KANSAS. 45 upon earth—is settled under the constitution, but the principle that everything is unsettled?” The settlement of this question, as left by the compromise of 1820, would have prevented the present strife and. civil war in Kansas, and preserved the country in its wonted repose. Yet instead of leaving this Territory, as it had been for more than a third of a century, consecrated to freedom by all the solemnities that can surround any legislative act; instead of adhering to the policy established by the fathers of the republic, and continued by the uniform action of the government for more than half a century, of settling in Congress the question of Ihe future existence of slavery in a Territory at the time of organizing its temporary government, all restrictions were thrown off, and the existence of slavery was left as a bone of contention for the settlers of the Territory during its Territorial existence, and to be thrown back again into Congress whenever the State should apply for admission. The act itself virtually invited slavery to take possession by removing all barriers to its introduction. The object of the repeal, sufficiently apparent even if it had not been avowed at the time by many of its advocates, was to extend, strengthen, and perpetuate slavery by making Kansas a slave State. Under these circumstances, this Territory once secured to freedom, was thrown open to settlement, and to competition between free and slave labor. Emigrants from all sections of the Union, relying on the faith of the government that they were to be left '■'■perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their oiun waymade it their homes ; but when, in pursuance of the forms of the organic act, they assembled to elect a legislature which would mould the institutions of the Territory, and in a great measure shape and control the character of those of the infant State, they were driven by violence from the polls, and their ballot-boxes seized by organized bands of armed men from the State of Missouri. That such was the case is clearly established by the executive minutes of the governor of the Territory, transmitted to this House by the President, which is the authentic and official record of the transactions at the time they occurred, and from which we present the following extracts : “ Third representative district. 11 Report of Harrison Benson and Nathaniel Ramsay, under oath, that they entered upon their duties as judges of election, and polled some few votes, when they were driven from the room by a company of armed men from the State of Missouri, who threatened their lives, and commenced to destroy the house and beat in the door, demanding the right to vote without swearing to their place of residence ; that having made their escape with the poll-books and certificates, they were followed by said persons, and the said papers taken by force. 11 Protest of A. B. Woodward and nineteen other persons, claiming to be citizens of said district, against the election, in said district, of A. McDonald, 0. H. Brown, and G. W. Ward, for the reason that several hundred men from the State of Missouri presented themselves
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