12 the warning in the Farewell Address of the Father of his Country. I may be permitted, in this connection, to allude to this true and real cause of all these difficulties; for, but for this cause, I venture to say, such a case as that now presented before this House would not have received one hour’s consideration. The true cause, then, lies in no real grievance in Kansas, but in the aims, objects, and purposes of this party. They are against allowing the people of the Territories of the United States to exercise the right of self-government, as provided in the Kansas bill. The elections in Kansas did not go to suit that party. They call themselves Republicans, and their republicanism amounts to about this: they acknowledge the right of the people to govern themselves, provided they do it according to their notions. They make loud professions, and utter “ shrieks” for the “ freedom of the Africans” amongst us, while they will not grant the freedom of making their own laws to their own countrymen, of their own race and blood, unless it is exercised in conformity to their will. These men were opposed originally to the Kansas-Nebraska act, because it granted the right to the free white men there to assign the negro to that status, in their political systems, which they, in their wisdom and patriotism, might determine to be best for both them and him. They wish to govern Kansas, not according to the wishes of the people there, but as they please. Sir, I profess to be a republican of the old school, of the school of Madison and Jefferson and Washington. It was upon the principles of that school 1 was in favor of the Kansas bill, and am still; and I am in favor of adhering to it and carrying it out in good faith, both in letter and spirit. I justify no wrongs that may have arisen under it, if any have, coming from any quarter whatever; and I am compelled to believe, from all the testimony taken in this case, that whatever wrongs may have been committed by any portion of the people of Missouri, they were retaliatory in their character. The first wrong was committed by those whose sole object was to defeat the peaceful and quiet operation of the principles of that bill. Whatever ills may have befallen these intermeddlers, have been clearly of their own seeking; and we seldom see a man going out of his way to get into a difficulty who makes much by it. I am, however, sir, for applying all proper remedies for existing difficulties, and for quieting all disturbances which have arisen in Kansas, in any proper and legitimate way. This I have shown by my advocacy of the Senate’s bill, which still sleeps upon your table, arid which you. will not touch: that is a fair and a just mode of pacification. If pacification is what you want, that is one way in -which it can be accomplished. It cannot be done by ignoring their laws, and voting their Delegate out of a seat on this floor. It cannot be done by making the President supreme dictator over them. It cannot be done by withholding appropriations and stopping the wheels of the General Government,’and throwing us all into anarchy, unless the will of a majority of this House, upon the subject of African slavery, shall be the law in that Territory. It cannot be done by sixteen States of this Union setting themselves up to govern not only Kansas, but the other fifteen separate and independent coequal States in this Confederacy. It can only be done by leaving this question, in some form or another, just where the Kansas bill put it. This is the only ultimate, peaceful solution of the whole matter, and it will be so found in the end. The people of Kansas, I take it, are capable of governing themselves, just as wisely, peacefully, patriotically, and as safely, without dictation from, or control by you, as they were in the States from which they migrated. They lost none of their intelligence, virtue, patriotism, or sovereignty, I trust, by a change of residence. They can judge better of .the character of their laws than you can. If they do not suit the wishes of a majority of the people there, they doubtless will be changed in due time and in a proper way. The day for a new election, if the Senate bill is not to pass, is near at hand. In October a new Legislature is to be elected. Why should the people there be encouraged to acts of revolution, or this House be induced to take steps leading to revolution here, when the constitutional and peaceful remedy of the ballot-box is so near at hand7? Why cannot all these questions be left to the people of Kansas to settle at their next election ? If the Free-Soil party are in the majority, as you say it is, why shrink from that test? I question if any State in the Union has got a better election law—one more rigidly guarding the free exercise of the elective franchise—than the people of Kansas have, which is that very law you are now about to be called upon to declare invalid and void. Amongst! other provisions, it contains the following','which I called the attention of the Hoyse to once before on tlii^ floor: “ Sec. 24. If any person, by menaces, threats, and force, or by any other unlawful means, either directly or indirectly, attempt to influence any qualified voter in giving his vote, or to deter him from giving the same, or disturb or. hinder him in the free exercise of his right of suffrage, at any election held under the laws of this Territory, the person so offending shall, on conviction thereof, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by fine not ex ceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in th* county jail not exceeding one year. “Sec. 25. Every person who shall,at the same election, vote more than once, either at the same or a different place, shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or by imprisonmentin the county jail not exceeding three months. “ Sec. 26. Every person not being a,qualified voter according to the organic law and the laws of this Territory, who shall vote at any election within this Territory, knowing that he is not entitled to vote, shall be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars. “ Sec. 27. Any person who designedly gives a printed or written ticket to any qualified voter of this Territory, con taining the written or printed names of persons for whom said voter does not design to vote, for the purpose of caua-
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