48 KANSAS. divided, and the one that has caused all the troubles in the Territory, as well as the excitement over the whole country, is the existence of slavery within its limits, and until that question is settled, there can * be neither peace in the Territory, nor tranquillity in the country. Why, then, delay action ? Is it to obtain, by another election, a fuller and freer expression of the wishes of the people as to the existence of slavery in the Territory, when every person there, who, by writing or speaking, opposes the introduction or existence of slavery therein, is liable to punishment from two to five years in the I penitentiary, and no advocate of free institutions is secure in the exercise of his inalienable rights ? If a majority of the legal voters in the Territory were not free- State men, why was an invasion necessary to carry the election ; and why was it necessary, then, for the usurpers to take from 'the people, by legislative act, the selection of their own election-boards and other local officers ? If a majority of the people are in favor of the enactments of the imposed legislature, why was it necessary to summon men from Missouri to enforce them? The Territorial government, unable to prevent a usurpation of the legislative power by non-residents, and having violated in its action the most sacred rights of person, freedom of speech, and of the press, is unworthy the support of freemen. There being no peaceable mode for changing the government by the people for almost two years, so as to redress any of the wrongs and grievances under which they now suffer, their only mode of redress was to appeal to Congress to allow them to protect themselves by an organized government of their own formation, with courts and officers of their own selection. To restore, then, to the people of Kansas the rights wrested from them by fraud and violence, to relieve them from an odious oppression in the form of legislative enactments, as well as to remove the causes of civil war, and restore peace to the people of Kansas, and quiet to the whole confederacy, we recommend the admission of Kansas into the Union as a State, and herewith report a bill. GALUSHA A. GROW. J. R. GIDDINGS. A. P. GRANGER. S. A. PURVIANCE. JUSTIN S. MORRILL. JOHN J. PERRY.
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