The Crime Against Kansas

If Next comes the Apology absurd, which is, indeed, in the nature of a pretext. It is al- Leged that a small printed pamphlet, contain- rngthe “Constitution and Ritual of the Grand Kncampment and Regiments of the Kansas ■Legion,” was taken from the person of one [George F. Warren, who attempted to avoid hletcction by chewing it. The oaths and gran- bliose titles of the pretended Legion have all peen set forth, and this poor mummery of a [‘secret society, which existed only on paper, pas been gravely introduced on this floor, in [’order to extenuate the Crime against Kansas. It has been paraded in more than one speech, Land even stuffed into the report of the com- kmittee. * A part of the obligations assumed by the ^members of this Legion shows why it has Jbeen thus pursued, and also attests its inno- i^cence. It is as follows: !. “ I will never knowingly propose a person of membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a free State, and whom I feel satisfied will exert his entire ‘ , I will support, main- ' influence to bring about this result. 'tain, and abide by any honorable movement made by the •organization to secure this great end, which will not con- Ii flict with the laics of the country and the Constitution of I the United States.” I * I II * I Kansas is to be made a free State, by an > honorable movement, which will not conflict ■ with the laws and the Constitution. That is 7 the object of the organization, declared in the very words of the initiatory obligation. Where Wis the wrong in this? What is there here, i ■ which can cast reproach, or even suspicion, j. upon the people of Kansas ? Grant that the Legion was constituted, can you extract from ■j it any Apology for the original Crime, or for its present ratification? Secret societies, with their extravagant oaths, are justly offensive; y b i 1 but who can find, in tliis mistaken machinery, any excuse for the denial of all rights to the ’ people of Kansas? All this, I say, on the supposition that the society was a reality, 1 which it was not. Existing in the fantastic 1 i 9 brains of a few persons only, it never had any practical life. It was never organized. The whole tale, with the mode of obtaining the copy of the Constitution, is at once a cock- and-bull story and a mare’s nest; trivial as the former; absurd as the latter; and to be dismissed, with the Apology founded upon it, to the derision which triviality and absurdity justly receive. It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the Apology infamous, founded on false testimony against the Emigrant Aid Company, and assumptions of duty more false than the testimony. Defying Truth and mocking Decency, this Apology excels all others in futility and audacity, while, from its utter hollowness, it proves the utter impotence of the conspirators to defend their Crime. Falsehood. always infamous, in this case arouses peculiar Bvorn. An association of sincere benevolence, faithful to the Constitution and laws, whose only fortifications are hotels, school-houses, and churches; whose only weapons are saw-mills, tools, and books; whose mission is peace and good will, has been falsely assailed on this floor, and an errand of blameless virtue has been made the pretext for an- unpardonable Crime. Nay, more—the innocent are sacrified, and the guilty set at liberty. They who seek to do the mission of the Saviom are scourged and crucified, while the murderer. Barabbas, with the sympathy of the chief priests, goes at large. Were I to take counsel of my own feelings, I should dismiss this whole Apology to the ineffable contempt which it deserves; but it lias been made to play such apart in this conspiracy/ ’ i that I feel it a duty to expose it completely. Sir, from the earliest times, men have recog-' nized the advantages of organization, as an effective agency in promoting works of peace or war. Especially at this moment, there, k no interest, public or private, high or low, of charity or trade, of luxury or convenience, which does not seek its aid. Men organize to rear churches and to sell thread ; to build schools and to sail ships; to construct roads and to manufacture toys; to spin cotton and to print books; to weave clothes and , to quicken harvests; to provide food and to distribute light; to influence Public Opinion and to secure votes; to guard infancy in its weakness, old age in its decrepitude, and womanhood in its wretchedness; and now, in all largs towns, when death has come, they are buried by organized societies, and, emigrants U another world, they lie down in pleasant places adorned by organized skill. To complain that this prevailing principle has been applied to living emigration is to complain of Providence and the irresistible tendencies implanted in man. But this application of the principle is no recent invention, brought forth for an existing emergency. It has the best stamp of Anti- (fuity. It showed itself in the brightest days of Greece, where colonists moved in organized bands. It became a part of the mature policy of Rome, where bodies of men were constituted expressly for this purpose, triumviri adcolonos deducendos.—(Livy, xxxvii, § 46). Naturally it has been accepted in modern times by everj civilized State. With the sanction of Spain, an association of Genoese merchants first introduced slaves to this continent, with the sanction of France, the Society of Jesuits stretched their labors over Canada and tliC Great Lakes to the Mississippi. It was undel the auspices of Emigrant Aid Companies, that our country was originally settled, by the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, by the adventurers of Virginia, and by the philanthropic Oglethorpe, whose “ benevolence of soul,” com*

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