t Huntington nitril l.
WILLIAM BREWSTER, I EDITORS,
SAX. G. WHITTAKER, f
Clje ‘fains:
SPIIMUZ
SEHUVLER COLFAX,
OF INDIANA,
In the Rouse of Representatives.
JUNE 21, 1836.
TILE House being in Committee of the Wholo
on the State of the Uni on the Army op.
propriation bill,
Mr. Colfax said
Mr. Cllllll.lle I desire to wive notice that
I shall move, when we reach the third clause
of the pending Army bill, the following amend.
meet; and I rend it now, because the remarks
I shall make today are designed to show its
necessity,
"But Congress, hereby disapproving of the
code of alleged lows officially communicated
to them by the President, and which are rep
resented to have been enacted by a body claim
lug to be the Territorial Legislature of Kan
sas, and also disapproving of the manner in
which said alleged laws have been enforced
by the authorities of said Territory, expressly
declare that until these alleged laws shall
have been affirmed by the Senate and House
of Representatives as having been enacted by
a legal Legislature, chosen in conformity with
the organic law by people of Kansas, no part
of the military force of the United States shall
be employed in aid of their enforcement; nor
shall any citizens of Kansas be required, un•
der their provisions, to act as a part of the
posse contilatos of any officer acting as mar
shal or sheriff in said Territory."
My especial object today is to speak rela
tive to this code of lawn, now in soy hand,
which has emanated from a no-called Begin!.
tive Assembly of Kansas ; and fur the making
of which your constituents, in common with
mine, have paid their proportion—the whole
having been paid for out of the Treasury of
the tailed States. In speaking of the pro.
visions embodied in thin voluminous document
and of the manner in which these "laws" have
been enforced, I may feel it my duty to use
plain and direct language; and I find my ex
empler, as well as 9 , jurisdiction for it, in the
unlimited freedom of debate which, from the
first day of the session, has been claimed and
exercised by gentlemen of the other aide of the
House. And, recognizing that freedom of de
bate as we have, to the fullest extent, subject
only to the rules of the House, we intend to
exercise it on thin side, when we mny see fit
to do so, in the same ample manner. Hence,
when we bare been so frequently called "fan.
alien," and other epithets of denunciation, no
one on theseseats has even called gentleman of
the other side to order.. When it has pleased
them to denounce us as Black Republicans or ;
colored Republicans, we have taken no except. !
tion to the attack, for we regard freedom of
speech as one of the pillars of our free
tutions. When, not content with this they
have charged us with itnpiled perjury, in be•
ing hostile to the constitution, and unfaithful
to Union, !we have been content to leave the
world to judge between us and our accusers...
a sanctuary in which principles will have more
weight than denunciation. In spite of all !
these attacks we hare not been moved to any
attempt to restrict the most perfect and unlit,
Bed freedom of speech on the part of our de
nouncers; for we acknowledged the truth of
Jefferson's sentimer.t, that "Error ceases to he
dangerous, when Reason is leR free to combat
it."
If that constitutional safeguard of our rights
and liberties, free speech in debate, is to he
recogLized, enforced, and protected, in this
House. Every Representative of a free con
stitueticy, if worthy of that responsible position
ehould speak here at all times, not 'bated breath'
bet openly and fearlessly, the sentiments of
that constituency; fur sir it is not alone the
two hundred and thirty four members of this
'louse who mingle in this arena of debate;
hut here, within this bar, are the teeming mib
liens of American freemen, not individually
participating, as in Athens in the olden tune,
in the enactment of laws and the discussion
and settlement of the foreign and domestic
policy of the nation; but still, sir, participa•
wig in the persons of their representatives,
whom they have commissioned to speak for
them, in the important questions which are
presented for our emsiderations. Here, in
this august presence, before the whole Amen
can people, thus represented,stand, and niu,t
ever st end, States and statesmen, legislators
and jurists, parties and principles, t 6 be sub
jected to the severest scrutiny and the most
searehing review. Here Alabama arraigns
Massachusetts, as she has done through the
mouth of one of her Representatives but a
few weeks since , and here Massachusetts has
equally the right to arraign any other State of
the Confederacy. And while the Republic
stands, this freedom of debate, guaranteed and
protected by the Constitution, must and will
be substuined on this floor.
Mr. Chairman, I feel compelled, on this oc
casion, therefore, by truth, and by a conscien.
tient; conviction of what I know to be the feel
lug of my ronstituents—for whom I speak as
much as 1 do for myself—to denounce, as I do
this day, the "code" of the so called Legisla
ture of Kansas, as a code of tyranny and op
pression, a code of outrage and of wrong, ,
which would disgrace the Legislature of any
State of the Union, as it disgraces the Goths
and Vandals, who after invading and conquer.
ing the Territory, thus attempted to play the
despot over its people, and to make the white
citizens of Kansas greater slaves than the blacks
of Missouri. No man can examine the decrees
of Louis Napoleon, no matter how ignorant he
may have been of the procession of events in
France for the past six years, without having
the conviction forced upon his mind that they l
emanated from an usurper and a despot. The
very enactments embodied in these decrees
bear testimony against him. The limitations
on the right of the subject; the mockery of the
pretended freedom of elections which he has'
vouchsafed to the people; the rigid censorship
of the press; the shackles upon the freedom
of speech; all combine to prove that they em
anate from an autocrat, who, however men may
differ as to the wisdom of Isis statesmanship,
undoubtedly governs France with a strong
arm and an iron rule. And so, sir, no unprej
udiced man can rise from a candid perusal of
this code without being thoroughly convinced
that it never emanated from a legislature vol.
untarily chosen by the people whom it profess.
es to govern, but that it was dictated and enac
ted by usurpers and tyrants, whose leading ob.
,sect was to crush out some sentiment predom.
want amongst that people, but dista steful:and
offensive to these usurping kurielators. I know
this is a strong assertion; but in the hour of
your time which I shall occupy, I shall prove
this assertion from the intrinsic evidence of
the rode itself.
Before I proceed to make an anylysis of l
these laws, which I hold were never legally
enacted were never fit to be mask, nor fit to be
obeyed by a free people, let me say a few words
in regard to the manner in which they have
been administered and enforced. We have
heard of murder after murder in Kansas—mar.
ders of men for the singular crime of prefer
ring Freedom to Slavery; but you have not
heard of any one single attempt by any court
in that Territory to indict any one of those
murderers. The bodies of Jcnes, of Dow, of
Barber and others, murdered in cold blood are
mouldering away and joining the silent dust ;
yet one of the murderers this very day holds a
Territorial office in Kansas, and another of
them holds an office of Influence and rank lITI.
der the authority of the General Government,
while neither the Territorial nor the General
Government inquire into the crimes they have
c =milted, or the justification for their broth ,
er's blood that stains their hands.
_ _
I wish first Mr. Chairman, to n speakof the
manner in which the Chief ustice, sitting as
the supreme judicial officer of the Territory
of Kansas, has performed the functions of
his office. I have no imputation to make
upon him as a man of moral character or of
judicial ability. Ido not say he has wilfully
and corruptly violated his official oath; for I
can say that authoritatively in only one way—
and that is, that by a voting for his impeach
ment I shall not comment, sir on the extraordi
nary manner in which be has enforced the
Kansas code, with Draconian severity, against
all who advocated Freedom for Kansas, but
with a serene leniency towards all who did not
pushing its severest provisions to the extremest
point in one case and forgetting apparently,
that it contains any penalties whatever in the
other. But I desire to draw the attention of
the House to the fact, proved by the code its
elf, that this "Legislature" have used every ex•
ertion within their power to make that Judge
the interested champion and advocate of the
validity of their enactments. Pecuniary in
terest, sir, is a powerful argument with man
kind generally. We all see and we all recog
nize this fact as a truism which no logician de
nies. The Administration that gives a man
an extensive or a profitable contract may rea
sonably expect to find him a supporter, The
Legislature that confers on a man a valuable
charter, would have a right to feel surprised
if he did not decide in favor of the legality
and the constitutionality of their enactments t
as well as use all of his influence in their fa
vor, if their authority to act as granitors was
' disputed, and if his character fell to the ground
as worthless, in case their right to grant it was
overthrown. It is true, some men aro so pure
as not to be etTected by such things; but in the
human tnind cannot tail to be thus influenced
even if it is not absolutely controlled.
Now if you will turn to the concluding por
tion of this "code of laws," you will find one
; hundred and forty pages of it, over one sixth
of the whole, devoted to corporations, shingled
in profusion over the whole Territory, granting
charters for railroads, insurance companies tell
bridges, ferries universities, mining companies
plank roads, and, in fact, all kinds of charters
that are of value to their recipients, and, in
deed more, than will be needed there for many
years. No less than four or five hundred per
sona (not containing one hundred Territorial
road commissioners) have been thus *uncorpo
rated, and have been made the recipients of
the basely of the legislation of Kansas, ma
king a great portion, if not all of them, inter
ested advocates to sustain the legality of those
laws now in dispute before the the American
people. I need scarcely add, that the name of
; nearly every citizen of Kansas who has been
conspicuous in the recent bloody Beetles in that
Territory on the side of Slavery, can be found
among the favored grantees and all them know
that if that Legislature is proved to be illegal
and fraudulent, their grants become value
less.
In quoting from this code of the laws of the
Legislature of Kansas, I desire to state that
I quote from Executive document No. 23. sub
mitted to this House by the President of the
United States, and printed by the public prin.
ter of Congress. It is entitled "Laws of the
Territory of Kansas," and forms a volume of
eight hundred and twenty-three pages. I no
tice that many members have a copy of this j
code before them ; now; and as many people
as they discuss these enactments around the
hearth stone at home, cannot believe they are
authentic, I will take pains to quote the see.
lion and pages of every law I allude to, and
will say to gentlemen upon the other side, that
if they findme quoting incorrectly in a single
instance, or in the minutest particular, essen
tial or non.ersential, I call upon them to cor
rect me on the spot. I wish to lay the exact
truth, no more, no less, from this official me
ord itself authenticated as it is by the President
of the United States himself, before Congress
and the American people.
You will find in this code of laws that Mr,
Isaacs, the district attorney for Kansas, figures
in four acts of incorporation, and cannot fail,
therefore, to believe in the legality of their en
actment. Mr. L. N. Reese figures in three
I more ; Mr. L. J. Bastin in three ; Stringfellow
in three, of course ; and R. R. Reese in five—
all of them earnest defenders of the code of its
provisions, as might be expected. But I de.
sire niece particularly to show you the incorpo
rations in which the Territory of Kansas hone
given an interest to the Chief Justice °like
, Territory, bulge Leconip:e, sitting though he
1 does upon the jedicial bench, to decide upon
the validity of thee Territorial laws. You will
find him on page 788, incorporated as one of
the regents of the Kansas University ; but I
pass by that as of very little moment. At page
760 you will find a charter for the Central
Railroad Company, with a capital of $1,000,000
in which S. A Lecompte is one of the !twerp.
raters. The Chief Justice's name is S. L. Le
compte ; and as I cannot hear of any other
person of the name of Lecompte in the territo.
ry, I have no doubt that this is a misprint in
the middle initial, and that his name was in
tended. But I will give him the benefit of the
doubt, and pass over this charter. On page
769 you find another charter, in which Chief
Justice S. D. Lecompte figures as a corpora.
tor. It is the charter of the Leavenworth,
Pawnee, and Western Railroad, which, in the
opinion of many, is destined to be a link in the
great Pacific Railroad, or at least an important
section in one of its branches. It is chartered
with a capital of $5,000,000, and five years'
time is given for the grantees to commence
the work. This charter, valuable as it must
become as the Territory advances in population
and wealth, is presented as a free gill to Judge
Lecompte and his associates by the mock Leg
'stature of Kansas. Of course, in all these
charters the directors are to open books for the
subscription of stock, keeping them open " as
long as they may deem proper;" no barrier ex
isting against their subscribing the whole stock
if they choose so to do. But I desire to draw
attention pargicularly to another grant to be
found on page 77 t, in ebich this same impar
4, LIBERTY ,AND UNION, NOW AND POREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE. "
HUNTINGDON;' PA WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1856.
tial Judge, S. D. Lecompte, with nina other
persons, ate incorporated as the Leavenworth
and Leoompton Railroad; and I ask you to no.
Lice, and explain if you can, the difference
which exists between that and other railroad
incorporations.
In the first place, the other railroad charters
are granted to certain persons in continuous
succession. In this charter, with a capital of
$3,000,000, for a railroad from Leavenworth to
his favorite city of Lecompton, (which was
made the capital of the Territory by this same
Legislature) with an indefinite and unrestrain•
ed power to build branch railroads from the
carkal in any and every direction, Judge Le.
=opt., and his associates, including Woodson,
the Secretary of the Territory, are, granted
perpetual succession. In section 21, page 777,
there is this special objection, which, though
brief in its language, is momentous to its im
portance, for the benefit of Judge Lecompte
it Co.
sections seven, thirteen and twenty of
article first, and so much of section 11, article
second, as relates to stock owned, of an act
crincerning corporations, shall not apply to this
act."
In the examination which I gave to these
laws, it struck me that this exception of this
charter, for the benefit of Lecompton and Le
compte, from the provisions of the general
law relative to corporations, was singular, to
say the least 1 RIO I turned back to the general
law, to see the character of the provisions thus
suspended so far as this act was concerned; and
the proof that it furnishes of the intention on
the part of the Legislature, to make Judge Le.
compton interested ir. their behalf, is so strong,
that I will refer you to these sections as circum•
stantial evidence of no ordinary character.
Section seven of the general corporation
law (see page 164) provides as follows:
" The charter of every corporation that shall
hereafter be granted by law, shall be subject
to alteration, suspension, or repeal, by any sue•
seeding Legislature Provided, such alteration
suspension, or repeal, shall in no wise conflict
with any right vested in such corporation by
its charter."
But in Lecompte's charter, the power even
to afnend it is, by the suspension of the above
section, withheld from any "succeeding Legis•
lature," even if said Legislature, or the people
of Kansas, unanimously desired its amendment.
Sec. 13 (page 165) makes the stockholders
of all corporations individually liable for its
debts. But this, too, is suspended by the mock
Legislature of Kansas, for the beneht of Judge
Lecompte.
Section twenty (ace page 116) makes direr•
tors liable for debts incurred by them exceed.
ing the capital stock. But this also, is suspen•
ded iu Judge Lecompte's chartet, and he is one
of the directors of the road.
But there is still another extraordinary pro.
vision in this charter, which I find in no other
grant of this Legislature. Section fifteen (page
7761 provides :
"If said company shall require for the con•
.traction or repair of said road, any stone, gre.
vel, or other materials, from the land of any
person adjoining to or NEAR said road, and
cannot contract for the same with the owner
thereof; said company may proceed to take
possession of and use the genie, and have the
propert y assessed," Ac.
Not only are they empowered to take stone,
gravel, and other materials, including timber,
of s .ch great value in Kansas, from land titre
which the road runs, but also from ..adjoining"
tracts; and still further, from tracts "near amid
road," which may be construed to mean ono
mile, or five miles, or ten miles oft, as the case
may be. And if the owner refuses to part with
his timber or gravel, the company are
zed to take it first, and pay fbr it afterwards;
and the man who resists, and seeks to protect
his own property, would be amenable to the
peualties of this bloody code for resisting "the
laws of Kansas." What was the object of these
extraordinary grants and privileges to Judge
Lecompte and his associates, I submit fur the
American people to decide.
Before I leave this Judge—tire central figure
ao he is of the group of men in Kansas who are
using the power of the Judiciary as it was nsed
during "the bloody assizes" in England and
the Reign of Terror in France, to enforce the
decrees of tyranny—l must call attention to his
charge to the last grand jury which he address.
ed in Kansas; and in which, instead of alluding
to the destruction of property of Free State
men by unauthorized mobs ; to the tarring and
feathering, and other personal outrages, to
which many of then, bad been subjected; to the
repeated invasions of the Territory by armed
marauders, of which he bad been a witness;
and to the murders of unotrending Free State
men, of which he could not have failed to heart
his virtuous desire to uphold "the laws" found
vent in another direction—the direction of per.
secution instead of protection. I quote from
this extraordinary charge, as published in the
National Intelliyencer of this city, of June 5,
1856, the following paragraph
"This Territory was organized by an act of
Congress, and, so far, its authority is from the
United States. It has aLegislature, elected in
pursuance of that organic act. This Legisla•
tare, being an instrument of Congress by which
it governs the Territory, has passed laws.—
These laws, therefore, are of United States'ina•
king and authority, and all that resist these
laws resist the power and authority of the Cid.
ted States, and are therefore guilty of high
treason,
"Now, gentlemen, if you flud that any per-
sons have resisted these laws, then you must
under your oaths, find bills against such per•
sons for high treason. Ifyou find that no such
resistance has been made, but that combine:
tions have been formed for thel purpose of resis
ting them, and individuals of influence and no.
torieS7 have been aiding and ahetting in such'
combinations, then 711118 i you still find hills for
constructive treason, ike."
Mr. Chairman, I am no lawyer; but I think
I understand the force of the English language;
and when I read iu the Constitution of the
United States that "Treason against the Uni
ted States shall consist ONLY so levying war '
against them, or in adhering to their enemies,
giving them aid and comfort," I do not hesitate
to brand that charge of Judgo Lecompte, under
which Governor Robinson was indicted for
treason, and is now sunder confinement and re-
Need bail, as grossly, palpably unjust, and
wholly unauthorized by the Constitution. To
concede his argument, that to resist, or "to
torm for the purpose of resisting," the Territo•
toilet laws, is treason against the United States,
because Congress authorized a Legislature to
pass laws, leads you irresistibly to the addi
tional positim, that to resist the orders of the
county boards created by that Legislature is
also treason, for these boards are but one fur.
ther remove from the fountain-head of power.
And thus, sir, "the extreme medicine of the
Constitution would become its daily bread ,"
and the man who even objected to the opening
of a road through his premises, would be sub
je,•l to the rains end penalties of . tre.nri. No,
sir; that charge is only another link in the
chain of tyranny, which the Pro-Slavery rulers
of that Territory are encoiling around its peo
ple. And when the defenders of these proceed.
logs ask us to trust to the impartiality of courts,
I answer them by pointing to this charge, and
also to the judicial decrees of the Territory, by
authority of which numbers a' faithful citizens
of the United Staten have been indicted, impri
soned, and harrassed—by authority of which
the town of Lawrence was sacked and bomber
ded—by authority of which printing presses
were destroyed, without legal notice to their
owners, and costly buildings cannonaded and
consumed, without giviug the slightest oppor
tunity to their proprietors to be heard in oppo.
ration to these decrees; all part and parcel of
the plot to drive out the friends of Freedom
from the Territory, so that Slavery might take
unresisted possession of its villages and plains.
It might have been supposed that, at least,
one of those rights dear to all American free.
men—the trial by an impartial jury—would
have been left for the people of Kansas unit.
paired. But when the invaders and conquerers
of Kamm, in their border ruffian Legislature,
struck down all the rights of freemen, they did
not even leave them this with which they might
possibly have had some chance of justice, even
against the hostility of Presidents, the tyranny
of Governors and the hatred of Judges. But
the first section of the act concerning jurors
(see page 377) enacts that "AU courts, before
whom jurors are required, may order the mar
shal, 81.1101 or other officer, to summon a suffi
cient number of jurors."
The whole matter is left to the discretion of
these officers ; and Marshal Donaldson or "She.
rift' Jones" pack juries with just tallell men as
they prefer, and whom they know will be their
willing instruments. For a Free State man to
hope for justice from such a jury, charged by
such a judge as Lecompte, would be to ask that
the miracle by which the three Israelites passed
through the fiery furnace of their persecutors
unscathed, should be daily re,enacted in the
jurisprudence of Kansas. l•Friy, more, sir—to
make assurance doubly sure, the same law, in
regard tojurors excludes all but Pro.Slaver7
men from the jury box in all cases relating di
rectly or indirectly to Slavery; for here is its
thirteenth section (page 378 :)
"No person who is conscientiously opposed
to the holding slaves, or who does riot admit the
right to hold slaves in this territory, shall be a
juror in any cause in which the right to hold
any person in slavery is involved, nor in any
cause in which any injury done to, er commit•
ted by any slave, is in issue, nor in any crimi.
nal proceeding for the violation of any law en•
acted for the protection of slave property, and
for the punishment of crime committed against ;
the rig. to such property."
I leave this dark picture of this jurisprudence
of Kansas, and turn now to the laws them•
selves—"lmes" that were, as late as the 9th of
February, 1856, over two months after the ope
ning of this session, thus spoken of by the De.
troit Free Press, the °roe of General Cass
and one of the lending Deniocratio papers of
the Northwest
"But the President should pause long before
treating as treasonable insurrection the action
of those inhabitants of Kansas who deny the
binding authority of the .Missouri Kansas Leg.
islature ; for, in our humble opinion, a people 1
that would not be inclined to rebel against the
acts of a legislative body forced upon them by
fraud and violenec, would be unworthy the name
of 111170 . 1.71. If there was ever justifiable
cause for popular revolution against a usurp.
ing and obnoxious Government, that cause has
existed in Kansas."
The President of the United Stales has de.
Oared in his special message to Congress, in
his proclamation, and in his orders to Governor
Shannon and Colonel Sumner, through his
Secretary of State and Secretary of War, that
this code of Territorial laws is to be enforced
by the full exercise of his power. Ile has, of
course, read them, and knows of their provi•
sions. He must know that they trample on the
organic law. which his official signature breath.
ed into life. Ho 7.8 i know that they trample
on the Constitution of the United States, which
he and we have sworn to support. Reading
them as he has, he could have chosen rather to
support the law of Congress and the national
Constitution ; but he preferred to declare pub.
tidy his intention of assisting, with all his pow.
cr and authority, the enforcement of this code,
which repudiates both. The National Demo.
erotic Convention also, at Cincinnati delimit,
ced "treason and armed resistance to the lawn"
in a marked and special manner t and if there
was any dlubt as to the object of the denuneht•
lion, the speech of the author of the Nebraska
bill hitnself, Mr. Douglass, at the ratification
meeting in this city, a few nights since, shows
plainly his "intent aud meaning." Wishing to
do no injustice to any one, I quote from his
speech, as reported in the National Democratic
organ here, the Washington Union,of June 10,
which I hold in my hand:
"The platform was equally explicit in refer•
ence to the disturbances in relation to the Ter•
ritory of Kansas. It decayed that treason was
to be punished, and resistance to the lows was
to be put down." * * * * *
"Ile rejoiced that the Convention, by a una•
nimous vote had approved of the creed that
law must and shall prevail. [Applause.] Ile
rejoiced that we had a standard bearer [Mr.
Buchanan] with so much wisdom and nerve as
to enforce a firm and undivided execution of
those laws."
And Mr. Buchanan, after the nomination, re
plied to the Keystone Club, who called on him
on thou' return from Cincinnati, as follows
"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have
made you a longer speech, but now 1 have been
placed open a platform of which I most hettili.
ly approve, and that con 'rah far me. Being
the representative of the great Democratic par
ty, and not simply James Buchanan, I must
square my conduct according to the platform
of that party, and insert no new plank, nor take
one from it. That platform is sufficiently
broad and national for the whole Democratic
party."
I slier now proceed toshow you no less than
eecen palpable violations of the organic law,
(the Nebraska bill,) incorporated into this code
by the bogus Legislature which enacted it.—
the President, 3 - edge Douglas, and Mr. Bu
chanan, who are all pledged "to enforce these
Territorial laws," cannot have failed t t notice
that the conquerors of Kansas enacted their
code, regardless of whether its provisions coin
cided with the organic law or not ; but, never
theless, where they differ, the law of the United
I States is to be ignored, and the pro-Slavery be.
bests of the Kansas invaders are to be carried
out at the point of the bayonet, if necessary.
First. Section twenty-two of the Nebraska
bill enacts that the Minn of Representatives
in Kansas shall consist of twentysia members,
"whoae term of service shall continue one year."
That does not mean eighteen, nineteen, or
twenty months, but "one year," and one year
only. The Legislature of Kansan was elected
on the 10th day of --,day which hea be
come famous from the discussions in this
House and elsevrhere in regard to it ; and, sir,
if you will turn to page 280 of this Ka 181113 code
you will see that there is not to be election
for members of the lower House of the Legisla
ture until the first Monday in October, in the
year 1856—over eighteen months since the
first Legislature was elected. If you turn, then,
to page 403, you will find that no regular ses
sion of that Legislature is to be held until Jan
uary, 1857 I so that the term of that House of
Representatives, in defiance of the organic law,
is prolonged to twenty-two months instead of
twelve months. Sir, their term has expired
now. There is to legislature is the Territory
of Kansas this day.; and therefore, in the lan•
gunge of the Declaration of Independence, "the
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation,
have returned to the people at large for their
exercise." Fier exercising them, however, in
no conflict with the Territorial Government, but
carefully avoiding it and abstainiug from put
ting any legislation in tome, but only organi
sing as a State to apply fur admission here, as
"a redress for their grievances"—for doing
this the court of Judge Lecompte arraigns them
for treason, and scatters its indictments all over
the Territory.
Second, The same section of the Kansas ot•
genic law says that the members of the council
shall serve for "two years ;" but their term has
been prolonged in the same manner to nearly
three years, so that the couusellore elected in
March, 1855, remain in office until the lit of
January 1858 —longer than a member of this
House holds his neat by the authority of his
constituents. And it is to this Legislature, the
Senatorial branch of which, even if legally elec•
ted, should expire in nine months from this
time, but which, in defiance of the organic law,
have taken upon themselves to extend their
term to a period nineteen months distant, that
Judge Douglas desires, in his bill, to submit
the question of when a census shaft be taken
preparatory to admission as a State and to
clothe them with the superintendence of the
movements in the Terr itory, preliminary to said
admission. When we have investigated to-day
the "constitutionality," the :justice," the "im•
partiality," the "humanity,' of their acts thus
far, no one will need to ask, why I am not wit.
ling, for one, to give thorn the slightest degree
of power or authority hereafter, but, or the con
trary, desire to take from them that which they
have illegally usurped and tyrannically exer
cised.
But, if to these two polete it is replied that
the term of the house of Representatives was
intended by this mock Legislature to expire on
the 30th of March, 185 G, ten months before
the new Rouse takes its seat, and the Council,
in March, 1857, ten months before the Council
meets, it follows that, though the Nebraska bill
extended "popular sovereignty" by giving the
President absolute control of two of the three
branches of the Government, the Executive
, and Judicial, and left to the people only the
Legislative, subject to a two thirds veto of the
President's Governor, thin Legislature so legia
tales that there Is no lions° of Representatives
there from March, 1856, to January, 1857
and no Council from March, 1857, to January
1858—in a word, no that there can be no Leg
islature In the Territory from March, 1856, to
January, 1858, except from January to March,
1857, BARELY TWO MONTHS OUT Or TWIINTY.
TWO!
Third. The next violation of theorganic law
is the enacting of a Fugitive Slave Law in that
Territory t although by section twenty-eight of
the Nebraska bill, the Fugitive Slave Law of
the United States was declared "to extend and I
be in full force within the limits of the 'ferrite
ry of Kansas." This is clue of the violations
that I do not complain much about, fur, in some
respects, the Territorial law is milder than the
national one, and requires the slave claimant to
pay the coats in advance I but I allude to it to
chow the utter recklessness of the Kansas leg.
islators, and their disregard of the law of Con.
gross. By this law, (sections 28 and 29, page
329,) persons are prohibited from taking fugi
tives from the Territory, except in accordance
with its provisions, and are fined 500 doliars if
they do so.
Fourth. The expenses of the Territory are
paid, as is well known, out of the National
j Treasury ; and section 30 of the Nebraska bill,
I enacts that the chief clerk of the Legiskture
shall receive four dollars per day, and the other
clerks three dollars per day. But on page 4.1.1
' oldie Kansas code, you will Gad an extra dou
ceur to the clerks, of fifteen nod twenty cents
per hundred words fur indexing and copying
journals; on page 143 seedier late, declaring
that, if the Secretary (when acting as Governor
after Governor Herder's removal) should refuse
his assent to the above, the chief and assistant
, clerks should receive 00 each out of the Tree
' stay, besides their per diem ; and on the next
page, page 148, the pay of the enrolling and en
grossing clerks is increased to four dollurs per
day,. on the like contingency, although the or.
game law expressly fixed it at three dollars per
day. The legislators acted as if they had not
only convered the people of Kansas, but the
National Treasury also.
Fifth, Section twenty-two of the organic law
gives the Governor, exclusively, the right of de•
termining who were elected members of the
Legislature. Ile did so, throwing out about one.
third of the members elected at the first elec.
ties, the reign of teeror and of violence prevent.
ing more contests of other equally fraudulent
returns. But the Legislature, when assembled
without examination of the merits of each cane
and without the authority of committing such
an act at all, threw out all the members elected
at the second election, and admitted in their
stead those whose right to scats the Governor
had expressly denied.
Sixth. Section twenty-four of the organic law
enacts t
--- "That the legislative power of the Territory
shall extend to all rightful subjects of legisla
tion consistent with the Constitution of the U.
nited States ; but no law shat be passed inter
fering with the primary disposal of the soil."
But if you will turn to page 600,. you will see
how coolly this bogus Legislature ignores both
the Nebraska bill and the preemption law ) for
it declares, as if they owned the soil, that in
actions of trespass, ejectment , be., settlers shall
be protects din their pre-emptions, not of one
hundred and sixty acres, but of three hundred
and twenty acres ; "that such claim may be 10.
cated in two different parcels, to suitthe conve•
nience of the holder," "without being compel•
led to prove an actual enclosure)" and the still
more flagrant repudiation of the Congressional
preemption law, that "occupancy by tenant
shall be considered equally valid as personal re
sidence," under which the whole Territory may
be pre•emptled by Missourians. And this law,
with the others, is to be enforced by the Presi.
dent
Seventh. Section thirty of the Nebraska bill
enacts that the of oath be taken by the
Governor and Secretary, the Judges, "and all
other civil qjfeers in said 7hrritory," shall be
to support the Constitution of the United States
and faithfully to diseharge the ditties of their
respeclivo offices." No more--no less. But
the legislators of Kansas, with the same disre
gard of the Congressional law, that marked
their other acts, enacted another kind of official I
oath, on page 438 of their code, as follows :
"Sec. 1. AU officers elected or appointed un
der any existing or subsequently enacted laws
of this Territory, shall take and subscribe the
following oath of office : 'I -, do solemn.
ly swear , - upon the holy Evangelists of Almigh
ty God, that I will support the Constitution of
the United States, and that I will support and
sustain the provisions of an act entitled "An
act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and
Kansas,' and the provisions of the law of the
United States, commonly known as the 'Ffigi•
tive Slave Law,' and Liithfully and impartial)
and to the best of my ability, demean myself
in the discharge of my duties in the office of
so help me God."
You cannot fail to notice that, in the new
oath, framed by the bogus Legislature the Fu-'
gitive Slave Law, is elevated to a "hiilier
thau the Constitution ; for the officer to merely
to "support" the latter, but is required to swear
that he will "support and SUSTAIN" the other.
Besides these seven palpable, flagrant, and
unconcealed violations of the organic law, or
ganizing the Territory, I point you now to five
equally direct and open violations o f the Con.
Melillo,' of the United Slates ; for that instru
ment has been trampled upon as recklessly as
the laws of Congress.
First. The very first amendment to the Con
stitution of the United States prohibits the pus. I
sage of any law "abridging the freedom of
speech;" and it is a significant fact, as can be j
learned from -Hickeys Constitution, page 33, ;
that this, with a number of other amendments
to the Constitution which follow it, was submit ,
ted by Congress to the various States in 1789, I
immediately after the adoption of the Constitu.
tion itself, with thet following preamble
"That conventions of a number of States It•
ving at the time of their adopting the Consti
tution,
expressed a desire, inlorder to prevent!
misconstruction or abase of its power, that fur- '
ther declaratory and restrictive clauses should
be added."
Therefr -- -mend' , that followed
...nerefore, the amendments that fulloweu
were proposed.
Thus is conclusively proven that the amend
ment prohibiting any abridgement of the free- ;
dom of speech was adopted to prevent "an a
buse of power," which our forefathers feared
might be attempted by some degenerate de
scendants at sonic later period of our history.
But, though they thus sought to preserve and
protect free speech, by constitutional provision,
their prophetic fears have been realized by the ;
enactors of the Kansas code. Its one hund•
red and fifty•first chapter, on pages 604 and 605
is entitled,"An act to punish offences against, 1
slave property ve Ind there is n a decree of Au-
strian despot or Russian Csar, which is not mer•
eiful in comparison with its provisions. Here,
sir, in the very teeth of the Constitution, is sec
tion twelve of that chapter :
"If any free person by *peaking or by writ-I
big, assert or maintain that persons have not
the right to hold slaves in this Territoryor shall
! introduce into this Territory, print, publish, '
write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into
this Territory, written, printed, published, or
circulated iu this Territory, any book, paper,
magazine, pamphlet, or circular, coottatnuip
any denial of the right of persons to hold
slaves in this Territory, such person shall be
deemed ortturr or reboxr, and punished, by
imprisonment at hard labor, for a term of not
less than two years."
1 How many more than two years he shall be
punished, is left to the tender mercy . of Judge
, Lecompte, and the jury which "Sheriff Jones"
' will select for their trial. The President of the
United States has sworn to protect the Consti
tution ; but this, wit!. the other "laws of Kan.
ear," are to be enforced by him, despite that
Constitution, with the army of the United States; ,
and Mr. Buchanan is pledged by Judge Doug. I
las to "the firm and undivided execution of
1 those laws." But, sir, in a few short months,
the free people of the United States will limo
: gurate an Administration that will do justice
to the oppressed settlers of Kansas, that will
restore to them their betrayed rights, will yin•
dicate the Constitution, and will place in the
! offices of trust of that ill•fated Territory, men
who will overthrew the "usurpation," give their
official influence to Freedom and the Bight, ra
ther than to Slavery and the Wrong, and pro
tect rather than oppress the citizens whom they
are called upon to govern and judge.
Second. Tho same constitutional amendment
prohibits the passage deny law "abridging the
freedom of the preset' and here, sir, in flagrant
violation of it, Is the I Ith section of the same
law in the Kansas code, page 605 i
"If any person print, write, introduce into,
publish, or circulate, or cause to be bronght in
to, printed, written, published, or circulated, or
shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing into,
printing, publishing, or circulating, within this
Territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magazine
handbill or circular, containin ,, any statement,
arguments, opinion,senti mentrdoctrine, advice,
or inuendo. calculated to produce a disorderly,
dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the
slaves in this Territory, or to induce such slaves
to escape from the service of their masters, or
to resist their authority, he shall be guilty of re.
lorry, and be punished by imprisonment and
hard labor fora term not less than five years."
And, under this atrociously unconstitutional
provision, a nuts who "brought into" the Ter
ritory of Kansas a copy of "Jefferson's Notes
on Virginia," which contains an eloquent and
free spoken condemnation of Slavery, could be
convicted by one of "Sheriff Jones" juries, as
having introduced a "book" containing a "seri
timent" "calculated" to snake the slaves "disor.
derly," and sentenced to fire years herd labor.
Probably under this provision, as well as the
charge of high treason, Geo. W. Beaten, editor
of the Herald of Freedom, at Lawrence, has,
after his printing press has been destroyed by
the order of Judge Lecompte's court, been him
self indicted, and is now imprisoned, awaiting
trial--kept, too, under such strict surveillance
(far worse than murderers are treated in a civ•
I Mud country) that even his mother and wife
were not allowed to visit him until ho had hum
bly petitioned the Governor for permission.—
And this upon the soil of a Territory which our
forefathers, in 1820, in this very hall, dedicated
by solemn compact, to" Freedom forever."
Vtird. The sixth amendment to the Constitu
tion of the United States declares that, "In all
criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy
the right to it speedy and public trial, by nn
IMPARTIAL jury." It is significant that, in the
Constitution itself, it had been provided (arti
cle 3, section 2) that "the trial of all crimes,
excet in cases of impeachment, shall he by
jury.' But, to prevent "abuse of power," this
with other amendments ' was adopted, declaring
that the trial shall be by an impartial jury. I
have already shown you how impartially they
are to be selected by sheriffs who go about and
imitate, in their conduct towards Free State
men, the example of ftaul of Tarsus in his per
mention nf the owls istians. Acts, rlntpier
VOL. XXI. NO. 32.
11 ) verse 3, "entering Into every house and nil.
ing men and women, committed them to prise
on;") and I have quoted you a section, showing
how impartially they aro to be constituted,
with men on one side only but in this very
Chapter, the concluding provision, section thin
teen (page 606) repents this gross violation of
the National Constitution, as follows :
"No person, who is conscientiously opposed
to balding slave., or who does not admit the
right to hold slaves in this Territory, shall sit
as a juror on the trial of dny prosecution for
any_ violation of any ofthe sections of this act."
Here, air, in theseinstances which I have
quoted, stand the Constitution of the United
States on the one side, and the Kansas code on
the other, in direct nod open conflict—she one
declaring that the freedom of speech shall not
be abridged, that the freedom of the press shall
be protected, that juries above all things else,
shall be entirely impartial; the other trampling
all these safeguards under foot. And because
a majority of the settlers there, driven from the
polls by armed mobs, legislated over by a mob
in whose election they had no agency, choose
to stand by and maintain their rights undertho
Constitution, you have seen how anarchy and
violence, how outrage and persecution, have
been running riot in that Territory, far exceed
ing in their tyranny , and oppression, the wrongs
for which our revolutionary forefathers rose a•
gamest the masters who oppressed them, and
yet, though the protection they have had from
the General Government has been only the
same kind of protection which the wolf gives
the lamb, they have, while repudiating the ler
ritorial sheriffs, bowed in submission to writs
in the hands of the United States marshal, or
when the soldiers ofthe United States, yielding
to enters which they , do not deem it dishonors.
ble for them to despise, assist in their execution.
Such forbearance—such manifestations of their
allegiance to the national autlierity—become
the more wonderful, when it is apparent as the
noonday sun, that every attempt has been made
to harass them into resistance to the authority
of the United States, so as to furnish a pretext
doubtless, for their indiscriminate imprison.
went, expulsion, or massacre.
.Fourth. The Constitution also prohibits cru
el and unusual punishments. 1 shall show be
fore I close, that this so-called Kansas Legisla
ture has prescribed most cruel and unusual
punishments, unwarranted by the character of
the offences punished, and totally disproportion
ed to their criminality.
Fifth. The Constitution declares (article I,
section 9) that "the privilege of the writ ofha•
bras corpus shall not besuspended, unless when
, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public
1 safety may require it." But the Kansas node,
in its chapter of habeas corpus, (article 3, sec
tion 8, page 345,) enacts as follows :
"No negro or mulatto, held as a slave within
this territory, or lawfully arrested as a fugitive
from service from another State or Territory,
shall be discharged, nor shall his right of free.
dam be had under the provisions of this act."
This provision, suspending the writ of babe
as corpus iu the above eases, is not only a vio
lation of the Constitution, but also of the or
ganic law ; for that provided, in section 28 for
kipeals to the Supreme Court of the United
States, on writs of habeas corpus, in cases in.
volving the right of freedom, the Issuing of
which this Territorial law expressly prohibits.
The language of the Nebraska Kansas act is
as follows ;
"Except, also, that a writ of error or appeal
shall also be allowed to the Supreme Court of
the United States from the decision of the said
Supreme Court, created by this act, or of any
judge thereof, or of the district courts created
by this act, or of any judge thereof, upon any
writ of habeas corpus, involving the question
of personal freedom."
But the Kansas Legislature coolly set aside
the law of the United States by which alone
their Territorial organization was brought into
existence, and effectually prohibited any appeal
to the Supreme Court, "upon any writ of babe.
as corpus, involving . the question of personal
freedom," by declaring that the writ shall not
be used in the Territory , for any such purpose I
!laving now referred to a few of the many
acts embraced in this code, which conflict witli
the Constitution or the organic law, I proceed
to the examination of other provisions, Some
of which stamp it as a code of barbarity, as
well as of tyranny—of inhumanity as well of
oppression. And, first, to "the imprisonment
at hard labor," which is made the punishment
fur "offences against the slave property," in the
sections which I have already quoted. The ge
neral understanding of the people at large has
, bees, that, as there was no State's prison yet e
meted in Kansas, this imprisonment would bo
in sonie Missouri prisons near the frontier.—
' But, eir, such is not the case. The authors of
then disgraceful and outrageous enactments,
with a refinement of cruelty, provided that the
"hard labor" should be in another way ; and
that way will be found in chapter 22, entitled
"an act providing a system ot confinement and
hard labor," section 2 ofwhich (page 147) reads
as follows :
"Every person who may be sentenced by any
court of competent jurisdiction, under any law
in force within this Territory, to punishment
by confinement and bard labor, shall be deem
ed a convict, and shall immediately under the
charge of the keeper of such jail or public pri.
son, or under the charge of such person as the
keeper of such juil or public prison may select
be put to hard labor, as in the first section of
this act specifiei, (to wit, 'on the streets, roads,
public buildings, or other public works of the
Territory')—[Sec. 1, page 146;] and such keep•
or or other person having charge of such con
vict, shall cause such convict, while engaged
at such labor, to be securely confined by a chain
six feet in length, of not less than tour six
teenths, nor more than three•eighths of an inch
links, with a round ball of iron, of not lees
than four nor more than six inches in diameter
attached, which chain shall be securely fasten
ed to the ankle of such convict with a strong
lock and key ; and such keeper, or other person
having charge of such convict, may, if neces
sary, confine such convict while so engaged at
hard labor, by other chains, or other means, in
his discretion, so as to keep such convict se
cure, and prevent his escape ; and when there
shall be two or more convicts under the charge
of such keeper or other person, such convicts
shall be fastened together by strong chains,
with strong locks and keys during the timesuch
convicts shall be engaged in hard labor without
the walls of any jail or prison."
This penalty, revolting, humiliating, deba
sing an it is, subjecting a free American citizen
to the public sneers and contumely of his op.
pressor., far worse than within the prison walle
where the degradation of the punishment is re
lieved by its privacy, is to be borne from two
to floe long years by the men of Indiana and
Ohio, of New England and New York,Penn
sylvania and the Far West, who dare in Lamms
to declare, by speech or in print, or to introduce
, therein a handbill or paper, which declares that
"persons have not the right to hold slaves in
thi territory." The chalet and hall are to he