The Crime Against Kansas

which in itself is a denial Territory of Kansas, surrounded by a code of death, and trampling upon all cherished liberties, whether of speech, the press, the bar, the trial by jury, or the electoral franchise. And, sir, all this has been done,, not .merely to introduce a wrong of all rights, and in dread of which a mother has lately taken the life of her offspring; not merely, as has been sometimes said, to protect Slavery in Missouri, since it is futile for this State to complain of Freedom on the side of Kansas, when Freedom exists without complaint on the side of Iowa, and also on the side of Illinois; but it has been done for the sake of political power, in order to bring two new slaveholding Senators upon this floor, and thus to fortify in the National Government the desperate chances of a waning Oligarchy. As the ship, voyaging on pleasant summer seas, is assailed by a pirate crew, and robbed for the sake of its doubloons and dollars—so is _ > this beautiful Territory now assailed in its peace and prosperity, and robbed, in order to wrest its political power to the side of Slavery. Even now the black flag of the land pirates from Missouri waves at the mast head; in their laws you hear the pirate yell, and see the flash of the pirate’s knife; while, incredible to relate 1 the President, gathering the Slave Power'at his back, testifies a pirate sympathy. Sir. all this was done in the name of popular Sovereignty. And this is the close of the traPopular Sovereignty, which when truly gedy. understood, is a fountain of just power, has not merely in the ended in Popular Slaveryr • subjection of the unhappy African race, but of this proud Caucasian blood, which you boast. The profession with which you began, of All ty the 3eople, has been lost in the wretched reality of Nothing for the People. Popular Sovereignty, in whose deceitful name plighted faith was broken, and an ancient Landmark of Freedom was overturned, now lifts itself before us, like Sin, in the terrible picture Milton. of u That seemed a woman to the waist, and fair, But ended foul In many a scaly fold Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed With mortal sting; about her midd' e round A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing barked With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep, If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled Within unseen.” The image is complete at all points; and, ith this exp-sure, 1 take my leave of the il. Emerging from all the blackness of this Crime, in which we seem to have been lost, os in a savage wood, and turning our backs caped, I come now to The Apologies whic| the Crime has found. Sir, well may you stad at the suggestion that such a series of wrong | so clearly proved by various testimony, t openly confessed by the wrong-doers, and (। widely recognized throughout the country should find Apologies. But the partisan sp‘ rit, now, as in other days, hesitates at nothint The great Crimes of history have never bed without Apologies. The massacre of St. Ba tholomew, which you now instinctively coj demn, was, at the time, applauded in hid quarters, and even commemorated by a Pap medal, which may still be procured at Romd as the crime against Kansas, which is hard less conspicuous in dreadful eminence, h been shielded on this floor by extenuatii words, and even by a Presidential messad which, like the Papal medal, can never be ft gotten in considering the madness andperve sity of men. I Sir, the Crime cannot be denied. The Pi I sident himself has admitted “ illegal and repil hensible ” conduct. To such conclusions I was compelled by irresistible evidence; 11 what lie mildly describes I openly arraid Senators may affect to put it aside by a snel or to reason it away by figures; or to explfl it by a theory, such as desperate inventil I has produced on this floor, that the Assass I and Thugs of Missouri were in reality citizcl of Kansas ; but all these efforts, so far as ma I are only tokens of the weakness of the caul while to the original Crime they add ano til offence of false testimony against innocent al suffering men. But the Apologies for I i Crime are worse than the efforts at deni i In cruelty and heartlessness they identify tl I authors with the great trangression. I They are four in number, and four-foki character. The first is the Apology \cal; the second, the Apology imbecile; I third, the Apology absurd ; and the fourth I Apology infamous. This is all. Tyranny, I becility, absurdity, and infamy, all unite! dance like the weird sisters, about this Cril The Apology tyrannical is founded on I mistaken act of Governor Reeder, in authel eating the Usurping Legislature, by whicl is asserted that, whatever may have been I actual force or fraud in its election, the peel of Kansas are effectually concluded, and 1 whole proceeding is placed under the fori sanction of law. According to this assml tion, complaint is now in vain, and it onlyl mains that Congress should sit and hear I to it, without correcting the wrong, as the! cient tyrant listened and granted no red refl the human moans that issued from the he:l This I call the Apology of technicality in red tyranny. 1 The facts on this head are few and p)

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