WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have received from J. Calhoun, esq., president of the late
constitutional convention of Kansas, a copy, duly certified by himself,
of the constitution framed by that body, with the expression of a hope
that I would submit the same to the consideration of Congress "with the
view of the admission of Kansas into the Union as an independent State."
In compliance with this request, I herewith transmit to Congress, for
their action, the constitution of Kansas, with the ordinance respecting
the public lands, as well as the letter of Mr. Calhoun, dated at
Lecompton on the 14th ultimo, by which they were accompanied. Having
received but a single copy of the constitution and ordinance, I send
this to the Senate.
A great delusion seems to pervade the public mind in relation to the
condition of parties in Kansas. This arises from the difficulty of
inducing the American people to realize the fact that any portion of
them should be in a state of rebellion against the government under
which they live. When we speak of the affairs of Kansas, we are apt to
refer merely to the existence of two violent political parties in that
Territory, divided on the question of slavery, just as we speak of such
parties in the States. This presents no adequate idea of the true state
of the case. The dividing line there is not between two political
parties, both acknowledging the lawful existence of the government,
but between those who are loyal to this government and those who have
endeavored to destroy its existence by force and by usurpation--between
those who sustain and those who have done all in their power to
overthrow the Territorial government established by Congress. This
government they would long since have subverted had it not been
protected from their assaults by the troops of the United States. Such
has been the condition of affairs since my inauguration. Ever since
that period a large portion of the people of Kansas have been in a state
of rebellion against the government, with a military leader at their
head of a most turbulent and dangerous character. They have never
acknowledged, but have constantly renounced and defied, the government
to which they owe allegiance, and have been all the time in a state
of resistance against its authority. They have all the time been
endeavoring to subvert it and to establish a revolutionary government,
under the so-called Topeka constitution, in its stead. Even at this very
moment the Topeka legislature are in session. Whoever has read the
correspondence of Governor Walker with the State Department, recently
communicated to the Senate, will be convinced that this picture is not
overdrawn. He always protested against the withdrawal of any portion of
the military force of the United States from the Territory, deeming
its presence absolutely necessary for the preservation of the regular
government and the execution of the laws. In his very first dispatch
to the Secretary of State, dated June 2, 1857, he says:
The most alarming movement, however, proceeds from the assembling on
the 9th June of the so-called Topeka legislature, with a view to the
enactment of an entire code of laws. Of course it will be my endeavor
to prevent such a result, as it would lead to inevitable and disastrous
collision, and, in fact, renew the civil war in Kansas.
This was with difficulty prevented by the efforts of Governor Walker;
but soon thereafter, on the 14th of July, we find him requesting General
Harney to furnish him a regiment of dragoons to proceed to the city
of Lawrence; and this for the reason that he had received authentic
intelligence, verified by his own actual observation, that a dangerous
rebellion had occurred, "involving an open defiance of the laws and
the establishment of an insurgent government in that city."
In the governor's dispatch of July 15 he informs the Secretary of
State that--
This movement at Lawrence was the beginning of a plan, originating
in that city, to organize insurrection throughout the Territory,
and especially in all towns, cities, or counties where the Republican
party have a majority. Lawrence is the hotbed of all the abolition
movements in this Territory. It is the town established by the
abolition societies of the East, and whilst there are respectable
people there, it is filled by a considerable number of mercenaries who
are paid by abolition societies to perpetuate and diffuse agitation
throughout Kansas and prevent a peaceful settlement of this question.
Having failed in inducing their own so-called Topeka State legislature
to organize this insurrection, Lawrence has commenced it herself, and
if not arrested the rebellion will extend throughout the Territory.
And again:
In order to send this communication immediately by mail, I must close
by assuring you that the spirit of rebellion pervades the great mass
of the Republican party of this Territory, instigated, as I entertain
no doubt they are, by Eastern societies, having in view results most
disastrous to the government and to the Union; and that the continued
presence of General Harney here is indispensable, as originally
stipulated by me, with a large body of dragoons and several batteries.
On the 20th July, 1857, General Lane, under the authority of the Topeka
convention, undertook, as Governor Walker informs us--
to organize the whole so-called Free-State party into volunteers and
to take the names of all who refuse enrollment. The professed object
is to protect the polls, at the election in August, of the new
insurgent Topeka State legislature.
* * * * *
The object of taking the names of all who refuse enrollment is to
terrify the Free-State conservatives into submission. This is proved
by recent atrocities committed on such men by Topekaites. The speedy
location of large bodies of regular troops here, with two batteries,
is necessary. The Lawrence insurgents await the development of this
new revolutionary military organization....
In the governor's dispatch of July 27 he says that "General Lane and his
staff everywhere deny the authority of the Territorial laws and counsel
a total disregard of these enactments."
Without making further quotations of a similar character from other
dispatches of Governor Walker, it appears by a reference to Mr.
Stanton's communication to General Cass of the 9th of December last that
the "important step of calling the legislature together was taken after
I [he] had become satisfied that the election ordered by the convention
on the 21st instant could not be conducted without collision and
bloodshed." So intense was the disloyal feeling among the enemies of the
government established by Congress that an election which afforded them
an opportunity, if in the majority, of making Kansas a free State,
according to their own professed desire, could not be conducted without
collision and bloodshed.
The truth is that up till the present moment the enemies of the
existing government still adhere to their Topeka revolutionary
constitution and government. The very first paragraph of the message
of Governor Robinson, dated on the 7th of December, to the Topeka
legislature now assembled at Lawrence contains an open defiance of
the Constitution and laws of the United States. The governor says:
The convention which framed the constitution at Topeka originated
with the people of Kansas Territory. They have adopted and ratified
the same twice by a direct vote, and also indirectly through two
elections of State officers and members of the State legislature.
Yet it has pleased the Administration to regard the whole proceeding
revolutionary.
This Topeka government, adhered to with such treasonable pertinacity, is
a government in direct opposition to the existing government prescribed
and recognized by Congress. It is a usurpation of the same character as
it would be for a portion of the people of any State of the Union to
undertake to establish a separate government within its limits for
the purpose of redressing any grievance, real or imaginary, of which
they might complain against the legitimate State government. Such a
principle, if carried into execution, would destroy all lawful authority
and produce universal anarchy.
From this statement of facts the reason becomes palpable why the enemies
of the government authorized by Congress have refused to vote for
delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention, and also afterwards
on the question of slavery, submitted by it to the people. It is because
they have ever refused to sanction or recognize any other constitution
than that framed at Topeka.
Had the whole Lecompton constitution been submitted to the people the
adherents of this organization would doubtless have voted against it,
because if successful they would thus have removed an obstacle out of
the way of their own revolutionary constitution. They would have done
this, not upon a consideration of the merits of the whole or any part of
the Lecompton constitution, but simply because they have ever resisted
the authority of the government authorized by Congress, from which it
emanated.
Such being the unfortunate condition of affairs in the Territory, what
was the right as well as the duty of the law-abiding people? Were they
silently and patiently to submit to the Topeka usurpation, or adopt the
necessary measures to establish a constitution under the authority of
the organic law of Congress?
That this law recognized the right of the people of the Territory,
without any enabling act from Congress, to form a State constitution
is too clear for argument. For Congress "to leave the people of the
Territory perfectly free," in framing their constitution, "to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to
the Constitution of the United States," and then to say that they shall
not be permitted to proceed and frame a constitution in their own way
without an express authority from Congress, appears to be almost a
contradiction in terms. It would be much more plausible to contend
that Congress had no power to pass such an enabling act than to argue
that the people of a Territory might be kept out of the Union for an
indefinite period, and until it might please Congress to permit them
to exercise the right of self-government. This would be to adopt not
"their own way," but the way which Congress might prescribe.
It is impossible that any people could have proceeded with more
regularity in the formation of a constitution than the people of Kansas
have done. It was necessary, first, to ascertain whether it was the
desire of the people to be relieved from their Territorial dependence
and establish a State government. For this purpose the Territorial
legislature in 1855 passed a law "for taking the sense of the people
of this Territory upon the expediency of calling a convention to form
a State constitution," at the general election to be held in October,
1856. The "sense of the people" was accordingly taken and they decided
in favor of a convention. It is true that at this election the enemies
of the Territorial government did not vote, because they were then
engaged at Topeka, without the slightest pretext of lawful authority,
in framing a constitution of their own for the purpose of subverting
the Territorial government.
In pursuance of this decision of the people in favor of a convention,
the Territorial legislature, on the 27th day of February, 1857, passed
an act for the election of delegates on the third Monday of June, 1857,
to frame a State constitution. This law is as fair in its provisions as
any that ever passed a legislative body for a similar purpose. The right
of suffrage at this election is clearly and justly defined. "Every _bona
fide_ inhabitant of the Territory of Kansas," on the third Monday of
June, the day of the election, who was a citizen of the United States
above the age of 21, and had resided therein for three months previous
to that date, was entitled to vote. In order to avoid all interference
from neighboring States or Territories with the freedom and fairness of
the election, provision was made for the registry of the qualified
voters, and in pursuance thereof 9,251 voters were registered. Governor
Walker did his whole duty in urging all the qualified citizens of Kansas
to vote at this election. In his inaugural address, on the 27th May
last, he informed them that--
Under our practice the preliminary act of framing a State constitution
is uniformly performed through the instrumentality of a convention of
delegates chosen by the people themselves. That convention is now about
to be elected by you under the call of the Territorial legislature,
created and still recognized by the authority of Congress and clothed
by it, in the comprehensive language of the organic law, with full
power to make such an enactment. The Territorial legislature, then,
in assembling this convention, were fully sustained by the act of
Congress, and the authority of the convention is distinctly recognized
in my instructions from the President of the United States.
The governor also clearly and distinctly warns them what would be the
consequences if they should not participate in the election.
The people of Kansas, then [he says], are invited by the highest
authority known to the Constitution to participate freely and fairly
in the election of delegates to frame a constitution and State
government. The law has performed its entire appropriate function
when it extends to the people the right of suffrage, but it can not
compel the performance of that duty. Throughout our whole Union,
however, and wherever free government prevails those who abstain from
the exercise of the right of suffrage authorize those who do vote to
act for them in that contingency; and the absentees are as much bound
under the law and Constitution, where there is no fraud or violence,
by the act of the majority of those who do vote as if all had
participated in the election. Otherwise, as voting must be voluntary,
self-government would be impracticable and monarchy or despotism would
remain as the only alternative.
It may also be observed that at this period any hope, if such had
existed, that the Topeka constitution would ever be recognized by
Congress must have been abandoned. Congress had adjourned on the 3d
March previous, having recognized the legal existence of the Territorial
legislature in a variety of forms, which I need not enumerate. Indeed,
the Delegate elected to the House of Representatives under a Territorial
law had been admitted to his seat and had just completed his term of
service on the day previous to my inauguration.
This was the propitious moment for settling all difficulties in Kansas.
This was the time for abandoning the revolutionary Topeka organization
and for the enemies of the existing government to conform to the laws
and to unite with its friends in framing a State constitution; but this
they refused to do, and the consequences of their refusal to submit to
lawful authority and vote at the election of delegates may yet prove
to be of a most deplorable character. Would that the respect for the
laws of the land which so eminently distinguished the men of the past
generation could be revived. It is a disregard and violation of law
which have for years kept the Territory of Kansas in a state of almost
open rebellion against its government. It is the same spirit which has
produced actual rebellion in Utah. Our only safety consists in obedience
and conformity to law. Should a general spirit against its enforcement
prevail, this will prove fatal to us as a nation. We acknowledge no
master but the law, and should we cut loose from its restraints and
everyone do what seemeth good in his own eyes our case will indeed be
hopeless.
The enemies of the Territorial government determined still to resist
the authority of Congress. They refused to vote for delegates to the
convention, not because, from circumstances which I need not detail,
there was an omission to register the comparatively few voters who were
inhabitants of certain counties of Kansas in the early spring of 1857,
but because they had predetermined at all hazards to adhere to their
revolutionary organization and defeat the establishment of any other
constitution than that which they had framed at Topeka. The election was
therefore suffered to pass by default. But of this result the qualified
electors who refused to vote can never justly complain.
From this review it is manifest that the Lecompton convention, according
to every principle of constitutional law, was legally constituted and
was invested with power to frame a constitution.
The sacred principle of popular sovereignty has been invoked in favor
of the enemies of law and order in Kansas. But in what manner is
popular sovereignty to be exercised in this country if not through
the instrumentality of established law? In certain small republics
of ancient times the people did assemble in primary meetings, passed
laws, and directed public affairs. In our country this is manifestly
impossible. Popular sovereignty can be exercised here only through the
ballot box; and if the people will refuse to exercise it in this manner,
as they have done in Kansas at the election of delegates, it is not for
them to complain that their rights have been violated.
The Kansas convention, thus lawfully constituted, proceeded to frame a
constitution, and, having completed their work, finally adjourned on the
7th day of November last. They did not think proper to submit the whole
of this constitution to a popular vote, but they did submit the question
whether Kansas should be a free or a slave State to the people. This was
the question which had convulsed the Union and shaken it to its very
center. This was the question which had lighted up the flames of civil
war in Kansas and had produced dangerous sectional parties throughout
the Confederacy. It was of a character so paramount in respect to the
condition of Kansas as to rivet the anxious attention of the people of
the whole country upon it, and it alone. No person thought of any other
question. For my own part, when I instructed Governor Walker in general
terms in favor of submitting the constitution to the people, I had no
object in view except the all-absorbing question of slavery. In what
manner the people of Kansas might regulate their other concerns was not
a subject which attracted any attention. In fact, the general provisions
of our recent State constitutions, after an experience of eight years,
are so similar and so excellent that it would be difficult to go far
wrong at the present day in framing a new constitution.
I then believed and still believe that under the organic act the Kansas
convention were bound to submit this all-important question of slavery
to the people. It was never, however, my opinion that, independently
of this act, they would have been bound to submit any portion of the
constitution to a popular vote in order to give it validity. Had I
entertained such an opinion, this would have been in opposition to
many precedents in our history, commencing in the very best age of
the Republic. It would have been in opposition to the principle which
pervades our institutions, and which is every day carried out into
practice, that the people have the right to delegate to representatives
chosen by themselves their sovereign power to frame constitutions, enact
laws, and perform many other important acts without requiring that these
should be subjected to their subsequent approbation. It would be a most
inconvenient limitation of their own power, imposed by the people upon
themselves, to exclude them from exercising their sovereignty in any
lawful manner they think proper. It is true that the people of Kansas
might, if they had pleased, have required the convention to submit the
constitution to a popular vote; but this they have not done. The only
remedy, therefore, in this case is that which exists in all other
similar cases. If the delegates who framed the Kansas constitution have
in any manner violated the will of their constituents, the people always
possess the power to change their constitution or their laws according
to their own pleasure.
The question of slavery was submitted to an election of the people of
Kansas on the 21st December last, in obedience to the mandate of the
constitution. Here again a fair opportunity was presented to the
adherents of the Topeka constitution, if they were the majority, to
decide this exciting question "in their own way" and thus restore peace
to the distracted Territory; but they again refused to exercise their
right of popular sovereignty, and again suffered the election to pass
by default.
I heartily rejoice that a wiser and better spirit prevailed among a
large majority of these people on the first Monday of January, and that
they did on that day vote under the Lecompton constitution for a
governor and other State officers, a Member of Congress, and for members
of the legislature. This election was warmly contested by the parties,
and a larger vote was polled than at any previous election in the
Territory. We may now reasonably hope that the revolutionary Topeka
organization will be speedily and finally abandoned, and this will go
far toward the final settlement of the unhappy differences in Kansas.
If frauds have been committed at this election, either by one or both
parties, the legislature and the people of Kansas, under their
constitution, will know how to redress themselves and punish these
detestable but too common crimes without any outside interference.
The people of Kansas have, then, "in their own way" and in strict
accordance with the organic act, framed a constitution and State
government, have submitted the all-important question of slavery to the
people, and have elected a governor, a Member to represent them in
Congress, members of the State legislature, and other State officers.
They now ask admission into the Union under this constitution, which is
republican in its form. It is for Congress to decide whether they will
admit or reject the State which has thus been created. For my own
part, I am decidedly in favor of its admission, and thus terminating
the Kansas question. This will carry out the great principle of
nonintervention recognized and sanctioned by the organic act, which
declares in express language in favor of "nonintervention by Congress
with slavery in the States or Territories," leaving "the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." In this
manner, by localizing the question of slavery and confining it to the
people whom it immediately concerned, every patriot anxiously expected
that this question would be banished from the halls of Congress, where
it has always exerted a baneful influence throughout the whole country.
It is proper that I should briefly refer to the election held under
an act of the Territorial legislature on the first Monday of January
last on the Lecompton constitution. This election was held after the
Territory had been prepared for admission into the Union as a sovereign
State, and when no authority existed in the Territorial legislature
which could possibly destroy its existence or change its character.
The election, which was peaceably conducted under my instructions,
involved a strange inconsistency. A large majority of the persons who
voted against the Lecompton constitution were at the very same time and
place recognizing its valid existence in the most solemn and authentic
manner by voting under its provisions. I have yet received no official
information of the result of this election.
As a question of expediency, after the right has been maintained, it may
be wise to reflect upon the benefits to Kansas and to the whole country
which would result from its immediate admission into the Union, as well
as the disasters which may follow its rejection. Domestic peace will
be the happy consequence of its admission, and that fine Territory,
which has hitherto been torn by dissensions, will rapidly increase
in population and wealth and speedily realize the blessings and the
comforts which follow in the train of agricultural and mechanical
industry. The people will then be sovereign and can regulate their own
affairs in their own way. If a majority of them desire to abolish
domestic slavery within the State, there is no other possible mode by
which this can be effected so speedily as by prompt admission. The will
of the majority is supreme and irresistible when expressed in an orderly
and lawful manner. They can make and unmake constitutions at pleasure.
It would be absurd to say that they can impose fetters upon their own
power which they can not afterwards remove. If they could do this, they
might tie their own hands for a hundred as well as for ten years. These
are fundamental principles of American freedom, and are recognized,
I believe, in some form or other by every State constitution; and if
Congress, in the act of admission, should think proper to recognize
them I can perceive no objection to such a course. This has been done
emphatically in the constitution of Kansas. It declares in the bill
of rights that "all political power is inherent in the people and all
free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for
their benefit, and therefore they have at all times an inalienable and
indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their form of government
in such manner as they may think proper." The great State of New York is
at this moment governed under a constitution framed and established in
direct opposition to the mode prescribed by the previous constitution.
If, therefore, the provision changing the Kansas constitution after the
year 1864 could by possibility be construed into a prohibition to make
such a change previous to that period, this prohibition would be wholly
unavailing. The legislature already elected may at its very first
session submit the question to a vote of the people whether they will
or will not have a convention to amend their constitution and adopt
all necessary means for giving effect to the popular will.
It has been solemnly adjudged by the highest judicial tribunal known to
our laws that slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of
the United States. Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave
State as Georgia or South Carolina. Without this the equality of the
sovereign States composing the Union would be violated and the use and
enjoyment of a territory acquired by the common treasure of all the
States would be closed against the people and the property of nearly
half the members of the Confederacy. Slavery can therefore never be
prohibited in Kansas except by means of a constitutional provision, and
in no other manner can this be obtained so promptly, if a majority of
the people desire it, as by admitting it into the Union under its
present constitution.
On the other hand, should Congress reject the constitution under the
idea of affording the disaffected in Kansas a third opportunity of
prohibiting slavery in the State, which they might have done twice
before if in the majority, no man can foretell the consequences.
If Congress, for the sake of those men who refused to vote for delegates
to the convention when they might have excluded slavery from the
constitution, and who afterwards refused to vote on the 21st December
last, when they might, as they claim, have stricken slavery from the
constitution, should now reject the State because slavery remains in the
constitution, it is manifest that the agitation upon this dangerous
subject will be renewed in a more alarming form than it has ever yet
assumed.
Every patriot in the country had indulged the hope that the Kansas and
Nebraska act would put a final end to the slavery agitation, at least in
Congress, which had for more than twenty years convulsed the country
and endangered the Union. This act involved great and fundamental
principles, and if fairly carried into effect will settle the question.
Should the agitation be again revived, should the people of the sister
States be again estranged from each other with more than their former
bitterness, this will arise from a cause, so far as the interests of
Kansas are concerned, more trifling and insignificant than has ever
stirred the elements of a great people into commotion. To the people of
Kansas the only practical difference between admission or rejection
depends simply upon the fact whether they can themselves more speedily
change the present constitution if it does not accord with the will of
the majority, or frame a second constitution to be submitted to Congress
hereafter. Even if this were a question of mere expediency, and not of
right, the small difference of time one way or the other is of not the
least importance when contrasted with the evils which must necessarily
result to the whole country from a revival of the slavery agitation.
In considering this question it should never be forgotten that in
proportion to its insignificance, let the decision be what it may so far
as it may affect the few thousand inhabitants of Kansas who have from
the beginning resisted the constitution and the laws, for this very
reason the rejection of the constitution will be so much the more keenly
felt by the people of fourteen of the States of this Union, where
slavery is recognized under the Constitution of the United States.
Again, the speedy admission of Kansas into the Union would restore peace
and quiet to the whole country. Already the affairs of this Territory
have engrossed an undue proportion of public attention. They have sadly
affected the friendly relations of the people of the States with each
other and alarmed the fears of patriots for the safety of the Union.
Kansas once admitted into the Union, the excitement becomes localized
and will soon die away for want of outside aliment. Then every
difficulty will be settled at the ballot box.
Besides--and this is no trifling consideration--I shall then be enabled
to withdraw the troops of the United States from Kansas and employ them
on branches of service where they are much needed. They have been kept
there, on the earnest importunity of Governor Walker, to maintain the
existence of the Territorial government and secure the execution of
the laws. He considered that at least 2,000 regular troops, under the
command of General Harney, were necessary for this purpose. Acting
upon his reliable information, I have been obliged in some degree to
interfere with the expedition to Utah in order to keep down rebellion in
Kansas. This has involved a very heavy expense to the Government. Kansas
once admitted, it is believed there will no longer be any occasion there
for troops of the United States.
I have thus performed my duty on this important question, under a deep
sense of responsibility to God and my country. My public life will
terminate within a brief period, and I have no other object of earthly
ambition than to leave my country in a peaceful and prosperous condition
and to live in the affections and respect of my countrymen. The dark
and ominous clouds which now appear to be impending over the Union
I conscientiously believe may be dissipated with honor to every portion
of it by the admission of Kansas during the present session of Congress,
whereas if she should be rejected I greatly fear these clouds will
become darker and more ominous than any which have ever yet threatened
the Constitution and the Union.