SUPPLEMENT TO THE LEWISBTJKG CHKONICLE.
Aggressions and Usurpations
or
THE SLAVE POWER.
DECLARATION OF FSIWCIPLEB AKD PURPOSES
OF
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
ADDRESS OP THE REPUBLICAN CON
VENTION, at Pittsbiro, Feb. 22, 185B.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Having met in Convention attheOity of Pittsburg,
in the State of Pennsylvania, ihia 22d day of reb
ruary, 1956, as the representatives of the people in
various sections of the Onion, to consult upon the
political evils by which the country is menaced, and the
political action by which those ei iis may Le averted,
we address to you this Declaration of our Principles
and of the purposes which we seek to promote.
We declare, in the first place, our fixed and un
alterable devotion to the Constitution of the United
States to the ends for which it was uetablished, and
to the means which it provided for their attainment.
We accept the solemn protestation of the People ot
tbe United States, that they ordained it "in order to
form a more perfect Union, eftablish justice, ensure
dsEt-stic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to themselves and their posterity." We be
lieve that the powers which it confers upon the Gov
ernment of the United States are ample for the ac
complishment of these objects; and that if these pow
ers are exercised in the spirit of the Constitution
itself, they cannot lead to-any other result. We re
spect those great rights which the Constitution de
clares to be inviolable Freedom of Speech and of the
Press, the free exercise ot Beligious Belief, and the
right of the People peaceably to assemble and to pe
tition the Government for a Redress of Grievances.
We would preserve those great safeguards of civil
freedom, the habeas courts, the right of trial by jury,
and the right of personal liberty, unless deprived
thereof for crime by due process of law. We declare
our purpose to obey, in all things, the requirements ot
ih Constitution and of all laws enacted in pursuance
thereof. We cherish a profound reverence lor the
wise and patriotic men by whom it was framed, and a
lively sense of the blessings it has conferred upon our
country and upon mankind throughout tne worm, in
every crisis of difficulty and of danger we shall invoke
its spirit and proclaim the supremacy of its authority.
In the next place, we declare our ardent and un
shaken attachment to this Union of American States,
which the Constitution created and has thus far pre
served. We revere it as the purchase of the blood uf
our forefathers, as the condition of our national re
nown, and as the guardian and guaranty of that
liberty which the Constitution was designed to secure.
We will defend and protect it against all its enemies.
We will recognize no geographical divisions, no local
interests, no narrow or sectional prejudices, in our en
deavors to preserve the union of these States against
foreign aggression and domestic strife. What we
claim for ourselves, we claim for all. The rights,
privilege and liberties which we demand as our in
heritance, we concede as their inheritance to all the
citizens of this Republic.
Holding these opinions, and animated by these sen
timents, we declare our conviction that the Govern
ment of the United States is not administered in ac
cordance with the Constitution, or for the preservation
and prosperity of the American Union ; but that its
.,p svstematicallv wielded for the moMo-
TION AND EXTENSION OF THE INTEREST OF SLAVERY,
in direct hostility to the letter and spirit ot me i on
slitution. in flagrant disregard of other great interests
-.ntrii and in open contempt of the public
sentiment of the American people and of the Christian
world. We proclaim our belief that the policy whicht
kaa for years past oeen auopieu in nuuiuniuiui
r,i.r:npnil Government, tends to the utter subver
sion of each of the great ends for which the Const i
w.. established, and that, unless it shall be
arrested by the prompt interposition of the People,
the bold of the union upon mcir iujhj aucuuou
will be relaxed, the aomesuc uimumiij m up
turned and all Constitutional securities for the bless
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity will be
destroyed. The Slaveholding interest cannot lie
permanently paramount in the General Government
without involving consequences fatal to Free insti
tution. We acknowledge that it is large aud
powerful ; that in the States where it exists it is
entitled under tbe Constitution, like all other local
interests, to immunity from the interferences of the
General Government, and that it must necessarily
exercise through its representatives a considerable
share of political power. But there is nothing in its
position as there is certainly nothing in its character,
tosustain the supremacy which it seeks to establish.
There is not a State in the Union in which the slave
holders number one-tenth partot the free white popu-lation-nor
in the aggregate do they number one
fiftieth part ot the white population of the United
States The annual productions of the other classes
.k. fTn;m. fur exceed the total value of all the
sieves. To say nothing, therefore, of the questions of
natural justice, ana oi pouucai
involve!, neither its magnitude nor the numbers of
those by whom it is represented entitle it to one-tenth
oart oe the political powers conferred upon the Federal
Government by the Constitution. Yet we see it seek
in? and at this moment yielding, all the functions of
theGovernment executive, legislative, and judicial
and using them for the augmentation of its powers
and the establishment of its ascendancy. .
From this ascendancy the principles of the tonsti
turion the rights of the several (States, the safety of
the Union, and the welfare of the people of the United
States, demand that it should be dislodged.
HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PROGRESS OF SLAVERY
TOWARD ASCENDANCY IN THE FEDERAL GOV
ERNMENT. .
It is not necessary for ua to rehearse in detail the
successive steps by which the slaveholding interest has
secured the influence it now exerts in the General
Government, Close students of political events will
readily trace the path ot its ambition through the past
twenty-five years of our national history.
It was under the Administration of President Tyler,
and during the negotiation which preceded the annex
ation of Texas, that the Federal Administration for
the first time declared, in its diplomatic correspond
ence with foreign nations, that Slavery in the United
Stales was a " political institution, essential to
TBE
PEACE, ItflT! AND FROSrsniTl ur inusi
,.fn nr the Union in which it exists
and
that the paramount motive of the American Govern
ment, in annexing Texas, was twofold Firtt .- To
prevent the abolition of Slavery within its limits, and,
Second: To render Slavery more secure and more
powerful within the slaveholding States of the Union.
Slavery was thus taken under the special care and
protection of the Federal Government. It was no
longer to be left as a State institution, to be controled
exclusively by the States themselves; it was to be
defended by the General Government, not only against
invasion or insurrection of armed enemies, but against
the moral sentiment of humanity and the natural de
velopment of population and material power.
Thus was the whole current of our national history
suddenly and unconstitutionally reversed. The Gen
eral Government, abandoning the position it had al
wnys held, declared its purpose to protect and per
petuate what the great founders of the Republic bad
regarded as an evil as at variance with tbe principles
on which our institutions were based, and as a source
of weakness, social and political, to the communities
in which it existed. At the time of the Revolution
Slavery existed in all the Colonies; but neither then,
nor for half a century afterward, bad it been an ele
ment of political strife, for there was no difference of
opinion or of policy in regard to it. The tendency
of arliiirs had been toward emancipation. Half the
original thirteen States bad taken measures at an early
day to free themselves from the blighting influence
and the reproach ot Slavery. Virginia and North
Carolina had anticipated the Continental Cougress of
1774, in checking the increase ot their slave popula
tion by prohibiting the Slave trade at any of their porta.
SENTIMENTS OF THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITU
TION CONCERNING SLAVERY.
The Constitution, conferring upon Congress full
power to prevent the increase of Slavery by prohib
iting the elave trade, out ot regard for existing in
terests and vested rights, postponed the exercise of that
power over the States then existing until the year
1808; leaving Congress wee to eeroiee il over new
States and over the Territories of the United JHulet! by
prohibiting the migration or importation uf slaves into
them, without any rectriCtion except such as its own
discretion might supply. Congress promptly availed
itself of this permission by reatiirming that great Ordi
nance of the Confederation by which it was ordained
and decreed that all the territory then belonging to
the United States should be forever free. Four new
Stales were formed out of territory lying south of the
Ohio river, and admitted into the Union previous to
1820 ; but the territory from which they were tunned
hud belonged to States in which Slavery existed at
the time of their formation ; and hi ceding it to the
General Government, or in assenting to the formation
of new &uten within il, the old States to wliirli it
belonged had insertad a proviso against any regula
tion of Congress that should tend to the emancipation
of slaves. Congress was thus prevented from pro
hibiting Slavery in these new Slates by the action of
the old Slates out ot wh.ch they hail been tunned.
But as soon as the constitutional limitation upon its
power over the States then existing had expired
Congress prohibited by fearful penalties the addition
bv imtiortatioii of a single slave to the numbers
already in the country.
The trainers ot (lie I oiiMtitution, although the his
torical record of their opinion proves that they were
earnest and undivided in their dislike of Slavery,
and in their conviction that it was hostile iu its nature
ami it-i influences lo Republican Freedom, after taking
these steps to prevent its increase, did not interfere
with it further in the States where it men existed.
Those States were separate communities, jealous ot
their sovereignty, and unwilling to enter into any
league which should trench, in the least degree, upon
their own control over tlieir own affairs. This senti
ment the frame of the Constitution were compelled
to respect, and they accordingly left Slavery, as they
left all other local interests, to the control ot the sev
eral States. But no one who reads with care the de
bates and the recorded opinions of that age, can doubt
that the ultimate removal of Slavery was desired by
the people of the whole country, and that Congress
had been empowered to prevent its increase, with a
view to its gradual and ultimate extinction. Nor did
the period of emancipation seem remote. Slave
labor, employed as it was in agriculture, was less
profitable than the free labor which was pouring in
to take its place. And even in the States where tins
consideration did not prevail, other influences tended
to the same result. The spirit of liberty wa then
voune, generous am! strong. The men of the nation
had made sacrifices and waged battles for the vindi
cation of their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness; and it was not possible for
them to sit down in the quiet enjoyment of blessings
thus achieved, without feeling the injustice as well as
the inconvenience of holding great numbers of their.
fellow-men in bondage. In all the States, therefore.
there existed a strong tecdency toward emancipation,
The removal of so great an evil was felt to be a wor
thy object ot ambition by the best and most sagacious
statesmen of that age; aud Washington, J enerson,
Franklin, and all the great leaders and representa
tives of public opinion, were active and earnest in
devising measures by which it could be accomplished.
But the great change produced in the industry of
the Southern States, in the early part of the present
century, by the increased culture of cotton, the intro
duction of new inventions to prepare it for use, and
its irrowinir imiiortance to the commerce of the coun
try and the labor of the world, by making slave labor
more profitable than it had ever been before, checked
this tendency toward emancipation and soon put an
end to it altogether. As the demand tor cotton in
creased, the interests of the cotton-growing States
became more and more connected with Slavery; the
spirit of Freedom gradually gave way before the
spirit of gain ; the sentiments and the language of
the Southern States became changed ; and all at.
tempts at emancipation began to be regarded, and re.
sifted as assaults upon the rights and tho interests of
tho slaveholding section of the Union. For many
years, however, this change did not affect the politi-
cal rotations of the subject. States, both free and
slaveholding, were successively added to the Confed
eracy without exciting the tears ot either section
Vermont came into the Union in 1711 with a Consti-
tuliou, excluding Slavery. Kentucky, formed out of
Virginia, was admitted in 1792; Tennesse in 1796
Mississippi in 1817, aud Alabama in I8l'. all Slave
States, formed out of territory belonged to Slave
States, and having Slavery established in them at the
time of their formation. On the other baud, Ohio
was admitted in 18113, Indiana in 1810, and Illinois
in 1818, having formed State Governments under acts
of Congress which made it a fundamental condition
that their Constitutions should contain nothing repug
nant to the ordinance of 1787 or, in other words.
that Slavery should be prohibited within their limits
forever. In all these occurrences, as in tbe admission
of Louisiana in 1812, there had been no contest be
tween Freedom and Slavery, for it bad not been
generally felt that tbe interests of either were
seriously involved.
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
The first contest concerning the admissiou of a new
State, which turned upon the question of Slavery, oc
curred in 1819, when Missouri, formed out of terri
tory purchased from France in 1903, applied to Con
gresa for admission to the Union as a slaveholding
State. The application was strenuously resisted by
the people of the Free State. It was everywhere
felt that tbe decision involved consequences of the
last importance to the welfare of the country, and
that, if the progress of Slavery was ever to be arrest
ed, that was the time to arrest it. The slaveholding
interest demanded its admission as a right, and denied
the power of Congress to impose conditions upon new
States applying to be admitted into tbe Confederacy.
The power rested wi Ji the Free States, and Missouri
was denied admission. But the subject was reviewed
The slaveholding interest, with characteristic and
timely sagacity, abated something of it pretensions
and settled the controversy on tne basis oi compromise,
Missouri was admitted into tbe Union, by an act bear-1
iug date March fc, 1820, in which it was also declared
that in all that Territory ceded by France to tbe
united Males, under the name of 1-ouiiiana, wbicu
lies north of 30 deg. 30 nun. of north latitude, not
included within the limn of the State of Missouri,
Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise
than in the punishment of crime whereof tbe parties
shall have been duly convicted, shall sc. and l
hereby toRKVER raoHisrrcii. In each House ot
Congress a majority of the Member from slave-
holding States voted in favor of this bill with this pro
vision, thus declaring and exercising by their vote
the constitutional power of Congress to prohibit Sla
very even in territories where it had been permitted
by the law of r ranee at the dale ot their cession to
tbe United States. A new Slave State, Arkansas,
formed out of that portion of this territory lying south
of 3n' deg. 30 mm., to which the prohibition was not
extended, was admitted to tho Union in le3rJ. Two
Slave States thus came into the Confederacy by virtue
of this arrangement ; while Freedom gained nothing
by it but the prohibition of Slavery from a vast region
which r reenom had made no attempt to penetrate.
Thus ended the lirst great contest of 1- reedom and
Slavery for position and power iu tbe General Govern
ment. The slaveholding interest bad achieved a vir
tual victory. It secured all the immediate results for
which it struggled , it acquired the power of offsetting
in the Federal Senate two of the Free States of the
Confederacy , and the lime could uol be foreseen when,
in the fulfilment ot its compact, it would yield any
positive and practical advantage to the interests of
freedom. Neither then, nor lor many years there
after, did any statesman dream that, w hen the period
should arrive, the slaveholding interest would trample
on its bond and lling its faitii to the winds.
A quarter of a century elapsed before the annexation
of Texas. Slavery had been active, meantime, in fas
tening its hold upon the Government, in binding polit
ical parties to its chariot, and in seeking in Congress
to stifle the right of petition, aud lo crush all freedom
of speech and of the press. Iu every slaveholding
State, uoue but slaveholders, or those whose interests
are identified with Slavery, were admitted to till any
office, or exercise any authority, civil or political
Free whiles, not slaveholders, in their presence, or in
the midst of their society, were) reduced to a vassalage
little less degrading thau that ot the slaves themselves.
Even at this day, although the white population of the
slaveholding Mates is more than six millions, ot w hom
but J4i,02j, or less than viie-seventeeuth, are the own
era of slaves, none but a slaveholder, or one who will
act with exclusive reference to Slavery, is ever allow
ed to represent the State in auy National Convention,
in either branch ot Congress, or in any high position
of civil trust and political power. Tbe slaveholding
class, small as it is, is the governing class, and
shapes legislation and guides all public action lor the
advancement of its own interests and the promotion
of its own ends. During all that time, and from that
lime even to the present, all slaveholding delegates
in National Conventions, upon whatever else they
may differ, always concur in imposing upon the Con
vention assent to their requmitiuua in c cgm4 tASIaverv.
as the indispensable condition of their support Hold
ing thus in their hands power to decide the result ot
the election, and using that power uudeviatingly and
sternly for the extortion of their demands, they have
always been able to control the nominations of both
parties, and thus, whatever may be the issue, lo se
cure a President who is sure to be the instrument of
their behests. Thus has it come to pass that for
twenty years we have never had a Presideet who
would appoint to the humblest otuce within his gilt,
in any section of the Union, any man known to hold
opinions hostile to Slavery, or to be active in resist
ing its aggression and usurpations of power. Men,
the most upright and most respectable, in States
where slavery i only known by name, have been in
eligible to the smallest trust have been held unfit to
distribute letters from the Federal post-office to their
neighbors, or trim the lamps of a light-house upon the
remotest point of our extended coast. Millions of our
citizens have been thus disfranchised for their opin
ions concerning Slavery, and tbe vast patronage ot the
General Government has been systematically wielded
in its service and for tbe promotion of its designs.
It was by such a discipline, and under such in
fluences, that the Government and the country were
prepared for the second great stride of Slavery to
ward new dominion, and tor the avowal of motives by
which it was attended.
ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND THE . WAR WITH
MEXICO.
Texas was admitted into the Union on the 29th of
December, 1845 with a constitution forbidding the
abolition of Slavery, and a stipulation that four more
states should become member of the Confederacy,
whenever they might be formed within her limits.
and with or without Slavery, a their inhabitant
might decide. Tbe General Government thus made
virtual provision tor the addition ot Ave new slave
States to the U nion practically securing to the slave
holding interest ten additional member in the Senate
representing States, it might be, with less than
1,000,000 inhabitants, aud outvoting live ot the old
States with an aggregate population of 11, 000,000.
The corrupt aud tyrannical Kings of England, when
votes were needed in the House ot Lard to sustain
them against the people, created Peers as the emer
gency required. Is there in tins anything in more
flagrant contradiction to the principles of Republican
Freedom, or more dangerous to the public liberties,
than in the system practiced by the slaveholding inter
est represented in the General Government.
But a third opportunity was close at hand, and
Slavery made a third struggle for the extension of its
domain and the enlargement of its power.
The annexation of Texas involved us in war with
Mexico. The war was waged on our part with vigor,
skill, and success. It resulted in Hie cession to the
United States of New Mexico, California, and Dese
ret, vast territories over which was extended by Mex
ican law a prohibition of Slavery. The slaveholder
demanded access o them all resisted the admission
of California and New Mexico, which the energy of
freemen, outstripping in il activity the Government
and even the slaveholding interest, bad already con
verted into Free States, and treasonably menaced
Congress and the Union with overthrow if its demands
were not conceded. Tbe free spirit of the country
was roused to indignation by these pretensions, and
for a time the whole nation rocked to the tempest
which they had created. Untoward events aided the
wrong. The death of the President threw the whole
power of the Administration into timid and faithless
hands. Party resentments and party ambitions in
terposed against the right. Great men, leaders of the
people, from whom in better days the people bad
learned lessons of principle and patriotism, yielded
to tbe bowlings of tbe storm and sought shelter, in
submission, from its rage. The slaveholding interest
was again victorious. California, with her free con
stitution, was indeed admitted to the Union; but
New Mexico, with her constitution forbidding Slavery
within her borders, was denied admission and re
manded to the condition of a Territory: and while
Congress refused to enact a positive prohibition of
. . m . J- T ( - , .
slavery in tne Territories oi new aiexicoanu iseserei,
it was provided that, when they should spply for ad
mission as States, they should come in with or with
out Slavery, as their inhabitants might decide. Ad
ditional concessions were made to tbe Slave Power :
tbe General Governmsat assumed the rscspturt of
lugitive slaves, and passed laws for the accomplish
ment of that end, subversive at once of State sove
reignty, and of the established safeguard of civil
freedom. Then the country again had real. Weane.t
with it efforts, or content with their success, lbs
slaveholding interest proclaimed a trurp.
When franklin Fierce, on the -lib ot March, 1-jS.
became President of tbe United States, no controversy
growing out of Slavery was agitating the country
Established Isws, some of them enacted with unusual
aoleirnily and under circumstances which made them
ot more than ordinary obligation, had fixed the char
acter of all the States, and ended the contest conrern-
ing the 1 erritories. Sixteen States were Fiw State?,
and fifteen States were Slave Slates. By lb M issmirt
Compromise of 1820, Slavery was forever prohibited
from all the Louisiana Territory Ivmg north ot'lhe line
of 'M deg. 30 mill.; while over that Territory Ivini;
south ot that line, and over the Territory of Men
Mexico and Deserer, no such prohibition had been ex -tended.
The whole country reposed upon this arrange
ment. All sections and all interests, whether approving
it or not, seemed loaiouieme m its irin-. I neslavi-
holding interest, through all its organs, and especially
through the General Government, proclaimed that this
was a Imal and irrep-alable aJjUstiu.-iit ot the striiGrle
between Freedom aud Slavery tor political power-
that it bad been aflecied bv mutual concessions and in
the spirit of compromise and that it should be as en
during as the Union and a sacred as the Constitution
itself. Both political parlies gave it their sanction m
their National Conventions the whole country ab
sented to its vi, I ul i ly; and President Pierce, in Lie
first official message lo Congress, pledged himself Id
use all the power of bis position lo prevent it from
being disturbed.
But all these protestations proved delusive, and ll.r
acquieseuve and contentment winch they produced
afforded the opportunity not only for new aggressions
on the part of Shivery, but for the repudiation of en
gagements into Inch itsagentt had solemnly entered.
Less than a year bad elapsed before these pledges
were broken, and the advantage!: which they secured
to Freedom withdrawn by the slaveholding power.
KATLAL OF THE MlSSiiLIU I'liMI'ROMIKE.
Ill the course ot time and the natural progress of
population, that portion of the Louisiana Territory,
lying weit of the Mississippi River and north of the
line of :i deg. 31) nun., came lo he desired for occu
pation ; and on the 24th of May, 1854, an act wa
passed erecting upon it the two Territories of Kansas
aud Nebraska, and organising governments fur them
both. From this whole region the slaveholding inte
rest thirty-four years before had agreed that Slavery
and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the pun
ishment ot crime, should be forever prohibited," and
bad received, as the price of this agreement, the ad
mission ot Missouri, slid subsequently the admission
of Arkansas, into the Union. By the Kansas and Ne
braska bill, this prohibition was declared to be " in
operative and noii," aud the intent and meaning of
the bill was further declared lo lie, "not to legislate
Slavery into any Territory or State, nnr to excludr
it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof per
fectly free to form aud regulate their ilome-tic instt.
tutions in their own way, subject only to the Consti
tution ot the United tttates." Thus, without a single
petition for such action from any quarter of the Union,
but against tbe earnest remonstrances of thousands of
our citizens against the settled and profound convic
tions of the great body of the people in every portion
of the country, and in wanton disregard of the obliga
tions of justice and of good faith, the Missouri Com
promise of ls20 was repealed, and the seal which had
guaranteed Freedom to that vast Territory which the
United Stales bad purchased from France was
snatched from the bond. Oregon, Washington, New
Mexico, Deserel, and the new State acquired from
Texas north ot 30 deg. 30 nun., by compact, were all
opened up to Slavery, a.id those who might first be
come the inhabitants thereof were authorized to make
laws for its establishment and perpetuation.
THE INVASION OF KANSAS AND ACTION OF THE
GENERAL GOVERNMENT.
Nor did the slaveholding interest stop here in its
crusade of injustice and of wrong. The first election
of members for the Territorial legislature of Kansas
was fixed for the 30th of March, 185Ti, and the law of
Congress prescribed that at that election none but
"actual residents of the Territory" should be allowed
to vote. Yet, to prevent people of the Territory them
selves from exercising the right to prohibit Slavery,
which the Act of Congress had conferred upon them,
the slaveholding interest sent armed hands of men
from the neighboring Slate of Missouri, who entered
the Territory on the day of election, took possession of
the polls, excluded the legal voters, and proceeded
themselves to elect members of the Legislature w ab
out the slighest regard to the qualifications prescribed
by law. The Judges of Election appointed under the
authority of the Administration at Washington aided
and abetted in the perpetration of these outrages
upon tbe rights ot tne people ot Kansas, and the
President ot the United States removed from office
the Governor whom he had himself appointed, but
who refused to acknowledge tbe Legislature which
the slaveholding invaders from Missouri bad thus
imposed upon the I erntory.
That Legislature met on the 2d of July, lSOo. iu
first act was to exclude those members, duly elected,
who would not consent to the enactment of laws for
the admission of Slavery into the Territory. Having
thus silenced all opposition to its behests, the Legisla
ture proceeded to the enactment of Jaws for the gov
eminent of Kansas upon the subject of Slavery. The
laws of Missouri iu regard to it were first extended
over the Territory. Il was then enacted Uiat every
person who should raise an insurrection or rebellion oi
negroes in the Territory ; every person who should
entice away a slave with intent to procure his free
dom ; every person who should aid or assist in so en
ticing away a slave within the Territory ; and every
person who should entice or carry away a slave from
any other Stale or Territory of the Union, and bring
him within the Territory of Kansas, with the intent to
elt'ect or procure bis freedom, upon the conviction
thereof should eulfer Death. It wss further euacled
that if any person should write, print or publish any
book, paper, argument, opinion, advice or inuendo.
calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous or re
bellious disaffection among the slaves in the Territory,
or to induce them to escape from their masters, he
should be deemed guilty of a felony, and be pun
ished by imprisonment at hard labor tor a term not
less than five tears; and that if any free person, by
speaking or writing, should assert or maintain that
persons have not the right to hold slaves in that Ter
ritory; or should introduce or circulate any book,
paper, pamphlet or circular containing any such de
nial of the right of persons to hold slaves in that
Territory he should be deemed guilty of felony, and
be punished by imprisonment at bard labor for a term
not less than two year. It was still further enacted
by the same Legislature that every free white male
citizen ot the United States, and inhabitant of tbe
Territory, who should pay a tax of one dollar and
take an oath to support the Constitution of tbe United
States, the act organizing the Territory of Kansas,
the Territorial laws, and the act for the recapture of
fugitive slaves, should be entitled to vote at any elec
tion in said Territory thus making citizens ot Mis
souri or of sny other State legal voters in Kansas,
upon their presentation at the polls, upon taking the
oath (prescribed, and upon payment of one dollar
m direct violation of ths spirit of the act of Congress,