19 memorated by Pope, sought to plant a Free State in Georgia. At this day, such associations, of an humbler character, are found in Europe, with offices in the great capitals, through whose activitjT emigrants are directed here. For a long time, emigration to the West, from the Northern and Middle States, but particularly from New England, has been of marked significance. In quest of better homes, annually it has pressed to the unsettled lands, in numbers to be counted by tens of thousands ; but this has been done heretofore with little knowledge, and without guide or coun- iel. • Finally, when, by the establishment of a Government in Kansas, the tempting fields of that central region were opened to the competition of peaceful colonization, and especially when it was declared that the question of Freedom or Slavery there.was to be deter- « lined by the votes of actual settlers, then at Ince was organization enlisted as an effective agency in quickening and conducting the emigration impelled thither, and, more than all, m providing homes for it on arrival there. The Company was first constituted under an act of the Legislature of Massachusetts, 4th of May, 1854, some weeks prior to the passage of the Nebraska bill. The original act of incorporation was subsequently abandoned, and a new charter received in February, 1855, in •/ 7 which the objects of the Society are thus declared : “ For the purposes of directing emigration Westward, and aiding hi providing accommodations for the emigrants after arriving at their places of destination.” At any other moment, an association for these purposes would have taken its place, by general consent, among the philanthropic experiments of the age: but Crime is always suspicious, and shakes, like a sick man, merely at the pointing of a finger. The conspirators against Freedom in Kansas now shook with tremor, real or affected. Their wicked plot was about to fail. To help themselves, they denounced the Emigrant Aid Company ; and their denunciations, after finding an echo in the President, have been repeated, with much particularity, on this floor, in the formal report of your committee. The falsehood of the whole accusation will appear in illustrative specimens. A charter is set out, section by section, which, though originally granted, was subsequently abandoned, and is not in reality the charter of the Company, but it is materially unlike it. 1 he Company is represented as u a power- L1 corporation, with a capital of five mil- Sons;" when, by its actual charter, it is not allowed to hold property above one million, and in point of fan, its capital has not ex- oeedud J 100,000. Then, again, it is suggested, if not alleged, ] that this enormous capital, which I have already said does not exist, is invested in “cannon and rifles, in powder and lead, and I implements of war'1—all of which, whether I alleged or suggested, is absolutely false. The officers of the Company authorize me to give to this whole pretension a point-blank denial. All of these allegations are of small importance, and I mention them only because they . show the character of the report, and also something of the quicksand on which the Senator from Illinois has chosen to plant himself. But these are all capped by the unblush- . ing assertion that the proceedings of the com- I pany were “in perversion of the plain provisions of an Act of Congressand also, another unblushing assertion, as “ certain and undeniable,*’ that the Company was formed to promote certain objects, “regardless of the j rights and wishes of the people, as guarantied . by the Constitution of the United States, and , secured by their organic law when it is certain and undeniable that the Company has done nothing in perversion of any Act of Congress, while to the extent of its power it has sought to protect the rights and wishes of the actual people in the Territory. Sir, this Company has violated in no respect the Constitution or laws of the land; not in < the severest letter or the slightest spirit. But every other imputation is equally baseless. It is not true, as the Senator from Illinois has alleged, in order in some way to compromise the Company, that it was informed before the public of the date fixed for the election of the Legislature. This statement is pronounced by the Secretary, in a letter now before me, “ an unqualified falsehood, not having even the shadow of a shade of truth for its basis.” It is not true that men- have been hired by the Company to go to Kansas ; for every emigrant, who has gone under its direction, has himself provided the means for his journey. Of course, sir, it is not true, as has been complained by the Senator from South Carolina, with that proclivity to error which marks all his utterances, that men have been sent by the Company “ with one uniform gun, Sharpe’s rifle for it has supplied no arms of any kind to anybody. It is not true that the Company has encouraged any fanatical aggression upon the people of Missouri; for it has counseled order, peace, forbearance. It is not true that the Company has chosen its emigrants on account of their political opinions; for it has asked no questions with regard to the opinions of any whom it aids, and at this moment stands ready to forward those from the South as well as the North, while, in the Territory, all, from whatever quarter, are admitted to an equal enjoyment of its tempting advantages. It is mt true that the Company has sent persons
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