Ka-nsa-s C,ot\ tested elect lo-n . 
 Speech oF DaTnuel L. vt3>f(ovva.y 
 
 o9 Ch,o. 
 
Glass. 
 Book. 
 
 -Qfj 
 
KANSAS CONTESTED ELEC'ITON. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON S. GALLOWAY, 
 
 OF OHIO, 
 
 m THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 March 17, 1856, 
 
 On the Resolution reported hy the Committee of Elections in th. 
 Contested Election Case from the Territory of Kansas. 
 
 Mr. GALLOWAY said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker : I do not know that I shrill be 
 able to throw any additional light npon the 
 questions which have for some time past been 
 so fully and ably discussed. I rise rather in 
 obedience to the urgent solicitations of many 
 of the constituency which I represent, than in 
 accordance with the dictates of my own judg- 
 ment. And, sir, if I do not succeed in a clear 
 expression of my views, I shall at least have 
 the apology for not speaking well that the 
 schoolboy had for not spelling well in the new 
 school-house — " that I have not got the hang 
 of the House." [Laughter.] 
 
 I desire to be impartial in the consideration 
 of this question ; and it I shall appear to those 
 who dififer from me more as a partisan than a 
 patriot, I only ask from such the same respect- 
 ful consideration which I shall always be ready 
 to reciprocate. I am unconscious of any feel- 
 ing of partiality or of prejudice influencing my 
 judgment in regard to the gentlemen claiming 
 the position of Delegate from Kansas on this 
 floor; the demeanor of each, to my observation, 
 has been correct and commendable. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, ihe country loudly demands a 
 thorough investigation of this subject. With 
 the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Dunn,] I 
 am surprised that those who differ from us are 
 unwilling to have a full investigation, and that 
 they endeavor to preclude inquiry by interpo- 
 sing special, dilatory, and evasive pleas. Every 
 lawyer who has a meritorious case is usually 
 anxious for a full and fair trial ; when, however, 
 he is apprehensive that justice may be too 
 speedily and certainly administered for the 
 comfort of his client, he then earnestly endeav- 
 ors, by special pleas and demurrers, to postpone 
 
 the day of doom. He who is confident that he 
 has espoused the cause of the injured and the 
 innocent courts investigation, and is impatient 
 for a verdict of acquittal; whilst he who suspects 
 the guilt of the culprit seeks relief for the 
 necessities of his friend in peril in the flaws of 
 an indictment, or in some stratagem which in- 
 genuity may devise. 
 
 The past misfortunes and the present perils 
 of the people of Kansas have produced through- 
 out our country an unusual and profound ex- 
 citement — not a mere ripple on the surface, but 
 a groundswell of the national heart. This in- 
 tense feeling, gradually increasing in power, 
 can only be healthfully allayed by energetic 
 remedial action by this House, and by every 
 other branch of the Government whose power 
 can be applied to the wrongs and grievances of 
 the people of the Territory. I trust, then, that 
 what the country demands, what justice re- 
 quires, maybe granted — that we may have a 
 full investigation of the whole matter. I do 
 not care where the sword of avenging justice 
 falls, so that it strikes the guilty. If the rights 
 of the people have been trampled on, I wish to 
 know who they are who have perpetrated the , 
 outrage ; I do not care whether it will be found 
 that they are from Massachusetts or from Mis- 
 sissippi, from the North or froin the South ; my 
 wish is that the rascalities of the malefactors 
 may be exposed fully to the public gaze, and 
 that they may suffer adequate and exemplary 
 punishment. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that the con- 
 stitutional rule, that " each House shall be the 
 judge of the elections, returns, and qualifica- 
 tions of its own members," clothes us with 
 plenary power. I think the discussion has 
 
manifested that that power has been heretofore 
 fully exerted. What is the object of this rule? 
 Is it not to ascertain the genuine and legal ex- 
 pression of popular sentiment ? What are these 
 " returns and qualifications " but instruments 
 of evidence by and through which the will of 
 the people is conveyed to us? If these testimo- 
 nials have been perverted from their appropriate 
 use, it is the duty of this House, with scrutini- 
 zing eye, to follow up the channels until they 
 arrive at the source, and see whether or not the 
 fountain has been poisoned, and corropt streams 
 have thence issued. 
 
 I will not advert to the authorities which 
 have been so abundantly presented. They have 
 already been fully and ably descanted on by 
 other gentlemen. The paramount considera- 
 tion, upon which the majority base their report 
 and resolution to send for persons and papers, 
 ia the invalidity of the law under which the 
 sitting member [Mr. Whitfield] was elected ; 
 that law having been passed by a tumultuous 
 assembly, acquiring position by acts of force 
 and fraud — in palpable violation of right — in 
 opposition to the spirit and letter of the organic 
 act of the Territory — an assembly destitute of 
 
 ■ every element of a proper legislative body. 
 
 To these allegations it is replied, in the first 
 ;place, that Mr. Reeder is estopioed by having, in 
 -his official capacity as Governor, passed on the 
 .returns and qualifications of the members of 
 this Legislative Assembly. To this I reply, 
 >tkat if wrong has been done — if wicked men 
 have banded together for the purpose of pros- 
 tituting the suffrages of the people of Kansas, 
 and of violating the organic act of the Territo- 
 ry — if Governor Reeder has leagued himself 
 with these outlaws, and winked at their enor- 
 mities, then is it not both right and expedient 
 
 ■ that we should use one of the conspirators, 
 'who, unlike his confederates, has been smitten 
 with a sense of the wrong, as State's evidence, 
 for the purpose of subjecting to the power and 
 penalties of the law the skulking perpetrators 
 of wrong? An argument thus founded upon 
 the assumed degradation of Governor Reeder 
 would strongly tend to corroborate the charges 
 preferred against the pretended Legislature of 
 
 ■Kansas. 
 
 . But, again: If Mr. Reeder's present position 
 :and conduct are in disreputable contrast with 
 his acts as Governor of Kansas, and exhibit 
 him (according to the assertions of our oppo- 
 nents) to be faithless and false, then his de- 
 pravity becomes a strong reason for the inquiry 
 proposed by the committee. When Mr. Reeder 
 was appointed Governor, he was alike eminent 
 for his private virtues and professional attain- 
 ments. He was indorsed by the recommend- 
 ation of the Executive of the nation, and sent 
 to the people of the Territory as a man emi- 
 nently capable to discharge the high and re- 
 sponsible duties attaching to the Governorship. 
 Jf the maxim of law, nemo repcnte turpissi- 
 ■mus — (no man suddenly becomes very base,) is 
 
 contradicted by his sudden and strange apos 
 tacy — if Mr. Reeder has become so prostituted 
 by his brief association with the men of Kan- 
 sas, then it is high time that some corrective 
 should be devised. When offensive corruption 
 exists in matter, a disinfectant — as chloride of 
 lime — is used. Why not apply an appropriate 
 remedy in a case of moral defilement? If the 
 Territory is so morally debased, (as the argu- 
 ment against Governor Reeder indicates,) it is 
 our duty to purify that infant colony, and to see 
 that it shall grow up in all those elements of 
 moral grandeur which will qualify it to become 
 a worthy member of this Confederacy. 
 
 The apparent inconsistency of Governor 
 Reeder, in impeaching the integrity of a Le^r- 
 islature, to a majority of whose members he 
 had granted certificates of election, may be ra- 
 tionally explained. He probably only saw the 
 voters at a single election poll, and could not 
 know what transpired elsewhere, except by 
 testimony furnished by contestants. There is no 
 evidence that he shrunk from the discharge of 
 duty in any case in which allegations and proct!-. 
 of illegality w.ere produced. It is not stranc,'p 
 that frauds should have been perpetrated, an! 
 yet the injured fail to communicate their wrones 
 to the Executive. The same power which striuk 
 with terror the hearts of voters would affricht 
 them from exposing the wrongdoers. The 
 same wicked^jingenuity which would perpetrarr- 
 frauds at the ballot-box, could use the arts cl 
 deception and falsehood in the chamber of th. 
 Executive. Admit the inconsistencies and fr 
 rors charged upon Reeder, and )'et it canu' 
 be pretended that a plea of estoppel, whii 
 would conclude him, could bar the claim 
 people who are not even charged with any coi. 
 plicity in his errors. How conveniently here- 
 after can this novel application of the common- 
 law dogma of estoppel (hitherto exclusively con- 
 fined to judicial proceedings) be used to check 
 the obliquities of legislation and legislators ! 
 
 If Governor Reeder is now to be cstoppi 
 from utterances and deeds conflicting with dc 
 larations and official acts of the year 1855, th<_ 
 we demand that the rule shall be applied to r. 
 who have sinned, or may sin, after the simili- 
 tude of his transgression. When and where, 
 in the history of the country, was there an act 
 consecrated more by the high solemnities of 
 law? When and where was a compact more 
 solemenly consummated, than that made by our 
 fathers of 1820? And yet, thirty-four years 
 afterwards, in the year of grace, 1854, " privies 
 in blood, and privies in estate " of one of th 
 parties in that grave transaction, after havit. 
 secured all the advantages '' nominated in tli; 
 bond " for their ancestors and themselves, an- 
 nulled that sacred compact, and thus wrestf il 
 from us the *' privies in blood and privies i 
 estate" of the other party, all the benefits . 
 a contract, for the full and faithful performan;^ 
 of which, your ancestors pledged to our ances- 
 tors their faith and honor. Mr. Speaker, if 
 
ever there was an occasion when the doctrine 
 of estoppel might have been pleaded with per- 
 tinency and power against any man, or any set 
 of men, violating the sacred provisions of a con- 
 tract, that was the hour. And if Governor 
 Reeder is to be estopped, I take it the doctrine 
 of estoppel will place the appropriate stamp 
 upon that tragic act — the " mother of this prog- 
 eny of ills." In the parodied language of the 
 
 poet, 
 
 — You plucked, yo7i ate ; 
 The North felt the wound, and the Union, from her seat, 
 Sighing through all \\&x parts, gave signs of woe. 
 
 "Without any pretensions to the spirit of 
 prophecy, I yet predict that the day will come 
 when many, bitterly recollecting the time of the 
 passage of the Kansas act, will utter the lan- 
 guage of Macbeth in the tragedy — 
 
 "Let that pernicious hour 
 Stand aye accursed in tne calendar! •' 
 
 Many gentlemen, hot with indignation at the 
 alleged errors and perfidy of Reeder, have hurled 
 at him the heaviest bolts of their wrath ; and the 
 distinguished gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. 
 Stephens,] not nowpresent, enrolled him, by the 
 vivid comparison which he drew, in the same 
 catalogue with Aaron Burr. Yes, this man 
 Reeder, dishonored by a speculation in town 
 lots, and by a breach of the proprieties of his 
 high executive office, was removed, and the va- 
 cant seat of magistracy was filled by a gentle- 
 man from Ohio, who imparted special glory to 
 his name and memory by aiding in that niag- 
 nificent speculation of 1854, by which the Ter- 
 ritories of Kansas and Nebraska were taken, 
 not from the Indians, but from Freedom and 
 Northern freemen. What an admirable illustra- 
 tion of the ancient doctrine, " casting out devils 
 by Beelzebub^' the prince of devils." [Laughter.] 
 If Governor Reeder has been guilty of treach- 
 ery, I ask by what epithet shall the conduct of 
 his successor be characterized? I have no 
 personal antipathy to the present Executive of 
 Kansas, and I assail not his private character, 
 . but that act of infidelity to a betrayed constitu- 
 \ ency. Yes, sir, for that act Governor Shannon 
 was buried deep beneath the denunciations and 
 reproaches of an outraged people; and in tbat 
 ■ grave of oblivion would he have lain undisturbed, 
 but for the resurrection voice of the Executive 
 of this Confederacy. 
 
 The President, having repudiated Reeder for 
 his land speculations, looked around for some 
 ! man to fill his place ; and after angling unsuc- 
 cessfully elsewhere, he threw his line and hait 
 into a stream in Ohio, and thence drew up 
 '• Governor Shannon, breathed into him the breath 
 i of life, made him a living thing, and sent him 
 \ into Kansas, to govern the people of that infant 
 \ Territory. I have not now any unkind words 
 I for the gentlemen of the South ; but I must 
 \ apeak boldly of the recreant men of the North. 
 The President of the United States may clothe 
 men who have been false to Freedom with the 
 honors of ofiSee, but these cannot hide from 
 
 vision inglorious acts. Of such it may be said, 
 as was recorded by a prophet of one who in 
 ancient time was faithless to his trust — # 
 
 '■They shall not lament for him, sayinfr. 'Ah. brother I" 
 they shall not lament for him, saying, ' Ah, lord I ' or • Ah, 
 his glory 1 ' he shall he buried with the burial of an assj 
 drawn and cast t'orth beyond the gales of Jerusalem." 
 
 The metaphorical language of that declara- 
 tion does not too strongly express the degrada- 
 tion which insulted freemen aSix to perfidy. 
 Indeed, in these latter days of degeneracy there 
 are some who have not even exhibited the rev- 
 erent spirit of that well-bred animal that Balaam* 
 rode. That ass would not pass the angel of the 
 Lord that stood before him, but "ran this way 
 and that way," and would not go forward ; and 
 when Baalam smote him again and again, he 
 turned up his eye and said : " Am not I thine 
 ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I 
 was thine unto this day ? " The subservient 
 Northern minions of Slavery at first hesitated, 
 when the angel of Freedom stood in the way ; 
 but, spurred and whipped by their imperious 
 riders, they obediently and patiently moved 
 forward, without even uttering the whining cry, 
 " Are not we thine asses ? " [Laughter.] 
 
 I proceed to a consideration of the gravamen 
 of this controversy — to the allegations contained 
 in the majority report of the committee — that 
 the election of March 30, 1855, was effected by 
 invasion; that force and intimidation were prac- 
 ticed ; that the grossest frauds were perpetrated : 
 and that, in consequence of those illegalities, 
 the persons then and thus elected could not 
 constitute a legal and valid Assembly, and that 
 all acta passed by such an Assembly are utterly 
 void. I have no words of justification or apol- 
 ogy for any one who participated in those wrong- 
 ful acts, but am anxious, as all ought to be, 
 that all who were sharers in the fraud, come 
 from whatever section of the Confederacy they 
 may, should be sharers in the condemuation. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, I propose to exhibit some 
 evidence in confirmation of the representations 
 which have been made by the majority of the 
 committee, and tending to exhibit the necessi- 
 ty of an investigation. I will read to you the 
 declarations of the St. Louis Intelligencer as to 
 the alleged invasion of the Kansas polls : 
 
 " Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri follow- 
 ers, overwhelmed the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and 
 bullied them, and t"ok the Government from their handi:. 
 Missouri votes elected the present body of men, who insult 
 public intelligence and popiilar rights, by sty'ing them- 
 selves 'the Legislature of Kansas.' This body of men are 
 helping themselves to fat speculations, by locating ' the 
 seat of Government,' and getting town lots for their voles. 
 They are passing law.^ dist'ranchising all the citizens of 
 Kansas wlio do not believe Negro Slavery to be a Chris- 
 tian institution, and a National blessing. They are pro- 
 posing to punish with imprisonment tie utterance of views 
 inconsistent with their own. And they are trying to per- 
 petuate their preposterous and infernal tyranny by ap- 
 pointing for a term of years creatures of their own, as 
 commissioners in every county, to lay and collect tasei, 
 and see that the lavs s they are passing are faithfully e.\e- 
 cuted. Has th s age anything to compare with these acts 
 in audacity ? " 
 
 I quote, also, an article from the Squatter 
 Sovereign of April 1, 1855 : 
 
4 
 
 •' ISDEPESDEXCE, March 31, 1855. 
 '•Several hundred emigrants from Kansas have just cn- 
 tere^our city. They were preceded by the Westport and 
 Independence brass bands. Tliey came in at the west 
 side of the pubUc square, and proceeded entirely around 
 it— the bands clieeiing us with fine music, and the emi- 
 n-rants with good news. Immediately following the bands 
 were about two hundred horsemen, in regular order; fo'- 
 lowins these, were one hundred fifty wagons, carnages, 
 ic They gave repeated cheers for Kansas and Missouri 
 They report that not an Anti-Slavery man will be in the 
 Legislature of Kansas. We have made a clean sweep.-' 
 
 This was written one day, and published two 
 days after the election, at which were chosen 
 the members of the pretended Legislature of 
 Kansas. This needs no explanation ; it is em- 
 inently significant of 'the character of the elec- 
 tion of March 30. Hear a portion of an edito- 
 rial article of the same paper, published August 
 28, 1855 : 
 
 ^■Katsas, deprived of the aid hitherto received from her 
 Southern allies, would prove an easy prey to these rapacious 
 thieves of the North. If, however, the North flatter them- 
 selves that this can be done, we most humbly beg leave to 
 undeceivp them. We can tell the impertinent scoundrels 
 of the Tribune, that they may exhaust an ocean of ink. 
 iheir Emigrant Aid Societies spend their millions and bil- 
 lions, their Representatives in Congiess spout their heret- 
 ical theories till doomsday, and his Excellency Fraiiklin 
 Pierce appoint Abolitionist after Free-Soiler as our Oov- 
 ernoT—yet we xeill continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch, 
 and hang, every white-livered Abolitionist who dares to pol- 
 lu-te our soil.''' 
 
 The remark — "we will continue" — indicates 
 
 that the interesting process of overawing free- „., -- , , ,, . • ;■<•„ ;_.„^ 
 
 men by the patriotic instrumentalities indica- the committee; and do hey not justify imme- 
 
 --■'-- ^ diate and diligent inquiry ? But we do not 
 
 '■Pro-Slavert Aid Societt of Platte.— We feel hap- 
 py in being able to announce to our readers that the age 
 of folly has passed, and that the day of good hard practi- 
 cal sense is inaugurated in Weston and Plaite county. 
 
 " The Self-Defensive Society has died the death of the 
 ridiculous, and gone to the 'tomb of the Capulets: unwept, 
 unhonored, and unsung. Peace be to its ashes ! 
 
 " At a public meeting held in this place on Saturday. 
 16th instant, a Pro-Slavery Emigrant Aid Society was in- 
 augurated, and a committee appointed to obtain subscri- 
 bers to the stock of the society. 
 
 " General B. M. Hughes, of Buchanan, made a very 
 sensible speech to the meeting, by request. He took the 
 position that Free-Soileis and Abolitionists had a legal 
 right to vote in Kansas, and that the South must beat them 
 at" the polls by numbers. 
 
 " We note this as an evidence that light begins to shine 
 in dark quarters. Such a declaration three months ago 
 would have been rank Abolitioni^ra in the eyes of the 
 Argus. 
 
 " He said that the policy heretofore pursued, of going 
 over to Kansas to vote, worked badly, and must be given 
 up He would never cross over to vole again. He denied 
 that the Emigrant Aid men from Boston, who were seen 
 in Kansas with cotton umbrellas and carpet-sacks, with 
 their hats chalked from and to Boston, were bona fide set- 
 tlers. They were under contract to vote twice, and they 
 complied with the contract, and left for home. 
 
 " We are encouraged the more in this hope, from a re- 
 mark which fell from General Stringfellow, which was, 
 that he did not intend to be quite so prominent hereaUfr 
 as he had bf en heretofore. 
 
 " We have always contended that the wild and blind 
 policy heretofore pursued was doing more harm than 
 good: and we rejoice with the true friends of the cause, 
 that the day of blindness and folly has passed away, and 
 that reason and good sense rules the hour." 
 
 Sir, do not these statements and declarations 
 strongly tend to corroborate the allegations of 
 
 I 
 
 ted had been auspiciously begun 
 
 I read, also, an extract from a speech pur- 
 porting to have been spoken by Mr. Atchison 
 to his friends in Platte county, on the 4th of 
 February. After describing the progress of 
 operations with which he was connected, he 
 says : 
 
 '^Well, what next? Why, an election ft)r m-mbers of 
 the Legislature to organize the Territory must be held. 
 What did I advise you to do then? Why, meet them on 
 their own ground, and beat them at their own game again ; 
 and, cold and inclement as the weather was, I went over 
 with a company of men. My object in going over was 
 not to vote ; I had no right to vote, unless I had disfran- 
 chised myself in INIissouri. I was not within two miles 
 of a voting place. J\Iy object in going was not to vote, 
 but to settle a dilficulty between two of our candidates; 
 and the Abolitionists of. the North said, and published it 
 abroad, that Atchison was there rcilh boivie-knife and revol- 
 ver, and by God Hivas true. I never did go into that Terri- 
 tory— I never intend to go into that Territory, without being 
 ■prepared for all such kind of cattle. Well, we beat them; 
 ' and Governor Reeder gave certificates to a majority of 
 all the members of boih Houses ; and then, after they v* ere 
 organized, as everybody will admit, they were the only 
 eompetent persons to say who were and who were not 
 . members of the same." 
 
 Mr. KEITT. Where did you get that from? 
 
 Mr. GALLOWAY. It comes from the New 
 York Times, giving the full speech of General 
 . Atchison. 
 
 Mr. KEITT. And I wish to say, in this con- 
 nection, that that report has been contradicted. 
 
 Mr. GALLOWAY. I did not know of any 
 authorized contradiction. My knowledge may 
 not be so full as yours, and 1 do not vouch for 
 its authenticity. The Missouri Democrat of 
 March 12, 1856, furnishes evidence a~ little 
 more recent and conclusive on the subject, 
 i taken from the Weston Reporter: 
 
 depend exclusively upon this species of evi- 
 dence. Is not the fact notorious, that in April, 
 1855, the editor of the Luminary, published at 
 Parkville, Missouri, had his press broken and 
 thrown into the river, and was himself driven 
 away by a public meeting — and for what? 
 Not that he was an Abolitionist ; but because 
 he advocated an honest fulfilment of the pro- 
 visions of the Kansas-Nebraska act, aiid used 
 the power of his press to prevent his friends in 
 Missouri from disturbing the peace and' rights 
 of the actual settlers in Kansas. Does not 
 every man who is familiar with the character 
 of the individuals who have gone to Kansas, 
 from various States of this Confederacy, know 
 that the representation is uniform and univer- 
 sal ; that on the 30th March, 1855, there was 
 an invasion of the polls; that the_ ballot- 
 boxes were taken by force ; and that in some 
 districts the number of voters was two and 
 three-fold larger than the number enrolled by 
 the census one month previous? With this 
 evide^nce and notoriety of what transpired at 
 the election in March, we draw the conclusion 
 that the Legislature, elected and organized un- 
 der such circumstances of force and fraud, was 
 debauched and utterly void ; that it was infected 
 with the leprosy of fraud ; that no subsequent 
 act could eradicate its original and inherent 
 depravity ; that its enactments were but the pol- 
 luted streams of a corrupt fountain; and that, 
 by consequence, the law under which Mr. Whit- 
 field pretends to have been elected was utterly 
 void. 
 
6 
 
 Mr. SMITH, of Virginia. Will the gentle- 
 man allow me to ask a question here ? 
 
 Mr. GALLOWAY. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. SMITH. It is just this— and I really 
 desire to be informed — do you know the num- 
 ber of inhabitants returned by the census re- 
 port? 
 
 Mr. GALLOWAY. I would be happy to 
 accommodate you, and will furnish you the 
 document containing the census enumeration. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I present and maintain, as a 
 prominent point, to which I invite the attention 
 of the House, that this Kansas Legislature has, 
 by its legislation, utterly violated the great 
 fundamental principle of the organic act of the 
 Territory; and hence that all its enactments 
 contravening the constitutional law of the Ter- 
 ritory are void. The distinguished Senator, 
 [Mr. Douglas,] who ought to know the spirit 
 and letter of the Kansas-Nebraska act, has, in 
 a recent report, thus characterized that meas- 
 ure: 
 
 "The leading idea and fundamental principle of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska act, as expressed in the law itself, was 
 to leave the actual settlers and bona fide inhabitants of each 
 Territory ' perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
 institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution 
 qfthe United Stales.' " 
 
 These are the words expressing this "leading 
 idea,'" and which may be found in the fifteenth 
 section of the act : 
 
 " It being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to 
 legislate Slavery into any Territory, nor to exclude it 
 therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
 form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
 Tray." 
 
 Now, sir, I respectfully ask that gentleman, 
 and all in this House who concur with him in 
 sentiment, whether that ^'fundamental princi- 
 ple" is not totally subverted by these enact- 
 ments ? — 
 
 "If any person print, write, introduce into, or publish, 
 or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, 
 published, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist 
 in bringing into, printing, publishing, or circulating, with- 
 in this Territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magaziue, 
 handbill, or circular, containing any statements, argu- 
 ments, opinion, sentiment, doctrine, advice, or inuendo, 
 calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebel- 
 lious disaffection among the slaves of this Territory, or to 
 induce such slaves to escape from tlie service of their 
 masters, or to resist their authority, shall be guilty of a fel- 
 ony, and be punished by imprisonment, at hard labor, for 
 a term not less than five years." 
 
 •' If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert- or 
 maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in 
 tliis Territory, or shall introduce into this Territory, print, 
 publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into 
 this Territory, written, printed, published, or circulated, 
 in this Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or 
 circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to 
 hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall be deemed 
 guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard 
 Tabor for a term not less than two years." 
 
 •• No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding 
 slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in 
 this Terriiory, shall fit as a juror on the trial of any pros- 
 ecution for any violation of any of the sections of this act." 
 
 These are but a portion of the infamous laws 
 conferring^/zeetZo/M upon the people to regulate 
 domestic institutions. 
 
 All will admit that matrimony is a domestic 
 institution which ihe people ought to be free to 
 regulate in " their own way." But suppose that 
 
 interesting Territorial Assembly had enacted, 
 that if any person write, print, or circulate any 
 document containing any statement, sentiment, 
 or iunuendo, calculated to produce a dangerous 
 or disorderly disaffection among the wives of 
 that Territory, or should circulate any book, 
 paper, or circular, containing a denial of the 
 right of pjersons to hold wives in that Territory, 
 and that, for the former offence, he should be 
 imprisoned not less than five, and for the latter 
 not less than two years — would not the unani- 
 mous judgment be, that such law-makers ought 
 to be inmates of a lunatic asylum, instead of 
 members of a Legislative Assembly? The peo- 
 ple of that Territory could not build prisons 
 large enough to hold all the felons who would 
 make " statements and innuendoes" causing 
 disorderly, dangerous, and rebellious disaffec- 
 tions among the tvives, and who denied the 
 right of persons to marry ; and it would not be 
 many years until it would be more respectable 
 to be inside than outside of a prison. Unless 
 Slavery is a dearer domestic institution than 
 marriage, I cannot conceive why slaves should 
 be protected with more tenderness and care 
 than wives. Is the liberty of speech and of the 
 press to be thus caricatured by civilized legis- 
 lators ? 
 
 Mr. Speaker, how are they '' perfectly free? '^ 
 If you, or I, to-day, in a:iy company in Kansas, 
 were to express the very common, and, as we 
 think, very reasonable sentiments, that free la- 
 bor was more profitable and vastly more pleas- 
 ant than slave labor, and that the people would 
 be richer, happier, and holier, with the benefits 
 of Freedom than with the blessings of Slavery, 
 we would be liable to arrest ; and pJthough per- 
 fectly free, we might in a short time have the 
 glorious experience of the perfection of our 
 freedom within the walls of a prison — a place 
 not usually regarded as affording the largest 
 liberty. 
 
 Suppose some meek minister of Christianity, 
 not fully having the fear of the law in his 
 heart, should, whilst declaring the whole counsel 
 of God, in a moment of unusual spiritual excite- 
 ment utter such scriptaral sentiments as these — 
 " Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose 
 the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
 burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and 
 that ye break every yoke ?" " Whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even 
 so to them." Might not some '' popular sov- 
 erignty" Democrat, innocently suspecting that 
 such words contained "innuendoes," at least 
 calculated to excite " disorderly and danger- 
 ous disaffections," arrest him, and start him in 
 the straight and narrow way to a place where 
 he would not be &o perfectly free to preach the 
 free Gospel . of " peace on earth and good will 
 to men," if not in his own way, at least in the 
 way prescribed by the pious legislators in 
 Kansas ? 
 
 Sup"pose, on the 4th of July, some patriotic 
 and fervent patriot should read from the DeC' 
 
laration of Independence, " We hold these 
 truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- 
 ated free and equal ; that they are endowed 
 with certain inalienable rights, amonof which 
 are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" 
 might not some descendant of those sires of the 
 Revolution, who first uttered those sentiments, 
 which then and since have been known and felt 
 to produce disorderly and dangerous disaffec- 
 tions, arrest the imprudent orator, and put him 
 in a place where he would be free to meditate 
 on the blessings of liberty ? 
 
 " Perfedli/ free f" So were those victims 
 whom the fabled tobber Procrustes placed upon 
 his iron bed. They enjoyed a, free use of their 
 legs ; but, if they were not adapted to the prin- 
 ciples of his legislation, he stretched them if 
 they were too short, and lopped them off if they 
 were too long, to suit the length of his law in 
 regard to free legs. Tantalus, also, in his fa- 
 bled hell, was j^^'fsctli/ free to eat and drink. 
 To be sure, when he undertook to exercise his 
 liberty of drinking, the water retreated from his 
 lips, but yet he was free to use what he could 
 not get. He was perfectly free to eat of the 
 rich clusters of grapes that hung above him, 
 but, when he attempted to seize them, the wind 
 blew them from his grasp. So with the water of 
 political salvation, and rich clusters o^ihe grapes 
 of Freedom, around and over the People of 
 Kansas. As soon as the thirsty and hungry 
 for Freedom attempt to eat or drink, although 
 perfectly fee to do so, they are seized and im- 
 prisoned for exercising their appetites in their 
 own way. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it is not many years since the 
 thunders of the people were directed against a 
 President and Congress of the United States, 
 for their usurpation and arbitrary stretch of 
 power, in causing to be enacted the memorable 
 " sedition law." Thomas Jefferson, the great 
 apostle of Democracy, and his disciples, have 
 ever denounced it as a despotic violation of the 
 liberty of speech and of the press. Yet, sir, 
 that law, in all its alleged enormities, was not 
 comparable with this sedition law of the Kan- 
 sas Assembly. Under that odious law of 1798, 
 one might offer the truth in evidence in defence: 
 under this infamous law of 1854, enacted and 
 advocated by the same disciples of the same 
 Democracy, this poor privilege is denied; and 
 the "head and front of the offending" consists 
 in uttering the great truths of Liberty. 
 
 Vv^hy, sir, if that matchless orator aad match- 
 less man, Henry Clay, were today alive, and 
 were to stand up. (as he only could stand) on 
 the Territory of Kansas, and utter this senti- 
 ment, which a few years since he uttered in the 
 Senate Hall — 
 
 '■ I repeat that I never can, and never will, vote — and no 
 eartlily power will make me vote— to spread Slavery over 
 territory where it does not exist'" — 
 
 — for such a sentiment, that Prince among the 
 people would be made a prisoner among de- 
 based felons. Were the eccentric and eloquent 
 
 Randolph of Roanoke alive, and were he to ut- 
 ter, in the free Territory of Kansas, these 
 thoughts, once proclaimed on this floor — 
 
 "Sir, I know there are gentlemen, not only from the 
 Northern but from the Southern States, who ihink that thts 
 unhappy question — for such it is— of negro Slavery, which 
 the Constitution has vainly attempted to blink by not using 
 the term, should never be brought into public notice, more 
 especially into that of Congress, and most especially here. 
 Sir, wiih every due respect for the gentlemen who think 
 so, I differ from them lalo ccbIo. ' Sir. it is a thing which 
 cannot be hid. It is not a dry rot, that you can cover 
 with the carpet until the house tumbles about your ears. 
 You might as well try to hide a volcano in full operation.— 
 it cannot be hid — it is a cancer in your face, and must be 
 treated secundum artem'^ — 
 
 — how certain and severe woull be his condem- 
 nation. Why, we Black Republicans could 
 not begin to imitate and utter such thrilling 
 thoughts and burning words, and so eminently 
 calculated to excite disorderly and dangerous 
 disaffections — certainly such fanaticism would 
 send him to the felon's cell. 
 
 Hear the language used by Randolph of Albe- 
 marle, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, m 
 Richmond, Virginia, in 1832 : 
 
 " How can an honorable man, a patriot, and a lover of 
 his country, bear to see this ancient Dominion, rendered 
 illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons 
 in the cause ofLiberty, converted into one grand menagerie 
 where men are to be reared for market, like oxen in the 
 shambles?" 
 
 There would have been no escape for him. 
 The " old apostle of Democracy " must have 
 indoctrinated him with some of his fanatical 
 notions. His language sounds like that uttered 
 by a Black Republican— only it is a little blacker 
 than any of us use. [Laughter.] 
 
 Hear what other fanatics of " the Old Do- 
 minion " uttered on the same occasion. Mr. 
 Rives, of Campbell, said : 
 
 '• On the multiplied and desolating evils of Slavery he 
 was not disposed to say much. The curse and deteriora- 
 ting consequence were within the observation and experi- 
 ence of the members o' ihe House and the people of Vir- 
 ginia, and it did seem to him that there could not be two 
 opinions abo'U it." 
 
 Mr. Powell said : 
 
 " I can scarcely persuade myself that there is a solitary 
 gentleman in this House who will not readily admit that 
 Slavery is an evil, and that its removal, if practicable, is a 
 consummation most devoutly to be wished. 1 have not 
 heard, nor do I expect to hear, a voice raised in this liall 
 to the contrary." 
 
 Mr. Preston said : 
 
 "Sir, Mr. Jefferson, whose hand drew the preambte to 
 the bill of rights, has eloquently remarked that we had in- 
 voked for ourselves the benefit of a prir ciple which ws 
 had denied to others. He saw and felt that slaves, as 
 men, were embraced within this principle." 
 
 Mr. Summers, of Kanawha, said: 
 
 "But, sir, the evils of this system canuot be enumerated. 
 It were unnecessary to attempt it. They glare upon us at 
 every step. When the owner looks to his wasted estate, 
 he knows and leels them." 
 
 Mr. Chandler, of Norfolk, said : 
 
 " It is admitted by all who have addressed this House. 
 that Slavery is a curse, and an increasing one. That it 
 has been destructive to the lives of our citizens, history, 
 with unerring truth, will record. Tliat its future increase 
 will create commotion, cannot be doubted." 
 
 Mr. Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier, said : 
 "Wherefore, then, object to Slavery? Because it is 
 ruinous to the whites, retards improvement, roots out an 
 industrious population, banishes the yeonaiiry, deprives 
 
ihe Fpinner, the weaver, the smith, tlie shoemaker, the 
 carpenter, ofe.i ployment and support,'- &c. 
 
 Mr. James McDowel, jr., of Rockbridge, said: 
 
 ""VVlio, sir, tliat looks at this property as a legislator, 
 arin marks its elVecls upon our national advance, but 
 weeps over it as the worst of patrimonies ? Who t'lat 
 looks to this unhappy bondage of our unhappy people, in 
 the midst of our society, and thinks of its incidents and its 
 issues, but weeps over it as a curse upon him who iutlicts 
 as U;ion hun who suflers?" 
 
 Suppose the Legislature of Virginia should 
 have passed au act similar to that of Kansas ? 
 Is there a noble Virginian — and they cannot 
 be other than noble, descended from such noble 
 iincestors, who uttered such thrilling sentiments 
 of truth — who would not have exerted the ener- 
 gies which God has given him for the purpose 
 of ejecting such apostates from the faith of their 
 fathers from the Old Dominion? Certainly 
 there are none such among the living. Yet, if 
 the sentiments expressed by these men were 
 uttered in Kansas, thay would send their unfor- 
 tunate authors to the cells of criminals. Ah, 
 Mr. Speaker, can it be that any man is so stulti- 
 fied as to presume, for one moment, that such 
 infamous legislation is in accordance with the 
 fundamental principle, the "/eadt/j(7 idea,'' of the 
 Kansas-Nebraska act — that men are to be, not 
 free only, but perfectly free, to regulate their 
 domestic institutions in their own way? 
 
 I will not consume the time of the House 
 with further quotations Irom the sayings of the 
 distinguished dead and honored living. Every- 
 body knows that the language I have read is such 
 as was used by the noble men of our Republic 
 in every section of our Confederacy twenty 
 years ago ; yet, in Kansas, this day, all those 
 men, tor the utterance of such sentiments, 
 would be branded with infamy 1 And, can it 
 be that the National Legislature will tolerate 
 men who thus tarnish the fair fame of their 
 fathers, and violate the spirit and letter of our 
 charter of rights ? Will the North submit to it ? 
 Never. With the poet, we can fervently say : 
 
 '^ Is this the land our fathers loved ? 
 
 The freedom which they fought to win? 
 Is this the soil they trod ujion ? 
 
 Are these the graves they slumber in? 
 Are w-e tlie sons by whom are borne 
 
 The mantles which the dead have worn ? 
 And shall we crouch above their graves 
 
 With craven soul and tet'.ered Ifp, 
 Yoked ill with marked a'-.d branded slnves. 
 
 And tremble at the masters wliip ? 
 No 1 by their enlarging souls, which burst 
 
 The bands and feUers round them set ; 
 By the free pilgrim-spirit nursed 
 
 Within our utmost bosoms — yet 
 By all above, around, lielxw. 
 
 Be oitrs the indignant answer — No ! " 
 
 Never will this free American people, who 
 have drawn their life-blood and the essence of 
 their glorious institutions from the noblest men 
 God ever made — never can they submit to such 
 tyranny in this nineteenth century. Mr. Speak- 
 er, if this organic act of the Territory was vio- 
 lated by the Territorial Legislature — if that 
 Assembly was debauched by invasion and fraud, 
 perpetrated on the day of the election, or by 
 subsequent illegal acts — what is the reme- 
 dy ? The remedy is obvious. 
 
 What has been the uniform practice of our 
 Government in regard to the Territories? In 
 every other Territorial act prior to the Kansas- 
 Nebraska act, there was contained the provision 
 that the laws of the Territory should be submit- 
 ted to Congress, and if disapproved, be declared 
 null and void. That asserted power embraced 
 the remedy. If that salutary provision was un- 
 intentionally or designedly omitted in the Kan- 
 sas act, does that omission diminish the power 
 of Congress, or change the settled practice and 
 law of the country? W^l any one contend that 
 Congress had no power of tliis kind until each 
 Territorial organic law was enacted ; and that 
 the power was new-born with the birth of each 
 act ? No man can stultify him.self by adopting 
 such au absurdity. The remedial power yet 
 remains where the framers of the Constitution 
 placed it — it is in Congress — it exists, to a cer- 
 tain extent, in this House. 
 
 We cannot, by our separate action, reach the 
 root of this wide-spreading tree of wrong and 
 iniquity in Kansas; but we can lop off a branch 
 of that same tree, protruding into this House in 
 the person of General "iV hilfield. If we cannot 
 strike the axe at the root of the tree, we can 
 withhold the nutritive sap, without which its 
 vigor will decline, and thus at least partially 
 teach the wrong-doers in Kansas that the '• way 
 of the transgressor is hard," and that justice, 
 although it may linger, will jet have free course, 
 and be glorified in the triumph of law and 
 
 I ORDER. 
 
documents Published by the Z&epublican Association of 
 Washington. 
 
 State of Affairs in Kansas, Speech by Hon. Henry 
 
 Wilson, in the United States Senate. 16 pages. 
 
 The Wrongs of Kansas. Speech by Hon. John P. 
 
 Hale, in the United States Senate. 16 pages. 
 
 Official Proceedings of the Republican Convention at 
 
 Pittsburgh. Containing the Address, Declaration of Principles, Letter 
 of C. M. Clay, the Platform presented by Francis P. Blair, Esq. 24 
 pages. 
 
 The Dangers of Extending Slavery, and The Contest 
 
 and the Crisis. Speeches by Hon. William H. Seward, at Republican 
 Meetings in Albany and Buffalo. In one pamphlet. 16 pages. 
 
 Oration at Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1855. By Honorable 
 
 William H. Seward. 16 pages. 
 
 Letter of Francis P. Blair, Esq., to the Republican 
 
 Association of Washington, D. C. 8 pages. 
 
 The Slave Oligarchy and its Usurpations — Outrages 
 
 in Kansas — The Different Political Parties — Position of the Repub- 
 lican Party. A Speech by Hon. Charles Sumner, delivered in Faueuil 
 Hall, Boston. 16 pages. 
 
 Reasons for Joining the Republican Party. A Letter 
 
 by Samuel A. Foot, late Judge of the Court of Appeals of New York, 
 and now a member of the New York Assembly. 8 pages. 
 
 A Document for the People — containing the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and the names of the Signers ; the Constitution 
 of the United States, and the Amendments; the Fugitive Slave Law 
 ©f 1850 ; the Democratic, Whig, and Lidependent Democratic Plat- 
 forms ©f 1852; Hon. Charles Sumner's Speech, " Freedom National, 
 Slavery Sectional." Forty-eight pages. |4 per 100 copies. 
 
 The Poor Whites of the South. By Geo. M. Weston. 
 
 8 pages. 
 
 The One Path : or, the Duties of the North and South. 
 
 A Discourse delivered in the Unitarian Church, Washington, D. C. 
 By. M. D. Conway, Minister of the Church. 8 pages. 
 
 Spiritual Liberty. A Discourse by M. D. Conway. 
 
 8 pages. 
 
 IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. 
 The Address and Declaration of Principles of the 
 
 late Republican Convention at Pittsburgh. 16 pages. 
 
 Letter of Francis P. Blair, Esq., to the Republican 
 
 Association of Washington, D. C. 8 pages. 
 
 The Dangers of Extending Slavery. 16 pages. 
 The Contest and the Crisis. 16 pages. 
 
 By publishin? large editions of each document, we are enabled to issue 
 them at the following cheap rates : Documents of 8 pages, 62 cents, and 
 IG pages at $1.25 per 100 copies ; or, enveloped singly, and sent free of 
 postage, at $1 and !;»2 per 100 copies. 
 
 Address: L. CLEPHANE, 
 
 Secretary Rep. Ass., Washmgion. D, C. 
 
 bUi'.LL ^c BLA^'CHAKD, Printer.-, Washington, D. C. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 136 035 8 
 
 
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