that of the legislature. If the legislature could | from receipt of said returns to 1st of May, for direct the convention what they should do on the purpose of correcting them. one subject, it might, with equal propriety, have given commands on all other subjects. This would have been a flagrant violation of all rules . of right and of justice to the people. Sec. 6. Lists of legal voters, as corrected, to be returned to the governor and secretary, and distributed generally. Sec. 7. Upon completion of census, apportionment of members to be made by the governor and secretary, according to the registered voters. Number of representatives to be sixty. Sec. 8. Election for members of the constitutional convention shall be held on the third Monday in June, and no one, unless registered, shall vote. Sec. 9. County commissioners shall appoint the places of voting, judges of elections, &c. Sec. 10. Judges of election are required to be sworn; also the clerks, and duplicate returns of election shall be made and certified by them. Sec. 11. Every bona fide inhabitant of Kansas, on the third Monday of June, 1857, being a citizen of the United States, and over twentyone years of age, whose residence in the county where he offers to vote shall have been three months next before said election, shall be entitled to vote. Sec. 12. Persons authorized to take the census to administer oaths, &c. At the preceding election the people had directed the legislature to pass a law calling a convention of delegates, to be elected by the people for the purpose of adopting a constitution, and if the legislature had gone beyond the performance of that ministerial act, which the people required, it would have been justly regarded as a violation of the people's rights, and an attempt to coerce the convention, which the people were about to elect to reflect their own will. The republican institutions of the United States are all based upon the representative principle. Instead of meeting in person, as did the people of Athens, in large tumultuous assemblies, where no certain decision on anything could be had, and where liberty itself was ultimately lost, the people of the several states of our happy Union have chosen rather to delegate authority to representatives, who should act for, and in the name and behalf of the people, in public political matters, either in making constitutions, or in the passage of laws for the regulations and government of society. This principle is observed in all our institutions, state and federal, and thus far in our history has proved faithful and efficient in protecting the rights of the people, and bene-voting. ficial in avoiding the tumultuary mobs which disgraced the Grecian republics and some of our own larger cities. But whether the representative principle, or the personal association in assemblies, be the better system, it is not for the committee to decide. It is sufficient if either one be adopted and pursued by the people, as in the case of Kansas; and the selection of the representative American system can be no valid objection to the action of the people in that regard. That representative rule and principle has been perfected, in a great degree, under our institutions, and may almost be claimed as an American system. That the law providing for the convention afforded equal opportunities to all the citizens of Kansas to have a voice on the constitution, in and through the convention, cannot be denied. It provided: Sec. 1. Sheriffs are required, between the 1st of March and 1st of April, 1857, to make an enumeration; have power to appoint deputies, who shall take oath, &c. Sec. 2. In case of vacancy in office of sheriff, the probate judge shall perform his duty; and in case of vacancy in both, the governor shall appoint some competent resident to perform said duty. Sec. 3. Officers, as above, shall file in office of probate judge a complete list of all qualified voters resident in his county or district, on 1st of April, 1857. Sec. 4. Copies of said list to be posted in public places. Sec. 5. Probate judge to continue court Sec. 13 provides for the punishment of unlawful attempts to influence voters. Sec. 14 provides punishment for illegal Sec. 15 provides punishment for those who fraudulently hinder a fair expression of the popular vote. Sec. 16. Delegates are required to assemble in convention at the capital on the first Monday of September next. Sec. 17 provides for an election by the convention of its officers. Sec. 18 in relation to the salaries of sheriffs and other officers. Sec. 19 relative to the location of the election districts. Sec. 20 requires all votes to be viva voce. Sec. 21 gives a tabular form for the returns. Above bill passed over governor's veto on the 19th of February, 1857. A registry of the voters was accordingly taken, in pursuance of the act of the territorial legislature, so far as it was possible, under the peculiar state of things then existing, to habitants refused to be registered; some gave It appears that a portion of the infictitious names, and others prevented the officers from complying with the law. do so. Mr. Stanton, then acting governor of Kansas, says, on that subject: "It is not my purpose to reply to your statement of facts; I cannot do so from any personal knowledge enabling me heard statements quite as authentic as your own, and in either to admit or deny them. I may say, however, I have some instances from members of your own party (Republicans), to the effect that your political friends have very generally, indeed, almost universally, refused to participate in the pending proceedings for registering the names of the legal voters. In some instances they have given fictitious names at all. You cannot deny that your party have herenames, and in numerous others they refused to give any tofore resolve:l not to take part in the registration, and it cious of the integrity of officers, you might wel attribute any errors and omissions of the sheriffs to the existence of appears to me that, without indulging ungenerous suspi this well known and controlling fact." But notwithstanding all these difficulties in making the registry of voters, 9251 names were legally returned in the following counties and districts, viz: Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha, Atchison, Leavenworth, Jefferson, Calhoun, Marshall, Pottawatomie, Johnson, Douglas, Shawnee, Lykins, Linn, Bourbon, McGee, Dorn, Allen. then presented, were fair enough to justify the apportionment, it is now too late to make any complaint against that action. The law allowed but sixty members for the convention, and the governor, with the full knowledge of the registration before him, apportioned the whole number amongst the districts and counties where the registry had been made; leaving it impossible for other counties not included in the registration by their own misconduct, and not attached to registered counties, to have any separate and independ In the following counties, Richardson, Da-ent representation in the convention without a vis, Franklin, Weller, Breckenridge, Wise, palpable violation of the law calling the conMadison, Butler, Coffey, Anderson, Woodson, vention. The people had legally demanded Wilson, Godfrey, Greenwood, Hunter, no re- this call of a convention, and the proper tribugistry was taken on account of the facts above nal had made provision for it on terms adstated. All of the last-named counties to- mitted to be fair, just and equal for all the gether contained but a very small population | people; and if by refusal to act, or other misor vote. It is believed, from the statement conduct, any portion feel aggrieved, they have made by General Calhoun, now before the no just cause of complaint; nor should Concommittee, that many of these counties did gress pay any regard to complaints consequent not contain ten votes, and all of them together upon their non-action. upon their non-action. Speaking of this call not so many as 1500. The counties were of the convention, and of the convention itself, marked out by a description of boundaries and Mr. Stanton said, in an official document, to named; but some of them were without in- the people of the territory: habitants, and many of them were attached to adjacent counties for civil and military purposes. All of them were equally provided for by the law calling the convention, and any omissions that may have occurred resulted from causes not in the control of the majority of the people. The largest vote ever had in the territory up to the 21st December last is about 12,000. So that it appears from the facts before the committee, notwithstanding the refusal to comply with the law on the part of those opposed to it, only about 3000, or less, could possibly have been omitted in the registration; and even that omission was the result of their own acts. "The government especially recognises the territorial act which provides for assembling a convention to form a constitution with a view to making application to Congress for admission as a state into the Union. That act is regarded as presenting the only test of the qualification of voters for delegates to the convention, and all preceding repugnant be allowed to have provided for a full and fair expression of restrictions are thereby repealed. In this light the act must the will of the people through the delegates who may be chosen to represent them in the constitutional convention. I do not doubt. however, that in order to avoid all pretexts for resist ance to the peaceful operation of this law the convention itself will in some form provide for submitting the great has so long agitated the people of Kansas to a fair vote of distracting question regarding their social institution, which the actual bona fide residents of the territory, with every tution be thus framed, and the question of difference be thus possible security against fraud and violence. If the constisubmitted to the decision of the people, I believe that Kansas will be admitted by Congress, without delay, as one of the authorities will be immediately withdrawn." sovereign states of the American Union, and the territorial This was the legal notification of the governor to the people of Kansas BEFORE the elec tion for delegates to the convention was had. Governor Walker, on the 27th May, still before the election, and with full knowledge of the registration and apportionment, said. One whole month was afterwards allowed under the law, as before stated, for the correction of the lists after due notice to the public, by adding to or striking off names improperly inserted or omitted; to be determined on legal evidence submitted by any parties concerned, before a legal tribunal. "Under our practice the preliminary act of framing a In addition to which, it appears that the gov-strumentality of a convention of delegates chosen by the state constitution is uniformly performed through the inernor of the territory made every effort to in- people themselves. That convention is now about to be duce the people to comply with the law calling elected by you on the call of the territorial legislature, created and still recognised by Congress, and clothed by it, the convention, and to give full force and in the comprehensive language of the organic law, with full effect to all its provisions. power to make such an enactment. Thus, every opportunity was afforded to all the people of Kansas, to register their names, as legal voters, if they possessed the requisite qualifications. After the registration was closed, according to the law, Mr. Stanton, then governor of Kansas, made the appor tionment of delegates amongst the several districts. The election was legally held, pursuant to the law. At the time this apportionment was made the governor knew as much concerning the counties and people not registered, in consequence of acts which no law could prevent, as since; and if the facts, as "The territorial legislature, then, in assembling this on vention, were fully sustained by the act of Congress; and the authority of the convention is distinctly recognised in my instructions from the President of the United States. ** The people of Kansas, then, are invited by the hi hest authority known to the Constitution to participate freely and fairly in the election of delegates to form a constitution appropriate functions when it extends to the people the right and state government. The law has performed its entire of suffrage, but cannot compel the performance of that duty.” Here, also, by Governor Walker, we have the distinct recognition of the legality of the convention to form the constitution, with a special invitation for all qualified to participate therein. But, notwithstanding all this, the same party which had sought to stir up strife and contention previously in the territory, still continued their insurrectionary and revolutionary movements. Their conduct and their legal relation to the government may be understood from the following quotations made from the official papers of Governor Walker. Speaking of them he says: "And on the other side in favor of what was regarded by ine as open rebellion, even many violent men, headed by he principal delegates of the town of Lawrence, which is the great seat of all the agitation that has disturbed the peace of the territory." * ** "Lawrence is the hot-bed of all the abolition movements In this territory. It is the town established by the abolition Bocieties of the east; and whilst there are respectable people there, it is filed by a considerable number of mercenaries. who are paid by abolition societies to perpetuate and diffuse agitation throughout Kansas, and prevent a peaceful settlement of this question." Again he says, 14th July: 41" who had committed no other offence than permitting the and eight brigades. * * "I am well satisfied that a do not desire a peaceful settlement of this question, but wish It thus appears to the committee, from OEFICIAL evidence, that the opposition in Kansas to the Lecompton convention, consisted of persons engaged in insurrection, rebellion, and "I have received authentic intelligence that a dangerous revolution. Some few are known to be citirebellion has occurred in the city of Lawrence, in this terri-zens of the United States. Whether the others tory, involving an open defiance of the laws, and the establishment of an insurgent government in that city." “I He further says: “Under these circumstances, you have proceeded to establish a government for the city of Lawrence in direct defiance of the territorial government, and denying its existence and authority. You have imposed upon all those officers the duty of taking an oath to support this so-called state constitution, thus distinctly superseding, so far as in your power. the territorial government created by the Congress of the United States.” "You have caused these proceedings to be printed in hand-bill form, and have distributed them, as I am in formed, throughout the territory, with a view to incite the other cities, towns, and counties of Kansas to establish insurrectionary governments, thereby placing the people of this territory, so far as in your power. in open conflict with the government of the United States." * "Your evident purpose is thus to involve the whole terri tory in insurrection, and to renew the scenes of bloodshed and civil war. Upon you, then. must rest all the guilt and responsibility of this contemplated revolution." "You have, however, chosen to disregard the laws of Con and revolution." * * * gress and of the territorial government, and have proceeded to create a local government of your own, based upon insur rection and revolution. You are inaugurating_rebellion If the Lawrence rebellion is not well as towns, will be carried into effect throughout the territory; the object being to certhrow the territorial govern ment, and inaugurate the Topeka state government even before the admission of Kansas as a state by Congress." put down, similar organizations, extending to counties as are citizens or aliens, whether in allegiance or not, they are all known to be enemies of the government, and openly engaged in attempts against law and order in the territory, and against the peace and quietude of society. Many have been shown by Governor Walker to be hired mercenaries, sent out by the abolition societies of the east, and all working in concert to accomplish in Kansas what the Supreme Court, and public sentiment, have decided Congress has no power to do; that is, to prohibit slavery in the territory of Kansas, and more than that, prevent the people of the ciding that question for themselves in their territory from exercising the privilege of de own way. organizations of a rebellious character; have To do which they have gotten up military committed the most revolting outrages against persons and property; threatening to deluge the land in blood; alienating one section of the Union from the other, and endangering the existence of free government. Such are the characters-such are the ob jects and dangerous results of the opponents of the Lecompton constitution. But, without regard to this insurrectionary movement, the regular legal convention of adopted the constitution now before the comKansas, in pursuance of law, assembled and mittee, which is thoroughly republican in form. Out of deference to those who might be opposed to African slavery, and to avoid all pretext of complaint on the part of opponents, the convention, accepting the sugges tion of Governor Stanton, submitted the ques tion of slavery or no slavery to a direct vote of the bona fide inhabitants of the territory. That election was ordered for the 21st Decentber, 1857, when it was accordingly held, and resulted as follows: Constitution with slavery, 6226 votes. 569 votes. 6795 votes. An opportunity has consequently been af. forded to the people of Kansas to decide this question of slavery for themselves, and that decision is now before us with all the sanctions of law. 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 a new constitution.” The constitution conforms precisely to what Governor Walker said would meet his most cordial approval, and that he should devote his whole time in addresses every day to the people of every county in the territory to insure its adoption. He says: ~. Adopt a constitution very similar to that of some of the southern states, securing the right to the slaves now in the but prohibiting the introduction of any more, excluding all free negroes; enforcing by most stringent provisions the execution of the fugitive slave law; securing the right of appeal in all constitutional cases to the Supreme Court of the United States; and requiring all officers of the government, legislative, executive, and judicial, the judges and Inspectors of all elections, and the attorneys of all courts, to take an oath to support the coustitution of the state and of the United States. Such a constitution, if submitted to ■ vote of the whole people, would, in my opinion, be adopted by a very considerable majority.” territory, numbering probably from two to three hundred, It will be seen that the convention at Lecompton has adopted just such a constitution, with the single exception of the clause prohibiting the introduction of any more slaves; and that clause has been submitted to a fair and direct vote of the people themselves, registered and unregistered, thus leaving no possible pretence for complaint. conciliated or tolerated in a country governed by laws. Suppose twenty additional opportu nities should be afforded to the same people to vote on all these questions, who can guarantee that they will act better in the future than they have in the past? Who can say they will vote at all? And if not, would not the same objection now made be as valid then as it is now, with reference to their non-action? known political design to prevent the peaceful It seems to be, however, but carrying out their settlement of the question. form practice of all the constitutional govern The only legal rule is, to adhere to the uni ments in the Union; and an opportunity having been afforded to all of registering their names and voting, then, to decide according to the majority thus cast, whether some of the people have voted, or neglected or refused to vote. Governor Walker said to the people of Kansas in his official address: "Throughout our whole Union, and wherever free govern rights of suffrage authorize those who do vote to act for them ment prevails, those who abstain from the exercise of the in that contingency, and the absentees are as much bound under the law and constitution-when there is no fraud or violence-by the majority of those who do vote, as though all had participated in the election. Otherwise, as voting and monarchy and despotism would remain as the only must be voluntary, self-government would be impracticable alternative." Governor Walker, that those who abstain Admitting the truth of the proposition of from voting authorize those who do vote to vote for them, it necessarily follows that the abolitionists of Kansas, if they are the majorectly responsible for the establishment of rity of the people, as they claim to be, are dr slavery in that territory. And whether they constitute the majority or minority, the deci sion made is equally binding upon all. 66 some to defeat the Lecompton constitution Popular sovereignty" has been invoked by It is even alleged by those objectors tha nothing but a submission of the whole consti tution to a direct vote of the people would be compliance with the provisions of the Kansas Nebraska act, which declares the people of that territory shall be perfectly free to form their domestic institutions in their own way. With this view of the subject the committee cannot agree. It is well known that the only real matter of controversy in Kansas was the question of slavery. ́ Evidence to that effect could be accumulated almost without limit, establishing the fact. But the committee deem this unnecessary, as the fact itself will hardly be disputed by any one. Such being the case, no reasonable ground of complaint can be found; for that question was submitted to all the bona fide inhabitants for decision, on the 21st December. There is no pretence that any districts, counties, or persons were disfranchised at that election. Every qualified voter, whether registered or not registered, had the unrestrained privilege of voting for or against slavery. Here, then, was the opportunity to settle the only existing difficulty, if it was de- provision of the Kansas organic law diminished Surely it will not be contended that this sired. Would it not be very extraordinary to the previous rights of the people in creating a permit a factious portion of the people, in total state government. In all time past, since the disregard of the law, to stay wilfully from the declaration of independence, it has been unipolls, when, according to law, and according formly admitted, without a single exception, to the published notice of Governor Walker, that the people had the right of choice either they were equally bound as if they had voted, to form their constitutions by their agents and then claim the privilege of having a re-elected for that purpose, or to reserve the submission? If it were true, that they had, as they assert, a majority opposed to slavery, they could have voted out the clause sanctioning that institution. By their own act the clause is retained; and then they desire to reject the whole constitution because of the so-called obnoxious slavery clause, left in by their own wilful refusal to vote. Such wilfulness is not to be quent direct vote of the people. In either right to ratify the constitution by a subse case, and in both cases, it is the act of the people, and a full exercise of "popular sove reignty." If, therefore, the Kansas act had taken away the right of the people to act through their agents, it would be a limitation of their rights rather than an increase and improvement, as the friends of that measure 419 nave heretofore boasted. The people would, | two territories, and named Kansas and Nein that case, be confined to one way only in | BRASKA...... which to make a constitution, and would not be at liberty to choose their own way. Such a construction of the organic act is manifestly erroneous. Having thus given a historical account of the matter referred for their consideration, your committee will briefly review the whole subject, unembarrassed by details. They will look at the subject as it originated, as it has been for three years, and as it now is. The population of our country four years ago was principally confined, by treaty and by law, to the comparatively small region lying to the east of the river Mississippi. Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and part of Louisiana, were found on the western bank. Also, on the extreme southern flank, Texas; and Minnesota on the northern. California and the settlements of Oregon were upon the Pacific coast; in the centre, New Mexico and Utah. The immense country lying between our scanty settlements upon the Pacific and the western boundaries of Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas, may be said, in general terms, and with the above exceptions, to have been unoccupied. Guarded by the Indian non-intercourse act and by Indian treaties, and without territorial organization, the country was rendered, by statutory prohibitions, an inaccessible solitude, which pioneer settlers might not legally disturb. Further extensions of settlement to the westward were thus arrested by law. The western border of three or four states was the western border of the United States until we reached the top of the Sierra Nevada, and looked down upon the long and narrow settlements upon the shores of the Pacific. The border states had become dissatisfied, and clamored for western expansion over the beautiful and fertile wilderness which, though extending for a continuous distance of a thousand miles, approached within three hundred miles of the Mississippi, was abandoned by the government to the exclusive use of wild, semi-civilized, and vagrant Indian tribes. Unable longer to resist the demands of the west for the opening up to settlement of a country so contiguous, important, and valuable, and which had been neglected so long as to become a just cause of reproach to the government, Congress, in 1854, took into its serious consideration the justice and policy of organizing it into territories. The law organizing these territories settled the slavery controversy, by providing that the people of them might form their domestic stitutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States; and to enable the people to do so without hindrance`of any kind, there was inserted in the act a clause repealing all laws establishing, regulating, or prohibiting slaveholding. This settlement greatly pleased one party, and greatly displeased the other. The defeated anti-slavery party professed to believe that` Congress had power, and ought to exercise it, to exclude slave property from territory which had been acquired by the joint efforts and at the common expense of slaveholders and nonslaveholders. The victorious democratic party believed that Congress had no such power under the Constitution, and that it would be inequitable to exercise it if it had; and, also, that in this particular case, such an exercise of power would be a flagrant violation of the third article of the treaty with France, by which the country was acquired. people living in Missouri, upon the borders of Immediately after the passage of the act, Kansas, being well acquainted with the country, poured into that territory in large numbers, and appropriated many of the most fertile, best watered, and best timbered tracts. Many of these carried their slaves with them. On the other hand, prior to the final passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, but after its sage became evident, certain members of Conpasgress formed a secret association, which ultimately became public, to- incite and aid the emigration into Kansas of persons opposed to the existence of slavery, for the express purpose of so carrying out its provisions as to cause an exclusion of the slave property of the southern states from the territory. This secret combination of politicians to perpetrate sectional injustice, was promptly followed by public ones, and moneys were collected in nuinerous places for the express purpose of aiding an effort to exclude southern property from Kansas. This sectional and fanatical purpose. was, in practice, generally coupled with some one or more schemes of money making of a highly speculative character. This effort very naturally provoked counter efforts, and violent controversies between the assailants and the assailed followed. But two difficulties were in the way of an organization: one was the question of Indian The creators of strife, as often is the case, occupancy, the other that of African slavery. were worsted. Of the voters on that occasion The first was easily adjusted; the second was this may be said: many were bad men. The the subject of long, heated, and angry discus-scenes were, if possible, as disgraceful as those sion. More than one hundred speeches were which have been such a scandalous reproach delivered in Congress at that session upon the to the large cities of the Atlantic and Pacific slavery question. At length the whole country lying west of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, east of Utah, Oregon, and Washington territories, and north of the 37th and south of the 49th parallels of latitude, was organized into states in violent, contested elections. Immediately after the first election, many of the voters belonging to each of the contending parties, and among them the defeated candidate for delegate to Congress, left the terri |