«? "J^. '^.^ ; '^ 0^ 'oK " ^^'\ ■ ^■^ "^^ kV -^^ ■ ^ .r ^^ "^. ^^-^^^ ' A ,0 -^" . .0^ 0' ^\ "^-^ - . . > . V. "oK 'Ao^ ^°-^^. ^ r^^ ^^ o_ KANSAS AFFAIRS. SPEECH t/ / HON. HENKY WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS, r DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY 9, ia5G. WASHINGTON: PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 1856. ^■5 G w " n ■ , , ^-.J ¥■ KANSAS AFFAIRS. The Sciiate baying under consideration the report in favor of printing twenty thousand extra copies of the bill to enable the people of the Territory of Kansas to form a constitution, and against the motion to print the same number of the amendments offered to the bill, and the yeas and nays upon them — Mr. WILSON said: Mr. President: I shall vote most cheerfully to gratify Senators on the other side of the Chamber, in circulating before the country this electioneer- ing document. I am willing to vote for printing one hundred thousand copies of this bill, for Sen- ators on the other side of the Chamber to scatter over the country; and if those Senators ask it at my hands they shall have it. They have put it, however, on the ground that it is necessary to explain their position; in other words, that it is aji electioneering document, to be used before the people during the coming presidential election. Yes, sir, 1 shall vote to send your bill broad- cast over the land. It will not deceive the people. They know the condition of affairs in Kansas. They have watched your action — they are read- ing the report of the committee of the House of Representatives — they believe that, if this bill is passed, it will crown the violent efforts made in that Territory, and bring Kansas into the Union as a slaveholding State. If Senators on the other side think they can make anything out of the circulation of this bill, all I have to say to them is, I will aid them with all my heart, for lliey need all the aid they themselves, or their friends, or their enemies, can give them, to place them before the country, on this Kansas question, in a position that shall secure to them, not the con- fidence of the people, for that is gone forever, but the charity of an outraged public sentiment. Mr. President, is it the intention of honor- able Senators to take the vote to-day? [" Yes."] Then, sir, it is my intention to throw myself upon the indulgence of the Senate, even at this late hour; for I cannot permit the question to pass from the Senate without replying to some of the remarks which have fallen from you, sir, [Mr. BiGLER, in the chair,] from the Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Douglas,] and from the Sen- ator from Georgia, [Mr. Toombs,] who has just taken his seat. The intentions, objects, and pur- poses of this darling scheme to close the contest in Kansas by crowning the conquests of the lawless conquerors of that Territory, have been promptly laid open to the gaze of the public eye. Stung to the quick by this prompt exposure of this gi- gantic fraud upon the country, you, sir, and the Senators from Illinois and Georgia, have indulged in a line of remark towards the minority here, who have baffled your designs by exposing your objects, that I do not choose to let pass unnoticed. I regret that you, sir, at this moment occupy the chair, as I had intended to speak with some degree of plainness of the wanton charge made by you against me, of misrepresenting the pro- visions of your bill. There is not the shadow of truth upon which to base the charge you have made. When and how have I misrepresented the bill .'' What provision of the bill have I mis- represented.' Point it out, sir; name it, sir. You cannot do it. None of your associates can do it, and you and they know that we have not misrepresented a single provision of your pet scheme. Here andnow,! defy you to point me to a single provision of your bill that I have in any way whatever misrepresented or misstated. At no time, on no occasion, have I ever misrepre- sented your measure, in any respect whatever; and the debates will fully sustain this declaration. The terms of the bill are plain and clear, and will be comprehended readily by the Senate and the country. There it is, plain to the comprehen- sion of any intelligent man in or out of the Senate. What I have said, and what I believe religiously, ia, that the adoption of this bill by this Congress will close the question, and make Kansas a slave State of this Union; that it will consummate the lawless violence, commencing on the 30th of March, 1855, and now raging almost unchecked in that Territory. The provisions of your measure we have not misrepresented ; the present condition of Kansas we have not misstated. The intentions of the authors of this darlingscheme of pacification are to be ascertained by an examination of the terms of the measure, and the circumstances and condi- tion of the Territory. If, in the present condition of the Territory, the passage of the measure will make Kansas a slaveholding State, you who support the scheme will be held, in the Senate and before the country, responsible for its legiti- mate results. Sir, the Senators from Pennsylva- nia and Illinois may vehemently deny the charge; you may pronounce it unfounded, as you have done; but the people will hold your intentions to be to accomplish what your measure is calculated to accomplish — the conversion of Kansas into a slaveholding Commonwealth. You of the ma- jority here may protest, you may deny, you may denounce, but the practical judgment of the coun- try pronouncestheintentionsof the authors of the bill to be to make Kansas a slaveholding State. The honorable Senator from Illinois, who has led in the Senate, and stands before the country as the recognized leader in the movement tor the repeal of the Missouri prohibition, and for the organization of the Territory, has been pleased to charge upon us of the minority, and upon our speeches here, the scenes of lawless violence which have transpired in the Territory. Sir, he has no right to draw even an inference from any word that ever dropped from my lips, here or elsewhere, to justify a charge so entirely groundless. I have never heard any Senator on this floor utter a sin- gle sentiment calculated to excite violence in that Territory by the free-State men. What have the free-State men to gain by lawclss violence ? Nothing. Peace, law, and order, are necessary to proleet them in the exercise of their rights — to protect them in the free enjoyment of those opin- ions which we believe are to make Kansas a free State. The charge has no foundation: no man here believes it; no man in the country believes it; it is based on no act of ours, in or out of the Senate; and the Senator from Illinois knows the charge to be as groundless as it is unjust. From the time that the honorable Senator introduced the proposition to repeal the Missouri conijiro- mise,on the 7th of January, 1854, to this period, I have paid some little attention to the affairs of Kansas, and I profess to know something of them. In spite of the declarations made to-day, and in spite of the language used early in the debate by the honorable gentleman from Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] in regard to " mendacious tales" on this floor concerning Kansas, I have never uttered a word here on the subject that any Senator dared to contradict. I will take that word back — they have contradicted it; but no Senator ever conde- scended to disprove what I have said, and none ever will. Sir, what I have uttered in regard to affairs in Kansas T knew to be true and accurate. I have friends in Kansas; there are intelligent and truth- ful men there with whom I am in communication; I know something of their history and their strug- gles; and although the country is appalled at the mass of evidence presented by the House com- mittee, I say the report of that committee doe^ not begin to come up to the actual truth. There is a record of lawless violence; there is a record of outrages vipon property, liberty, and life; but there is no record of the agonies which the peo- ple have endured by day and by night. Peace- able men who never held a weapon in their hands in all their lives; Christian men v/ho carry their Bibles and thi'ir prayer-books instead of knivea and revolvers wherever they go, have been hunted down. They have suffered agonies untold. The record of their agonies will never be read by mortal eye; the world will never fully comprehend the atrocities committed in that Territory, or the sufferings endured by that people. That day which shall reveal all things may reveal the un- told miseries of that people, but the world will never know how much of suffering has been en- dured in that ill-fated Territory. I will read an extract from a letter, recently received from a friend in that Territory, a man of peaceful life, of high intellectual and moral culture. He writes: "The wliole truth has not been, and never can be told. Even your congressional committee's report, astounding as it may be, will not lift the vail from very many scenes of \ bloodshed, violence, plunder, and oppression. You get the main features, and many of the details, enough to damn any people on the face of the earth ; and were such outrages committed on American citizens by a band of cannibals in the Pacific ocean, or Indians on the Rocky Mountains, a force sufficient to annihilate them would be started within twenty-four hours. It is true, you realize that we are deprived of our rights, subject to cruel and oppressive laws, our citizens occasionally robbed and mur- dered; but of the thousand petty .annoyances, and more serious agjresfions on our persons and property, of which we have been victims during this reign of terror, you prob- ably have no idea. All business has been paralyzed, so that many men, who depend on their daily earnings to sup- port their families, are destitute, and actually sufTer from want of suitable food. Many are driven about and hunted down like wild beasts. Our men are kept from their farm work, and prevented from raising a crop this year, our enemies sweari}ig we shall raise nothing to live on. Bands of ruffians have been prowling about in every direction, and no single man's life or projjerty was safe, night or day. When I go from home, or send a team and any of the boys, I have felt it was an even chance, whether we ever returned; and at niglit I get my cattle around my house, my rifle at hand, I lie down feeling that I may be aroused by the assassin, or robber, before morning. It is this con- stant feeling of insecurity that is the essence of our griev- ances. Almost daily men are stopped, robbed of their money, loading, and teams, sometimes murdered, and some- times a rope piit around their necks and choked, or drawn up to the limb of a tree, and otherwise abused, and thea sufTered to escape from the Territory." The Senator from Illinois to -day has had another fling at the emigrant aid society. That society came here some time ago with a memorial, stating facts vvhicii have never been disproved; and yet, honorable Senators rise and assail this society, and urge its existence and its acts as an apology, for the outrages which have occurred in Kansas. Sir, no man ever went to Kansas by the aid of that society, that has committed an unlawful act in that Territory which you have ever proved. Here, to-day, before the Senate and the country, I ask you to find — I defy you to find — a man who ever entered the Territory under the auspices of the emigrant aid society, that has committed an act of murder, robbery, plunder, or any unlawful act. Notwithstanding what the Senator from Georgia states of them, I say here that the emi- grants from the East, settled at Lawrence, settled at Ossawatamie, and at other points in that Ter- ritory, in point of intelligence and personal char- acter will bear a comparison not unfavorable with the population of any section of this Union. They are a law-abiding and law-loving — aliberty-loving and order- loving people — men who call no man master, and wish to call no man a slave. in the interests of the Administration and its master — the slave power. The appeals and pro- tests of the wronged and outraged people of Kansas were unheeded by your Administration; you had no ear to listen to the story of their wrongs; you had no voice to rebuke their op- pressors; you had no arm to protect them, or to redress their great wrongs. Sir, when that damning deed of "the 30th olf March, 1855, was j performed — when that people were overborne, \ robbed of their rights — where were the Senators from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Connec- 1 tJcut, and Ohio? You were silent — dumb. Where j was your President and his constitutional advis- j ers? The President was silent — dumb! Where j slept the thunders of the Democracy? The De- j niocracy, obedient to the nod of the slave power, | put its hand upon its lip, and laid its forehead low in the dust, at the feet of that power that had sent four thousand nine hundred armed ruffians to the conquest of Kansas. This great crime against popular rights — this entire abrogation of the doctrine of " squatter sovereignty," found no voice of condemnation among the retainers of the Administration in the ranks of the Democracy. Apologists were found ready to excuse the crime, defend the crim- inals, and slander and rebuke an outraged people. The slave power, with unabashed brow, has con- tinued to deny the fact of the armed invasion of the 30th of March, 1855, but that voice of denial frows faint before the damning record brought ack from that Territory by the committee of the House. The Legislature border ruffianism had imposed upon conquered Kansas, with revolvers, bowie- knives, and cannon, came together at the appointed time and place. Without even the formalities of an examination , the members holding the Govern- or's certificates, were hustled out, and the per- sons to whom the Governor had refused certifi- 1 cates were hurried into their places, and the work of border ruffianism was secured in all its completeness. This Assembly, imposed on Kan- sas by the lawless conquest of Missouri invaders, having perfected its organization, imposed upon the free people of the conquered Territory the laws of their conquerors — the laws of Missouri. Your Governor, sent out by the Administration, undertook to arrest the career of this Legislature imposed upon his people by armed hordes of border bandits, but he received no aid at the hands of the Administration. At the critical moment, when his arm was raised to shield the people committed to his protection, he was smit- ten down, to the groat relief of the Legislature, and to the gratification of the exultant slave power. Your acting Governor, Woodson, has- tened to give his sanction to the Draconian code, formed for the government of the people of Kan- sas by these instruments of the slave power, un- der the direction of Atchison and Stringfellow. The invasion, conquest, and subjugation of Kan- sas was complete. Laws were imposed upon the people that robbed them of their rights, and degraded them into a condition of abject humili- ation. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were cloven down. Trial by jury was made a mockery. Test oaths, against which reason and humanity revolt, were imposed upon men who were to be left "perfectly free" to settle their own domestic affairs. The people of Kan- sas were bound hand and foot — reduced to the pitiable condition of conquered menials of the slave power. In this gloomy hour, did your Administration interpose to arrest the conquerors? Did Dem- ocratic Senators raise their protesting voices against these crowning acts of lawless power? Did Democratic presses utter the language of pub- lic indignation and rebuke? Did your official menials in the Territory endeavor to moderate the action of the instruments of Missouri invaders ? No, sir, no! Your Democratic Executive was dumb, passive, motionless ; your Democratic statesmen uttered no protest against the impend- ing wrongs; your Democratic presses uttered no words of rebuke; and your Government officials went over to the camp of the conquerors, struck hands with Atchison, Stringfellow, Jones, and the other chiefs of border ruffianism. Invaded by armed hosts, overborne by over- whelming numbers, conquered, but not disheart- ened, the freemen of Kansas, conscious of their rights and their powers, appealed from the legisla- tion of their conquerors to the judgment of the peo- ple of the Territory. Loyal to the Constitution — to the Union — to the Federal Government — plant- ing themselves upon the organic law of the Terri- tory, they resolved to cast aside the inhuman, un- christian, and devilish enactments of their Mis- souri conquerors, to take the sense of the people upon the organization of a State government for the security of their property, their liberty, and their lives. The slave power scented treason in the resolution of the people; it denounced the popu- lar movement. The Administration, which had no. voice to rebuke the deeds of lawless invasion — no arm to arrest the oppressive acts of usurped power, recovered its lost voice. Democratic pol- iticians and Democratic presses blurted their words of condemnation into the unwilling ear of the people, whose sympathies were with the struggling freemen of the Territory. Men, who had no words of rebuke for the lawless hordes that trampled down the rights of the people of Kansas, had bitter reproaches to heap upon the devoted heads of a people who were endeavoring to recover their lost rights and powers. Yes, sir, we have witnessed on this floor, in the other House, and in the executive chair, the " little ill- timed scruples— zeal for adhering to ordinary forms," to use the language of James Madison — of " those who wished to indulge, under these masks, their secret enmity to the substance con- tended for." The " substance contended for" by the people of Kansas was the establishment of a government by the people for the people. They followed the examples set them by the people of other Territories— examples which had received^ the sanction of Congress and of the people— of the chiefs and leaders of the Democracy. The slave power, conscious of its weakness in the Territory, demanded the execution of its laws, and the defeat of the popular movements for a State government, and the demands of that power have been complied with by the Administration and its supporters in and out of Congress. In spite, however, of the threats of the slave pow^r- in spite of your rebukes— your Adminis- tration denunciation of " treason," the people of Kansas assembled— appointed a day for the dec- 8 tion of delegates to a constitutional convention — elected their delegates — framed a constitution, adopted it in the face of threatened violence, and that constitution you have rejected, although it received the sanction of llie representatives of the people. Sir, for framing this constitution — this free constitution — for organizing under it a State Government and choosing Senators to urge its adoption here, tlie ]ieople of Kansas have been denounced as " traitors" by the Senator from Illinois and those who follow his lead in and out of the Senate. This Chamber has rung with your words of rebuke, denunciation, and reproof of the people of Kansas, whose only crime is devfttion to freedom — resistance to the monstrous tyranny of usurped power. 1 charge upon the Adminis- tration the crime of abandoning the people of Kansas to the merciless rule of their conquerors — ay, sir, I go further, and 1 charge upon the Ad- ministration and upon its supporters here the crime of aiding and abetting tiieir conquerors in their unhallowed deeds. Mr. President, the Administration and its supporters — the Senators from Illinois, Pennsyl- vania, and Georgia — snatched Kansas from the exclusive possession of the free laboring men of the Republic — North and South — and flung it open to the foot-prints of the slave and his master; you deluded the people with the idea of popu- lar sovereignty; you have seen that sovereignty cloven down by invading hordes of armed men; you have seen the people robbed of their rights and oppressed; you have seen them struggle to I'ecover their lost rights, and in all their wrongs and struggles you have basely abandoned them — ay, you have joined their oppressors and aided them in the enforcement of their usurped powers and unhallowed decrees. Sir, I hold the Adminis- tration — I hold the majority here — I hold the Democratic party up to the stern verdict of the civilized world for this abandonment of the peo- ])le of Kansas — tliis collusion with their oppress- ors. The people of Kansas, Mr. President, have not only been defrauded of their legal and political rights — oppressed by laws imposed upon them by foreign force — and denied all redress, but they liave been invaded, hunted down by armed bands of thieving marauders, their dwellings burned, their property stolen, and many of their number treated with personal violence, and some of them brutally murdered. Dwellings have been bat- tered with cannon, houses have been fired, presses destroyed, oxen, horses, and other property, sto- len, and men foully murdered, and the Adminis- tration and its officials in the Territory have no time to spare from the infamous work of subdu- ing the friends of free Kansas to the ari'est and punishment of the men who have illumined the midnight skies with the lurid light of sacked and burning dwellings of the people — men who have inaugurated the era of robbery, violence, and murder. In the closing days of November, just before the meeting of the present Congress, Dow was .shot do wn in the highway — murdered in cold blood by Coleman, without cause, and without warning. Was Coleman promptly arrested for this cold- blooded murder by yonr official authorities ? Did Governor Shannon exert himself to bring to jus- tice the murderer.' Coleman was not brought to trial. Branson, in whose familyDoXv lived, under the excitement of the moment, dropped some rash' and hasty expressions. Branson was arrested — Coleman, the cold-blooded murderer, was allowed togo with impunity wherever he chose. The party that took Branson from his home — from his bed — was met several miles from Lawrence by sev- eral of his friends and neighbors, and invited to leave his new acquaintances, and join his old friends, and he accepted the invitation. Then it was that your Governor Shannon — a man utterly 1 unfit, as you all know, to be the Governor of that Teri'itory — for he could not govern so small a spe- cimen of humanity as himself — issued his hasty proclamation — called out the militia, and tele- graphed your President for authority to call out Colonel Sumner's dragoons. Then it was that fifteen hundred men from western Missouri in- vaded the Territory, marched to the banks of the Wakarusa, with threats to wipe out Lawrence, and drive the free-State men out of the Territory — then it was that the people of Lawrence were compelled to expend fi20,000 to put themselves in a condition to protect their homes, their families, and their lives. Then it was that they appealed to Colonel Sumner for protection; but they made the appeal in vain. Colonel Sumner waited day after day with his horses saddled, ready to move to the protection of beleaguered Lawrence the moment he received his orders from the President; but orders to protect the people of Lawrence never came. Shannon, becoining alarmed at the storm he had raised, made a treaty with the people of Lawrence, and then sent to their homes in Mis- souri, Atchison and his retainers. While these armed bands were encircling Lawrence, Barber, a man respected and beloved, was cowardly mur- dered — murdered, it is believed, by Clark, your Indian agent — a man said to be the meanest offi- cial character in the Territory; but that is saying a great deal — for Shannon and Lecompte are there yet. Has the Administration removed this reputed murderer .' Has the Administration caused any investigation into these charges against one of your officials.' Have Senators who have the ear of power requested the President to remove this man, who is said to have boasted that he " sdw the fur fly" when the ball from his revolver hit poor Barber in the back, as he rode along the highway.' From this reputed murderer the President has received official dis- patches, which he has laid before the Senate as evidence againpt the free-State men. Dow and Barber sleep beneath the virgin sod of Kansas. Coleman and Clark, their reputed murderers, go unpunished; one guides border ruffianism in its forays; the other sends dispatches to your Presi- dent, retains the confidence of this Administra- tion, and his office — which he doubtless prizes quite as highly as he does the continued confi- dence of the Administration. The dastardly and cowardly assassins of the heroic Brown, though known, have never been brought to trial. This gallant son of the West — who had periled his life to rescue the clerk of the election at Leavenworth, on the 15th of December, for the adoption of the Topeka constitution, from the murderous assaults of men who stood over his prostrate form with uplifted axes — was bru- tally chopped to pieces at the election of members of the Legislature under the constitution, and then 9 carelessly tumbled into a cart and trundled to his home in the agonies of death, to breathe out his life in the arms of his distracted wife. His cowardly assassins are well known. They are the recognized file-leaders of armed bands. Your law-and-order Governor offers no reward for their arrest. Your judicial instruments are too busily engaged in arraigning free-State men for "high treason," and "constructive treason," to bring these cowardly murderers to justice. Your Indian agent, Gay, of Michigan, was recently murdered in cold blood by some of these chivalric sons of the South who followed tlie renowned Buford to the conquest of Kansas — to robbery, pillage, arson, and murder. His crime was not love of freedom — he was a friend of the Administration; his crime was the fatal admission that he came from free Michigan — tlmt being presumptive proof, in the eyes of these hounds, that he was in favor of making Kansas a free State. His murderers have not been brought to punishment. Your Governor, Shan- non, furnished arms and ammunition to these followers of Bufdrd; and these chivalric men doubtless thought they were putting your arms ajid your ammunition to good use, when they murdered your Indian agent for admitting that he came from the free State of Michigan. Where are your imbecile officials — your besotted Gov- ernor, your judges, your district attorney, and your marshal? Has your Administration sunk so low that it will not protect the lives or avenge Uie death of its own official menials? Senators have not denounced this murder of a Government official; itwas an unfortunate mistake, no doubt — a very unfortunate mistake. The assassins can plead, if they are ever brought to trial, in mitiga- tion, that it was all a mistake — that they only intended to kill a " free-State man" — " an Aboli- tionist!" Their laudable intentions will doubt- less be a valid plea in bar before your judicial functionaries in that Territory. SheriffJones, renowned for his brutal manners and unflagging zeal for the support of law and order, went to Lawrence to arrest S. N. Wood, on the very day when the committee of the House commenced their sittings in that town. The Senator from Georgia tells ys that he was shot, and that he may die. There are men who do not believe that he ever was shot, or that he will die from any such shots. At any rate, there has been something very extraordinary in this case, which can never be explained to the coun- try. But, even if he had been shot by some one whom he had wronged, are we to hold the whole community responsible? Did not the people of Lawrence assemble and denounce the act? Did not Governor Robinson offer a reward of five hundred dollars for the arrest of the person ? Was not every effort made to find out the per- son who did the deed, and did not the free-State men, in and out of the Territory, condemn the ac^? The ball I hold in my hand wa.s shot through a boy eighteen years old, the son of a widow. On his way home from Westport, Missouri, he ■was stopped by those gentry who keep guard over the passes into the Territory, and required to give up what he had. He gave up his arms. They then required him to give up his horse, but he told them he would not do it. For that he was shot down; and this ball was taken out of his lifeless body by a friend of mine. The other day the papers brought us the intel- ligence that a peaceable citizen of Kansas, a native of Missouri, was captured by the creatures that prowl in bands over the Territory, and taken into a ravine and brutally murdered, shot svith three balls, for the crime of being a free-State man — his slave-State birth increasing the enormity of his crime and quickening the vengeance of hia assassins. All these offenses against property, all these crimes against liberty and life, have passed, up to this hour, unnoticed by your offi- cials, unpunished by your judicial tribunals. This imbecility is contemptible — this neglect is crim- inal. Truly, your Administration is in " that, pitiable condition " — to use the words of Lord Chatham —" wherein it is necessary to be con- temptible!" It has been stated, during this debate, that the men who went to Kansas from Georgia and South Carolina, did not go armed. No, sir, they did not; but when they got into the Territory, Gov- ernor Shannon armed them. They were called out as part of the military force, and put under pay, to support them while they were there. This is the fact — the dishonorable fact; there is no denying it. Senators do not deny these things now, quite so readily as they did last February, when they pitched into me, in open session and in secret session, for what I said here concerning affairs in Kansas; every word of which was trua in letter and in spirit. The Senator from Georgia, Mr. President, has paid a glowing tribute to the noble attributes and chivalric character of many of these border ruffian gentlemen of western Missouri. I am quite as ready, I trust, as the Senator from Georgia can be, to acknowledge moral or intellectual worth, or to do justice even to mere physical courage; but I have failed to see anything to admire in the conduct or bearing of men who, armed to the teeth, stole into Kansas, and, with the bowie- knife and revolver, forced their illegal ballots into the electoral urns. I have failed, sir, to see any- thing noble, manly, chivalric, in the actions of men who skulk over the border of Missouri, fire the lowly cabins of poor settlers, steal their horsea and cattle, and commit personal violence upon defenseless people, whose only offense is a love of equal and impartial liberty. Ay, sir, I have failed altogether even to see anything worthy of commendation in these gentry whose border and river exploits in arresting, disarming, and turning back peaceful emigrants, are borne to us upon every breeze that comes from Ijeyond the Missis- sippi. I see in the conduct of these men nothing to commend— much to condemn. Many of them may be deluded, but their lawless chiefs deserve to die felon deaths, and to leave felon names. The Senator from Georgia threw out the taunt that we of the minority would not dare— not dare— denounce thesje chivalric heroes before their faces. I tell the honorable Senator from Georgia that his taunt falls harmless at my feet. I dar« denounce the conduct of these towering heroea of border forays, uninfluenced by their presence or their absence; I dare denounce their lawless violence here, anywhere, at any time, in public or in private; and what I say will not be qualified, modified, or withdrawn, to please them or their 10 friends here. I am accustomed to utter my public opinions concerning measures and men with entire freedom, and I have never accustomed myself to retract what I have said, to accommodate any man or set of men. Border ruffianism and its sup- porters, in or out of the Capitol, will find that Bome of us dare utter our opinions with freedom, and maintain them with firmness. In February, Mr. President, General Atchison — the guilty author of the acts of lawlessness, Tiolence, and fraud that have marked the history of Kansas — was defended here by the Senators from Missouri, [Mr. Geyer,] South Carolina, [Mr. Butler,] and Tennessee, [Mr. Jones.] He was lauded as the prince of good fellows— the Boul of honor and chivalry. Shannon then found ■willing defenders here. But times thange — the people have been heard — and these champions of border ruffianism are now defended, if at all, with less alacrity and in more qualified phrases. To the Senator from Georgia, who has borne his willing tribute of commendation to the characters of the followers of Atchison and Shannon, I commend the consideration of the words of Dr. J. y. C. Smith, late Mayor of Boston. Dr. Smith is no Abolitionist. The indignant thou- sands who saw, during his administration, the court-house in chains, and Anthony Burns es- corted through the streets of Boston by two thou- sand soldiers, and surrounded by three hundred armed special guards, will bear witness to the fact that he is no "Abolitionist," no "Black Republican." Dr. Smith gives the following not very flatter- ing description of these chivalric heroes of west- ern Missouri: " Since the United States troops have begun to show themselves at different points, the bandits scud before them tnto Missouri, liut make frequent incursions to rob, steal, and murder. Those I saw at Westport, whose camp was in the woods only a few rods out of the Territory, were young men, rough, coarse, sneering, swaggering, dare-devil - looking rascals as ever swung upon a gallows. They had not a redeeming trait of character. On the contrary, they were a horribly profane, whisky-drinking collection of ruthless desperadoes, whose depredations upon the peace- able, industrious occupants of the little log huts, which •tand like admiration points in every direction over the far- distant waving prairies, demand the earnest and imuiediate interposition of the government. " The marauders were mounted on horses and mules, armed to the teeth with pistols, long knives, and carbines. They rob travelers, surprise the humble residents of prairie cabins, whom they strip of theirvaluables, and, in repeated instances, murder the owner. They drive off cattle, the property most in request, and steal horses. They oblige a man lo dismount, and take his horse, and should he remon- Btratc or resist, blow his brains out without apology. " Occasionally the villains make a mistake and kill one of their own number. Vehicles are stopped, pocket books overhauled, and they order persons to quit the Territory with as much nonchalance as though they were the pro- prietors of the soil, and the reign of despotism had fairly commenced. These mounted robbers assume all the re- morseless characteristics of Italian brigands." These men, thus characterized, and their leader, Atchison, are held up on the floor of the Ameri- can Senate as men of noble natures — men of manly qualities — men of honor and chivalry. Chivalry ! chivalry ! I have lately heard that word so often associated with mean men and vile deeds, that it seems to be but another name for baseness, meanness, and cowardice. The Senator from Georgia refers, in no com- plimentary tone, to the committee sent by the House of Representatives to Kansas. He says we all knew what it went for, and what it has brough* back. Sir,it went out to ascertain the facts, and it has brought back a damning record that neither the Senator from Georgia nor any other Senator will ever blot out. That record goes to the coun- try ; and the people are intelligent enough to make up their judgment on the facts. We are assured by the Senator that there is to be another report. There may be another report manufactured, but the facts will not be changed. You may reason upon them, report upon them, argue upon them; but the facts can never be disputed. The fact stands out that four thousand nine hundred men from Missouri voted in that Tei'ritory in March, 1855, and only one thousand one hundred or one thousand two hundred of the people who resided there. This great fact stands proved — admitted — confessed. Upon this point the whole controversy hinges. The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Brown] declared to us the other day that, if the Kansas Legislature was elected by Missourians, we ought to abrogate all its laws. That was the only honest course for Congress to take. So thought the Senator from Mississippi — so I thought. I made the motion to abrogate those laws, but it was not responded to, although the fact stands proved that every member of the Legislature but one was elected by Missouri votes. The Senator from Georgia complains of what the Senator from New Hampshire has said in reference to removing landmarks. The Senator from Georgia and I want no compromises about slavery. He is for protecting slavery in the Ter- ritories; I am for blotting it out everywhere un- der the jurisdiction of the Federal Government in the Territories. But the cumpromise of 1820, it is admitted, was forced upon the free States in the struggle to prevent slavery from going beyond the Mississippi river, by making Missouri a free State. Yes, sir, the compromise was forced upon the conquered North by the victorious South. The northern men who then surrendered were broken down by the betrayed and indignant people of the North. But there came a.time when the Missouri compromise was an advantage to freedom, and when that time came, you gentlemen of the South took it from us. The laboring men of the coun- try had looked to the Territory as their heritage. The time arrived to occupy it. The slave pow- er that moves one portion of this country, and the freedom power which moves the other, had a struggle over that Territory in these Halls. Sla- very, as it always has done, triumphed — trium- phed by the aid of its northern men. But the Senator from New Hampshire was right in hold- ing you gentlemen of the South responsible for removing the "landmarks" of freedom. The glittering prize was offered by the Senator from Illinois, but the Senator from Georgia and his associates clutched it with greedy haste. They cling to the coveted prize now with deathless tenacity. The Senator from Georgia traces the everrts that have transpired in Kansas admirably, but he comes finally to the illogical conclusion, that the efforts made by the emigrant aid society, by the people of New England, and of the North, and by the people of the Territory, to establish freedom there, are the causes of all the troubles that afflict the Territory. That Senator, with all Mr. TOOMBS. Let me ask the Senator whether Brown, the editor of the Lawrence paper, is not one of them? Mr. WILSON. No, sir, he is not; he is a Pennsylvanian, I believe; but whether he be from Pennsylvania or the West, he has committed no offense. One of the eastern men has been shot down — I refer to the murdered Dow; but it so happens that most of the murders which have been committed have fallen on men who went there from the Northwest, by their own volition, without aid, pioneer-men — bolder men, perhaps, than our New Englanders, who are Uie last men in the world to get into a controversy, but not always the last to get out of it. Mr. President, against the unsustained asser- tions of the Senator from Illinois, and his asso- ciates, in regard to the emigrant aid society, I put the memorial of the executive committee of tliat company, presented to the Senate by me on the 25th of June. Sir, I have the honor to know the gentlemen who signed this memorial, and I know them to be gentlemen of intelligence and of character — men v/hose statements would not be questioned by any one in the community where they reside. The first signer of the memorial, Mr. Williams, is a native of Virginia, now a large sliipping merchant of the city of Boston. I call the attention of the Senate to the statements embodied in this memorial— statements that should silence forever the audacious assertions made here in regard to that company: To the honorable Senate and Hotise of Representatives of the United States in Congress asscmhled : The undersi«7icd, Executive Committee of the New England Emigrant ^id Company, respectfully represent, That a re- port made Marcli 12, 1856, to the Senate by ifie Coiiimiltee on Ti'rrilories, in wiiicli this company was referred to, and receni occurrences in tlie Territory of Kansas affecting tliis eompany, reiiuire us to appear bel'ore you, and to ask im- mediate attentioii to tlie facts stated, and the requests herein made. Lest the report above mentioned should have led to erro- neous views in regard to this company, we ask leave, first, to set forth some of the many errors and misrepresentations of that report, and to explain the true objects and real action of the company. " Tlie charter of the company does not allow a capital of five millions, but only of one million of dollars ; and the capital aciually paid iu has never exceeded one hundred thousand dollars. Tin; act of incorporation does not make the State of Mas- sachusetts in any way a party to the proceedings of the company. The eompany is not the origin of the troubles in Kansas by its " unauthorized and improper schemes of foreign inter- ference with the internal concerns of the Territory," " in violation of the principles and in evasion of the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska act," having never acted contrary to any law of Congress, or infringed in any way upon the letter or spirit of the Jaws or regulations of any State or Territory, or the right of any citizen. The company has never invested a dollar in any of the Implements of war. It has never sent out persons to control the elections in Kansas, nor hired any man (except its business agents) to go there, nor paid the passage of a single emigrant — nor is It within the knowledge of the officers of the company that any person has gone out under its auspices with any other view than to settle and stay there. The eompany lias never taken or demanded any pledge or obligation of any kind from any person nor is it proba- ble that any pledge would have been given if dtimanded. Although we are in frequent and direct communication with the citizens of Missouri, as well as those of Kansas, we have never known of any violence or hostility offered by emigrants from tlieNorth or Easttoany citizen of Missouri. or to any other citizen. The emigrant parties are, and have always been, open to all, whether coming from the North or the South. The purposes and action of the company have never been concealed — are obvious, simple, and need not be misunder- stood. The purposes are to facilitate the settlement of the I Territories of the United Stales by a population of free and intelligent citizens, and at the same time to make advan- tageous investments of capital there. These two purposes i have been fully explained and made public in the various publications of the company. The means by which it acts are not " unusual," or " ex- traordinary," or for the purpose of "stimulating a forced and unnatural system of emigration." They consist merely in placing capital, in the form of saw and grist mills, hotels, Stc, in favorable localities, when population follows, as it has done, and as it is well known to have done, throughout the West. To do this is our whole plan. It appears tons to afford no room for just reproach, and its legality is beyond a doubt. That it has been beneficial to Kansas, and to all concerned, is proved by the satisfaction of the settlers, butheir frequent application to us for further investments, by the flattering prospects of our enterprises, and the prosperity of the Ter- ritory until the late occurrences. We claim, therefore, as citizens of the United States, and as a corporate body, acting in no wise contrary to the laws, and infringing in no way upon the rights of any other citizen, the same right to pursue our business free from molestation and interierence, in the Territory of Kansas, that we have to pursue it in any other part of our common country. Instead of being allowed to do so, however, it has hap- pened that our proper enterprises have been vexatiously and illegally interfered with. That a large and valuable building, known as the Eld- ridge House, or Free-State Hotel, belonging to the com- pany, in-^he town of Lawrence, Kansas Territory, has been illegally destroyed by cannon and fire, and, to the best of the knowledge and belief of your petitioners, this destruction has been caused by, or with the consent of, or through the culpable negligence of officers of the General Government. That other property belonging to the c(|mpany has also been destroyed through the same causes ; and yourpetition- ers have reason to tear that still further depredations will be committed by the same lawless persons.. That great losses and distress have been inflicted not only upon this company, but on many unoffending citizens of the Territory. That your petitioners can satisfactorily prove all the above statements. They therefore pray your honorable body to take steps to cause this illegal destruction ininiediately to cease, the offenders to be brought to justice, and compensation to be made for tlie losses and injuries sustained. JOHN M. S. WILLIAMS, S. CABOT, Jr., L. B. KUSS^ELL, ' C. J. HIGGINSOIV, W. B. SPOONEIl. Mr. President, the Senator from Illinois tells us that he shall speak plain in regard to our position upon the Kansas question. He has spoken with plainness — more plainness than justice or truth. He has the audacity to charge upon the minority in the Senate — upon men who, in their speeches, in their letters to their friends in the Territory, have counseled unyielding devotion to freedom, to p«ace, to order, to the authority of the Federal Government— I say he has the audacity to charge upon Senators here— upon the Senators from New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, Ver- mont, Maine — upon my absent colleague — upon all of us of the minority, the scenes of lawlessness and violence that have marked the history of ill- starred Kansas during tlie past year. Sir, the Sen- ator from Illinois goes further in his recklessness of assertion: he declares that we do not want to close these scenes in the Territory until after the presidential election; and this as.scrtion,so unjust, was indorsed by the applause of these pro-slavery galleries. I, too, will speak with plainness; and I will hold the Senator from Illinois, and his com- peers, to their just responsibility for all their acta of omission aiid commission concerning the Ter- ritory of Kansas. Before the Senate, and the 6 country — ay, sir, before the bar of the civilized world — I hold the Senator from Illinois to a just responsibility for the blood which has been shed or which may be shed in that Territory from which his "ruthless hand" erased the sacred words: " Slavery shall be, and is forever, prohib- ited." Upon the Senator from Illinois, more than upon any other man in all America, presses the crushing weight of wrongs and outrages to prop- erty, liberty, and life which have followed the repeal of the prohibition of 1820. Sir, the acts of lawless violence, the arsons, robberies, and murders that have marked the past of Kansas, are all the fruits of that deed which the fertile brain of thg Senator from Illinois conceived and his cunning hand executed. When the year 1854 opened upon that vast Territory in the heart of liieR-epublic," Freedom for all: chains fornone," were engraved upon its surface in letters of living light. Slavery was forbidden to enter that mag- nificent region of forest and prairie, lake and river. Its ^hilling shadow fell not upon the flowers that bloomed and the waters that flowed. The sun- light of freedom bathed its virgin soil. Free labor — educated labor — secure in the plighted faith of the third of a century — looked upon that vast domain, lying in the central regions of the North American continent, as its rightful, its legitin.ate inheritance. Even the Senator from Illinois had announced from his high place here, in the councils of the nation, that " no ruthless hand" would dare break that compromise that gave freedom forever to a Territory larger than the thirteen colonies that opened the war of inde- pendence. The people of the country, and, above all, the free laboring men of the country, had their rich heritage of freedom put in peril by the Senator from llinois. The people of the country, and, above all, the free laboring men of the coun- try, now hold, and they will continue to hold, the Senator from Illinois responsible for that act whose fruits have been robbery, arson, murder, and oppression. Sir, I tell the Senator from Illinois that the scenes of lawlessness, of violence, of bloodshed, and of oppression, that the world has witnessed in Kansas are chargeable — not upon the emigrantaid companies — not upon the free people of Kansas — not upon Senators here who have protested against your acts — but upon the Sen- ator and his compeers, by whose counsels and votes the landmarks against slavery were re- moved, and upon the border ruffians of Missouri, who demanded the consummation of that unhal- lowed deed. The Senator from Illinois, th& Ad- ministration, the Democratic party, will be held responsible through all coming time for the bitter fruits of that deed, by which the landmarks of freedom were removed, and slavery permitted to enter this heritage of freedom, and contend for empire. The Senator from Illinois and his associates, Mr. President, to silence the stern protests of the freemen of the Republic, gave assurance that the question of freedom or slavery was to be left to the free action of the actual settlers. Has the Senator from Illinois — has the Administration redeemed this pledge? Have they given protec- tion to the actual settlers of the Territory ? Have not the men who violated the plighted faith of the nation by abrogating the prohibition of 1820, vi- olated tiieir own plighted word to the actual cit- izens of Kansas? Yes, sir, the Administration has not only broken the word of promise to the hope, but it has not kept the word of promise to the ear. Sir, you have not given protection to the people of Kansas. You have not protected them in their property, in their liberties, or in their lives. You do not mean to aff'ord them pro- tection — you dare not afford them protection. The slave power, your imperious master, will not permit you to aiford protection to the people of Kansas. The Senator from Illinois, the Admin- istration, the Democracy, quail before that power; and to the imploring appeals of the subdued and suffering people you sternly answer, " Obey the laws!" "The laws shall be executed!" " We will subdue you!" The people point to the or- ganic act as the charter of their rights, your pledge to them, and you scream in their ears, " Treason!" " Traitors!" " Submission, uncon- ditional submission, or you shall die the death of traitors!" Your satrap Shannon, a poor, weak, vacillating creature, arms ruffians, and harasses the people he should protect. Your Lecompte, in mockery of justice, arraigns men for "high treason" — for " constructive treason." Your Donaldsons and your Joneses fire dwellings, destroy presses, and rob people fleeing from their burning homes. The people were to be left perfectly free to settle their own domestic affairs; you gave this pledge — the slave power gave this pledge. How have these pledges been kept? On the 29th of November, 1854, si.N: brief months after thesa pledges were given, the people of Kansas assem- bled to elect a Delegate to represent them in the national House of Representatives. On that day the slave power, unmindful of its plighted faith, in hollow mockery of popular rights, stole over into that Territory, and stuff'ed the ballot-boxes with hundreds of illegal votes for the pro-slavery candidate. All the redress you gave to the out- raged people of Kansas was a flippant denial of the deed of infamy. On the 30th of March, ten months after your pledge of perfect freedom to settle their own do- mestic affairs was given, the people of Kansas again went to the ballot-boxes to choose a Legis- lature to frame lav/s for their own government. To their amazement they found the ballot-boxes in the hands of four thousand nine hundred armed men from Missouri. Overawed by superior num- bers — intimidated by menacingthreats — robbed of their legal right by lawless violence — hundreds of the actual settlers of the Territory retired , wi thout voting, to their homes — a subdued and conquered people. Others, who chose to peril life in the exercise of their legal rights, were overborne by overwhelming numbers, and they, too, retired to their liomes a subdued and conquered people. Back to Missouri staggered the marauding hordes of border rufiians, drunk with victory and bad whisky. Kansas was conquered by this lawless foray from Missouri; the slave power gloated over its dishonorable victory. Governor Reedei announced to the people of his native Pennsyl- vania that Kansas had been conquered — subdued by armed iiieii from Missouri. Your Adminis- tration was indignant at this honest admission: silence was enjoined upon the faithful. The pro- testing voices of the people of Kansas were silenced by the clamor of the partisans and presses 11 bia ability, has given us no evidence whatever to stow that New England men have in any way outraged the people of that Territory. They are not in arms; they have never taken up arms but to defend their homes. They have driven no men out of the Territory. Hundreds of them have been driven out — others have been silenced — they dare not utter their sentiments. Since the bill of the Senator from Georgia was introduced, Mr. President, I have seen several of the leading men of the Territory, and I have not yet seen one who did not believe that its adoption at this particular time, under the present circumstances, will crown the usurpations in Kansas, and make it a slave- holding State. That is their conviction. It is my conviction. Mr. WELLER. Has anybody said so except Republicans — members of your own party.' Mr. WILSON. Yes, sfr, I have been told so by men who have always acted with the Demo- cratic party — men who have not at least yet de- clared what they intend to do in the coming con- test. These men, sir, may err in their opinions — I may err in mine, hut they believe, and I believe, that your bill of pacification is to be a bill of death to freedom in Kansas. I have watched events in Kansas with the deepest solicitude, not for their political significance — for I care little for party organizations — I follow where the star of liberty shines upon my path, and I would sacri- fice any party if, by so doing, I could advance the cause of universal and impartial liberty in Amer- ica. I have watched, I say, the course of events in Kansas, and I declare my profound conviction that the triumph of your measure is the triumph of the policy of slavery extension. Who can doubt it ? Who can doubt it ? The true and tried friends of free Kansas do not — they can'hot doubt it. You have scattered, arrested, and im- prisoned the free-State leaders. Your tools have driven out or silenced hundreds of free-State men. Your Lecompte has suppressed, as nui- sances, the free-State papers, or they have been destroyed by mobs in the interest of the slave- State men. One free-State paper — the Tribune, at Topeka — survives unsuppressed;butthe Squatter Sovereign , one of your six border ruffian journals, that flourished by the patronage of the Adminis- tration — a journal which, to the shame of the Ad- ministration, is supported by the advertising of the Federal Government — a journal that has the name of James Buchanan at its head, demands, in tliis defiant and monstrous spirit, the suppression of this last journal of the free-State men, and the butchery of the peojDle of Topeka and Lawrence: '• Several parties have inquired of us, [says the Squatter Sovereign,] why the law has not been put in force at To- peka, as well as at Lawrence, against abolition newspapers .' Topeka is no better than Lawrence; it is also demoralized ; but it is not so well known abroad. If both Topeka and Lawrence were blotted out, entirely obliterated, it would be the best thing for Kansas that could happen. The sooner tlie people of Topeka sounJ their dcalh-knell the better; they are too corrupt and degraitcd tflive. We would like to be present and raise our Ebenezer in the funeral. It is silly to suppose for an instant that there can be peace in Kansaij as long as one cneviy of the South lives upon her soil, or one single specimen of an Molitionist treads in the sunliglU of Kasisas Territory." I hold the Administration, I hold the Demo- cratic party, responsible for this assassin-like language of the Squatter Sovereign — a journal that feeds upon your bounty — lives-by your pat- ronage. The supporters of the Administration, the supporters of James Buchanan , dare not with- hold the advertising patronage of the GovernmenJ from this infamous journal — this organ of border ruffianism — this mouth-piece of Atchison, String- fellow, Shannon, and Lecompte. The Senator from Georgia, as well as the Ser>- ator from Illinois, has indulged in denunciatory remarks about the "Black Republican party." He wants something descriptive, and he tells us that " black" describes our republicanism. If the Senator chooses to call me a " Black Repub- lican," I have no objection. If he chooses to call me an " Abolitionist," I do notobject to it. Call me anything you please, sir, but false to freedom, and I am content. But the Senator has hurled a threat at us. He says we may elect fifty Fre- monts, and if the people of Kansas make up their minds to have slavery, we cannot take it from their iron grasp. Sir, I do not know how the the fact is, but it is said that the Senator from Georgia, and others, talked very plain to General Taylor, in 1850, about a dissolution of the Union, and that General Taylor intimated to them pretty distinctly, that the Union was to be preserved, and the laws of the country executed. If John C. Fremont be elected President, he has enough of Old Hickory in him, enough of Zachary Tay- lor in him, to execute the national will, to meet threats, whether they come from the North or the South. I tell the Senator from Georgia, that threats to resist the action of Congress, threats to dissolve the Union, will alarm none of us. Mr. TOOMBS. I have said nothing about a dissolution of the Union. I said that nothing could wrench this Territory from the iron grasp of these men except a fair vote at the ballot- box. Mr. WILSON. I apprehend, however, that if we can get a majority in the Senate, and I hope we shall do it soon — I think we shall come pretty close to it before the 4th of March, 1859 Mr. WELLER. I doubt it. Mr. WILSON. I hope we shall even get a good free-State Senator who is all right, in the place of the Senator from California. Mr. WELLER. Thank God, you will get a man of the same stripe that I am. Mr. WILSON. Perhaps the Senator from California may be mistaken concerning the sen- timents of his successor. If we elect John C. Fremont; if we secure a majority here during his Administration, and also a majority in the other House, and prohibit slavery in the Territories, in Kansas, 1 apprehend the people of that Terri- tory will acquiesce in the action of the Federal Government. Mr. BENJAMIN. It is a mistake. Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Louisiana says it is a mistake. A mistake ! Are we to understand, then, that if we prohibit slavery in the Territories, the people of the territories will not submit to the legislation of Congress — to tha laws of the country? Mr. BENJAMIN. If the Senator desires to understand what I mean I will tell him plainly. I hold, and the South holds, that the Congress of the United States has no power to take the common territory of the Union and give it to the North exclusively; and if it attempts to usurp such a 12 power the Union cannot stand. That is what I mean. Mr. WILSON. I M\y comprehend the idea of the Senator from Louisiana. He holds the doctrine, and he tells us the South holds the doctrine, that Congress has no power to exclude the South from the common territory — that is, Congress has no power to exclude slavciy from the Territories by positive law. The Senator from Illinois — the leader of the Democratic party, under whose banner the Senator from Louisiana has enlisted — declared, on this floor, the 13th of March, 1850, that " no geogra[)hical section of tlie Union is entitled to any share of the Territo- ries;" that " the Territories belong to the United States as one people, one nation, and arc to be disposed of for the common benefit of all;" that " each State, as a member of the Confederacy, has a right to a voice in forming the rules and regulations for the government of the Territories; but the different sections — North, South, East, and West — have no such right;" that " it is no violation of southern rights to prohibit slavery;" tliat " neither the North nor the South, as such, have any rights there at all." Sir, I concur fully in these declarations of the Senator from Illinois — the " Black Republicans" concur fully in these declarations. We believe, with the Republican fathers North and South, that Congress has power to exclude slavery from the Territories — that it ought to exercise that power; and we have resolved to exercise that power not only in the Territory covered by the prohibition of 1820, but in all the Territories now acquired or to be ac- quired by the Federal Government. Southern statesmen have held that Congress has power to prohibit slavery in the Territories. The Supreme Court has affirmed the power of Congress over the Territories. The great names in our history have not only held that Congress had the power to exclude slavery from the Territories, but they have generally favored the exercise of that power. Mr. TOOMBS. Not one. Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Georgia Burely will not deny the fact that the statesmen of the North — the great constitutional lawyers and jurists of the North — have held that Congress has the power to prohibit slavery in the Territo- ries; and he must admit that many of the great names from the South gave their sanction to the ordinance of 1787, which excluded slavery for- ever from the northwest Territory — to the Mis- souri prohibition of 1820, which prohibited slavery in the Louisiana purchase north and west of Missouri — to the prohibition of slavery in a portion of Texas, should that portion ask admission into the Union, and to the prohibition of slavery in the Territory of Oregon. Many of the eminent statesmen of the South have left on record by pen, voice, or vote, their approval of some or all of these acts for tlie prohibition of slavery by legislative action. It will be found, I think, that the Supreme Court has laid down principles of constitutional construction and inter- pretation that affirm this power over the Terri- tori6s Mr. BENJAMIN. That is a difference of opinion. Mr. WILSON. The Senator from Louisiana says that is a difference of opinion; but the coun- try has believed in that doctrine; Congress has believed in. that doctrine, and has exercised tli« power. It was exercised in 1787, and was in- dorsed immediately after the adoption of the Con- stitution by the First Congress. It was exercised in 1820. It was exercised a few years ago in the Oregon bill. Senators from the South repeatedly gave their almost united votes in favor of extend- ing the prohibition of slavery north of 36° 30' to the Pacific ocean. If you have the right to pro- hibit slavery north of that line, you have the right to prohibit it south of that line — the right to prohibit it in all the Territories of the United States. The Senators from Georgia and Lou- isiana do not believe Congress has this power. We believe-»-the people of the free States by im- mense majorities believe — we have the power. If a majority of the people shall decree it — if a ma- jority in both Houses of Congress shall affirm it, and the Executive sanctions their acts, I have no doubt the good sense and patriotism of the people of the whole country. North and South, will rally with alacrity to the support of the Federal Gov- ernment — to the maintenance of the unity and indivisibility of the Republic. Defeated faction may plot treasonable insurrection; baffled con- sjjirators may mutter threats of disunion and civil war; the public mind may be momentarily agitated, and the public councils temporarily embarassed, by the expiring efforts of waning^ power; but the people of the country — the intel- ligent, patriotic, liberty-loving, law-abiding peo- ple of the country, who accept the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States as their political charts, will bear the Gov- ernment in safety through the impending dangers . 570 - b ^ ^^ . _ / .^^'\. \^m^° ^^^^^^ ^'^^W: /'\ ^^IK^" ^^^ .^ A '^'' ^^°<. .^^ ^0^9- "^-^^ <'^ 'o , * I "'^^^ '*r>.^v ^oV" -^^0^ % *^^ c*^" ♦ 0' .v: • -a.' O N O ■■' ,^^ . -t. ^^-^^^ <' ^ -o , , - G'^ o ^ A <^. <.i'% ^. '^0^ ^oV^ o H ■" <^ ^ .^^ * vv v^^ N. MANCHESTER A <'. ^oV"