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Show 112 .A. POLITICAL TEXT-BOOK FOR 1860. fortunate one. I haTe no desire to say ~nything which shall be construed into a want of courtesy, kindness, or respect for him. I mean all due courtesy, kindness and re~pec t. His si\uation is certainly such as to appeal to the magnanimity rather than provoke the hostility of his opponents. If he had been content to submit to it, an•l go out, as it seclllecl to he the wish of his fri ends and foe" tloat he ~hould, without atte·npting to make such a charge a~ this against his political opponents, I should l't:rtai nly !:ave bet-n content. Hut. sir, thi· mess:q.:e of the Pre~iclent ie an arr:ligntut: nt of ;t v.tst majority of the people of eleven States of tlti~ Union of wa nt of fid eli ty to their t·onHtitutional oblig;Lti unl'l, aucl of hostility to the Union anti Con~titution of these Statt's. I <h:ny it t"tally. 1\Iore th:m th:tt; the President of the United State~ , hy vlr.ue of the privileges conferred on him by the Constitution, charges upon the majority of the people of these Sta.tes, in the exercise of th eir constitutional prerngative of voting for whom they please, the high ofl'l!nse of endeav oring to "usurp "-thl:! is his very language-" the control of the Government of the United States." "Usurp," if lex icogra.phers unde rstn. nd the meaning of the wort!, ls ''to seize by force without right.." I have observed in the history of the past few months no attempt in any section of the country, last a nd least in that section which the President arraigns, to seize upon power in this Government except by the regular constitutional discharge of the people's obligations anti dutios as citizens going to tho polls in the exercise of their elective franchise. A g~tin, sir, I have not heard from a single ci tizen of those States an intimation, thut if they should fail in the canvass upon which they had entered and In which th ey were striving to ~ec ur e :t majority in the councils of this Government, they wae to do anything else but ~ubmit quietly and peaceably to the constitutionally expressed will of tL tnajority. Mt·. Sewan.l, of N. Y., tSaid: The President, I think, has departed from a customary course which was well cstal.>lished by his predecessors; that was to confine the annual message of the Executive to legitimate matters of legislation which must necessarily occupy the attention of Congress, and leave partisan disputes, occ:.~rring among the people to the consideration and reflection of the people the~selves. This l'resideu ~ of the United tatcs was the first one I think, to depart from that course in his Inaugural Address; and, if I remember aright, he continued this departure in his first message and second message. He has been uncorrected, Ot' rather umeformetl in his erroneous course ; he goes through to the end in the same course. I am willing, for 111~ own part, that he, like all the rest of us, shall have hw speech-shall a ·sign his reaso.ns a~d ~is vindication fo ~ his policy. I do not questiOn hts rtght; I do not <hspute it. Wha tev er I have though~ nece~sary to submit to any portion of my countrymen m regard to the canvass which is J)USt has been submitted in the right t:me, in the right pla.ce 'and I tr~st, in the right . spirit. I am willing to allo'~ the Pr~tdent of the Umted Sta tt'S the same opportunity which y ou and 1 and all others have enjoyed. Mr Mason, of Va., saitl: Mr President: the constant and obstinate agitation of questions connect~d with the institution of Slavery has brought, I. am. sa~tsfied , the public mind in those States where the mst1tut10n prevails, to the conviction that the preservation of that institution re ·ts with themsdves and with themselves only. 'l'herefore, at this day when it is the pleasu.re of Senators again to bt·ing tha.t' ins titution under rev1e1v upon this floor, In any connect.ion whatP. Ter, as one of the llep•·esentativcs of the outh I take no fur~her iute~est in the di cussion, or in U1e ~pinion which 18 entertallled at the orth In relation to it than as it may conflrm tbe hope that there is a public 'sentiment at the Not·th yet r emaining which unites with the Sout~ in the desire t? perpetuate Lhl! Union, and that, by th.e tud of that pubhc sentiment at th•J North, the Union Will be preserved, llut further than that as D. statesman ~nd. as one rep~esenting a Southern State, where that tnstttutlon .Prev;uls m re largely than in any other the !Jublic sentunent of the. North is a matter indHfet·e~t to r~e, because I say a~flln, we have attained the conviction that the safety of t.hat institution will r est must ret>t, m.1d shou.ld rest, with the people of the State~ only where 1t prevatls. .Mr. Wilson, of Mass., said : The party to which reference has been made in this mC!!sage-!or I ~ake It this assault of the P resident of the Umted States 111 upon, the Republican party, and the people who aupported th1¥\ or&anization in the laai election-stands before the country with lts opinions clearly expressed and openly avowed. It has a right to clnlm from ~he President of the United Slates-it has a right to claim !rom honorable Senators he1·e-it ha.s 11 right to claim before the countt·y that it shall stnnd upon Its broad 1.\11(1 open rlcclnrat ions of principle. How does it stand? It accepts the Decla ration or Independence anu the Constitution or the United States as Its funtla. mental creed of doctrhe. It claims that Congress ha a right to legislate fur the Territories of the Unitecl date and to exclude Slavery from them. I t avows its deter: mination to exercise that power. It hns n l'ight to 3,•, or the President, nnd the country, t.hat it shall be judge1J by Its open and avowed declarations, anu ~hall not he misrepresented, as it has been misrepresented in thi• document by the }>resid ent of tlre Unit.ccl 'talea. 'l'h<.' declamtlon is broadly m:~.de here, n ot only that thc>e men are scctionalists-uot only that they have gott~n up a sectional warfare, but that they arc maintaining ~oc trines hostile to the p erpetuity of the Fuion. Now, s rr, let me sa.y here to-day, that I do not know a man in the Free States who supported J ohn C. }'reruont in tlte last presidential election, not one of the one million three hundred t!10u~anu intelligent freemen who ~liP· ported that nommat10n, that ever avowed his intention to go for a dissolution of this Union; but at all tirul's on all occasions, in public and in private, they han nvo:vetl their devotion to the Union, and their intt:ntion to main· tain and defend It Let me say furth er, that tlte men in this country who avow themselves to be disunionists, that squad ·~hich dw·ing the last thirty years, on all fit and unfit oc~nsions: In moments of ex ci tement and moments of calm have avowed themselves disunionists1 have, as a t>ody, 01 masse, supported tho Democrat1c party. '!'he whole southern heavens ha vc been darkened during the las I four months by the black I.Janners of disunion that have floated in the breeze. Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, defcudcu the Pre, ident against the construction put on certain parts of the message by other Senators. He saitl : My colleague (1\11'. Wade) as~erts th:~.t the Pre~ident has employed lib ellous t erms in speaking of a large number of our common constituent·, who voted for Col. Fremont at the last election. If the charge:! were true in any sense, I should unite with my colleague in the condemnation which he has pronouncerl; for although 1 would have deplored the electi;m of Col. l+'rcmont as the greatest calamity that could beffLII the Amer iciLn people, I feel bound to render my tribute of respect to tJ10se honest, patriotic, but as I think, misguided, citizens ol Ohio, who voted for him. 'l'be para~;raph upon which my colleague based this accusation, is the one which 1 now send to the secr etary's desk. (liere the secretary read the part of the message quoted above, beginning, " Our institutions framed" and down to " rather than shoulder to Rhoulder as friends.") It is (continued Mr. Pugh) impossible that this paragraph should apply to the members of the Republican party, if, as now asserted, they do not aim at the abolition by Congress of Slavery within the States. It is directed a'7ainst those who hold that d octrine. It refers to the m~n whom the Senator from 1\Ia.ss. (Mr. Wilson) and the Senator from Maine (1\lr. J..'essenden) themselves have denounced on the .lloor. TilE U: CO ~IPTON CONSTIT'CTION. On the 8th December, 1857, President Buchanan transmitted to Congress his first annual me~sa.ge. lie devotes considerable space to the s~bJcct of Slavery, giving a history of the forma· t10n of tbc Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, and aunouncing the doctrine that the Constitution of its own force eanies Slavery into all the Territories. Speaking of this subj ect, he says: " In emerging from the condition of Territorial dependence into that of n sovereign State, H wa~ th~ir duty, in my opinion, to make known the1r wlll by tho votes of the majority, on the direct question, whether this important domestic institution should or should not continue to exist:" and that the slaves now in Kansas" wPre brought into the Territory unuer the Constitution of the United States." Tho following is the part of the meSSJr;e referring to Kansn.s affairs : TilE LECOMPTON COX, TITU'riO~ . 113 It ls unr1e1essnry to state in cletail the al;trmin~ condition of the 'J'erritot·y of Kansns at tilt! titnt' of my iuauguration. 'J'he opposin~ partlc then ston<lln hostile srray against each other, and any accident might have relig.h ted the flames of ci\'il war. Dc>-ides, at th: · Cl ilical moment, J\ tLnsas WILli le ft without a govc: r.or by the resignation of Governor G e:try. On the lflth of Jo'cbruary previous, the Terrilol'ial h·gi.;ln. ture had passecl n law provid!ng for the election of del~ gates on the third Mon!lay of ,June, to a con\'cntion to meet on the first J\Ion<luy in f-:cpt cmher, for the purpose of framing :t con~titution preparatory to adrn b sion into the Lfnlon. 'J'his l<LW wa in the m:Lin fair :nHl jn~t; and It Is to he re gretted that all tloe qu a iili<·d electors bad not registered them elves and voted under its provisions. At the time of the election for clelegates, an extemh •e organization c:-. istttl in the 'l'c r rltory, whose :LYowed ohject it was, if 11\'('d be, to pu~ down the la wful govN~ment by force, unci to establish a gt,vernment of tit ·•r own under the :;o-call ed Topeka Constitut ion. 'l'he persons attached to this rcvolut ionary or~nnization abstained from taking any part in the election. 'l.'he act of tire Territorial legisln tu re had omitted to provide for submitting to the people the constitution which might be fmmecl by ll1e Coll\·ention ; :. nd in the excited state of public feeling th roughout K ansa~, 1111 apprehen:ion extensively prevailed that a de,;igu ex· isled to force upon them a constitution, in relation to "lavery, against their will. In this emergen..:y it l1 ecarne my duty, as it was my unque ·tionai.Jie right, ltaving- in view the union of all good citizens in support of the Territorial law~, to express an opi nion 011 the true con:~truction of the JII'Ovi~ions concerning Slavery con t ainctl iu the organic ;1ct. of Congre!-!s of tltc :-lOth lll ay, l~M. Congress declared it t.o he" the true intent and n•enning of this act not to ll'gislate ..:lavery into any Territory or State, nor to cxcltHtc it tl1er efrom, but to leave the p eo· pie thereof pe1 f<:ctly free to funn and r t'gn la te their domestic institutions in their own way." Under it Kansas, "whl!n a<imited as a Bta.te," was to " be received into the nion with or without daver·v as rhcir constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." Did Congress mel\n hy ll1is language thnt the delegates elected to frame a constitution, shoald h;Lve authority finally to decide the question of lavery, or did they iutend, by leaving it to the people, that the people of Kansas thtmselvell should decide this question by a direct vote? On this subject I confess I had never entertained a serious <louht, ami, ther efor e, in my instructions to Governor Walker of the 2 th J\larch Ia t, 1 merely said that when "a constitution shall be submitted to the people of the 'l'enitory, they must t>e p rotected in tlte exercise of their right of YOting for or again ·t that in trumcnt, and the fair expre:-:sion of the popular· will must not be interrupted hy fraud or violenc·e." . In expressing Uris opinion it wa. far from my intention I? Interfere with the deci~ion of the people of I\ansas, crther for or against. Slave!·y. From this I have always carefully at> ·tained. Jntru tell with' the duty of" taking ~arc that the laws be faithfully executed," my ?nly <.ie~t re was that the people of Kansas shoultl :urmsh to Congre ·s tlte e"idence required hy the organic act, whether· for or a gai nst t:\lavery ; aud in tlril! manner smooth their pas!'iagc into the Union. In erncrging from the .condition of Territol'ial dependence into that of a soverergn State, it was th eir duty, in my opinion to make. known th~il· will by the vote· of the majority,' on th.e d~rect questwn, whether this important domestic instrtutlO~ should or 8Aould not continue to ea:ixt. Jndeed lltrs was the only possible mode in which their will could be authentically ascertained. ~he election or delegates to a convention must nece - r~~nly take !!lace in separate districts. :From this cnuse a llitL:Y r.eachly happen, as has often been the case, that m11.1onty of the peopl e o f a tate or Tenit ory are on ~n~ stde of a question, whilst a majority of the repre~enauves from the se,•eratl districts into which it is divided ~ay ?e upon the other side. 'l'his arises from the fact ~a.t ~~ .some c~lstt·!cts d elegates may be e lected by small li.JOntres1 whtlst m oth ers those of diO'erent sentiment!! may recerve majorities s ufficiently great not only to ov 1 erco10e the votes given for the former but' to leave a· u ar~o> e rrI<.~ J· Ort·t .y of the whole people in• direct oppo- ~1 on to a majority of the delegates. llesicles our hlst~ ry P1'0I•es tha t influences may be brought t~ !.>ear on d'e representallve sutnclently powerful to induce h im to IMJ·egard the will of his constituents. 'I' lie truth i8 that ~c ~·th~r. authcn ti.c and snt isfactory mode exists of h~e ta:~\ng ~he wtll of a majority of the people of aoy ti ' .0 l erntory on an lmJJOrtant and exciting que - on hke that of Slavery in Kansas, except by leaving it to a direct Yote. How wise, then, was it for Congress to pa:-~s ov(•r nli ~ uhor clinnt e and int ermediate agencies and proceed di rect ly to the source of ali J cgitiruat~ JIOII'er under our in titutions! . Jl ow, ~· a.in would a.ny other principle provo in praotrce! I hts may ht' tllustra,tcd hy the case: f K an~as. ~hou l<l ~>he be :ulruitte1I into the l 'nion " it!. a con:;titution <'it her maintaining or abolishing t;hl\·ery , :tgain!>t. the ~cntiment of the p eople, this ('Ould ha1•e no other effect than to continue and to C' "l: a~perate the eJ.i~;ting agitation during the !Jri<:f period n·quircd to mal-e the con~ titqtion <·onfonn to the irre~is t ilt l e will of the mnjorit :r. 'J'Iie fri(•rlff, antl f'tlppo• ters of the l'icbra~ka and Kau- 1':1!1 nd . ''li e n~ ~ l'ti)!J.din~ nn n rerl'nt OC'casion to sustain itil wiRe pro\"lsion!i l1do1 (' i ,. l(ren t t t· IJUnal of t he A me· ril'an people, never <l iP" c •l about. its true meaning on this Ruhj ect.. J.:verywhe t· thrOn).dJout the Union they puhlidy pledged tl1 ·ir faitlr and their honor that they II'Ould cliee fully submit. the que:-tioon of f'la,·ery to the dedsinn of the 1Jm111 jidt J• ('ople of 1\am,as without any restriction or qualiticatio•n "hat e' t r All \\~ere cordially united upon the !,'TNlt !l tH't ··inc of popular sovereignty which l!:! the ,..,,tJ principlc· of 0ur free im t'tutions. Had it' thln, hecn iu~i nuatecl frt1111 any q uartt•r tl1at it would b~ IL ~uOicitnt compliHnce wtth the requisitions of the organic l~tw for the memhc•rs of 11 convention, then ·af!,(ar to lie elected, to withlwld the qucstiott of ~lnve r.r from tl1c people, and to ;,u!J~ t i tute th(•ir own will fo1· that of a ) (•g:tlly-a~certained rnajority of ull their conRtltu(•nt~, t.1 i.s would hav<.' heen in!'ltantly r('j ect(·(l. E1•c rywhere th~y reu1a !ned true to the resolution adopted on a celebrated occasion recognizing" the ri~ht of the people of all the 'l'cn ito rit·s-inducl ing Kan ~as ancl Nebraska., acting through the legally and fairly cxprrs~ •d will of a nwjority of lt('tual rt•sidents, and whenever the numl.>er of their inhabitants ju!it.i tiecl it-to form a constitution with or " ithout l'la,·cry, ant! be admit tell into the Union upon tt'rms of perfcrt equality with the othor, tatcs." 'J'he Convention to f.nme n com;titution fur K ansas met on t lie fir~t ~I ond:t.Y of ~ept \!rnher last. They were callecl togetl1cr hy virtue of ILII act of tbe 'l'erritoria.l l egi~lature, whose htwful existence hacl t>cen recognized hy Congre~s in different forms nn<l hy differ nt cnnctmcntl'l. A illr).:e proportion of the citizens of Kansas did not think proper to rt'I(!Hcr their names nnd to vote at the election for <leleg-ateR; hut an opportunity lo do this having heen fairly afl'or<le<l, th eir rcfu~al to avail themselves o r their r ig-ht could in no mnnner afi'cct the legality of the convention. 'l'his Convention proceetlc!l to frame a constitution for Kansa~, an!! finally ndjoul'lled on the 7th clay of t\ovcmher. But little clilliculty occurr ecl in the Convention, except on the suhject. of , 'lavery. '!'he truth is, that tho general provisions of our recent State constitutions nre so similftr, nnd, 1 may add, so excellent, that the difl'erc ·nce between them i:; not e~!lential. Under the earlier practice of the Governmrnt. no con!:il:tution framed by the convent ion of a 'I'erritor.r preparatory to its admis· sion into the Union as a i'tate had IJecn submitted to tho people I trust, however, the example set h.Y the last Con~ress, requiring that the constitution of Minnesota "should t>e suhjcct to the approv:tl and r atification of the penple of the p roposed !:'tate," mny be followed on future occasions. 1 took it for ~motet! th:~.t the Convention of 1\an as would act in accordance with this example, founded a. it is, 911 concct. principles; and h~nce tny instructions to Governor Walker·, tn favor of snbmltting the constitution to the people, were expressed in general :wei unqualified t erms. In the Kan ·as-Nebrask:t act, howevet·, this requ:rement ns !lpplicahle to the whole constitution, had not been 'in. en eel, and the Con vent ion were not b ound by its terms to submit nny other portion of the instrument to an elecliHn, ex(·<:pt that which relates to the "domestic instiLution" of Slavery. This will be rendered clear hy a. simple reference to its langua.ge. It wns "not to h•gisl:L!e ~I;Lvery into any 'l'crritory or tate, nor to e xclude it th erefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institu· tions in their own way." According to the plain construction of the sentence, the words ''domestic institutions" have a direct as th<•y have an Appropriate refer · encc to f'lav er.v. " Domestic institutions " are limited to the fam ily. '!'he r eiltt.ion I.Jetwecn n\nstor nnd slave and a few others are "domestic inst itnt.ions," nnd are en· tirely distinct from institutions of a politicnl charnctC1'. Uesides th ere was no q uc~tion then before Congress, nor indeed iras there since h een <1 ny serious oucstion b efore the people of K:msas or the coun try, exl'ept that wb.i ch rei!Ltcs to the "rlomestic institution" of Slavery. 'l'he Convention nftor ttn an~ ry und excited debate, finally dtttel'lniuNI', hy n m11j ority of only two, to submit t.lte1neslion of Sht\·ery to ~he people, though at the lasl |