6 is this fraud, this iniquity, this‘crime against nature and against God? It is the simple declaration of the principle that the people of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska—the pioneer freemen there—our own brothers in flesh and blood—going there from every State of the Union, for the purpose of settling that distant frontier— there to build up new homes for themselves and their posterity—should have the right, without limitation or restriction from any quarter, save the Constitution of the United States, to form and mold just such institutions for their own government as they pleased—a right which lies at the foundation of all our State governments, and upon which the whole Republic, in its several parts, is built and established. This is the fraud, this is the iniquity, this is the great crime of crimes, .the security to the people of the Territories of the right of self-government under the Constitution. The amount of the crime is, that freemen shall be permitted to make such constitutions, republican in form, for their own government, without dictation or control from any other power, as they please. Tell it wherever you go, that this was the monstrous outrage committed by an American Congress in 1850, the middle of' the nineteenth century, on the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, and repeated by the same body in 1854, on the Territories of Nebraska and “ bleeding Kansas!” This is the whole of it— nothing more and nothing less. These troubles we now hear of—these efforts to getup civil war— these shouts at the announcement that civil war has already commenced—are but part and parcel of that spirit which animated a portion, and only a portion, of the opposition to the Kansas bill, during the pendency of that measure in this House. That same spirit at the North that had so bitterly opposed the establishment of tHis great principle of territorial policy in 1850 could not bear the idea of its being carried out in the future. I recollect very well, sir, that while the Kansas bill was progressing here, a newspaper in the city, of New York, edited by a man of great ability, untiring energy and industry, and who is now the head and front—the animating spirit of the present opposition, and civil war champion’s undertook to lecture this House as to our duty in regard to that bill. We were told then by him what an enormous Wrong it would be; and when the measure was about to pass an editorial in that paper reached here, from which I wish to present some extracts, to show that it is the same spirit ■now at work: “ We urge, therefore, unbending determination on the part of the northern members hostile to this intolerable outrage, and demand of them, in behalf of peace—in behalf of freedom—in behalf of justice and humanity—resistance to the last. Better that confusion should ensue—better that discord should reign in the national councils—better that Congress should break up in wild disorder—nay, better that the Capitol itself should blaze by the torch of the incendiary, or fall and bury all its inmates beneath its crumbling ruins, than that this perfidy and wrong should be finally accomplished.” This is the language of the New York Tribune in reference to the Kansas bill a few days before | it passed. Yes, sir, even then that editor declared 1' that it was better that this Capitol should be burnt and comforts, but for tlie accumulation of riches and wealth. Never did labor, in all its branches, receive more readily than i t now does fair and justly compensating wages. Our internal and foreign trade was never in a more flourishing condition. What are the troubles, then, of which the gentleman speaks ? Why, sir, if one could cast his eye over this wide Republic at this time, and see the thrift.and prosperity in every d epartmant of industry, arising from our benign institutions, he would almost be compelled to exclaim, that all the troubles of which we hear grow out of nothing but that exuberance of liberty and multitude of blessings which seem to be driving us on to licentiousness. This we see in the mobs at Cifitinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, in this city, and in San Francisco. The laws have been set aside; force has been resorted to; arms have been used; and men have been slain. But the absorbing theme now is the “ civil war,” as it called, in Kansas. This is the announcement made in a neighboring city, the commercial metropQlis of this Union, the other night, according to a report of their proceedings which I find in a newspaper, to a large crowd of people there assembled. I see it was proclaimed that civil war was raging in Kansas; and that that assembly gave shouts of applause at the announcement! These are the troubles I suppose of which the gentleman speaks — troubles produced not by this Kansas bill, but by tire mischievous designs and reckless purposes of those who, in their efforts to defeat the quiet and peaceful operation of the sound purposes of that bill, have for some time been engaged in their unholy work of attempting to get up civil war in the country, and can now shOut in applause at even the most distant prospect of success. This, sir, is the work of that class of restless malcontents, who have for years been endeavoring to produce a sectional conflict in this country; who have no.regard for the constitutional equality of the States of this Union; who repudiate the most sacred obligations of that compact which binds us together, arid who have proclaimed that Constitution itself is a league with death and a covenant with hell! How far they shall be permitted to go on with their work until checked by a sound reactive public sentiment—how far they shall get sympathy and cooperation from those whom they are now attempting to mislead —how far they may be successful in their long cherished wish for civil strife, I cannot say. That is a problem for the future to settle; that, depends upon the virtue, intelligence, and integrity of the people. But that they’ought not to succeed—that they ought not only to be discouraged, butrebuked and condemned in every part of this country, and by every man who has a spark of patriotism in his bosom, as well in tire North as in the South, I this day maintain. But the gentleman from 'Ohio says all this comes from the Kansas bill. How ? In what way ? What is there wrong in that Kansas measure ? Ithas been said thatitis a fraud. It has been said that itis the greatestof iniquities. It has been said that it is a crime against God. It has been said that it is a crime against nature. Well, sir, what
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