'the 4th and 7th districts, the invaders came * together in an armed and organized body, with ' trains of fifty wagons, besides horsemen, and, 'the night before election, pitched their camps ' in the vicinity of the polls, and having appoint' ed their own judges, in place of those who, from ' intimidation or otherwise, failed to attend, th'ey nothing left but endurance to citiz ens of the United States, constituting a whole political community of men, women, and children-an incipient American State-subjugated and op, pressed? Must they sit down in peace, abandon ed, contented, and despised? Why does he plead, that "at least it is a question as to which, neither 'now, nor at any previous time, has the least po:isible legal authority been, possessed by the President of the United States? " Did any magis trate ever before'make such an exhfibition of ambitious imbecility? Cannot Congress clothe him with power to act, and is it not his duty to ask power to remove usurpation and subvsert tyr anny in a Territory'of the United States? Are these the tone, the tenor, and the staple, of a de fence, where the accused is guiltless, and the crimes charged were never c ominitted? The President virtually confesses all the transactions charged,. by thus presenting a connected system of maxims and principles, invented to justify them. I proceed, hiowvever, to clinch conviction by direct and positive proofs: First, the statements of the party which has been overborne. General Pomeroy and his associates, in behalf of the State of Kansas, make this representation con cerningo the Congressional election held in the Territory on the 30th of November, 1854: "The first ballot-box that was opened upon ' our virgin soil was closed to us by overpower' ing numbers and impending force. So bold and ' reckless were our invaders, that they cared not 'to conceal their attack. They came upon us, not in the guise of voters, to steal away our c franchise, but boldly and openly, to snatch it with a strong hand. They came directly from ' their own homes, and in compact and organi'zed bands, with arms ill hand and provisions for ' the expedition, marched to our polls, and, when * their work was done, returned whence they came. ' It is unnecessary to enter into the details; it is enough to say that in three districts, in Lehich, ' by the most irrefragable eviden-ce, there were not one hundred and fifty voters, most of whom re' fused to participate in the mockery of the elects ive franchise, these invaders polled over a thou sand votes." In regard to the election of the oOth of March, 1855, the same party states: " They (the Missourians) arrived at their sev' eral destinations the night before the election, ' and having pitched their camps and placed their sentries, waited for the coming day. Baggage 'wagons were there, with arms and ammunition ' enough for a protracted fight,rad a.inong them two brass field-pieces, ready charged. They came with ' drums beating and flags flying, and their leaders 'were of the most prominent and conspicuous men of their respective States. In the morning *they surrounded the polls, armed with guns, ' bowie-knives, and revolvers, and declared their ' determination to vote at all hazards, and in ' spite of all consequences. If the judges could ' be made to subserve their purposes, and receive ' their Quotes, and if no obstacle was cast in their ' way, their leaders exerted themselves to pre'sgeve peace a:nd order in the conduct of the - 9 ' with an intention, if they liked the Terlitory, to ' make it their permanent abode, at the earliest ' moment practicable. But they intended to vote. ' The Missourians were, many of them, Douglas ' men. There were 150 voters from this cofinty, ' 175 from Iloward, 100 from Cooper. Indeed, ' every county furnished its quota; and when they set out, it looked like an army. * * ' They were armed. * * * And, as there ' were no10 houses in the Territory, they carried ' tents. Their mission was. peaceable one-to ' vote, and to drive down stakes for their future ' homes. After the election, some 1,500 of the ' voters sent a committee to Mr. Reeder, to ascer t a in if it was his purpose to ratify the election. ' He answered that it was, and said the majority , at an election must carry the day. But it is ' not to be denied that the 1,500, apprehending 'that the Governor might attempt to play the ' tyrant-since his conduct hbad already been in' sidious and unjust-wore on their hats bunches ' of hemp. They were resolved, if a tyrant at' tempted to trample upon the rights of the sov ereign people, to hang him." On the 29th of May, 1855, the Squatter Sovereign, an organ of the invasion in ilissouri, thus gave utterance to its spirit: "From reports now received of Reeder, he ' never intends returning to our borders. ' Should he do so, we, without hesitation, say 'that our people ought to hang him by the neck, 'like a traitorous dog as he is, so soon as he puts his unhallowed feet upon our shores. Th Vindicate your characters and the Territory; and should the ungrateful dog dare to come ' among us again, hang him to the first rotten tree. "A military force to protect the ballot-box! 'Let President Pierce, or Governor Reeder, or ' any other power, attempt such a course in this, or any portion of the Union, and that day will ' never be forgotten." Governor Reeder, at Easton, in Pennsylvania, on his first return to that place after the eleetions, declared the same resuilt in frank and candid words, which cost him his oflice, namely: "It was indeed too true that Kansas had been " invaded, conquered, subjugated, by an armed 'force from beyond her borders, led on by a fa natical spirit, trampling under foot the princi' ples of the Kansas bill and the right of suffrage." The HIonorable David R. Atchison, a direct and out-spoken man, who never shrinks from responsibility, and who is confessedly eminent at once as a political leader in Missouri and as a leader of the Pro-Slavery movement therein directed against Kansas, in a speech reported as having been made to his fellow-citizens, and which, so far as I know, has not been disavowed, said: t I saw it with my own eyes. These men ' came with the avowed purpose of driving or ; expelling you from the Territory. What did I ' advise you to do? Why, meet them at their 'own game. When the first election came off, I ' told you to So over anti vote. You did so, and b eat thez.- We} our party in Kansas, nominated ' General W~hitfield. They, tghe Abolitionists, 'nominated Flenaiken; not Filaneg~ani for Flmn~ * ~ * ~ ' voted without ai ny proof of resi dence, In these ' two election districts, where the census shows. ' 100 voters, there were polled 31 rotes, and last ' fall 765 votes, alth oug h a large part of the act'u al r esidents did not vote on either occasion. * * * * From a careful examination of 'the returns, we are satisfied that over 3,000 votes were thus ca st by the citiz ens and resi dents of the States." I plae in opposition to these statements of thepartt oeroln that ws ov erborn e, th e statements of the party that prevefiled, beg inn ing with signals of the attack, and endin g with celebrations of the victory. General Strinvofellow address ed the invaders in Mis souri, on the eve of the election of Ma rc h v, 1855, thus: " To those who have qualms of conscience as 'to violating laws, State or National, the time has come when such impositions must be dis' regarded, as your rights and property are in ' danger; and I