Plain Truths for the People

16 Mr. President, is it not an open, downright insult, offered to the American Senate, to send this fugitive from justice, armed with this tremendous power of turning a constitutional majority one way or the other, just as he sees fit? Will the liberty-loving people of the United States • 1 .. ; of authority and dictatio ' ’ n C. Calhoun ? A. ; -..^“C.” Mr. <> glad he does so, for the honor of his predecessor. Who is he? We know nothing about him- The only history of him we have, is, that he has been indignantly driven out by that people, as a violator of their laws, as a man so inlamous that they would not suffer him to live there at all, and he has fled to the place where everything that is anti re publican and tyrannical seems to fly—he has sought a city of refuge here, where everything too vile live at home seems to find a place. Her ’ OU . as to who shall govern she Ter”’ « y of Kan sas. [“ The State.”] Well: the State of Kansas, whence gets to be a State. I know the President calls it a State now, and did it a great while ago. Was ever any.hing done like it on this continent before ? When before was a man armed with authority to take the votes of the people cf a State, bury them up in a candlebox, if you please, or carry th?in in his pocket, not letting anyoody be witness - f what he has got, and there hold them in ’ s face of the whole p.opie just as long as p;eases, and, if he pi <«e3, eo fohever ? S , it you give sanction to frauds Hue this, I -careen institutions are on their hst legs, am they ought to be. John Calhoun, sitting iu some public house in this city, with the destinies of a great State in his pocket, and he refusing to exhibit the truth to the Sena;e of the U ited States, to to the President of the United States, to the House cf Representatives, or to anybody in terested to know anything i-Gcr*; it! D;cta- tor John Calhoun is to say who shall rule Kansas. A gentleman here said the other day, “Cotton is King.” He was m -akeu. Sir, it is John Calhoun who is King. • But I do not wish to pursue ..his subject any further. I am sick of it. The honorable Se« v - S Jr [Mr f. « kui] ^id he had seen enough k suits. ? b m that- these frauds were sickening and shameful, and he did not want to investigate them. It is sickening; it is loathing to the American mind to contemplate these nefarious frauds that Sre flouted in our faces; and we have no means to redress them. Sir, we should scout them from us with indignation; and I hope, for the honor of the American name, that all these proceedings, so fraught with most palpable and undeniable fraud, will receive the iitern denunciation of this body. THE CONCLUSION. Many gentlemen who are attempting to justify the admission of this Territory into the Union under ihe Lecompton Constitution, I say that other States have been admitted without an enabling act. Sir, all that is said on this subject I will not say is mere sophistry ; but it ought to deceive nobody. Perhaps more than half the new States have come into the Union without any enabling act. I do not think 1? t such act is at all essential. H ere are a p Ie all homogeneous, all having the same i u to: s, having no matter of contention between them; they could get together, and, without any dissent, frame a Constitution, and ask us to admit them under it. The evidence must be such, always has been such, in every instance, that there has been no reason to doubt that the Constitution had the approbation of the whole people, or of a vast majority. Why do you require a popular vote on that point ? Because, when there i& dispute, it is the only means of ascertaining where the major ty is; but if there is no dis1 . rT. -Pence in a other way, and it is just as legitimate. What has that to do as a precedent with a case where civil war even is raging in regard to the Constitution that is presented; where strife, contention, and arms, are invoked to settie the controversy ? You are likening that to a peaceful gathering of homogeneous people, all agreed to fix their institutions in their own way. Sir, there is no parallel. One throw? no light on the other. The people of Kansas, in three days, can settle this matter, if you will let them. Y. u are convulsing the whole nation by the ; attempt to force a Constitution on the unwilling necks of a people, which they abhor and detest. Withdraw your force, withdraw your coercion, say to that people, aseemble your selves together peacefully, and de ermine what Constitution you choose to li^e under;” and my word for it, sir, the hour you do so, peace and tranquillity will reign throughout be whole of Kansas. Every man knows it. Tira content on is kept up for no other reason than to hang on the necks of that people this pet institution of Slavery. In one hour you can make peace- Adont the other course, and God only known to what it will read. I do not know what may be the "esuit now; but it has never yet been .yr y force, or 0, fan ,, y ■”! • coerce ny set c American people to submit to a Government they abhorred and detested. If they do it now, it wifl only mark the degeneracy of this age and cf this people, and show that we are verging towards Slavery and Despotism. In my judgment, it is as necessary for us to rebuke and overthrow the frauds to which I have alluded, as anything else we possibly can do. If there is anything more dangerous to this Union than another, it is the immunity that is given to fraud, allowing your ballot-box to be invaded. Why, sir, the hour your ballot-box is undermined to that degree that the American people shall not have confidence in it, from that very hour you render free government impossible.

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