F^^^ 
 ,/^^ 
 
" "^ SPEECH 
 
 . M48 
 Copy 1 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. JAMES MEACEAM, OF VERMONT, 
 
 ON 
 
 KANSAS AFFAIRS 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 30, 1 3 o G. 
 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 
 1856. 
 

 f-> 
 
J 
 
 KANSAS APrAIRS. 
 
 The House being in the Committee of tiie 
 Whole on the ctate of the UnioK — 
 
 Mr. MEACHAM said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: In rising to address ike com- 
 mittee at this time I cannot fail to be reminded 
 that you* and I have been here together before; 
 nor can I fail to recall the scenes through which 
 w^e passed six years siBce. Then, as now, there 
 was an agitation in regard to the Territories of 
 this Union; and I believe there was a great deal 
 more animosity on the subject than there is even 
 now. The Territories were different, but the 
 same principles lay at the bottom of the agitation 
 then and now. Time has passed on, and dealt 
 far more kindly with you than with me; and 
 upon your healthy and joyous countenance there 
 are far fewer marks of the plow-share, and far 
 fewer furrows upon your brow than upon mine. 
 I cannot but be reminded that there are now only 
 about fifteen men here who were together then. I 
 have said, sir, that the principles which we were 
 agitating at that time — although in relation to dif- 
 ferent Territories — were the same as those we are 
 agitating now. And you will recognize the fact 
 that probably never, in the history of the world, 
 has there been agitation in relation to territories 
 so rich, so large, so fertile, and in their anticipated 
 destinies so prosperous, as those then and now 
 under consideration. 
 
 We often, in reading a book, find out on a re- 
 perusal a good many things of importance wliich 
 we had passed over in the first reading. It was 
 so in reading the last presidential message. There 
 
 ^Hi. Cobb, of Georgia, in the chair. 
 
 are eighteen columns of the Congressional Globe 
 occupied in it. The President has discussed in 
 ten columns our condition as to war and peace, 
 th« Army, and the Navy, and the revenue, and 
 the tariff, and the pviblic lands, and then he haa 
 gone abroad and discussed our foreign relations. 
 And after he had gone over the whole American 
 continent, and gone abroad over the rest of tiie 
 world, he comes home and devotes eight columns 
 out of eighteen in reference to the controversy 
 between the North and South. Eight mortal col- 
 umns of the Congressional Globe are devoted to 
 the agitation of slavery; and throughout the whole 
 he lays the entire blame upon the North, and ex- 
 cuses in eV'Cry respect, and in every possible way, 
 the South! 
 
 Now remember by whom that is done. It is 
 done by a President whose nomination was made 
 at Baltimore, where the party was pledged that 
 the man coming into power should not agitate 
 the subject of slavery, and should not promote 
 sectional agitation. The President himself came 
 out in a speech, and promised the same thing. He 
 came out afterwards in his inaugural, and repeated 
 the pledge over and over again. It was repeated 
 again through the votes which l^e got in this 
 House. After all that, there stands the eight col- 
 umns of agitation. And I venture to say — and 
 I say candidly and honestly — that, of all the 
 abolition documents that ever I read, 1 never 
 read eight columns better calculated to promote 
 sectional agitation than these eight columns of 
 the President's message. No such thing can be 
 found in any other official document of the United 
 States. 
 
One of the points which the President makes 
 is the aggression inflicted on the South by the 
 North. I will read an extract from the message: 
 
 " It is impossible lo present this subject as trntli and the 
 occasion reqiiirf, without noticing tlipri'iterated but ground- 
 loss allegation, that the South has persistently asserted 
 claims and obtained advantages in the practical adminis- 
 tration of the General Government, to the prejudice of the 
 North, and in which the latter has acquiesced. That is, 
 the States, which either promote or tolerate attacks on the 
 riglits of pirsonsand of property in other States, to disguise 
 their own injustice, pretend or imagine, and constantly 
 aver, that they, \vhosc constitutional rights are thus sys- 
 tematically assailed, are themselves the aggressors. At the 
 present time, this imputed aggression, resting, as it docs, 
 only in the vague, declamatory charges of political agitators, 
 resolves itself into misapprehension, or misinterpretation, 
 of the principles and facts of tlie political organization of 
 the new Territories of the United States." 
 
 [Mr. Meacham then proceeded to exhibit a 
 colored map of Texas, to show what portion of 
 the Territory was given to freedom, and what to 
 slavery.] 
 
 Wiiere i.s now (said he) the territory which was 
 then declared free ? It has been given over to New 
 Mexico and Kansas, with the permission to fill it 
 •with slavery if they please. There [indicating it 
 on the map] is the southern boundary of Kansas, 
 and that has gone into Kansas Avith the permis- 
 sion to fill that with slaves. The only portion of 
 free territory which remains of all that we were 
 to have is just that little red patch. It is a degree 
 and a half of longitude in length, and half a degree 
 oflatitude in width. That is what remains. There 
 is the promise made to us, and there is the man- 
 ner in which it is kept. That little patch of ter- 
 ritory is all we have to show that the free States 
 were ever recognized in the distribution. There 
 was once, as you will remember from reading 
 Prescott, a territory in the mountains of Mexico. 
 It was a republic; and while the hosts of Spain 
 were pouring over all the rest of Mexico, that 
 little republic maintained its independence for fifty 
 years, and so perfectly determined were ihey to 
 maintain their independence, that they were fifty 
 years without ever tasting salt, because they could 
 not get down to the ocean. I trust the time will 
 come when in these settled Territories there will 
 be a body of •epublicans who will have the same 
 spirit and determination to maintain their free- 
 cm, come what will. I have shown you, then, 
 what has become of 'that portion of territory. 
 There [indicating it] is what the slave States 
 have got, and there is what the free States have 
 got. 
 
 The President has made the establishment of 
 the Missouri compromise line one of the great 
 aggressions of the North against the South. That 
 
 line has been broken up — we think, unjustly 
 broken up. It was made by our fathers and rati- 
 fied by their children. But there was something 
 promised in the place of that line. What was it ? 
 It was that the people in Kansas should liave the 
 right to govern themselves. And the great strug- 
 gle is, at the present hour, not whether we will 
 restore the Missouri compromise, but whether 
 they will keep the promise made, when that com- 
 promise was abrogated, to the ear, and break it 
 to the hope.' 
 
 A year before the Nebraska and Kansas bill 
 was jDassed , another bill was passed by this House 
 for the organization of this Territory, and I be- 
 lieve it gave joy throughout the whole land, 
 contained no provision in it for the abrogation of 
 any compromise. It stood before us as free ter- 
 ritory, and emigrants said, "We will go to that 
 Territory, the inheritance of our fathers, and we 
 will keep it free. We will go there fearless of 
 any encroachment upon the part of slavery; we 
 will go there and enjoy a free State. " But another 
 year came, and another bill came along with it. 
 That bill promised that every man who went 
 there should go there upon an equality with every 
 other man, so far as political rights were con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Now, sir, all the new territories settled by the 
 Old World were settled in masses; men did not 
 go out singly from their homes. It was so in the 
 settlements made in this country. Such was the 
 fact in the settlement of Virginia, of South Caro- 
 lina, of Connecticut, of Massachusetts. 
 
 But, sir, we hear a great deal of complaint in 
 these days about emigration aid societies. Now, 
 suppose that here is a company of men coming 
 from London to Plymouth. Suppose a hundred 
 men were to come, and you see a man rushing to 
 the king, breathless, exclaiming, " Why, men 
 are emigrating here in masses !" " Well, what 
 of it.'" "Why, they have no right to come here 
 in masses. Let every man row his own boat. 
 Let them coime singly, and I will not object, but 
 here they come in whole ship-loads." 
 
 Well, sir, there was an emigrant aid society 
 for the encouragement of the Plymouth colony. 
 Every man who came to Plymouth Rock mort- 
 gaged his services for ten years, in order that he 
 naight have his expenses paid, and an allowance 
 for his support after he arrived. 
 
 And the same thing might be said in respect to 
 the emigration from Greece lo Asia Minor, Italy, 
 and Sicily. Those who emigrated were generally 
 persons composing a minority who, having been 
 defeated in their political struggles, did* not care 
 
to be taunted with it, and hence they preferred 
 going to a foreign country. But they were in a 
 different situation in some respects. They went 
 out without law — independent of kiw — with the 
 right to make their own laws. But there was 
 another thing in regard to these emigrant aid 
 societies; those whostayed athome were bound to 
 pay the expenses of those who went abroad. This 
 was just as much a settled law in that community 
 as any other law that ever existed there. 
 
 There was another emigration which, in one 
 respect, and only one, bears a resemblance to those 
 who are now going West. There M-as a body of 
 rnen who went out from a certain country for the 
 purpose of going to the land of freedom. That 
 was their professed mission. Well, sir, they 
 obtained permission to go; and on a certain night, 
 by the help of emigrant aid societies, they started. 
 On that night there were three millions of people 
 started out from Egypt. There were among them 
 six hundred thousand men capable of bearing 
 arms. But Pliaroah said that was too much. 
 These men were emigrating in too large masses, 
 and he started out after them — not to control 
 them at the ballot-box, but to hinder them from 
 going. But he did not hinder them. They started 
 out for the promised land, not one fifth part of the 
 distance to Kansas, but they did not go directly 
 there. In the course of two years, however, they 
 came to a river, which only separated them from 
 the promised land. They were not, however, fit 
 to enter, and they turned back into the wilder- 
 ness; and, after thirty-eight years, these six 
 hundred thousand men, capable of bearing arms, 
 again arrived at the promised land; they crossed 
 the river, and freedom was theirs. They were 
 then trained men — every man trained to his place. 
 
 There is a body of men — not going out of 
 Egypt — but from the northei-n country to the 
 West. They are not going there armed. They 
 are in practice unacquainted with arms; but they 
 will have their training if it be necessary. They 
 will break the depths of the forest gloom as they 
 tramp their way through the wilderness, and the 
 wilderness will shake beneath their tread, because 
 it will be the tread of a host of freemen. But 
 tliere will be no goii>g back. 
 
 Well, we are told that northern men have 
 always backed out, and that they will back out 
 on this occasion. No, sir; we have got where we 
 cannot back out. Why taunt the men who hold 
 for the right of the admission of Kansas into the 
 Union as men lacking courage and high patriotic 
 Bpirit? They are descendants of good men always 
 eai-nest in the cause of freedom. Heman Allen, 
 
 as one of the Representatives of Vermont, showed 
 himself a strong assailant of slavery at the time 
 of the admission of Arkansas, and it was thought 
 fit to sneer at him as buried " way off up in the 
 mountains." Go and stand by the grave of 
 Heman Allen. There will be presented one of 
 the finest scenes ever presented to the eye of man. 
 Could you lengthen your vision, and clip the top 
 of the mountain forests, you might see Arnold on 
 his perilous way to Quebec. You may see him 
 wounded. You may see where Wolfe fell, and 
 where Montgomery died. You may track that 
 army when pestilence hung over it, and death was 
 dripping from her wings. You will see Burgoyne 
 starting his career on the lake, and making his 
 way down to Saratoga. Then you will see him 
 returning, and the splendid presents for the In- 
 dians, brought by him, disposed of in a manner, 
 andfor a purpose far different from that for which 
 they were intended, just as the marble brought 
 into Greece to rear a monument at Marathon. ■ 
 That monument went up on the same spot, but 
 it went up to show the victory of the Greeks and 
 the vanquishment of the Persians. From that 
 spot you may see the battle of Bennington. You 
 may see that fleet going down Lake George in 
 the French war, with its music, and its banners 
 flying. You may see the battle of Plattsburg. 
 You may see the spot where Scott won his glory. 
 There is the place where sleeps the freeman 
 Allen. 
 
 There is another thing on wl)ich I wish ^o 
 speak. I refer to the emigrant aid societies. 
 The largest emigrant aid society ever knowi* is 
 the Government of the United States. It began its 
 career to stimulate immigration more than fifty 
 yearsago. How.' In protecting squatters, making 
 preemption laws, homestead bills, and giving do- 
 nations of the public lands to actual settlers. Just 
 to make the point clear, let me refer to what has 
 been done in reference to the Territory of Oregon. 
 In 1852 we passed a law giving to every actual 
 settler in that Territory, if single, three hundred 
 and twenty, or, if married, six hundred and forty 
 acres. It was to continue for two years; but 
 when that time had expired, it was extended two 
 years more. It expired in December last by 
 its own limitation. Look at it. Six hundred 
 and forty acres to every man who would go to 
 Oregon ! Two hundred tJiousand acres were 
 pledged as a gift to actual settlers, if they would 
 go there. President Pierce takes the executive 
 chair. I suppose he knows what has been done; 
 yet, notwithstanding this, when a little emigrant 
 aid society is seen in Massachusetts, the Pres- 
 
ident, and all in authority, are in the utmost con- 
 sternation. They are raising signals of distress, 
 and sending proclamations all over the land. 
 What for? What is the mutter? They want to 
 stop emigration from Massachusetts to the West 
 — an emigration which has been stimulated for 
 the past half century by acts of Congress. Look 
 at the consistency of conduct there is here. But 
 they do not care a rush for these aid societies. 
 A bird feigns to be wounded, and lures the hunter 
 far from the spot where she was first seen. She 
 goes limping, fluttering, and screaming, to attract 
 attention. Why does she do so? She wants to 
 prevent her nest and its eggs from being touched. 
 That is just the case here. They do not care a 
 fig about these emigrant aid societies. It is only 
 a blind. 
 
 • I do not intend to occupy my full time now, 
 for I hope, if anything is brought back in the 
 nature of evidence by the commission we have 
 sent to that Territory, I may be able to take part 
 in the discussion then. Indeed, until that mas- 
 terly report of the minority in the Senate, I could 
 hardly see a single fact upon which you could 
 rest with any degree of reliance whatever. But, 
 I ask you, how were northern emigrants treated ? 
 On the 30th of May, 1854, we passed that lawfor 
 the organization of Nebraska and Kansas. Just 
 twenty-nine days after that, the men of Missouri 
 formed an association to drive out from that Ter- 
 ritory, to hurl out of it by force, every man who 
 came into it by the assistance of northern emi- 
 grant aid societies. The plan must have been laid, 
 and the knowledge in regard to that law must 
 have been conveyed to that Territory, before the 
 law was passed. Now, that was the welcome 
 which awaited freemen when they went into that 
 Territory? I know it is said that "If you do not 
 like it, stay at home; we will just make that Ter- 
 ritory so hot that you cannot stay there: we will 
 go and occupy it ourselves, and make it a slave 
 Territory." But how were they treated? Did they 
 receive at the hands of those who had gone there 
 from the State of Missouri anything like hospi- 
 tality, anything like courtesy, anything like jus- 
 tice, when they went to that strange land? Instead 
 of that, when the first election came off they 
 were driven from the ballot-boxes by force, and 
 those who usur^Dcd their places had things their 
 ow^n way. 
 
 Now, I maintain that the Kansas people are to 
 blame in some measure. Thuy were altogether 
 too modest. Tliey had a way, up in Vermont, 
 of dealing with intruders from abroad, which is 
 worthy of imitation in spirit, if not in form. 
 
 New York claimed a portion of that State as her 
 own, nearly to the mountains. They sent there 
 officers to execute the process of that Slate. The 
 Vermonters told them they could not have such 
 matters going on in their State, and that they 
 must stop. They did not do it. They caught 
 one of the officers and tied him to a tree, and laid 
 upon him what they called a " beech seal," which 
 grows in the woods in the shape of what boys 
 call switches. They gave him a tliorough dress- 
 ing; told him to go home, and if he came there 
 again, he would never leave the State alive; and 
 I never heard of the man 's coming back to get the 
 beech seal renewed. 
 
 The Kansas people ought to have taken some 
 measures to show that they were in earnest, and 
 that they were not to be trampled in the dust, 
 even if they had to use lead and steel. And I 
 say to them now, peace man as I am, that, be- 
 fore I would surrender and be driven from the 
 Territory, I would use lead and steel, and every 
 other metal which God has placed in the earth. 
 
 I know there are doubts expressed whether 
 there were votes cast by Missourians in the elec- 
 tion. But Noah might just as well have doubted 
 whether there had been a deluge when he got up 
 on the top of Movmt Ararat. [Laughter.] Just 
 look at the returns. As I said before, I am not 
 going into this matter at length, because we ex- 
 pect information soon upon which we can rely 
 confidently. But here is one district which has 
 got two hundred and forty-seven voters, and four 
 hundred and eighty-six votes; another which has 
 four hundred and eighty-.<5ix voters, and one thou- 
 sand two hundred and six votes; another which 
 has twenty-four voters, and three hundred and 
 thirty -one votes. More than five thousand votes 
 w^re cast by Missourians in that election, while 
 they were driving all the freemen of Kansas from 
 their places — compelling them to leave, and for- 
 bidding them upon peril of their lives to return. 
 
 There are two Legislatures, and they have sent 
 on here two Delegates. We have not decided 
 between them; perhaps we never shall. It is our 
 business most certainly to do it. Those who 
 have resisted it the strongest, have said we have 
 the right to do it. If we h?H'e the right to make 
 the decision, we have the right, at the same time, 
 to make the examination which precedes the de- 
 cision; and we are not to be estopped, and blocked 
 up, and driven out of the way, because there has 
 been a Legislature which has acted wrong. 
 
 I know the same party says we may rely upon 
 the court. They trust the court; so do I. I have 
 always trusted the court, and believe I always 
 
shall. I remember a scene which gave peculiar 
 strength to that feeling of confidence in the court. 
 You remember when the Congressional Library 
 was burned, and apparently all the men of the 
 city were gathered here to put out the fire. There 
 was a score of engines upon the track to the 
 reservoir, and perhaps a thousand men in the 
 rotunda and its avenues. I saw I could do noth- 
 ing there; and as an eminent counsel, then a Sen- 
 ator from Vermont, was about to make an argu- 
 ment in the Supreme Court, 1 went to that place, 
 and there were the court, just as calm as ever I saw 
 them in my life. You could hear the clank, clank, 
 of a score of engines, and the tramp, tramp, tramp, 
 of a thousand men, echoing through tlie room, but 
 there they sat, attending to their business, per- 
 fectly unmoved. I looked upon that body of men, 
 and admired them for their comjjosure in their 
 situation. But I thought of another thing. There 
 might come the lime when there would be not only 
 the agitation of fire and water, but there may be 
 political agitation. The political elements may be 
 heaving up and showing their power, and then 
 that body of men will sit in their places and do their 
 duty as calmly as they are doing it now. I will 
 trust to that court. 
 
 But I will not put into the hands of this court 
 what does not belong to it; and with that Kansas 
 election case the court has nothing whatever to do. 
 We are to decide it for ourselves, and should do 
 so at once frankly and fearlessly. It must be ad- 
 mitted that those who attempt to eject the settlers 
 from Kansas have some very efficient helps. 
 
 I will read another extract from the President's 
 message : 
 
 " In the Territory of Kansas there have been acts preju- 
 dicial to good order, but as yet none have occurred under 
 circumstances to justify the interposition of tlie Federal 
 Executive. That could only be in case of obstruction to< 
 Federal law, or of organized resistance to territorial law, 
 assuming the character of insurrection ; which, if it should 
 occur, it would be my duty promptly to overcome and sup- 
 press. 1 cherish the hope, however, that the occurrence 
 of any such untoward event will be prevented by the sound 
 sense of the people of the Territory, who, by its organic 
 law, possessing the right to determine their own domestic 
 institutions, are entitled, while deporting themselves peace- 
 fully, to the free exercise of that right, and must be pro- 
 tscted in the enjoyment of it, without interference on the 
 part of the citizens of any of the States. " 
 
 " But long afterwards, when, by the proposed accession 
 of the Republic of Texas, the United States were to take 
 their next step in territorial greatness, a similar contingency 
 occurred, and became the occasion for systematized at- 
 tempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of one section 
 of the Union, in defiance of their rights as States and of the 
 stipulations of the Constitution. These attempts assumed 
 a practical direction, in the shape of persevering endeavors, 
 by some of the Representatives in both Houses of Congress, 
 to deprive the southern States of the supposed benefit of the 
 
 provisions of the act! authorizing the organization of the 
 State of Missouri. 
 
 '• It has been matter of painful regret to see States, con- 
 spicuous for their services in founding this Republic, and 
 equally sharing its advantages, disregard their constitutional 
 obligations to it. Although conscious of their inability to 
 Ileal admitted and palpable social evils of their own, and 
 which arc comiiletely within their jurisdiction, they cnga"e 
 in the offensive and hopeless undertaking of reforming the 
 domestic institutions of other States wholly beyond their 
 control and authority. Jnthe vain pursuit of ends, by them 
 entirely unattainable, and which they may not legally at- 
 tempt to compass, they peril the very existence of the Con- 
 stitution, and all the countless benefits wiljieh it has con- 
 ferred. While the people o( the southern States confine 
 their attention to theirovvn affairs, not presuniingofficiously 
 10 intermeddle with the social institutions of the northern 
 States, too many of the inhabitants of the latter are perma- 
 nently organized in associations to intlict injury on the 
 former, by wrongful acts, which would be cause of war as 
 between foreign Powers, and only fail to be such in our 
 system, because perpetrated under cover of the Union." 
 
 When I first read that, sir, I thought it would 
 turn out an impartial statement of what was 
 necessary to be done if there had been an intru- 
 sion into that Territory by the freemen as against 
 the JVIissourians, or by the Missourians as against 
 the freemen. But there is a single expression 
 which removes any doubt, and rescues from any 
 interpretation which charity might wish to cast 
 over it; and that is, the words " domestic institu- 
 tions." 
 
 There is another helper of the Missourians. 
 Vice President Atchison leaves his high and dig- 
 nified place to take part in the low, unmanly bor- 
 der scuffles, goading on the men of his State to 
 deeds of violence and misrule. The country looks 
 on that man as degraded and debauched in his 
 principles when he voluntarily swears his pres- 
 ence at the Kansas elections, with pi.stol and sti- 
 letto, like a political marauder. 
 
 Now, there is another thing which may be 
 mentioned, to show the manner in which this 
 Legislature was elected, and which removes the 
 least shadow of doubt as to its illegality; and 
 that is, that it proceeded immediately to legislate 
 against freemen, by passing its gag law, its alien- 
 sedition law, or whatever else you may call it, to 
 muzzle the mouth of every man against uttering 
 a sentiment in relation to slavery, by making it a 
 penal offense, punishable with five years' impris- 
 onment. Now, I do not know how many men 
 may subject themselves to that penalty; but I 
 can tell you one thing — and I rest my honor and 
 name upon it — that if you put a freeman into a 
 bastile in Kansas, he will not be there a week 
 before there will not be even a key of it left to 
 send to Washington. There will not be left one 
 stone upon another that will not be thrown down. 
 
 Well, that is not the end of it. Another man 
 
8 
 
 says — and the course, I believe, is intended, if 
 they can carry out and put their plans in exe- 
 cution — that he would not put the offenders in 
 prison, but would hang them until they are dead, 
 dead, dead. It was once said that Foote was a 
 hangman and he had that reputation. It was un- 
 derstood when a certain gentleman came from a 
 certain quarter of the country and went to New 
 York, and made a speech there, that he (Foote) 
 was in danger of his laurels; and it was shown 
 that he was. It now seems that he is surpassed 
 by his subalterns. Now, what is the meaning 
 of this? Why, that it is put forward here from 
 the Senate of the United States, that that is to be 
 the law paramount — that Lynch-lawis to go into 
 operation — that men who would make assertions 
 against slavery would be hung on the spot till they 
 arc dead, dead, dead. 
 
 I have shown in what manner these men have 
 been treated, and are now treated. But what is 
 to bo done ? My proposition in respect to this 
 Territory, and to make peace in it, is to admit it 
 at once ifito the Union as a State. I am willing 
 to allow it to do so. And my reason is very plain 
 — and I will be frank about it. It is because it 
 will be made a free State. But there is one thing 
 to be considered ; those who do not wish it to turn 
 out in that way have made a promise to Con- 
 gress — have made it to their constituents and 
 their States and to the country and to the world. 
 What is that promise? The promise is this: 
 that whenever the people of the Territory shall 
 form a republican government they shall be ad- 
 mitted into the Union, either with or without 
 slaveiy, as they shall themselves choose. Now 
 the people of Kansas have formed a government. 
 They have done so of their own choice. They 
 have complied in every respect with the requisi- 
 tion made. 
 
 Now I say that those men who laid down that 
 platform — who established those doctrines — are 
 bound to come forward, and recognize, and act 
 upon them. I know very well that it will be said 
 the Territory has not sufficient population to be 
 admitted as a State; but it has a larger population 
 than many of the States which have been admit- 
 ted into the Union. I have been favored very 
 kindly by the chairman of the Committee on 
 Territories with a list of those States which have 
 been admitted with the smallest amount of pop- 
 
 016 088 Sell"' 
 
 ulation. It is belie'' 
 forty-five to fifty tnouoi^ 
 
 read the statement: 
 
 While 
 Admitted. population. 
 
 Tennessee.. June 1, 1T96, had by census of 1790, 32,013 
 
 Indiana Dec. 11, 1616, had by census of 1810, 23,890 
 
 LouiMana... April 8, 1812, had by census of 1810, 34,311 
 Mississippi. .Dec. 10, 1817, had by census of 1820, 42,176 
 Arkansas.. ..June 15, 1836, had by census of 1830, 25,671 
 
 Florida Mar. 3,1345, had by census of 1840, 27,943 
 
 Michigan. ...Jan. 26, 18.37, had by census of 1830, 31,346 
 
 It will be seen by this statement that a large 
 number of States, with a population far less than 
 Kansas now has, were admitted; so that this 
 cannot properly be urged as an objection, and I 
 do not know of any other that can be brought 
 forward. The people of Kansas have certainly 
 proceeded regularly, so far as I know; and I pro- 
 pose, therefore, to offer in the House the follow- 
 ing resolution: 
 
 Resolved, That the Committee ox the Ter- 
 ritories BE instructed TO BRING IN A BILL FOR 
 THE IMMEDIATE ADMISSION OF KaNSAS AS A StATE, 
 WITH THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION THAT SHE 
 HAS PRESENTED TO THIS HoUSE. 
 
 If the present controversy goes on, it will grow 
 more bitter every day it lasts. I believe that, for 
 the peace of that State, of the neighboring States, 
 and of the country, Kansas should be made a 
 State. Let themhave a State government of their 
 own (ihoice. Let them settle down to it, and there 
 will be peace. We ought to have peace; we can 
 have peace; we must have peace. It will be a 
 shame to us to resort to physical violence need- 
 lessly. But let one party — either party — let the 
 Missourians, or anybody, go and settle down 
 there, and fortify themselves with the threat to 
 hurl out every man that comes there from a free 
 ^tate, and the freemen of the country will not 
 rest. They will besiege the citadel and scale its 
 battlements, no matter how stout may be the fort- 
 ress, for freedom has a voice of thunder, and free- 
 dom will be heard — not with a still small voice, 
 but will be heard in the controversy in the place 
 where Gog and Magog go out to battle. Depend 
 upon it, if it must come — it may not come soon — 
 but if it must come, the voice of freemen will be 
 heard and will be heeded; the snorting of their 
 horses will be heard from Dan; and the whole land 
 will tremble with the neighing of their strong 
 ones. 
 
J 
 
 I 
 LiB 
 
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