The Convention that had been called to frame a State Constitution, and
in which election the Free State men had taken no part, had met to do
its work in September of 1857, and finished in November; but to the
last it refused to make provision to submit the Constitution, when
framed, to a vote of the people, for acceptance or rejection. But in
place of this thing, had virtually said to them: "You must accept
this Constitution whether you like it or not. We will allow you to
vote _for_ the Constitution with slavery; or, _for_ the Constitution
without slavery; but you must vote in every contingency _for_ the
Constitution."
But admitting the people had voted for the Constitution _without_
slavery, still a trap was set for them in the following proviso, which
would still remain an integral part of the Constitution.
"If, upon such examination of such poll-books it shall appear that a
majority of the legal votes cast at said election be in favor of the
'Constitution with no slavery,' then the article providing for slavery
shall be stricken from this Constitution, and slavery shall no longer
exist in the State of Kansas; _except that the right of property in
slaves now in this Territory shall in no manner be interfered with_."
Thus, which ever way they should vote, Kansas would still remain a
slave State. Of course the Free State men did not walk into the trap,
but staid away from the election, which was ordered for December 21,
1857; and the Constitution was adopted by a strictly one-sided vote.
And now Gov. Walker began to realize in the bitterness of his heart
that "uneasy lies the head of him that wears a crown." He had staked
his manhood, his veracity, his honor, his everything, that this
Constitution, when framed, should be submitted to a vote of the people
for acceptance or rejection, and now he was to be put to shame in the
eyes of the whole world; and Gen. Lane was proved a true prophet when
he had said to the Governor with such withering power: "Gov. Walker,
you can't control your allies." Mr. Walker was able to show a private
letter from President Buchanan, assuring him in the most positive
terms, that this Constitution, when framed, should be submitted to a
vote of the people; but of what avail was such a promise? There was a
power behind the throne at Washington stronger than the throne itself;
and Gov. W. was able to see what a hollow mockery was that power which
he supposed himself to possess.
The Governor made known to the people that he would be absent on
business for three or four weeks; and he went away to Washington,
never more to return. There was neither pity nor justice for him
there; and in unspeakable disgust he resigned; and Mr. Stanton took
the oath of office and reigned as Governor _for one month_. Then he
also was removed, and Gov. Denver took his place. Thus, five Kansas
Governors had each in their turn been officially decapitated. Stanton
had been superseded by Denver because he had called a special session
of the now Free State Legislature, and it had ordered an immediate
election to vote for or against the Lecompton Constitution, and at
this election 10,226 votes were polled against it.
It had been intended that under whip and spur Kansas should be
admitted by Congress as a slave State before the time should arrive
for the regular assembling of the Territorial Legislature, which had
now passed into the hands of the Free State men; but by calling a
special session of the Legislature, he had enabled that body to order
an immediate election, that should give official evidence that an
overwhelming majority of the people were opposed to the Lecompton
Constitution.
And now Stephen A. Douglas, at Washington, came forward as State
Senator from Illinois and made it impossible that Kansas should be
admitted as a State unless that document should first be submitted to
the people for acceptance or rejection. A bill to this effect was
finally passed by Congress. It was called the English bill. It
proffered a magnificent bribe if the people would accept the Lecompton
Constitution--five million five hundred thousand acres of public land
should be given to Kansas; besides other munificent donations. But the
English bill also contained a menace as well as a bribe. It threatened
that if the people rejected this offer they should be remanded back
for an indefinite period, to all the miseries of a Territorial life.
In the face of such a menace, and tempted by such a bribe, the whole
voting population of the Territory turned out at the election, which
was ordered to be held August 2, 1858. At this election, 1,788 votes
were cast for the Constitution, and 9,512 against it. From whence then
came this overwhelming majority? The majority of the Free State party
was about two to one. "Wilder's Annals," the best extant Free State
authority, puts it at this. "The Free State or Republican party has
carried every election in Kansas since this date (1857), usually by
two to one." But here is a majority of six to one; and we must go
outside of the Free State or Republican party to find it. Dr. John H.
Stringfellow wrote at this time to the Washington Union against the
admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. He says: "To do
so will break down the Democratic party at the North, and seriously
endanger the interests and peace of Missouri and Kansas, if not of the
whole Union."
Judge Tutt, of St. Joseph, Mo., had said to the South Carolinians: "I
was born in Virginia, and have lived forty years in Missouri. I am a
slave-holder, and a Pro-slavery man; and I desire Kansas to be made a
slave State, _if it can be done by honorable means_. But you will
break down the cause you are seeking to build up." And Judge Tutt
voiced the sentiments of a large number of Pro-slavery men and
slave-holders in Kansas.
The city of Atchison gave a majority of votes against the Lecompton
Constitution; and Atchison county gave a majority of almost three to
one against it; and Leavenworth city, which two years before had been
the theater of such murders, riots and robberies, gave a majority
against the proposition of the English bill of more than ten to one,
notwithstanding the huge bribe offered if the people would accept it.
We are writing these "Recollections" for posterity as well as for
the present generation. It is only the verdict of posterity that will
justly estimate the men and the influences that went to make up the
final result of the early Kansas struggle. Up to the present time the
writers that have written on this subject have been too near the
battle, and themselves too much a party in it, to write with perfect
impartiality. Southern and Pro-slavery writers and speakers have not
been able to admit that Southern men were the original wrong-doers;
while Northern and Free State writers have not been able to rise to
the level of such fair dealing, as to admit that when the decisive
vote was cast that determined the question of freedom and slavery in
Kansas, as absolutely as it had already been determined in Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, the Free State people were indebted to the
nobility of heart and elevation of mind, displayed by Southern and
Pro-slavery men in making the vote so overwhelming as to put the
question beyond the possibility of controversy forever; yet this was
done in the unprecedented vote of six to one, cast in condemnation of
the Lecompton Constitution.
From this time forward the two parties that had been struggling with
each other for four years in such fierce antagonism were dead; and in
their place have appeared the two political parties that are found
throughout the United States; and the lines of difference between the
men of the South and the men of the North have been as completely
obliterated in thirty years, as they were obliterated in Old England,
between Saxon and Norman, after 500 years of savage strife and
turmoil.
And now, if the superior races of the world have been formed by the
amalgamation of the kindred stocks, may we not believe that Providence
has been preparing in this central State a people that shall bear a
distinguished part in that mighty battle that is so swiftly coming to
the American nation, in which we will be called to fight against a
Christian barbarism and a paganized Christianity, for all that is
precious in our Christian civilization, and for all that is true and
good in our American form of government?
Rome fell under an invasion by foreign barbarians; so an inundation of
the barbarians of the world is pouring in on us, and threatens to
swallow us up; it is like the flood the dragon poured out of his
mouth. Of our duties growing out of this catastrophe we shall write
hereafter.
The writer of these "Recollections" is a fallible man, like other
fallible man. He has shown at least this, that he is ready to stand by
his convictions, living and dying; and he holds this conviction fixed
and immutable, that there is a crisis coming on us of overtopping and
overwhelming magnitude, and demanding the American people should come
together and look each other honestly in the face, that they may take
into their hearts this weight and extent of the reasons that call that
they should join in united effort for the salvation of the nation and
the conversion of the world; and that this does not allow that there
shall be anything of flimsy, shallow, or hypocritical concealment of
the facts of our history.
The world has had abundant experience of these border feuds. Scotland
had her feuds between her Highlands and Lowlands. In Ireland there has
been unceasing enmity for 250 years between her Protestant and
Catholic populations. The French and English peoples of Canada are
never at peace with each other; and now there is a feud that can not
be healed between England and Ireland. In some of the mountain regions
of the Southern States, where the people yet retain the clannish
temper of their Scotch and Irish ancestors, there are neighborhood
enmities that go down from father to son, from generation to
generation; and that issue in such fist fights, brawls, and mobs, as
sometimes to tax the whole energy of the public authorities to
suppress them. And now, with such foundation laid for the indefinite
perpetuation of similar feuds in Kansas, we do argue that it has
manifested on the part of our population no ordinary qualities of
heart and soul, that they were so soon able to eliminate from among
themselves their turbulent and dangerous elements.