14 longed to them ?' Why, sir, in an adversary suit, I understand that if a man will not take care of his rights, judgment will pass against him; and, after all the provisions of the law have been complied with, he may forfeit his rights to his adversary; but here there is no adversary. It is the people themselves asking to make a Constitution for themselves; and President Buchanan and many Senators here likened it to some adversary suit, in which there is a party that has some right to take advan tage of any want of compliance with the law. Is this your new fangled popular sovereignty ? Who is to take advantage of it ? Why, sir, it is as much a slave State, says the President, as Georgia or South Carolina. Was it to inure to their benefit, if the people should lose a day in asserting their rights? Was any other State to gain what they lost ? If there ever was a tissue of legal nonsense dished up and sent to the Senate of the United States, it is such a message as the President has sent here, I hate to use harsh terms, but I have a reason for them. If it is new in the history of this Government, the things I comment on are new. The people lose their own rights; they are a day too late; the tyrant has bestrode their necks; the Constitution is framed; and Mr. Buchanan says, “ah, you are too late to retrieve your rights; somebody has got hold of them; I do not know who, but you have lost them. You ought to have been on the alert; you have lost a day, and your liberties are gone forever.” Why, sir, even in the good old Norman days they said the dignity of a freeman was such, that even their highest courts could not force him to come in under ten days. First, they must go to him, and invite him to come in like a gentleman, tell him what the business was for which he was wanted, because it was beneath the dignity of a free citizen in England, at that period, to have a summons come in such a mandatory form that he must obey it in a moment. It seemed to be a mark of servitude that our sturdy ancestors would not submit to. It is not so now, however. In one day, your liberties may be gone. In one day, you may become a slave, and be denied all chance of liberty. Why do you say these men are rebels and traitors? You have had an army of two thousand men in Kansas, and all the paraphernalia of war, for what purpose? To compel that people to conduct their domestic concerns in their own way! [Laughter.] They would not do it. Did you ever hear of so perverse a race as there is in that Territory ? Two thousand soldiers, with all the paraphernalia of war, are required to force a people to do just as they please. [Laughter.] Governor Walker wrote to the President, ever and over again, before he got the hang of these men. The first persons he met in the Territory, when he got there, were those busy Border Ruffians, always in I communication with the President, who seem to have mesmerized him and entranced him. The Governor, no doubt, took letters of introduction to some o& the first Border Ruffians in the Territory; and they seemed to have obtained their knowledge at first from that source. They wrote ferocious letters for about a month. Governor Walker, however, finally took it upon himself to act the missionary. He thundered forth his proclamation. First, he told the people he would enforce those Border Ruffian usurped laws upon them; but he had the grace to say, that when the Constitution came to be acted upon, all of them should have a fair opportunity to vote. He said, “such are my instructions from the President, such is my will; and in that respect you shall not be thwarted.” He went amongst the people; he found them uneasy about the Government which was ruling them. He wrote to the President, over and over again, that there was reason to fear there would be civil war if tyranny was persisted in, and that the only way he could pacify them was by assuring them, on the authority of the President, that they should have the right to make their own Constitution, in their own way. He said that was the only pacification he could offer them; and if he had not done it, the Territory would have been in a blaze of war. He wrote to the President that he had told the people of his consultations with the President; he informed them that they had the faith of the President and the Cabinet that the Constitution would be submitted to them. The people there had had a little experience of Presidents and Cabinets. They said to Governor Walker, “these are very fine words of yours; but we have been dealt with so falsely and perfidiously by our Government, that we fear even your good faith cannot protect us; but he gave such assurances as ultimately pacified them. A SECRET HISTORY. There must be some secret history connected with the course of the Administration in reference to this matter, which it would be exceedingly interesting to have unfolded. The President in his inaugural had proclaimed, in the hearing of the whole people of the United States, that the people of Kansas should have a free and fair opportunity to vote on their own Constitution. He proclaimed that, as a matter of course, that must be done. He admits it in his last message. He acknowledges in that message that he made these general statements, but he says his mind dwelt on the question of Slavery only. Well, sir, I am not a man who wishes to keep anything back, and I tell my friends here who expect to support the people of Kansas in their course, you cannot blink the question; it is Slavery that the people are opposed to. I have no doubt they would like to express their sentiments on every part of the Constitution; but I candidly admit that if there were no Slavery in it, there would not be much contention about it on the othei; side of the Chamber, nor on this. Let not my friends
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=