Show turoa from official documents document washington city R 1 U 11 S I 1 D bil ell TS MESSAGE 1 illig ESSIG I 1 FELLOW tell TELI OW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE housh OF representatives herrl when we compare the condition of the country at the present day with what it was oue one year ago at the meeting of congress we bave have much reason for gratitude to that almighty providence which has never failed to interpose for our relief reiter at the most critical periods of our history one year ago the sectional strife between the north and the south on the dan dangerous I 1 erous subject of slave siave slavery ry ha had a again a in become so intense as to threaten t the tha e peace bace and perpetuity of or the con cod confederacy federa c y T the a application li cation catlon for the admission of kansas as a 9 state tate into the union fostered this unhappy agitation and brought the whole subject once cloe cioe nio cio e before congress it was the delire of every patriot that such measures of legislation might be adopted as would remove the excitement from the states and confine it to the territory where it legitimately belonged much has been done I 1 am happy to say towards the accomplishment of this object darlng during during daring the last session of congress SLAVERY the te su supreme p reme court of the united states had previously d decided aided that all american citizens flave have an equal al right to take into the i lie lle ie whatever is held as property under udder the laws of any of the states arld and to hold such property tro TTo perty there under the guardianship of the federal constitution so long as the territorial condition shall remain this is now a well weli estabi established shed position and the proceedings of the last session were alone wanting ta to gi give ve it practical effect the iha principle a has been recognized in some f form orm or other cil 0 er by an air almost unanimous vote icle of both houses of congress that a territory has a right to come into the union either as a free or a la v elv elt State according to the will of a majority jorry or mih MIN us people the just equality ot at ali all I 1 the ibe states has thus been vindicated arld and a fruitful source of dangerous dissension amon among 11 them ha has s been removed whilst such has been the beneficial tendency of 0 your our legislative proceedings outside of kansas their influence has nowhere been BO so happy as within that territory itself latto left to manage and cottrol its own affairs in its own waya way without the pressure of external influence the revolutionary topeka organization and arid all resistance to the territorial government established by congress have been bean finally abandoned As a ana aha natural consequence that fine territory now appears to be tranquil and prosperous berous and is attracting I 1 increasing thousands of immigrants to make it their happy home KANSAS the rhe pa 8 t unfortunate experience of kansas has haab enforced the lesson BO so often already taught that resistance to lawful authority under our form of government cannot fail in the end to prove disastrous to its ail ati authors thors had the people of the territory yielded obedience to the laws enacted by their legislature it would at the present moment have contained a large additional population of ot industrious acx and enterprising citizens who have been deterred from entering its borders bythe by the existence of civil strife and organized rebellion it was the resistance to rightful authority and the persevering attempts to establish a revolutionary government under tinder the topeka constitution which caused the people of kansas to commit the grave error of refusing to vote for delegates to the convention to frame a constitution under tinder a law not denied to be fair and just in its provisions this refusal f to vote has been the prolific source of all the evils which have followed in their hostility to the territorial government they disregarded the principle absolutely essential to the working of our form of government that a majority of thos those e who vote not the majority who may remain at home from whatever cause must decide the result of an election for this reason seeking to take advantage ol 01 their own jovn error they denied the authority autho authority rity riVy of the convention thus elected to frame a constitution ution the convention notwithstanding proceeded to adopt a constitution unexceptionable able in in its general features and providing for the submission of the slavery question to a vote of the people which in my opinion they were bound to lo do under the kansas and nebraska act this was the all important question which had at alone one convulsed the territory and yet the opponents of the lawful government pers persisting sting in their first error refrained from exercising exer dising their right to vote and preferred that slavery should continue rather than surrender their revolutionary topeka organization i A wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail before the first monday of january last when an election was held und under erthe the constitution A majority of the people then voted for a governor and other state officers for a member of Congre congress sg and me members niters naters of the state legis lature gis this mis election was warmly contested by the two Ioli political parties in kansas and a greater vote yote was polled than al a any previous election A large maj majority 0 lity rity 1 ity of the members of the legislature elect belonged to that party part y which had previously refused to vote T the e antislavery anti slavery party thus placed in the ascendant arid and the political power of the state was in in their own hands had conr congress s admitted kansas into the union tinder under thale the le e compton constitution the legislature might at its very first session have submitted the question to a vote of the people whether they would or would not have a convention to amend their constitution either on the slavery sla ery or any other question and have adopted all necessary means for giving geving speedy effect to the will pf af the majority thus the kansas question would have been immediately and finally settled under these circumstances I 1 submitted to congress the constitution thus framed with all the flie oili officers cers already elected necessary to put the state government into operation accompanied by a strong recommendation in in favor of the admission of kansas as a state in the course of my iong long lor y public life I 1 have never performed any official act which in in the retrospect tro has afforded me more heartfelt satisfaction its admission could have inflicted no possible injury on an any human being whilst it would within a brief period have restored peace to kansas and harmony to the union in that event the slavery question would ere this have been finally settled according to the lo legally t ally aily expressed will of a majority of the V voters oters and popular sovereignty would thus have been vindicated in in a constitutional manner with my deep convictions of duty I 1 could have purs pursued tied no other course it is true that as an individual I 1 had bad expressed ex an opinion both before and during the session of the convention in favor of submitting the remaining clauses of the constitution as well as that concerning slavery to the people but acting in an official character neither myself nor any human authority had the power to judie re ludie the proceed ings of the convention and declare the constitution ution which it had framed to be a nullity to have done this would have been a violation ot of the kansas and nebraska act which left the people of the territory perfectly free to form arid and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way subject only to the constitution of the united states it would equally have violated the great principle of popular sovereignty at the foundation of our institutions eions to deprive the people of the power if they thou thought 11 wiit glit proper to exercise it of confiding to delegates elected by themselves the trust ot framing a constitution without requiring them to subject their constituents to the trouble expense and nd delay of a second election it would have been in in opposition to many pre redenta in our history commencing in the very best age of the republic of the admission of territories as states into the union without a previous vote of the people approving their constitution it is is to be lamented that a ii question guestion so in insignificant when viewed in its practical effects on the people of kansas whether decided one way or the other should have kindled such a flame of excitement throughout the country this thia reflection may prove to be a lesson of wisdom and of warning for our future guidance practically considered the question is simply whether the people of that territory should first come into the union and then change any provision in in their constitution not agreeable to themselves or accomplish the very same object by remaining out of the union and framing another constitution in accordance with their will in either case the result would be precisely the same the only difference in point of fact is 13 that the object would have been much sooner booner attained and the pacification pacification of kansas more speedily effected dad gad had admitted as a state during the last session of congress my aly recommendation however for the immediate in admission of kansas failed to meet the approbation of congre congress ss they deemed it wiser to ado adopt t a different measure for the settlement of or t the he question for my own part I 1 should have been willing to yield my assent to almost any constitutional measure to accomplish com this object I 1 therefore cordially acquiesced in what has been called the english compromise and proved approved ar the act for tor the admission of the state of kansas into the union upon the terms therein prescribed under the ordinance which accompanied the he Lp Le compton constitution the people of kansas had claimed double the quantity of public lands for the support ot of common schools which had bad ever been previously granted to any state upon entering the union and also the alternate sections of land for twelve miles on each side of ot two railroads proposed to be constructed from the northern to the southern boundary and from the eastern to the western boundary of the state congress deeming 1 these claims unreasonable provided by the act of play alay 4 1858 1838 to which I 1 have just ref referred erred for the admission of the state on an equal footing with the ori on ginal states but upon the fundamental condition precedent that a majority of the people thereof at an election to be held for that purpose should in place of the tha very large grant grants of public lands which they had demanded u under er the ordinance accept such grants as had been made to minnesota and other new states under this act should a majority reject the proposition offered them it shallie deemed and held that the p people beope of kansas do not dot desire admission into the union with said constitution under the conditions seaforth set forth in said proposition in that event the act authorizes the people of the territory to elect delegates to form torm a constitution and state government for or themselves whenever and not before it is ascertained by a census duly and legally taken that the population of said territory equals or exceeds the ratio of representation required for a member of the house of representatives of the congress of the united states the delegates delegate s thus assembled shall first determine ie by a vote whether it ia id the wish of the people of the proposed state to be admitted into the union at that time and it so shall proceed to form a constitution and take all necessary steps for the establishment of a state government in conformity with the federal constitution after this constitution shall have been formed congress carrying out the principles of popular sovereignty and nonintervention intervention non 0 n have left the mode and manner of its app approval roval or ratification by the people of the proposed state to be prescribed by law liw 11 and arid they shall then be admitted into the union as a state under such constitution thus fairly and legally made with or without slavery as said constitution may prescribe an election was held throughout kansas in pursuance of the provisions of this act on the second day of august last and it resulted in the rejection by a large majority 0 the proposition submitted to the people by congress this being ithe the case tiie llie i yare now authorized to form another cons constitution titu tion preparatory to admission into the union but not until their number as ascertained by a census shall equal or exceed the ratio required to elect a member to the house of representatives it is not proba prota bleIn ih the present state of the case that a third constitution can be lawfully framed and presented lo 10 congress by kansas be fole foie its population shall have reached the designated number nor Is it to be presumed that after their sad experience in resisting the he territorial laws they will attempt lo 10 ad opt a constitution in expires violation of the provisions of an act of congress duding during the llie sess session ion lon of 1856 much of the lime of Con congress Congi giess cys pys was occupied on the question of admitting kansas under the topeka constitution again neaily nearly the whole of the last session was devoted to the question of its admission under the Le lecompton Lecompt compton constitution surely it is not unreasonable to require the people of kansas to wait before making a third attempt uli ull unil il the number of their inhabitants shall ammart to ninety three thousand four hundred and twenty during this brief period the harmony of the states as well as the great business interests of the country demand that the people of he the union shall not for a third time lime be convulsed by another agnation agitation on the kansas question by waiting walting fo for r a short lime and acting in obedience lo 10 law kansas will glide into the union without the slightest impediment ADMISSION OF NEW STATES this excellent provision which congress have applied to kansak kansas ought to he be extended and rendered applicable to all territories which may haraf hereafter herp after afler ter seek admission into the union whist congress possess the undoubted power of admitting a liw diw state into the union however small may be the number of its inhabitants yet this power ought not in my opinion to be exercised before the population shall amount to the ratio required by the act for the ad nii nil mission ision islon of kansas had bis this his been previously the rule the country would have escaped all the evils and misfortunes to which it has been exposed by the kansas question of course it would be unjust in to give this rule a retrospective application add and exclude a state which acting upon the past practice of the government ern ment has already formed its constitution elected its legislature and other officers and is now prepared to enter the union the rule ought to be adopted whether we consider its bearing on oil the people of the territories Teni tories or upon the people of the existing states many of the serious dissentious dissent ions which have prevailed in congress and throughout the country would could have been avoided had this ruie rulo been established at an earlier period of the government immediately upon the ibe formation of a new territory f people from different states and from foreign countries rush into it for tor the laudable purpose of improving their condition their first duty to themselves is to 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