Raftsman's journal. (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, September 10, 1856, Image 1

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    BY S. B. ROW.
YOL. 3.-NO. 4.
CLEARFIELD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1856,
THE I'NION TORBVER.
Terish the band that would destroy
The temple of our eircs !
Perish the heart that hopes for Joy .
In its consuming fires !
Let not the monster be forgot,
Who dares to light the flame,
But curse him with a traitor's lot,
And with a traitor's name !
Our fainting hopes refuse to die,
Our tottering bulwarks stand,
And Freedom's banner still floats high
O'er a united land !
The stars that gem the azure fold -
May cease awhile to shine :
But tremble not, the arm that holds
The flagstaff is Divino !
While the dark raven bodes despair,
And still onr fear renews,
The noble eagle, high in air,
His onward way pursues,
lie dreads not there the tempest's wrath,
Though all its thunders roll :
Cut soars above the tempest's path,
Exalting to the goal.
THE DOG NOBLE, AOT) THE EMPTY HOLE.
- BY BESET WARD BEECHES
The first summer which we spent in Lenox
we had along a very intelligent dog, named
Noble, lie was learned in many things, and
by his dog-lore excited the undying admira
tion of all the children. But there were some
things which Noble could never learn. Hav
ing, on one occasion, seen a red squirrel run
into a hole in a stone wall, be could not be
persuaded that he was not there forevermore.
Several red squirrels lived close to the house,
and had become familiar, but not tame. They
kept op a regular romp with Noble. They
would come down from the maple trees with
provoking coolness ; they would run along the
fence almost within reach : they would cock
their tails and sail across the road to the barn;
and yet there was such a well-timed calcula
tion under all this apparent rashness, that No
ble invariably arrived at the critical spot just
as the squirrel left it.
Uu one occasion, JNoble was so close upon
his red-backed friend, that, nnablo to get up
the maple tree, he dodged into a hole in the
wall, ran through the chinks, emerged at a lit
tle distance, and sprung into the tree. The
intense enthusiasm of the dog at that hole can
hardly be described. He filled it full of bark
ing. lie pawed and scratched, as if undermi
ning a bastion. Standing of! at a little dis
tance, be would pierce the hole with a gaze as
intense and fixed as if he was trying magnet
ism on it. Then, with tail extended, and ev
ery hair thereon electrified, he would rush at
the empty hole with a prodigious onslaught
This imaginary squirrel haunted Noble night
and day. The very squirrel himself would
run up before his face into the tree, and,
crouched in a crotch, would sit silently watch
ing the whole process of bombarding the eiup
ty hole, with great sobriety and relish. But
Noble would allow of no doubts. His convic
tion that that bolo had a squirrel in it, contin
ued unshaken for six weeks. When all other
occupations failed, this hole remained to him.
When there were no more chickens to hurry,
no pigs to bite, no cattle to chase, no children
to romp with, no expeditions to make with tho
grown folks, and when he had slept all that his
dog-skin would hold, ha would walk out of
the yard, yawn and stretch himself, and then
look wistfully at the hole, as if thinking to
himself, "Well, as there is nothing else to do,
I may as well try that hole again 1"
We had almost forgotten this little trait, un
til the conduct of the New York Express, in
respect to Col. Fremont's religion, brought it
ludicrously t mind. Col. Fremont is, and al
ways has been, as sound a Protestant as John
Knox ever was. Tie was bred in the Protes
tant faith, and has never changed. He is un
acquainted with the doctrines and ceremonies
of the Catholic Church, and has never attend
ed the services of that church, with two or
three exceptions, when curiosity, or some ex
trinsic reason, led him as a witness. "We do
not state this upon vague belief. We know
what we say. We say it upon our own perso
nal honor and proper knowledge. Col. Fre
mont never was, and is not now, a Roman Ca
tholic, lie has never been wont to attend that
church. Nor has he in any way, directly or
indirectly, given occasion for this report. It
Is a gratuitous falsehood, utter, barren, abso
lute, and unqualified. The story has been got
up for political effect. It is still circulated
for that reason, and, like other political lies,
ft is a sheer, unscrupulous falsehood, from top
- to bottom, from the coro to the skin, and from
the skin back to the core again. In all its
parts, in pulp, tegument, rind, cell, and seed,
It is a thorough and total untruth, and those
who spread it bear false witness- And as to
all the stories of Fulmer, &c, as to supposed
conversations with Fremont, in which he do
fended the mass, and what not, they are puro
fictions. They never happened. The authors
rtinm . donlorprs : the men to lelieve
hera are dupes j the men who spread them be
come endorsers of wilful and corrupt libels.
But the Express, like NcbU, has opened on
this hole in the wall, ond can never be done
barking at it. Day after day, it resorts to this
empty hole. When everything else fails, this
resource remains. There they are, indefati
gablyrfh Etprtss and XoMc a church with
out a Fremont, and a hole without a squirrel
io it!
In some respects, however, the dog had the
advantage. Sometimes we thought that he
really believed that there was a bquirrcl there.
But at other times he apparently had an ink-
link of the ridiculousness of his conduct, for
be would drop his tail, and walk towards us
with bis tongue out, and his eyes a little a
slant, seeming to say, "My dear sir, you don't
understand a dog's feelings. I should, of
course, much prefer a squirrel ; but if I can't
have that, an empty hole is better than noth
ing. I imagine how I would catch him if he
was there. Besides, people who pass by don't
know the facts. They think I have got some
thing. It is needful to keep up my reputation
for sagacity. Besides, to tell the truth, I have
looked Into this hole so long, that I half per
suaded myself that there is a squirrel there,
or will be, if I keep on."
Well, every dog must have his day, and ev
ery dog must have his way. No doubt, if we
were to bring back Noble now, after two sum
mers' absence, he would make straight for that
hole in the wall, with just as much zeal as ever.
Wo never read the Express now-a-days,
the dog is letting off at that hole again."
Xevr York Independent.
SPEECH OP GOV.KEEDER:
Delivered at the Tabernacle, New York, dug. 2G.
Gov. Recdcr said : I thank you sincerely,
fellow citizens, for this demonstration. It
pleases me to know that at least here, in this
thronged andience there is some sympathy
for the men who are struggling for their dear
est rights upon the plains of far-off Kansas.
If there is no sympathy for them among those
who occupy high places in our Government,
there is at least sympathy for them among the
masters of our officials among thoso who
have given them tho little brief authority
which they have so prostituted ia the face of
high heaven and before the eyes of this Re
public. Applause. I come before you upon
a mission from the Free-State men of Kansas
to tell their tale of wrongs and to appeal to you
for that aid, which, as citizens of ouc common
Government you are pledged by the Constitu
tion and the laws you have adopted to grant
them. I come to you not as a politician to
urge the claims of any candidate for office.
I represent a party who have but one article
in their creed the making a Free State in
Kansas. As citizens of a Territory, we have
no vote in the coming election, and I shall not
therefore undertake to dictate yours. I come
not here to speak in behalf of or advance the
candidate of any special party. Applause.
I shall not disclose what I have to say to the
ear of anv man. nor renel the confidence of
any man or set of men by asking who is his
candidate, or what is his party ; and if any man
has come here to night expecting from me an
eulogy of any Presidential candidate, or any
partizan speaking with reference to the elec
tion alone, I shall be compelled to disappoint
him. Cheers. But if, on the other hand,
any man has come here expecting me to omit
aught that hears on the condition or destiny
of our poor down trodden people, ho will be
equally disappointed. Cheers. I shall go
as straight to my object as my intellect will
admit, and I shall deviate neither to the right
nor the left for the sake of any candidate or
any party. If however, the truth that I shall
have to tell, and the remedy that I shall sug
gest, incidentally help any political party in
the land, it is their ducj and I shall have no
word to take back. If, on the other hand,
those truths shall injuriously affect any party,
the responsibility is upon them, not upon me;
and I shall have no regrets for my own actions
whatever I may have for theirs. Cheers. J 1
come to you, not upon a mission of partizan
ship. I come before you to discuss a question
that rises lar above the common aims oi pon
ticians. and involves the character of this
great and (as we are complacently accustomed
to call it) this model Kepubiic, not in any mi
nor or secondarily important matters, but in
that which constitutes its great strength and
essence. I have come to discuss no less a
question than whether tho character ot this
treat model Republic, that rears itseit in an
tho panoply of sell complacency, pnuo uuu
, ., .
pratulation unon its Dast achievements, snau
in the future be entitled to tne admiration oi
- ---- . s
all the nations of the earth whether it has the
ability to protect its own citizens in the essen
tial ricrht of Republicanism that 01 sen gov
ernmcnt itself. It had been customary with
us to challenge the admiration of the world to
tho fact that during the 0,000 years which
have rolled around since the creation of the
globe, it was reserved for us to demonstrate
the problem of self-government, and prove to
the world that it has never accomplished be
fore what has been demonstrated in our expe
rience Applause. It has been the fashion
for us to claim that self-government was no
longer a problem, but that it had been redu
ced to a positive and absolute certainty. J
tell vou. mv fellow citizens, that events have
been transpiring within the last few years that
pause everv thinkinz man to stop ana inquire
whether we have indeed demonstrated that
nroblcm. Let us see, in looking over our past
historv. whether there arc any events that
may lead the monarchists of Europe to shako
heir heads in iovous doubt whether that prob
lem has been solved. Look over the face of
this land. You see one of the States of thi
Union, that for the last six years, with a Con
stitution such as your's, has been struggling
to sustain itself, and to grant to every individ
ual under the shadow of that Constitution his
leiral and constitutional rights, but failing in
this experiment they have been obliged to
east aside that Constitution and resort to an
absolute revolution in order to protect their
citizens in their social, civil, and legal rights
Tho Government of California has at least pio
ved a failure, and it needs the corrective of
revolution in order to bring it back to its orig
inal purity. This is not the only instance that
should teach every man to address himself to
the solemn consideration ot tne present state
r nnr eonntrv. Look upon the plains of Kan
sas, and who is there with burning eloquence
sufficient to depict tne state oi tilings uiai ex
ist there 7 Baffled and aeieaieu oeiore you,
confess my total inability to convey to yon
realizing sense of tho true state of affiairs in
Kansas. No man can realize it unless he has
actually had a part in the troubles there, and
as witnessed for himself the outrages which
have been there committed. I can only say
that upon the plains of Kansas, under tho shad
ow of the stars and stripes, and under the pro
tection of the Constitution of this model Re
public, there is to be found a people whose
condition, civil and political, you would im
prove if you were to transfer them to the gov
ernment of the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of
Austria or t ranee, r Applause!. Is this true 7
Why, it is capable of the plainest and surest
demonstration to any man who knows all the
facts in the case, or even a few of them, rt is
an admitted, unquestioned, and undenied truth
that the people of that Territory have no act
or part in their own Government, and they
have no laws of their own making. They have
no taxes of their own levying ; they have no
officers of their own electing ; they arc slaves,
political slaves, subjugated by a foreign power
with no shadow or semblance of self-govern
ment the complete subjects of the Border
Counties of the State of Missouri, who dictate
o them their laws, institutions and officers.
Are the subjects of France, Austria or Russia
less free, politically, than these 7 I tell you
their conditicu would be improved if you
could spread over them such a government as
that of x ranee, Austria or Russia. If you did
that they would at least have security for life,
liberty and property, and they would have
their judicial tribunals to which they could
appeal for a redress of their wrongs, for indem
nity for property destroyed, houses rifled, and
for punishment for robberies and murders.
Lawlessness, outrage, rapine and crime run
riot over the beautiful prairies of Kansas, and
there is no arm of law to stay their course.
On the contrary, the robbers, ravishers and
murderers of Kansas have in their own hands
the arms of the law, nnd they are made the
ministers of this awful and horrible svstem of
civil, political and social oppression. Suppose,
lor a moment, that some man, gifted with the
spirit of prophecy, had walked into the hall
where the sages sat who drew your Declara
tion of Independence, or still later into the
hall where were convened those patriots who
framed your glorious Constitution, and had
there undertaken to prophecy that before three
quarters of a century had passed by, such a
state of things would exist as now prevail in
Kansas, what would have been the feelings of
those noble and patriotic men 7 Let me, in
consideration of the time which I must occupy
to night, come down to something like details,
in the hope at least Of bringing home to you
some sort of a realizing sense of the true state
of things existing in the Territory.
I shall not undertake to-rnght to enter into
details about the outrages there committed.
I shall not undertake to give you a catalogue
of the robberies, the house-burnings, the plun-
derings, the horse-stealings, the murders and
outrages, that have been perpetrated upon tne
soil of Kansas; for, did I undertake such a
task. I should request vou to camp here a
week. Should I undertake even to give you
any portion of the details, where the acts of
our oppressors were stained with blood, and
with every attribute that could disgrace hu
manity, I should not know where to begin or
end. I must treat them in a general way. I
start, then, with the proposition that a scheme
has existed tuerc, and has been in progress
since 1854, to make Kansas a Slave State by
force in other words, to force, by violence, a
pro-slavcrv constitution upon an unwilling
people. That is plain, and that scheme has
been progressing, step by stcp,beforc the eyes
of this nation, who have allowed it to go un
checked. That this is so, I suppose needs ve
ry little demonstration. I shall, however, trace
the successive steps, of this project as they
havo developed themselves, and then with
what ingenuity they havo been prosecuted and
carried out. I shall show how the oppressors
have gone on until their work has been almost
completed. I shall show that it wants but a
few finishing strokes, and then proceed io ue
monstratc the consequences of success in this
scheme to the North. fChcers.l Yon know
already that no election has ever been held up
on the soil of that Territory where the men
who have been the originators of this scheme
did not attend in numbers sufficient to control
such elections. In November, 1854, they came
in large numbers from Missouri to elect a del
cgate to Congress, and in March, 185o, they
sent in thousands to elect a Legislature, men
went on to enact laws for that Territory that
are still in force. You know that on the aOtli
of March, 1855, one poll after another fell into
the hands of those men. 1 ou have seen tne
report of the Congressional Committee, ana
from that you know that these are conceaea
facts. Cheers. After that election they pro
ceeded at once to take away from the Territo-
rv of Kansas every vestige ol civil liberty
which they could grasp. In the first place
they closed every box within their reach, and
refused to allow the people to elect one terri
torial officer. They have in their hands witu
the aid of the President of the U.S. in part, the
legislative, executive and judicial powers of
the Territory, and have secured every oince
from the highest to the lowest. This power
thev fondly hope cannot bo rescued from them
excepting by a revolution. They have left us
nothing but that which they cannot take away
the physical power which we happen to have
That, thank God, is beyond their reachchecrs)
and the time mav come when the laws of God
and man, and every consideration that can in
fluence an honest man, a Republican man, and
a reliffious man. will dictate to him that pny
sical power must be made the means, the only
means, of recovering the political power which
has been taken from him. f Applause. Tho
ballot-boxes were closed, and the laws of that
Legislature were most shamefully sought to be
enforced upon the people there, and the ob
ject of their oppressors, in assuming tho ap
pointment of every officer in the Territory
was to deprive the people of the right to elect
their own rulers. Thev declared upon tne
floor of the House, that if the people were al
lowed to elect their own ofheers. that all thei
labors and pains would prove unavailing , that
the monev thev had invested would oe wsi
and the result would be, placing in power men
ot wroncr political sentiments, and finding the
numerical power to be in the hands of the men
they had oppressed. Entertaining such senti
ments as these, they declared that that numer-,-,
ciw.nU not govern itself. I need
not tro into a detailed history of these things
for you are all familiar with them. 1 ou know
that partisan judges were appointed over these
polls with a large discretion, for the purpose
of enabling them to receive every vote that
could be procured from Missouri, and to reject
the vote of every Free-State man by the en
forcement of political test oaths. Thus have
they seized upon political power in that terri
tory, and they have determined that we shall
exercise no right of self-government. They
havo placed above us a set of men of their
own making, and they have appointed by name j
a prosecuting attorney for each District, Sher-
ils, County Clerks, Probate Judges and Com
missioners for each county ; but being unable
to appoint Justices of the Peace and Consta
bles, because of their ignorance of the people
of the Territory, they took care to provide
that all other officers provided by law who had
not been appointed by the Legislature, should
be appointed by the County Commissioners.
These County Commissioners have absolute
control over the election. They have the right
o fix the places where the elections are held.
They appoint their own officers to preside over
the ballot-boxes, taking care to select them
with especial reference to the unscrupulous
manner in which they would discharge their
dutv. Having done all this thev felt reasona
bly secure against everything except absolute
revolution. They then proceeded to disorga
nize the Free-State party, and prevent them
from having any party or political action with
any sort of efficiency. They first undertook
to deprive that party of its leaders. Indict
ments for treason were originated, some lead
ers of the party were thrown into prison, oth-
s were obliged to leave the territory to avoid
sharing the same fate, ond now some eight of
our most efficient men are living upon the
plains of Kansas, in tents, guarded by United
States Dragoons, and are rendered, in conse
quence, entirely inactive, helpless and ineffi
cient. The Free-State party was thus depriv
ed of its leaders, and the next step was to strip
them ot their presses. Three of these have
been destroyed one at Leavenworth, one at
Lawrence, and the third at Osawattamie. They
began to cast their eves to see where' the next
blow must be struck. They saw that in the
city of Kansas in the State of Missouri imme
diately on the edge of the Territory, was a ho
tel kept by a Free-State man from Massachu
setts. It was a sort el asylum, a home for the
Northern emigrant. Meeting there, he found
a warm welcome and cordial reception, and
could remain there, meeting men from the
Territory everv day, and acquiring such infor
mation as he desired previous to purchasing
his horses, cattle, and all farming implements
lie remained there comfortable, unmolested
and undisturbed until he was ready to pass in
to tho Territory, acquiring information every
dav if he chose. There was a hospitable roof
under which he and bis family could live until
he bad selected bis land and built his cabin-
They saw this was a facility for Northern emi
grants which was of great assistance to tho
Free-State men of Kansas, and they dctermm
cd that they must be robbed of that. The
landlord of the hotel, after having been oblig
ed to call his friends to defend his house from
destruction, is finally informed by a commit
tee of citizens formed at a public meeting that
his house could be preserved no longer, and
that it must be torn down over his head, or
must be sold out to Pro-slavery men. Sixteen
prominent men whre on that committee, and
the landlord was compelled to sell out his
house to Pro-slavery men selected by this
committee, as the only alternative to avoid his
destruction. They saw that the hotel at Law
rence afforded great facilities to the settlement
of the Territorv by Northern men. That, too,
must bo torn down ; and under the forms ot
law, by the officers of law, artillery is brought
from the State of Missouri, the house attack
ed, the walls battered, its furnilme turned out
and destroyed, and at last fires are Kindled ana
all its gorgeous furniture reduced to a neap oi
smoking ruins. I need not tell you of the out
rages that followed the destruction of tho ho
tel : I could not picture to you the intimated
band of robbers and thieves breaking into ev
ery house except two, robbing the trunks,cup
boards and wardrobes of every citizen, taking
money, clothing, provisions, arms, horses.cat
tle, everything that this plundering horde
could lav its hands on. One citizen was rob
bed of about two thousand dollars, another ot
five or six hundred, and so on down to a poor
mechanic, who was met on the streets and or
dered to "stand and deliver," and whose porle
vionaic was taken from lit in and roooea oi too
lust onnrter easle be had. Wardrobes were
carried off, and clothing which could not be
worn bv those ruffians was torn in stripes, ond
the house of a private individual, with all his
furniture, books and papers, was consigned to
the flames. This was the scene which happen
ed in the town of Lawrence on the 2lst of
May. And this, my fellow-citizens, was not a
sudden outbreak, not due to any suaaen ex
citcment. not tho work of infuriated men. nor
the suggestion of a moment ; but it was one of
tho steps in the progress ot this enterprise to
wards its consummation. I be election on me
30th of March, the laws passed by the Lcgisla
ture, the finding of indictments, stripping the
nni-tv of its loaders, the destruction of the
minting presses all these were predetermin
ed, prejudged and prepared, in order to consu
mate the great leading plan of making Kansas
a Slave State by violence ana lorce oi arms a
gainst the wishes of its people. Then in the
snring of 1855, a band of men, gathered with
drum and fijo, whiskey and promises ot free
unrestrained license upon the plains of Kan
ssa, enlisted under the command of Southern
leaders, taken there under military organiza
tion, and turned loose upon our soil to live in
camns and rob, plunder and murder our peo
ple, take away our arms, and use the weapons
of political action to drive out those who could
be intimidated, in order to murder and plun
der at will. These men landed there in the
spring of 1855, the first detachment under the
command of Col. Buford. Gentlemen in the
Sonth at the time, told me that these men were
among the idle vagabonds of the Southern ci-
tics. " H" uruiu uiki uicauu iviunciui nco
expenses and free living on the plains of Kan
sas,thcy were brought to thatState ; they were
marched from the steamboat to tho shore in
military array ; the articles were read to them
and by these articles they were bound to live
under military organization ; bound to fight
their battles; bound to vote the Pro-slavery
ticket. I rom that time to this, with the ox
ception of those who deserted from them,they
have lived in camps, making no attempt at
settlement, with a purely military life, roving
over the face of the Territory, attacking men
alone in their cabins, depriving them of thei
arms, and waylaying them, allowing no man to
travel back and forth except lie has a pass from
their leaders, or from some friend whom thei
leaders recognize. The citizens were not even
allowed to procure the necessaries of life, and
no industrious settler could pass down to the
t-itv of Kansas for the purpose of bnying pro
visions, without being arrested and robbed by
these men. Man after man was robbed of his
load of provisions, of his horses, and all the
money he happened to have in his pocket, and
too frequently his body left cold and dead
non the cround. A gentleman who passed
the camp of these ruffians at Battle Creek, on
the California road, saw seven bodies lying on
the ground. Licut.Dmm, of the U. S. Army
communicated to a friend of mine that in ano
ther place he found five murdered men, and
buried them. Add to this, that the bodies of
men, murdered by those ruffians, are found ev
erywhere, then you may have some idea of the
state of things that existed when these men
held the keys of the Territory. Thus they
hoped by this sort of process, that having ta
ken away all the political and civil rights, by
closing against us the courts of justice, by re
fusing to allow t ree-State men to serve upon
grand or petit juries, by denying them all ju
dicial remedy f or all judicial wrong, using t he
law to press and grind them down, by depriv
ing them of their leaders, of their presses and
of their hotels, as rallying points, and then,
depriving them of their arms for our arms
were taken at the cities of Lexington nnaivan
sas, and still further on, at the towns of West
port and Franklin, as well as at the seeking or
Lawrence ; and, finally, arms were stolen f rom
the settlers' cabins and bodies by moos oi
men. They hoped at last that this Free-state
partv. thus plundered of everything to jrivo
them organization and efficiency, deprived of
everything by w hich they could carry out ineir
concerted plans, would bo broken down, inti
midated, disorganized and crushed, and tne
gates of the Territory mn&t be closed against
the ingress of any new citizens. One of the
great highways of" the nation was commanded
by cannon, small arms and mobs ot men upon
its banks, and free citizens from your midst
are there plundered of their arms, and com
pelled to return whence they came. This w ork
goes on, as I tell you, step by step, and I am
afraid that it has been too mucn me caau m
States to look upon these outbreaks as events
due to some sudden excitement, as you would
look upon an affiav upon your own streets,
happening out of some immediately surround
ing circumstances, having us origiu uiti
on the spot, and having its end when the im
mediate violence was over. I tell you, my
friends, if you have entertained such an opin
ion of the stato of things in Kansas, you nave
been grossly mistaken. All these outrages aro
due to premeditation, thev have all been re-
resolved upon in council, atfd all form a part
of this great plan. They have been pushing
that plan step bv step towards itsconsuniation
How near has it arrived to that consumption 7
On the first Monday of October, 1850, we are
to hawe another election, and you will pernaps
be startled when 1 tell Vou that it requires but
two elections, and will probablv occupy but
six or eight months more, before a Slave Con
stitution will be adopted by Kansas, to be sub
mitted to the Congress of the United States.
It is so. nevertheless. fChcers.l On the 1st
Monday of October. 1850. an election is to be
held undr the authority of the bogus Territo
rial Legislature, at which the people are to
vote. Convention or rso Convention, .every
preparation has been made to carry that elec
tion as they have carried all the previous ones.
The men vhoare to conduct that election are
all elected and picked expressly for tho pur
pose. They are picked by the Board of Coun
ty Commissioners, and they will be picked
with especial reference to the work which tney
are required to do. Large bodies of armed
men will be sent from the State of Missouri
to suiTound the polls at this election, and to
control them ; but observe, my friends, the
ingenuity -With which this thing is managed.
They don't like to risk the shock which pub
lic opinion might receive in the South, as well
as in the North, by parading tho?c armed men
around the polls in the 6ame manner in which
it was done on the 30th of March, 18. 1 hey
have taken care to provide that those bands ot
armed ruffians who are to control our polls on
the first Monday of October shall be there ac
cording to law. This may seem strange to
you; but men who can burn houses according
to law, who can steal horses according to law,
who can steal arms according to law, who can
murder men according to law can find little
difficulty in arranging this part of the pro
gramme. Applause. They have according
ly provided that on the first Monday of Octo-
ber,1856, there shall be a great militia training
in every County in the Territory. Laughter, j
When we complain to our brethren of theStates
that on the day of this election each poll was
surrounded by bodies of armed men, we u oe
told by the Ruffians at home and ly their apol
ogists" here that it was a legal militia-training
rCheersl. That election will be held. Docs
some one say to mo that this can bo prevented
by the army of the United States that the
troops of the United States will be sent out
there to prevent this invasion. Without stop
ping to discuss the question whether tuey win
or will not, it is enough for me to say that no
matter whether the army is there or not, that
election trill be carried. No army officer can
interfere between corrupt and perjured Judges
in tho subjugation of the Free-State men no
army officer, whether he be General Smith or
Col. Sumner, can interfere between the Judge
and the voter, in putting a stop to the corrup
tion that will control that election. I tell you
that in the present state of things onr people
will not approach these polls, because it will
be a hopeless effort. This whole work is per
formed with tho exception of the last grand
act. The Legislature meet ; they order one
more election of delegates to a Constitutional
Convention. Those delegates are elected in
the same way, and the work is done ; and it
only remains for them to come together to
adopt a Slave Constitution and send it to Con
gress for admission into the Union. This con
test is transferred from the plains of Kansas
to the halls of Congress, and it will there be
battled by you. Then comes the issue about
December, 1857, upon the admission of Kan
sas into the Union, before the next Congress.
I would - that I had a trumpet voice to pro
claim to every man in this land that the man
he votes for Representative in the House in
the Fall of 1856, will be the man who must
choose between the Freo-State Constitution
adopted at Topcka and between the Slave
State Constitution which will be adopted some
where else. Applause- I want the coun
try to see that Ibis issue will come, and I want
every man to tlx his eye upon this event which
is coming, and just as certainly as the sun will
riso to-morrow. I want him to see the time
and the place whero it w ill come. I w ant him
to be faithful to bis duty in the premises, and
to see that when it comes it will be properly
met. Applause. When that docs come,
every man, every Member of Congress, and
every political party in this Union must meet
that issue, and must take ground in favor of
the Admission of Kansas as a Free State un
der the Topeka Constitution, or its admission
under a Slave-State Constitution. When this
issue comes in December, 1857, yon will find
some men going for a Slave-State Constitu
tion, and vou will find a set of men half-way;
men who will bo seeking places of refuge be
tween the two sides of the question, who will
want to set those Constitutions, asido and a-
dopt some measure which will require mo
people of the Territory to vote upon that ques
tion again. I was in hopes that experiment
would be tried now that that question would
be out of the way, and by December, 1857,
that bill would come back in tho way whicii
we predicted, and bring this issue square out
before the American people, oeiore cci
man in office. I havo nothing further to say
on that question.
Now to return to the subject of this country
in the selection f their representatives in the
lower House of Congress. Thev must be se
lected Avith a view to tho question which Uiey
will inevitably have to vote upon. I havo
shown von that this work is almost consum
mated, nnd so far as I have followed it in its
political aspects, passing over, for the time,
the condition ol the people in tho territory, it
is for yon to look on and see the two remain
ing acts in this drama. 1 undertake to pro
diet here, nnd do so fearlessly, that you will
see the election carried in October by an inva
sion from Missouri, you will see the delegates
adopt a pro-slavery Constitution, and it will
go to the halls of Congress; watch the result,
and you will find these predictions verified,and
it is for von to shape your course with refer
ence to them. Will this state ot things aficct
Kansas alone 7 Let any man take the map of
his country, and be will perceive that the ter
ritory of Kansas is only 200 miles wide north
and south, and extending nearly 900 miles to
the summit of the Rocky Mountains ; but be
yond that to the shores of the Pacific bo will
"find that there is territory enough to mako six
States as large as Pennsylvania. With a mi
nority of free men upon the plains of Kansas,
and it a Slave State, I will thank any man to
tell me how be is going to save the second.tho,
third or fouth, each one further and lurther
out of your reach each with one more Slave
State intervening. Is the thing possible 7 Is
it not palpable that if we lose tho State of
Kansas we lose that entire body of States at
the Pacific Ocean, and when we have lost
them and have thus isolated the territory of
New Mexico, which lies below, will any re
flecting man tell me how much of New Mexi
co we will pet I Will be tell me how this is to
be had 7 Will he tell me that sufficient num
bers can be got there through the Slave States
to prevail against the violence and force which
the latter will bring to subdue it I No they
will all be lost, and this entire Territory will
bo banded over to Slavery. Hear! hear! !
This half of a continent is all lost to the north
and to Freedom. This is a momentous ques
tion in many respects. Let me direct your at
tention to a few of them. These Northern
States may be likened to a tub under a foun
tain, all the time boiling over with a surplus
population, and streaming over the vast West
and hunting hemes in that fair territory a
constant stream of surplus population running
westward like a vast river, which, wero it con
centrated, would build up a new State every
five or six years. Will any man deny that
slave labor ond free white labor cannot exist
together 7 It is a proposition admitted by ev
erybody, that where one is the other cannot
be. Well, then, suppose you dedicate one
half of this continent to negro and to slave la
bor, you shut off' the entire stream of Nor
thern" emigration you 6liut the gates of tho
whole vast West, Kansas, Dcseret, and New
Mexico to the North, and turn back this hu
man tide to throw itself upon the States of tho
North and the North-west. If you deny this
great territory to tho free laloring man, you
say that to him the gates shall be closed for
ever, and all of it dedicated to the negro, and
not to the white man. Have the laboring men
of the North considered tho import of this
question to them the drayman, tho hodman,
the mechanic, the day-laborer T Every man
who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow,
or who by the changes of fortune may be com
pelled to do so every mau who expects to
leave a posterity to find homes in this coun
try, has a deep interest in it. Let us illus
trate this by the North-west Territory. Sup
pose these things bad occurred twenty years
ago, instead of now. Suppose the gates of
that territory had leen shut against free whito
emigration, and all that great territory had
been dedicated to negroes ; suppose the whito
laborers had been shut away, and tre millions
of icople who now swarm over the West were
all turned back upon these, what would be tho
fate of the laborer 7 This is not a matter to
dispute about ; it has been demonstrated in
Ireland and in China ,- and the result will bo
the same here and everywhere. When you
refuse to let the free white laborers of tho
country go West to make themselves a home,
and lay the foundation of homes for their chil
dren, you refuse to let him better his own con
dition, or the condition of those he leaves be
hind. Our laborers go West, and thus tho
walks of labor at home arc prevented from tho
surplus which reduces to starvation. But snpr
pose you throw back this vat tide of emigra
tion, and refuse to let the free laborers occu
py this soil, what then can they hope 7 All
the walks of labor at home are filled and filled
again, until they arc choked up the wages of
tho laborer decrease in proportion, uutil at
last the immense mass of honest labor becomes
one vast body of degradation, poverty, igno
rance and crime. That's true. This is not
problematical. It has been clearly demonstra
ted in the historv of the world again and again.
Look at Ireland, where a few years ago the
walks of labor were choked up, and the supply
was greater than the demand, till an able-bodied
intelligent man could earn barely enough
to keep body and soul together, and five or
six pounds was the price for a year's labor.
What was the cause 7 Just precisely what it
would bo in the caso I havo supposed. Tho
supply choked the demand till the price ot la
bor was reduced to almost nothing. AVoicc
Ten-cont Jimmy ! Laughter. I did not hear
the remarks of my friend. "Ten cents s
day !" Renewed laughter and applause. Five
or 6ix pounds for the labor of an intelligent,
able-bodied man for a year and you Be tho
cause in the system of Ireland. You have
seen also its remedy, and that is precisely the
remedy I would apply here emigration. Ire
land became flooded with a snrplus of labo-
.w- A--