You are now called to redress a great
transgression. Seldom in the history of nations
has such a question been presented. Tariffs,
army bills, navy bills, land bills, are
important, and justly occupy your care; but
these all belong to the course of ordinary
legislation. As means and instruments only, they
are necessarily subordinate to the conservation
of Government itself. Grant them or deny them,
in greater or less degree, and you will inflict
no shock. The machinery of Government will
continue to move. The State will not cease to
exist. Far otherwise is it with the eminent
question now before you, involving, as it does,
Liberty in a broad Territory, and also involving
the peace of the whole country with our good
name in our history for evermore.
Take down your map, sir, and you will find that
the Territory of Kansas, more than any other
region, occupies the middle spot of North
America, equally distant from the Atlantic on
the east, and the Pacific on the west; from the
frozen waters of Hudson's Bay on the north, and
the tepid Gulf Stream on the south, constituting
the precise territorial centre of the whole vast
continent. To such advantages of situation, on
the very highway between two oceans, are added a
soil of unsurpassed richness, and a fascinating,
undulating beauty of surface, with a
health-giving climate, calculated to nurture a
powerful and generous people, worthy to be a
central pivot of American Institutions. A few
short months only have passed since this
spacious Mediterranean country was open only to
the savage, who ran wild in its woods and
prairies; and now it has already drawn to its
bosom a population of freemen larger than Athens
crowded within her historic gates, when her
sons, under Miltiades, won Liberty for mankind
on the field of Marathon; more than Sparta
contained when she ruled Greece, and sent forth
her devoted children , quickened by a mother's
benediction, to return with their shields or on
them; more than Rome gathered on her seven
hills, when, under her kings, she commenced that
sovereign sway, which afterwards embraced the
whole earth; more than London held, when, on the
fields of Crecy and Agincourt, the English
banner was carried victoriously over the
chivalrous hosts of France.
Against this Territory, thus fortunate in
position and population, a crime has been
committed, which is without example in the
records of the Past. Not in plundered provinces
or in the cruelties of selfish governors will
you find its parallel; and yet there is an
ancient instance, which may show at least the
path of justice. In the terrible impeachment by
which the great Roman orator has blasted through
all time the name of Verres, amidst charges of
robbery and sacrilege, the enormity which most
aroused the indignant voice of his accuser, and
which still stands forth with strongest
distinctness, arresting the sympathetic
indignation of all who read the story, is that
away in Sicily he had scourged a citizen of Rome
-- that the cry "I am a Roman citizen" had been
interposed in vain against the lash of the
tyrant governor. Other charges were that he had
carried away productions of art, and that he had
violated the sacred shrines. It was in the
presence of the Roman Senate that this
arraignment proceeded, in a temple of the forum;
amidst crowds -- such as no orator had ever
before drawn together -- thronging the porticos
and colonades, even clinging to the housetops
and neighboring slopes, and under the anxious
gaze of witnesses summoned from the scene of the
crime. But an audience grander far, of higher
dignity, of more various people and of wider
intelligence, the countless multitude of
succeeding generations in every land where
eloquence has been studied, or where the Roman
name has been recognised, has listened to the
accusation, and throbbed with condemnation of
the criminal. Sir, speaking in an age of light,
and in a land of constitutional liberty, where
the safeguards of elections are justly placed
among the highest triumphs of civilization, I
fearlessly assert that the wrongs of much-abused
Sicily, thus memorable in history, were small by
the side of the wrongs of Kansas, where the very
shrines of popular institutions, more sacred
than any heathen altar, have been desecrated;
where the ballot box, more precious than any
work, in ivory or marble, from the cunning hand
of art, has been plundered; and where the cry "I
am an American citizen" has been interposed in
vain against outrage of every kind, even upon
life itself. Are you against sacrilege? I
present it for your execration. Are you against
robbery? I hold it up to your scorn. Are you for
the protection of American citizens? I show you
how their dearest rights have been cloven down,
while a tyrannical usurpation has sought to
install itself on their very necks.
But the wickedness which I now begin to expose
is immeasurably aggravated by the motive which
prompted it. Not in any common lust for power
did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is
the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to
the hateful embrace of Slavery; and it may be
clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new
slave State, the hideous offspring of such a
crime, in the hope of adding to the power of
slavery in the National Government. Yes, sir,
when the whole world, alike Christian and Turk,
is rising up to condemn this wrong, and to make
it a hissing to the nations, here in our
Republic, force -- aye, Sir, FORCE, -- has been
openly employed in compelling Kansas to this
pollution, and all for the sake of political
power. There is the simple fact, which you will
vainly attempt to deny, but which in itself
presents an essential wickedness that makes
other public crimes seem like public virtues.
But this enormity, vast beyond comparison,
swells to dimensions of wickedness which the
imagination toils in vain to grasp, when it is
understood, that for this purpose are hazarded
the horrors of intestine feud, not only in this
distant Territory, but everywhere throughout the
country. Already the muster has begun. The
strife is no longer local, but national. Even
now, while I speak, portents hang on all the
arches of the horizon, threatening to darken the
broad land, which already yawns with the
musterings of civil war. The fury of the
propagandists of slavery, and the calm
determination of their opponents, are now
diffused from the distant Territory over
wide-spread communities, and the whole country,
in all its extent -- marshalling hostile
divisions, and foreshadowing a strife, which,
unless happily averted by the triumph of
Freedom, will become war -- fratricidal,
parricidal war -- with an accumulated wickedness
beyond the wickedness of any war in human
annals; justly provoking the avenging judgment
of Providence and the avenging pen of history,
and constituting a strife, in the language of
the ancient writer, more than foreign, more than
social, more than civil; but something
compounded of all these strifes, and in itself
more than war; sed potius commune quoddam ex
omnibus, et plus quam bellum.
Such is the crime which you are to judge. But
the criminal also must be dragged into day, that
you may see and measure the power by which all
this wrong is sustained. From no common source
could it proceed. In its perpetration was needed
a spirit of vaulting ambition which would
hesitate at nothing; a hardihood of purpose
which was insensible to the judgment of mankind;
a madness for slavery which should disregard the
Constitution, the laws, and all the great
examples of our history; also a consciousness of
power such as comes from the habit of power; a
combination of energies found only in a hundred
arms directed by a hundred eyes; a control of
public opinion, through venal pens and a
prostituted press; an ability to subsidize
crowds in every vocation of life -- the
politician with his local importance, the lawyer
with his subtile tongue, and even the authority
of the judge on the bench, and a familiar use of
men in places high and low, so that none, from
the President to the lowest border postmaster,
should decline to be its tool; all these things
and more were needed; and they were found in the
slave power of our Republic. There, sir, stands
the criminal -- all unmasked before you --
heartless, grasping, and tyrannical -- with an
audacity beyond that of Verres, a subtlity
beyond that of Machiavel, a meanness beyond that
of Bacon, and an ability beyond that of
Hastings. Justice to Kansas can be secured only
by the prostration of this influence; for this
is the power behind, -- greater than any
President -- which succors and sustains the
Crime. Nay, the proceedings I now arraign derive
their fearful consequence only from this
connection.
In now opening this great matter, I am not
insensible to the austere demands of the
occasion; but the dependence of the crime
against Kansas upon the slave power is so
peculiar and important, that I trust to be
pardoned while I impress it by an illustration,
which to some may seem trivial. It is related in
Northern mythology, that the god of Force,
visiting an enchanted region, was challenged by
his royal entertainer to what seemed a humble
feat of strength--merely, sir, to lift a cat
from the ground. The god smiled at the
challenge, and, calmly placing his hand under
the belly of the animal, with superhuman
strength, strove, while the back of the feline
monster arched far upward, even beyond reach,
and one paw actually forsook the earth, until at
last the discomfited divinity desisted; but he
was little surprised at his defeat, when he
learned that this creature, which seemed to be a
cat, and nothing more, was not merely a cat, but
that it belonged to and was a part of the great
terrestrial serpent, which, in its innumerable
folds, encircled the whole globe. Even so to the
creature whose paws are now fastened upon
Kansas, whatever it may seem to be, constitutes
in reality a part of the Slave Power, which,
with loathsome folds, now coiled about the whole
land. Thus do I expose the extent of the present
contest, where we encounter not merely local
resistance, but also the unconquered sustaining
arm behind. But out of the vastness of the crime
attempted, with all its woe and shame, I derive
a well-founded assurance of a commensurate
vastness of effort against it, by the aroused
masses of the country, determined not only to
vindicate Right against Wrong, but to redeem the
republic from the thraldom of that oligarchy
which prompts, directs, and concentrates, the
distant wrong.
Such is the Crime, and such the criminal which
it is my duty in this debate to expose; and, by
the blessing of God, this duty shall be done
completely to the end. But this will not be
enough. The Apologies, which, with strange
hardihood, have been offered for the Crime, must
be torn away, so that it shall stand forth
without a single rag or fig-leaf to cover its
vileness; and, finally, the true remedy must be
shown. The subject is as complex in its
relations as it is transcendent in importance;
and yet, if I am honored by your attention, I
hope to exhibit it clearly in all its parts,
while I conduct you to the inevitable
conclusion, that Kansas must be admitted at
once, with her present Constitution, as a State
of this Union, and give a new star to the blue
field of our national flag. And here I derive
satisfaction from the thought that the cause is
so strong in itself as to bear even the
infirmities of its advocates; nor can it require
anything beyond that simplicity of treatment and
moderation of manner which I desire to
cultivate. Its true character is such that like
Hercules, it will conquer just so soon as it is
recognised.
My task will be divided under three different
heads: first, THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS, in its
origin and extent; secondly, THE APOLOGIES FOR
THE CRIME; and thirdly, the TRUE REMEDY.
But, before entering upon the argument, I must
say something of a general character,
particularly in response to what has fallen from
senators who have raised themselves to eminence
on this floor in championship of human wrongs. I
mean the senator from South Carolina, (Mr.
BUTLER,) and the senator from Illinois, (Mr.
DOUGLAS,) who, though unlike as Don Quixote and
Sancho Panza, yet, like this couple, sally forth
together in the same adventure. I regret much to
miss the elder senator from his seat; but the
cause, against which he has run a tilt with such
activity of animosity, demands that the
opportunity of exposing him should not be lost;
and it is for the cause that I speak. The
senator from South Carolina has read many books
of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous
knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of
course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has
made his vows, and who, though ugly to others,
is always lovely to him; though polluted in the
sight of the world, is chaste in his sight -- I
mean the harlot, slavery. For her his tongue is
always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in
character, or any proposition made to shut her
out from the extension of her wantonness, and no
extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion
is then too great for this senator. The phrenzy
of Don Quixote in behalf of his wench Dulcinea
del Toboso is all surpassed. The asserted rights
of slavery, which shock equality of all kinds,
are cloaked by a fantastic claim of equality. If
the slave States cannot enjoy what in mockery of
the great fathers of the Republic, he misnames
equality under the Constitution -- in other
words, the full power in the national
Territories to compel fellow men to unpaid toil,
to separate husband and wife, and to sell little
children at the auction block -- then, sir, the
chivalric senator will conduct the State of
South Carolina out of the Union! Heroic knight!
Exalted senator! A Second Moses come for a
second exodus!
But not content with this poor menace, which we
have been twice told was "measured," the
senator, in the unrestrained chivalry of his
nature, has undertaken to apply opprobrious
words to those who differ from him on this
floor. He calls them "sectional and fanatical;"
and opposition to the usurpation in Kansas, he
denounces as "an uncalculating fanaticism." To
be sure, these charges lack all grace of
originality, all sentiment of truth; but the
adventurous senator does not hesitate. He is the
uncompromising, unblushing representative on
this floor of a flagrant sectionalism, which now
domineers over the Republic, and yet with a
ludicrous ignorance of his own position --
unable to see himself as others see him -- or
with an effrontery which even his white head
ought not protect from rebuke, he applies to
those here who resist his sectionalism, the very
epithet which designates himself. The men who
strive to bring back the government to its
original policy, when freedom and not slavery
was national, while slavery and not freedom was
sectional, he arraigns as sectional. This will
not do. It involves too great a perversion of
terms. I tell that senator, that it is to
himself, and to the "organization" of which he
is the "committed advocate," that this epithet
belongs. I now fasten it upon him. For myself, I
care little for names; but since the question
has been raised here, I affirm that the
Republican party of the Union is in no just
sense sectional, but, more than any other party,
national; and that it now goes forth to dislodge
from the high places of the government the
tyrannical sectionalism of which the senator
from South Carolina is one of the maddest
zealots.
To the charge of fanaticism I also reply. Sir,
fanaticism is found in an enthusiasm or
exaggeration of opinions, particularly on
religious subjects; but there may be a
fanaticism for evil as well as good. Now, I will
not deny, that there are persons among us loving
liberty too well for their personal good, in a
selfish generation. Such there may be, and, for
the sake of their example, would that there were
more! In calling them "fanatics," you cast
contumely upon the noble army of martyrs, from
the earliest day down to this hour; upon the
great tribunes of human rights, by whom life,
liberty, and happiness, on earth, have been
secured; upon the long line of devoted patriots
who, throughout history, have truly loved their
country; and upon all who, in noble aspirations
for the general good and in forgetfulness of
self, have stood out before their age, and
gathered into their generous bosoms the shafts
of tyranny and wrong, in order to make a pathway
for truth. You discredit Luther, when alone he
nailed his articles to the door of the church at
Wittenberg, and then, to the imperial demand
that he should retract, firmly replied, "Here I
stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God!"
You discredit Hampden, when alone he refused to
pay the few shillings of ship-money, and shook
the throne of Charles I; you discredit Milton,
when, amidst the corruptions of a heartless
court, he lived on, the lofty friend of liberty,
above question or suspicion; you discredit
Russell and Sidney, when, for the sake of their
country, they calmly turned from family and
friends, to tread the narrow steps of the
scaffold; you discredit those early founders of
American institutions, who preferred the
hardships of a wilderness, surrounded by a
savage foe, to injustice on beds of ease; you
discredit our later fathers, who, few in numbers
and weak in resources, yet strong in their
cause, did not hesitate to brave the mighty
power of England, already encircling the globe
with her morning drum-beats. Yes, sir, of such
are the fanatics of history, according to the
senator. But I tell that senator, that there are
characters badly eminent, of whose fanaticism
there can be no question. Such were the ancient
Egyptians, who worshipped divinities in brutish
forms; the Druids, who darkened the forests of
oak, in which they lived, by sacrifices of
blood; the Mexicans, who surrendered countless
victims to the propitiation of their obscene
idols; the Spaniards, who under Alva, sought to
force the inquisition upon Holland, by a tyranny
kindred to that now employed to force Slavery
upon Kansas; and such were the Algerines, when
in solemn conclave, after listening to a speech
not unlike that of the senator from South
Carolina, they resolved to continue the slavery
of white Christians, and to extend it to the
countrymen of Washington. Aye, sir, extend it!
And in this same dreary catalogue faithful
history must record all who now, in an
enlightened age and in a land of boasted
Freedom, stand up, in perversion of the
constitution and in denial of immortal truth, to
fasten a new shackle upon their fellow-man. If
the senator wishes to see fanatics, let him look
around among his own associates; let him look at
himself.
But I have not done with the senator. There is
another matter regarded by him of such
consequence, that he interpolated it into the
speech of the senator from New Hampshire (Mr.
Hale,) and also announced that he had prepared
himself with it, to take into his pocket all the
way to Boston, when he expected to address the
people of that community. On this account, and
for the sake of truth, I stop for one moment,
and tread it to the earth. The North, according
to the senator, was engaged in the slave trade,
and helped to introduce slaves into the southern
States; and this undeniable fact he proposed to
establish by statistics, in stating which his
errors surpassed his sentences in number. But I
let these pass for the present, that I may deal
with his argument. Pray, sir, is the
acknowledged turpitude of a departed generation
to become an example for us? And yet the
suggestion of the senator if entitled to any
consideration in this discussion, must have this
extent. I join my friend from New Hampshire in
thanking the senator from South Carolina for
adducing this instance; for it gives me an
opportunity to say, that the northern merchants,
with homes in Boston, Bristol, Newport, New
York, and Philadelphia, who catered for slavery
during the years of the slave trade, are the
lineal progenitors of the northern men, with
homes in these places, who lend themselves to
slavery in our day; and especially that all,
whether north or aouth, who take part, directly
or indirectly, in the conspiracy against Kansas,
do but continue the work of the slave-traders,
which you condemn. It is true, too true, alas!
that our fathers were engaged in this traffic;
but that is no apology for it. And in repelling
the authority of this example, I repel also the
trite argument founded on the earlier example of
England. It is true that our mother country, at
the peace of Utrecht, extorted from Spain the
Asiento Contract, securing the monopoly of the
slave trade with the Spanish colonies, as the
whole price of all the blood of great victories;
that she higgled at Aix-la Chapelle for another
lease of this exclusive traffic; and again, at
the treaty of Madrid, clung to the wretched
piracy. It is true, that in this spirit the
power of the mother country was prostituted to
the same base ends in her American colonies,
against indignant protests from our fathers. All
these things now rise up in judgment against
her. Let us not follow the senator from South
Carolina to do this very evil to- day, which in
another generation we condemn.
As the senator from South Carolina is the Don
Quixote, the senator from Illinois (Mr. DOUGLAS)
is the squire of slavery, its very Sancho Panza,
ready to do all its humiliating offices. This
senator, in his labored address, vindicating his
labored report -- piling one mass of elaborate
error upon another mass -- constrained himself,
as you will remember, to unfamiliar, decencies
of speech. Of that address I have nothing to say
at this moment, though before I sit down I shall
show something of its fallacies. But I go back
now to an earlier occasion, when, true to his
native impulses, he threw into this discussion,
"for a charm of powerful trouble," personalities
most discreditable to this body. I will not stop
to repel the imputations which he cast upon
myself; but I mention them to remind you of the
"sweltered venom sleeping got," which, with
other poisoned ingredients, he cast into the
caldron of this debate. Of other things I speak.
Standing on this floor, the senator issued his
rescript, requiring submission to the usurped
power of Kansas; and this was accompanied by a
manner -- all his own -- such as befits the
tyrannical threat. Very well. Let the senator
try. I tell him now that he cannot enforce any
such submission. The senator, with the slave
power at his back, is strong; but he is not
strong enough for this purpose. He is bold. He
shrinks from nothing. Like Danton, he may cry, "l'audace,
l'audace, toujours l'audace!" but even his
audacity cannot compass this work. The senator
copies the British officer, who, with boastful
swagger, said that with the hilt of his sword he
would cram the "stamps" down the throats of the
American people, and he will meet a similar
failure. He may convulse this country with civil
feud. Like the ancient madman, he may set fire
to this temple of constitutional liberty,
grander than Ephesian dome, but he cannot
enforce obedience to that tyrannical usurpation.
The senator dreams that he can subdue the North.
He disclaims the open threat, but his conduct
still implies it. How little that senator knows
himself, or the strength of the cause which he
persecutes! He is but a mortal man; against him
is an immortal principle. With finite power he
wrestles with the infinite, and he must fall.
Against him are stronger battalions than any
marshaled by mortal man -- the inborn,
ineradicable, invincible sentiments of the human
heart; against him is nature in all her subtle
forces; against him is God. Let him try to
subdue these.
But I pass from these things, which, though
belonging to the very heart of the discussion,
are yet preliminary in character, and press at
once to the main question.
I. It belongs to me now, in the first place, to
expose the CRIME AGAINST KANSAS, in its origin
and extent. Logically, this is the beginning of
the argument. I say crime, and deliberately
adopt this strongest term, as better than any
other denoting the consummate transgression. I
would go further, if language could further go.
It is the crime of crimes -- surpassing far the
old crimen majestatis, pursued with vengeance by
the laws of Rome, and containing all other
crimes, as the greater contains the less. I do
not go too far, when I call it the crime against
nature, from which the soul recoils, and which
language refuses to describe. To lay bare this
enormity, I now proceed. The whole subject has
already become a twice-told tale, and its
renewed recital will be a renewal of its sorrow
and shame; but I shall not hesitate to enter
upon it. The occasion requires it from the
beginning.
It has been well remarked by a distinguished
historian of our country, that, at the Ithuriel
touch of the Missouri discussion, the slave
interest, hitherto hardly recognised as a
distinct element in our system, started up
portentous and dilated, with threats and
assumptions, which are the origin of our
existing national politics. That was in 1820.
The discussion ended with the admission of
Missouri as a slaveholding State, and the
prohibition of slavery in all the remaining
territory west of the Mississippi, and north of
36 deg. 30 min., leaving the condition of other
territory south of this line, or subsequently
acquired, untouched by the arrangement. Here was
a solemn act of legislation, called at the time
a compromise, a covenant, a compact, first
brought forward in this body by a slaveholder --
vindicated by slaveholders in debates -- finally
sanctioned by slaveholding votes -- also upheld
at the time by the essential approbation of a
slaveholding President, James Monroe, and his
cabinet, of whom a majority were slaveholders,
including Mr. Calhoun himself; and this
compromise was made the condition of the
admission of Missouri, without which that State
could not have been received into the Union. The
bargain was simple, and was applicable, of
course, only to the territory named. Leaving all
other territory to await the judgment of another
generation, the South said to the North, Conquer
your prejudices so far as to admit Missouri as a
slave State, and, in consideration of this
much-coveted boon, slavery shall be prohibited
forever in all the remaining Louisiana Territory
above 36 deg. 30 min.; and the North yielded.
In total disregard of history, the President, in
his annual message, has told us that this
compromise "was reluctantly acquiesced in by the
Southern States." Just the contrary is true. It
was the work of slaveholders, and was crowded by
their concurring votes upon a reluctant North.
At the time it was hailed by slaveholders as a
victory. Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, in
an oft-quoted letter, written at three o'clock
on the night of its passage, says, "It is
considered here by the slaveholding States as a
great triumph." At the north it was accepted as
a defeat, and the friends of Freedom everywhere
throughout the country bowed their heads with
mortification. But little did they know the
completeness of their disaster. Little did they
dream that the prohibition of slavery in the
Territory, which was stipulated as the price of
their total capitulation, would also at the very
moment of its maturity be wrested from them.
Time passed, and it became necessary to provide
for this Territory an organized government.
Suddenly, without notice in the public press, or
the prayer of a single petition, or one word of
open recommendation from the President -- after
an acquiescence of thirty- three years, and the
irreclaimable possession by the South of its
special share under this compromise -- in
violation of every obligation of honor, compact,
and good neighborhood -- and in contemptuous
disregard of the out-gushing sentiments of an
aroused North, this time-honored prohibition, in
itself a landmark of Freedom, was overturned,
and the vast region now known as Kansas and
Nebraska was opened to slavery. It was natural
that a measure thus repugnant in character
should be pressed by arguments mutually
repugnant. It was urged on two principal
reasons, so opposite and inconsistent as to slap
each other in the face--one being that, by the
repeal of the prohibition, the Territory would
be left open to the entry of slaveholders with
their slaves, without hindrance; and the other
being, that the people would be left absolutely
free to determine the question for themselves,
and to prohibit the entry of slaveholders with
their slaves, if they should think best. With
some, the apology was the alleged rights of
slaveholders; with others, it was the alleged
rights of the people -- with some it was openly
the extension of slavery ; and with others it
was openly the establishment of freedom, under
the guise of popular sovereignty. Of course, the
measure, thus upheld in defiance of reason, was
carried through Congress in defiance of all the
securities of legislation; and I mention these
things that you may see in what foulness the
present crime was engendered.
It was carried, first, by whipping in to its
support, through executive influence and
patronage, men who acted against their own
declared judgment and the known will of their
constituents. Secondly, by foisting out of
place, both in the Senate and the House of
Representatives, important business, long
pending, and usurping its room. Thirdly, by
trampling under foot the rules of the House of
Representatives, always before the safeguard of
the minority. And fourthly, by driving it to a
close during the very session in which it
originated, so that it might not be arrested by
the indignant voice of the People. Such are some
of the means by which this snap judgment was
obtained. If the clear will of the people had
not been disregarded, it would not have passed.
If the government had not nefariously interposed
its influence, it could not have passed. If it
had been left to its natural place in the order
of business, it could not have passed. If the
rules of the House and the rights of the
minority had not been violated, it could not
have passed. If it had been allowed to go over
to another Congress, when the people might be
heard, it would have been ended; and then the
crime we now deplore, would have been without
its first seminal life.
Mr. President, I mean to keep absolutely within
the limits of parliamentary propriety. I make no
personal imputations; but only with frankness,
such as belongs to the occasion and my own
character, describe a great historical act,
which is now enrolled in the Capitol. Sir, the
Nebraska bill was in every respect a swindle. It
was a swindle by the South of the North. It was,
one the part of those who had already completely
enjoyed their share of the Missouri Compromise,
a swindle of these whose share was yet
absolutely untouched; and the plea of
unconstitutionality set up -- like the plea of
usury after the borrowed money has been enjoyed
-- did not make it less a swindle. Urged as a
bill of peace, it was a swindle of the whole
country. Urged as opening the doors to
slave-masters with their slaves, it was a
swindle of the asserted doctrine of popular
sovereignty. Urged as sanctioning popular
sovereignty, it was a swindle of the asserted
rights of slave-masters. It was a swindle of a
broad territory, thus cheated of protection
against slavery. It was a swindle of a great
cause, early espoused by Washington, Franklin,
and Jefferson, surrounded by the best fathers of
the republic. Sir, it was a swindle of God-given
inalienable rights. Turn it over; look at it on
all sides, and it is everywhere a swindle; and,
if the word I now employ has not the authority
of classical usage, it has, on this occasion,
the indubitable authority of fitness. No other
word will adequately express the mingled
meanness and wickedness of the cheat.
Its character was still further apparent in the
general structure of the bill. Amidst
overflowing professions of regard for the
sovereignty of the people in the Territory, they
were despoiled of every essential privilege of
sovereignty. They were not allowed to choose
their Governor, Secretary, chief justice,
associate justices, attorney, or marshal -- all
of whom are sent from Washington; nor were they
allowed to regulate the salaries of any of these
functionaries, or the daily allowance of the
legislative body, or even the pay of the clerks
and door-keepers; but they were left free to
adopt slavery. And this was called popular
sovereignty! Time does not allow, nor does the
occasion require, that I should stop to dwell on
this transparent device to cover a transcendent
wrong. Suffice it to say, that slavery is in
itself an arrogant denial of human rights, and
by no human reason can the power to establish
such a wrong be placed among the attributes of
any just sovereignty. In refusing it such a
place, I do not deny popular rights, but uphold
them; I do not restrain popular rights, but
extend them. And, sir, to this conclusion you
must yet come, unless deaf, not only to the
admonitions of political justice, but also to
the genius of our own constitution, under which,
when properly interpreted, no valid claim for
slavery can be set up anywhere in the national
territory. The senator from Michigan (Mr. CASS)
may say, in response to the senator from
Mississippi, (Mr. BROWN) that slavery cannot go
into the territory under the Constitution,
without legislative introduction; and permit me
to add, in response to both, that slavery cannot
go there at all. Nothing can come out of
nothing; and there is absolutely nothing in the
constitution out of which slavery can be
derived, while there are provisions, which, when
properly interpreted, make its existence
anywhere within the exclusive national
jurisdiction impossible.
The offensive provision in the bill was, in its
form, a legislative anomaly, utterly wanting the
natural directness and simplicity of an honest
transaction. It did not undertake openly to
repeal the old prohibition of slavery, but
seemed to mince the matter, as if conscious of
the swindle. It is said that this prohibition,
"being inconsistent with the principle of
non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the
States and territories, as recognised by the
legislation of 1850, commonly called the
compromise measures, is hereby declared
inoperative and void." Thus, with insidious
ostentation, was it pretended that an act,
violating the greatest compromise of our
legislative history, and setting loose the
foundations of all compromise, was derived out
of a compromise. Then followed in the bill the
further declaration, which is entirely without
precedent, and which has been aptly called "a
stump speech in its belly," namely: "it being
the true intent and meaning of this act, not to
legislate slavery into any Territory or State,
nor to exclude it therefore, but to leave 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." Here were smooth words, such as
belong to a cunning tongue enlisted in a bad
cause. But whatever may have been their various
hidden meanings, this at least was evident,
that, by their effect, the congressional
prohibition of slavery, which had always been
regarded as a seven-fold shield, covering the
whole Louisiana Territory north of 36 deg. 30',
was now removed, while a principle was declared,
which would render the supplementary prohibition
of slavery in Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington,
"inoperative and void," and thus open to slavery
all these vast regions, now the rude cradles of
mighty states. Here you see the magnitude of the
mischief contemplated. But my purpose now is
with the crime against Kansas, and I shall not
stop to expose the conspiracy beyond.
Mr. President, men are wisely presumed to intend
the natural consequences of their conduct, and
to seek what their acts seem to promote. Now,
the Nebraska bill, on its very face, openly
cleared the way for slavery, and it is not wrong
to presume that its originators intended the
natural consequences of such an act, and sought
in this way to extend slavery. Of course, they
did. And this is the first stage in the Crime
against Kansas.
But this was speedily followed by other
developments. The bare- faced scheme was soon
whispered that Kansas must be slave State. In
conformity with this idea was the Government of
this unhappy Territory organized in all its
departments; and thus did the President, by
whose complicity the prohibition of slavery had
been overthrown, lend himself to a new
complicity--giving to the conspirators a lease
of connivance, amounting even to copartnership.
The governor, secretary, chief justice,
associate justices, attorney, and marshal, with
a whole caucus of other stipendaries, nominated
by the President and confirmed by the Senate,
were all commended as friendly to Slavery. No
man with the sentiments of Washington, or
Jefferson, or Franklin, found any favor; nor is
it too much to say, that had these great
patriots once more come among us, not one of
them, with his recorded unretracted opinions on
slavery, could have been nominated by the
President or confirmed by Senate for any post in
that Territory. With such auspices the
conspiracy proceeded. Even in advance of the
Nebraska bill, secret societies were organized
in Missouri ostensibly to protect her
institutions; and afterwards, under the name of
"Self- Defensive Associations," and of "Blue
Lodges," these were multiplied throughout the
western counties of that State; before any
counter movement from the North. It was
confidently anticipated, that, by the activity
of these societies, and the interest of
slaveholders everywhere, with the advantage
derived from the neighborhood of Missouri, and
the influence of the Territorial government,
slavery might be introduced into Kansas, quietly
but surely, without arousing a conflict--that
the crocodile egg might be stealthily dropped in
the sun-burnt soil, there to be hatched,
unobserved until it sent forth its reptile
monster.
But the conspiracy was unexpectedly balked. The
debate, which convulsed Congress, had stirred
the whole country. Attention from all sides was
directed upon Kansas, which at once became the
favorite goal of emigration. The bill had loudly
declared that its object was "to leave the
people perfectly [free] to form and regulate
their domestic institutions in their own way;"
and its supporters everywhere challenged the
determination of [the] question between freedom
and slavery by a competition of emigration.
Thus, while opening the Territory to slavery,
the bill also opened it to emigrants from every
quarter, who might by their votes redress the
wrong. The populous North, stung by a sharp
sense of outrage, and inspired by a noble cause,
poured into the debatable land, and promised
soon to establish a supremacy of numbers there,
involving, of course, a just supremacy of
freedom.
Then was conceived the consummation of the crime
against Kansas. What could not be accomplished
peaceably was to be accomplished forcibly. The
reptile monster, that could not be quietly and
securely hatched there, was to be pushed
full-grown into the Territory. All efforts were
now given to the dismal work of forcing slavery
on free soil. in flagrant derogation of the very
popular sovereignty, whose name helped to impose
this bill upon the country, the atrocious object
was now distinctly avowed. And the avowal has
been followed by the act. slavery has been
forcibly introduced into Kansas, and placed
under the formal safeguards of pretended law.
How this was done, belongs to the argument.
In depicting this consummation, the simplest
outline, without one word of color, will be
best. Whether regarded in its mass or its
details, in its origin or its result, it is all
blackness, illumined by nothing from itself, but
only by the heroism of the undaunted men and
women, whom it environed. A plain statement of
facts will be a picture of fearful truth, which
faithful history will preserve in its darkest
gallery. In the foreground all will recognise a
familiar character, in himself a connecting link
between the President and the border ruffian --
less conspicuous for ability than for the
exalted place he has occupied -- who once sat in
the seat where you now sit, sir; where once sat
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; also, where
once sat Aaron Burr. I need not add the name of
David R. Atchison. You have not forgotten that,
at the session of Congress immediately
succeeding the Nebraska bill, he came tardily to
his duty here, and then, after a short time,
disappeared. The secret has been long since
disclosed. Like Cataline, he stalked into this
Chamber, reeking with conspiracy -- immo in
seniatum venit -- and then like Catiline he
skulked away -- abiit, excessit, evasit, crupit
-- to join and provoke the conspirators, who at
a distance awaited their congenial chief. Under
the influence of his malign presence the crime
ripened to its fatal fruits, while the
similitude with Catiline was again renewed in
the sympathy, not even concealed, which he found
in the very Senate itself, where, beyond even
the Roman example, a senator has not hesitated
to appear as his open compurgator.
And now, as I proceed to show the way in which
this Territory was overrun and finally
subjugated to slavery, I desire to remove in
advance all question with regard to the
authority on which I rely. The evidence is
secondary; but it is the best which, in the
nature of the case; can be had, and it is not
less clear, direct, and peremptory, than any by
which we are assured of the campaigns in the
crimea or the fall of Sebastopol. In its
manifold mass, I confidently assert, that it is
such a body of evidence as the human mind is not
able to resist. It is found in the concurring
reports of the public press; in the letters of
correspondents; in the testimony of travellers;
and in the unaffected story to which I have
listened from leading citizens, who, during this
winter, have "come flocking" here from that
distant Territory. It breaks forth in the
irrepressible outcry, reaching us from Kansas,
in truthful tones, which leave no ground of
mistake. It addresses us in formal complaints,
instinct with the indignation of a people
determined to be free, and unimpeachable as the
declarations of a murdered man on his dying bed
against his murderer. And let me add, that all
this testimony finds an echo in the very book of
the conspirators, and also in the language
dropped from -- the President of the United
States.
I begin with an admission from the President
himself, in whose sight the people of Kansas
have little favor. And yet, after arraigning the
innocent emigrants from the North, he was
constrained to declare that their conduct was
"far from justifying the illegal and
reprehensible counter-movement which ensued."
Then, by the reluctant admission of the Chief
Magistrate, there was a counter-movement, at
once illegal and reprehensible. I thank thee,
President, for teaching me these words; and I
now put them in the front of this exposition, as
in themselves a confession. Sir, this "illegal
and reprehensible counter-movement" is none
other than the dreadful crime -- under an
apologetic alias -- by which, through successive
invasions, slavery has been forcibly planted in
this Territory.
Next to this Presidential admission must be
placed the details of the invasions, which I now
present as not only "illegal and reprehensible,"
but also unquestionable evidence of the
resulting crime.
The violence, for some time threatened, broke
forth on the 29th November, 1854, at the first
election of a delegate to Congress, when
companies from Missouri, amounting to upwards of
one thousand, crossed into Kansas, and, with
force and arms, proceeded to vote for Mr.
Whitfield, the candidate of slavery. An
eye-witness, General Pomeroy, of superior
intelligence and perfect integrity, thus
describes the scene: --
"The first ballot-box that was opened upon our
virgin soil was closed to us by overpowering
numbers and impending force. So bold and
reckless were our invaders, that they cared not
to conceal their attack. They came upon us not
in the guise of voters, to steal away our
franchise, but boldly and openly, to snatch it
with a strong hand. They came directly from
their own homes, and in compact and organized
bands, with arms in hand and provisions for the
expedition, marched to our polls, and, when
their work was done, returned whence they came."
Here was an outrage at which the coolest blood
of patriotism boils Though, for various reasons
unnecessary to develop, the busy settlers
allowed the election to pass uncontested, still
the means employed were none the less "illegal
and reprehensible."
This infliction was a significant prelude to the
grand invasion of the 30th March, 1855, at the
election of the first Territorial legislature
under the organic law, when an armed multitude
from Missouri entered the Territory, in larger
numbers than General Taylor commanded at Buena
Vista, or than General Jackson had within his
lines at New Orleans -- larger far than our
fathers rallied on Bunker Hill. On they came as
an "army with banners," organized in companies,
with officers, munitions, tents, and provisions,
as though marching upon a foreign foe, and
breathing loud-mouthed threats that they would
carry their purpose, if need be, by the
bowie-knife and revolver. Among them, according
to his own confession, was David R. Atchison,
belted with the vulgar arms of his vulgar
comrades. Arrived at their several destinations
on the night before the election, the invaders
pitched their tents, placed their sentries, and
waiting for the coming day. The same trustworthy
eye-witness, whom I have already quoted, says,
of one locality: --
"Baggage-wagons were there, with arms and
ammunition enough for a protracted fight, and
among them two brass field-pieces, ready
charged. They came with drums beating and flags
flying, and their leaders were of the most
prominent and conspicuous men of their State."
Of another locality he says: --
"The invaders came together in one armed and
organized body, with trains of fifty wagons,
besides horsemen, and, the night before
election, pitched their camp in the vicinity of
the polls; and having appointed their own judges
in place of those who, from intimidation or
otherwise, failed to attend, they voted without
any proof of residence."
With this force they were able, on the
succeeding day, in some places, to intimidate
the judges of elections; in others, to
substitute judges of their own appointment; in
others to wrest the ballot-boxes from their
rightful possessors, and everywhere to exercise
a complete control of the election, and thus, by
a preternatural audacity of usurpation, impose a
legislature upon the free people of Kansas. Thus
was conquered the Sebastopol of that Territory!
But that was not enough to secure the
legislature. The election of a member of
Congress recurred on the 2d October, 1855, and
the same foreigners, who had learned their
strength, again manifested it. Another invasion,
in controlling numbers, came from Missouri, and
once more forcibly exercised the electoral
franchise in Kansas.
At last, in the latter days of November, 1855, a
storm, long brewing, burst upon the heads of the
devoted people. The ballot boxes had been
violated, and a legislature installed, which had
proceeded to carry out the conspiracy of the
invaders; but the good people of the Territory,
born to freedom, and educated as American
citizens, showed no signs of submission.
Slavery, though recognized by pretended law, was
in many places practically an outlaw. To the
lawless borderers, this was hard to bear; and,
like the Heathen of old, they raged,
particularly against the town of Lawrence,
already known by the firmness of its principles
and the character of its citizens, as the
citadel of the good cause. On this account they
threatened, in their peculiar language, "to wipe
it out." Soon the hostile power was gathered for
this purpose. -- The wickedness of this invasion
was enhanced by the way in which it began. A
citizen of Kansas, by the name of Dow, was
murdered by one of the partisans of slavery,
under the name of "law and order." Such an
outrage naturally aroused indignation and
provoked threats. The professors of "law and
order" allowed the murderer to escape; and,
still further to illustrate the irony of the
name they assumed, seized the friend of the
murdered man, whose few neighbors soon rallied
for his rescue. This transaction, though totally
disregarded in its chief front of wickedness,
became the excuse for unprecedented excitement.
The weak governor, with no faculty higher than
servility to slavery -- whom the President, in
his official delinquency, had appointed to a
trust worthy only of a well-balanced character
-- was frightened from his propriety. By
proclamation he invoked the Territory. By
telegraph he invoked to President. The Territory
would not respond to his senseless appeal. The
President was dumb; but the proclamation was
circulated throughout the border counties of
Missouri; and Platte, Clay, Carlisle, Sabine,
Howard, and Jefferson, each of them contributed
a volunteer company, recruited from the road
sides, and armed with weapons which chance
afforded -- known as the "shot gun militia," --
with a Missouri officer as commissary general;
dispensing rations, and another Missouri officer
as general-in-chief; with two wagon loads of
rifles, belonging to Missouri, drawn by six
mules, from its arsenal at Jefferson City; with
seven pieces of cannon belonging to the United
States, from its arsenal at Liberty; and this
formidable force, amounting to at least 1,800,
terrible with threats, with oaths, and with
whisky, crossed the borders, and encamped in
larger part at Washerusa, over against the
doomed town of Lawrence, which was now
threatened with destruction. With these invaders
was the governor, who by this act levied war
upon the people he was sent to protect. In camp
with him was the original Catiline of the
conspiracy, while by his side was the docile
chief justice and the docile Judges. But this is
not the first instance in which an unjust
Governor has found tools where he ought to have
found justice. The great impeachment of Warren
Hastings, the British orator, by whom it was
conducted, exclaims, in words strictly
applicable to the misdeed I now arraign, "Had he
not the chief justice, the tamed and
domesticated chief justice, who waited on him
like a familiar spirit?" Thus was this invasion
countenanced by those who should have stood in
the breach against it. For more than a week it
continued, while deadly conflict seemed
imminent. I do not dwell on the heroism by which
it was encountered, or the mean retreat to which
it was compelled; for that is not necessary to
exhibit the crime which you are to judge. But I
cannot forbear to add other additional features,
furnished in the letter of a clergyman, written
at the time, who saw and was a part of what he
describes:
“Our citizens have been shot at, and in two
instances murdered, our homes invaded, hay ricks
burnt, corn and other provisions plundered,
cattle driven off, all communication cut off
between us and the States, wagons on the way to
us with provisions stopped and plundered, and
the drivers taken prisoners, and we in hourly
expectation of an attack. Nearly every man has
been in arms in the village. Fortifications have
been thrown up, by incessant labor, night and
day. The sound of the drum and the tramp of
armed men resounded through our streets,
families fleeing with their household goods for
safety. Day before yesterday the report of
cannon was heard at our house, from the
direction of Lecompton. Last Thursday, one of
our neighbors -- one of the most peaceable and
excellent of men, from Ohio -- on his way home,
was set upon by a gang of twelve men on
horseback, and shot down. Over eight hundred men
are gathered under arms at Lawrence. As yet, no
act of violence has been perpetrated by those on
our side. No blood of retaliation stains our
hands. We stand and are ready to act purely in
the defence of our home and lives.”
But the catalogue is not yet complete. On the
15th of December, when the people assembled to
vote on the Constitution then submitted for
adoption -- only a few days after the Treaty of
Peace between the Governor on the one side and
the town of Lawrence on the other -- another and
fifth irruption was made. But I leave all this
untold. Enough of these details has been given.
Five several times and more have these invaders
entered Kansas in armed array, and thus five
several times and more have they trampled upon
the organic law of the Territory. But these
extraordinary expeditions are simply the
extraordinary witnesses to successive
uninterrupted violence. They stand out
conspicuous, but not alone. The spirit of evil,
in which they had their origin, was wakeful and
incessant. From the beginning, it hung upon the
skirts of this interesting Territory; harrowing
its peace, disturbing its prosperity, and
keeping its inhabitants under the painful alarms
of war. Thus was all Security of person, of
property, and of labor, overthrown; and when I
urge this incontrovertible fact, I set forth a
wrong which is small only by the side of the
giant wrong, for the consummation of which all
this was done. Sir, what is man -- what is
government -- without security; in the absence
of which, nor man nor government can proceed in
development or enjoy the fruits of existence!
Without security, civilization is cramped and
dwarfed. Without security, there can be no
freedom. Nor shall I say too much, when I
declare that security, guarded of course by its
offspring, freedom, is the true end and aim of
government. Of this indispensable boon the
people of Kansas have thus far been despoiled --
absolutely, totally.
All this is aggravated by the nature of their
pursuits, rendering them peculiarly sensitive to
interruption, and at the same time attesting
their innocence. They are for the most part,
engaged in the cultivation of the soil, which
from time immemorial has been the sweet
employment of undisturbed industry. Contented in
the returns of bounteous nature and the shade of
his own trees, the husbandman is not aggressive,
accustomed to produce, and not to destroy, he is
essentially peaceful, unless his home is
invaded, when his arm derives vigor from the
soil he treads, and his soul inspiration from
the heavens beneath whose canopy he daily toils.
And such are the people of Kansas, whose
Security has been overthrown. Scenes from which
civilization averts her countenance, have been a
part of their daily life. The border incursions,
which, in barbarous ages or barbarous bands,
have fretted and "harried" an exposed people,
have been here renewed, with this peculiarity,
that our border robbers do not simply levy black
mail and drive off a few cattle like those
enacted under the inspiration of the Douglas of
other days; that they do not seize a few
persons, and sweep them away into captivity,
like the African Slave traders whom we brand as
pirates; but that they commit a succession of
acts, for which all border sorrows and all
African wrongs are revived together on American
soil, and which for the time being, annuls all
protection of all kinds, and enslaves the whole
Territory.
Private griefs mingle their poignancy with
public wrongs. I do not dwell on the anxieties
which families have undergone, exposed to sudden
assault, and obliged to lie down to rest with
the alarms of war ringing in their ears, not
knowing that another day might be spared to
them. Throughout this bitter winter, with the
thermometer at 30 degrees below zero, the
citizens of Lawrence have been constrained to
sleep under arms, with sentinels treading their
constant watch against surprise. But our souls
are wrung by individual instances. In vain do we
condemn the cruelties of another age -- the
refinements of torture to which men have been
doomed -- the rack and thumb-screw of the
Inquisition, the last agonies of the regicide
Ravillac -- "Luke's iron crown, and Damjen's bed
of steel," -- for kindred outrages have
disgraced these borders. Murder has stalked --
assassination has skulked in the tall grass of
the prairie, and the vindictiveness of man has
assumed unwonted forms. A preacher of the Gospel
of the Saviour has been ridden on a rail, and
then thrown into the Missouri, fastened to a
log, and left to drift down its muddy, tortuous
current. And lately we have had the tidings of
that enormity without precedent -- a deed
without a name -- where a candidate for the
Legislature was most brutally gashed with knives
and hatchets and then after weltering in blood
on the snow-clad earth, was trundled along with
gaping wounds, to fall dead in the face of his
wife. It is common to drop a tear of sympathy
over the trembling solicitude of our early
fathers, exposed to the stealthy assault of the
savage foe; and an eminent American artist has
pictured this scene in a marble group of rare
beauty, on the front of the National Capitol,
where the uplifted tomahawk is arrested by the
strong arm and generous countenance of the
pioneer, while his wife and children find
shelter at his feet; but now the tear must be
dropped over the trembling solicitude of
fellow-citizens, seeking to build a new State in
Kansas, and exposed to the perpetual assault of
murderous robbers from Missouri. Hirelings,
picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an
uneasy civilization -- in the form of men --
Aye, in the catalogue ye go for men; as hounds
and gray-hounds, mongrels, spaniels curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are called
All by the name of dogs:
leashed together by secret signs and lodges,
have renewed the incredible atrocities of the
Assassins and the Thugs; showing the blind
submission of the Assassins of the Old Man of
the Mountain, in robbing Christians on the road
to Jerusalem, and showing the heartlessness of
the Thugs, who, avowing that murder was their
religion, waylaid travelers on the great road
from Agra to Delhi; with the more deadly
bowie-knife for the dagger of the Assassin, and
the more deadly revolver for the noose of the
Thug.
In these invasions, attended by the entire
subversion of all Security in this Territory,
with the plunder of the ballot-box, and the
pollution of the electoral franchise, I show
simply the process in unprecedented crime. If
that be the best Government, where an injury to
a single citizen is resented as an injury to the
whole State, then must our Government forfeit
all claim to any such eminence, while it leaves
its citizens thus exposed. In the outrage upon
the ballot box, even without the illicit fruits
which I shall soon exhibit, there is a peculiar
crime of the deepest dye, though subordinate to
the final crime, which should be promptly
avenged. In countries where royalty is upheld,
it is a special offence to rob the crown jewels,
which are the emblems of that sovereignty before
which the loyal subject bows, and it is treason
to be found in adultery with the Queen, for in
this way may a false heir be imposed upon the
State; but in our Republic, the ballot-box is
the single priceless jewel of that sovereignty
which we respect, and the electoral franchise,
out of which are born the rulers of a free
people, is the Queen whom we are to guard
against pollution. In this plain presentment,
whether as regards Security, or regards
Elections, there is enough, surely, without
proceeding further, to justify the intervention
of Congress, most promptly and completely, to
throw over this oppressed people the
impenetrable shield of the Constitution and
laws. But the half is not yet told.
As every point in a wide-spread horizon radiates
from a common centre, so everything said or done
in this vast circle of crime radiated from the
One Idea, that Kansas, at all hazards, must be
made a slave State. In all the manifold
wickednesses that have occurred, and in every
successive invasion, the One Idea has been ever
present, as the Satanic tempter -- the motive
power -- the causing cause.
To accomplish this result, three things were
attempted: first, by outrages of all kinds to
drive the friends of freedom already there out
of the Territory, secondly, to deter others from
coming; and thirdly, to obtain the complete
control of the Government. The process of
driving out, and also of deterring, has failed.
On the contrary, the friends of freedom there
became more fixed in their resolves to stay and
fight the battle, which they had never sought,
but from which they disdained to retreat; while
the friends of freedom elsewhere were more
aroused to the duty of timely succors, by men
and munitions of just self-defence.
But while defeated in the first two processes
proposed, the conspirators succeeded in the
last. By the violence already portrayed at the
election, of the 30th March, when the polls were
occupied by the armed hordes of Missouri, they
imposed a Legislature upon the Territory, and
thus under the mask of law, established a
Usurpation not less complete than any in
history. This was done, I proceed to prove. Here
is the evidence:
1. Only in this way can this extraordinary
expedition be adequately explained. In the words
of Moliere, once applied by John Quincy Adams in
the other House, Que diable alleient-ils faire
dans cette galare? What did they go into the
Territory for? If their purposes were peaceful,
as has been suggested, why cannons, arms, flags,
numbers, and all this violence? As simple
citizens, proceeding to the honest exercise of
the electoral franchise, they might have gone
with nothing more than pilgrim's staff.
Philosophy always seeks a sufficient cause, and
only in the One Idea, already presented, can a
cause be found in any degree commensurate with
this crime; and this becomes so only when we
consider the mad fanaticism of slavery.
2. Public notoriety steps forward to confirm the
suggestion of reason. In every place where Truth
can freely travel, it has been asserted and
understood, that the Legislature was imposed
upon Kansas by foreigners from Missouri; and
this universal voice is now received as
undeniable verity.
3. It is also attested by the harangues of the
conspirators. Here is what Stringfellow said
before the invasion: --
“To those who have qualms of conscience as to
violating laws, State or National, the time has
come when such impositions must be disregarded,
as your rights and property are in danger; and I
advise you, one and all, to enter every election
district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and
his vile myrmidions, and vote at the point of
the bowie knife and revolver. Neither give nor
take quarter, as our case demands it. It is
enough that the slaveholding interest wills it,
from which there is no appeal. What right has
Governor Reeder to rule Missourians in Kansas?
His proclamation and prescribed oath must be
repudiated. It is your interest to do so. Mind
that slavery is established where it is not
prohibited.”
Here is what Atchison said after the invasion:
“Well, what next? Why an election for members of
the Legislature to organize the Territory must
be held. What did I advise you to do then? Why,
meet them on their own ground, and beat them at
their own game again; and cool and inclement as
the weather was, I went over with a company of
men. My object in going was not to vote. I had
no right to vote, unless I had disfranchised
myself in Missouri. I was not within two miles
of a voting place. My object in going was not to
vote, but to settle a difficulty between two of
our candidates; and the Abolitionists of the
North said, and published it abroad, that
Atchison was there with bowie-knives and
revolvers, and by God 'twas true. I never did go
into that Territory -- I never intend to go into
that Territory -- without being prepared for all
such kind of cattle. Well, we beat them, and
Governor Reeder gave certificates to a majority
of all the members of both Houses, and then
after they were organized, as everybody will
admit, they were the only competent persons to
say who were, and who were not, members of the
same.”
4. It is confirmed by the contemporaneous
admission of the Squatter Sovereign, a paper
published at Atchison, and at once the organ of
the President and of these Borderers, which,
under date of 1st April, thus recounts the
victory: --
“Independence, (Missouri) March 31, 1855.”
“Several hundred emmigrants from Kansas have
just entered our city. They were preceded by the
Westport and Independence brass bands. They came
in at the west side of the public square, and
proceeded entirely around it, the bands cheering
us with fine music, and the emigrants with good
news. Immediately following the bands were about
two hundred horsemen in regular order; following
these were one hundred and fifty wagons,
carriages, &c. They gave repeated cheers for
Kansas and Missouri. They reported that not an
Anti-slavery man will be in the Legislature of
Kansas. We have made a clean sweep.”
5. It is also confirmed by the contemporaneous
testimony of another paper, always faithful to
Slavery, the New York Herald, in the letter of a
correspondent from Brunswick, in Missouri, under
date of 20th April, 1855:
“From five to seven thousand men started from
Missouri to attend the election, some to remove,
but the most to return to their families, with
an intention, if they liked the Territory, to
make it their permanent abode at the earliest
moment practicable. But they intended to vote.
The Missourians were, many of them, Douglas men.
There were one hundred and fifty voters from
this county, one hundred and seventy-five from
Howard, one hundred from Cooper. Indeed, every
county furnished its quota; and when they set
out, it looked like an army. *** They were
armed. * * * And, as there were no houses in the
Territory, they carried tents. Their mission was
a peaceable one -- to vote, and to drive down
stakes for their future homes. After the
election, some one thousand five hundred of the
voters sent a committee to Mr. Reeder, to
ascertain if it was his purpose to ratify the
election. He answered that it was, and said the
majority at an election must carry the day. But
it is not to be denied that the one thousand
five hundred, apprehending that the Governor
might attempt to play the tyrant -- since his
conduct had already been insidious and unjust --
wore on their hats bunches of hemp. They were
resolved, if a tyrant attempted to trample upon
the rights of the sovereign people, to hang
him.”
6. It is again confirmed by the testimony of a
lady, who for five years has lived in Western
Missouri, and thus writes in a letter published
in the New Haven Register:--
“Miami, Saline Co., November 26 1855.”
“You ask me to tell you something about the
Kansas and Missouri troubles. Of course you know
in what they have originated. There is no
denying that the Missourians have determined to
control the elections, if possible; and I don't
know that their measures would be justifiable,
except upon the principle of self-preservation;
and that, you know, is the first law of nature.”
7. And it is confirmed still further by the
Circular of the Emigration Society of Lafayette,
in Missouri, dated as late as 25th March, 1856,
in which the efforts of Missourians are openly
confessed: --
“The Western counties of Missouri have for the
last two years been heavily taxed, both in money
and time, in fighting the battles of the South.
Lafayette county alone has expended more than
ten thousand dollars in money, and as much or
more in time. Up to this time, the border
counties of Missouri have upheld and maintained
the rights and interests of the South in this
struggle, unassisted, and not unsuccessfully.
But the Abolitionists, staking their all upon
the Kansas issue, and hesitating at no means,
fair or foul, are moving heaven and earth to
render that beautiful Territory a Free State.”
8. Here, also, is complete admission of the
Usurpation, by the Intelligencer, a leading
paper of St. Louis, Missouri, made in the
ensuing summer: --
“Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri
followers, overwhelmed the settlers in Kansas,
browbeat and bullied them, and took the
Government from their hands. Missouri votes
selected the present body of men who insult
public intelligence and popular rights by
styling themselves 'the Legislature of Kansas.'
This body of men are helping themselves to fat
speculations by locating the 'seat of
Government,' and getting town lots for their
votes. They are passing laws disfranchising all
the citizens of Kansas who do not believe Negro
Slavery to be a Christian institution and a
national blessing. They are proposing to punish
with imprisonment the utterances of views
inconsistent with their own. And they are trying
to perpetuate their preposterous and infernal
tyranny, by appointing for a term of years,
creatures of their own, as commissioners in
every county, to lay and collect taxes, and see
that the laws they are passing are faithfully
executed. Has this age anything to compare with
this in audacity?”
9. In harmony with all these is the
authoritative declaration of Governor Reeder, in
a speech addressed to his neighbors, at Raston,
Pennsylvania, at the end of April, 1855, and
immediately afterwards published in the
Washington Union:
“It was indeed true that Kansas had been
invaded, conquered, subjugated, by an armed
force from beyond her borders, led on by a
fanatical spirit, trampling under foot the
principles of the Kansas bill and the right of
suffrage.”
10. And in a similar harmony is the complaint of
the people of Kansas, in a public meeting at Big
Springs, on the 5th September, 1855, embodied in
these words:--
“Resolved, That the body of men who for the last
two months have been passing laws for the people
of our Territory, moved, counseled, and dictated
to, by the demagogues of Missouri, are to us a
foreign body, representing only the lawless
invaders who elected them, and not the people of
the Territory -- that we repudiate their action,
as the monstrous consummation of an act of
violence, usurpation and fraud, unparalleled in
the history of the Union, and worthy only of men
unfitted for the duties and regardless of the
responsibilities of Republicans.”
11. And finally, by the official minutes, which
have been laid on our table by the President,
the invasion, which ended in the Usurpation, is
clearly established; but the effect of this
testimony has been so amply exposed by the
senator from Vermont, (Mr. Collamer,) in his
able and indefatigable argument, that I content
myself with simply referring to it.
On this cumulative, irresistible evidence, in
concurrence with the antecedent history, I rest.
And yet senators here have argued that this
cannot be so -- precisely as the conspiracy of
Catiline was doubted in the Roman Senate. Non-nulli
sunt in hoc ordine, qui aut es, quae imminent,
non videant; aut ea, quae vident, dissimulent;
qui spem Catilinae mollibus sententiis aluerunt,
conjurationemque nascentem non credendo
corraboraverunt. As I listened to the senator
from Illinois, while he painfully strove to show
that there was no Usurpation, I was reminded of
the effort by a distinguished logician, in a
much-admired argument to prove that Napoleon
Bonaparte never existed. And permit me to say,
that the fact of his existence is not placed
more completely above doubt than the fact of
this Usurpation. This I assert on the proofs
already presented. But confirmation comes almost
while I speak. The columns of the public press
are now almost daily filled with testimony,
solemnly taken before the Committee of Congress
in Kansas, which shows, in awful light, the
violence ending in the Usurpation. Of this I may
speak on some other occasion. Meanwhile, I
proceed with the development of the crime.
The usurping Legislature assembled at the
appointed place in the interior, and then at
once, in opposition to the veto of the Governor,
by a majority of two-thirds, removed to the
Shawnee Mission, a place in most convenient
proximity to the Missouri borderers, by whom it
had been constituted, and whose tyrannical agent
it was. The statutes of Missouri, in all their
text, with their divisions and subdivisions,
were adopted bodily; and with such little local
adaptation, that the word "State" in the
original is not even changed to "Territory," but
is left to be corrected by an explanatory act.
But, all this general legislation was entirely
subordinate to the special act, entitled "An act
to punish offences against Slave Property," in
which the One Idea, that provoked this whole
conspiracy, is at last embodied in legislative
form, and Human slavery openly recognised on
Free Soil, under the sanction of pretended law.
This act of thirteen sections is in itself a
Dance of Death. But its complex completeness of
wickedness without a parallel, may be partially
conceived when it is understood, that in three
sections only of it is the penalty of death
denounced no less than forty-eight different
times, by as many changes of language, against
the heinous offence, described in forty-eight
ways, of interfering with what does not exist in
the Territory -- and under the Constitution
cannot exist there -- I mean property in human
flesh. Thus is liberty sacrificed to Slavery,
and Death summoned to sit at the gates as
guardian of the Wrong.
But the work of Usurpation was not perfected
even yet. It had already cost too much to be
left at any hazard.
“-----------------To be thus was nothing; But to
be safely thus!”
Such was the object. And this could not be,
except by the entire prostration of all the
safeguards of Human Rights. The liberty of
speech, which is the very breath of a Republic;
the press, which is the terror of wrong-doers;
the bar, through which the oppressed beards the
arrogance of law; the jury, by which right is
vindicated; all these must be struck down, while
officers are provided, in all places, ready to
be the tools of this tyranny; and then to obtain
final assurance that their crime was secure, the
whole Usurpation, stretching over the Territory,
must be fastened and riveted by legislative
bolts, spikes, and screws, so as to defy all
effort at change through the ordinary forms of
law. To this work, in its various parts, were
bent the subtlest energies; and never, from
Tubal Cain to this hour, was any fabric forged
with more desperate skill and completeness.
Mark, sir, three different legislative
enactments, which constitute part of this work.
First, according to one act, all who deny, by
spoken or written word, "the right of persons to
hold slaves in this Territory," are denounced as
felons, to be punished by imprisonment at hard
labor for a term not less than two years -- it
may for life. And to show the extravagance of
this injustice, it had been well put by the
senator from Vermont, [Mr. Collamer,] that
should the senator from Michigan, [Mr. Cass,]
who believes that slavery cannot exist in a
Territory, unless introduced by express
legislative acts, venture there with his
moderate opinions, his doom must be that of a
felon! To this extent are the great liberties of
speech and of the press subverted. Secondly, by
another act, entitled "An Act concerning
Attorneys at Law," no person can practice as an
attorney unless he shall obtain a license from
the Territorial courts. -- Which, of course, a
tyrannical discretion will be free to deny; and
after obtaining such license, he is constricted
to take an oath not only "to support" the
Constitution of the United States, but also "to
support and sustain" -- mark here the
reduplication -- the Territorial act and the
Fugitive Slave bill, thus erecting a test for
the function of the bar, calculated to exclude
citizens who honestly regard that latter
legislative enormity as unfit to be obeyed. And
thirdly, by another act, entitled "An act
concerning Jurors," all persons "conscientiously
opposed to holding slaves," or "not admitting
the right to hold slaves in the Territory," are
excluded from the jury on every question, civil
or criminal, arising out of asserted slave
property; while, in all cases, the summoning of
the jury is left, without one word of restraint,
to "the marshal, sheriff or other officer," who
are thus free to pack it according to their
tyrannical discretion.
For the ready enforcement of all statutes
against Human freedom, the President had already
furnished a powerful quota of officers, in the
Governor, Chief Justice, Judges, Secretary,
Attorney, and Marshal. The Legislature completed
this part of the work, by constituting, in each
county, a Board of Commissioners, composed of
two persons, associated with the Probate Judge,
whose duty it is "to appoint a county treasurer,
coroner, justices of the peace, constables, and
all other officers provided for by law;" and
then proceeded to the choice of this very Board;
thus delegating and diffusing their usurped
power, and tyrannically imposing upon the
Territory a crowd of officers, in whose
appointment the people have had no voice,
directly or indirectly.
And still the final inexorable work remained. A
Legislature, renovated in both branches, could
not assemble in 1858; so that, during this long
intermediate period, this whole system must
continue in the likeness of law, unless
overturned by the Federal Government, or, in
default of such interposition, by a generous
uprising of an oppressed people. But is was
necessary to guard against the possibility of
change, even tardily, at a future election; and
this was done by two different acts, under the
first of which, all who will not take the oath
to support the Fugitive Slave bill are excluded
from the elective franchise; and under the
second of which, all others are entitled to vote
who shall tender a tax of one dollar to the
Sheriff on the day of election; thus, by
provision of Territorial law, disfranchising all
opposed to slavery, and at the same time opening
the door to the votes of the invaders; by an
unconstitutional shibboleth, excluding from the
polls the mass of actual settlers, and by making
the franchise depend upon a petty tax only,
admitting to the polls the mass of borderers
from Missouri. Thus, by tyrannical forethought,
the Usurpation not only fortified all that it
did, but assumed a self-perpetuating energy.
Thus was the crime consummated. Slavery now
stands erect, clanking its chains on the
Territory of Kansas, surrounded by a code of
death, and trampling upon all cherished
liberties, whether of speech, the press, the
bar, the trial by jury, or the electoral
franchise. And, sir, all this has been done, not
merely to introduce a wrong which in itself is a
denial of all rights, and in dread of which a
mother has lately taken the life of her
offspring; not merely, as has been sometimes
said, to protect slavery in Missouri, since it
is futile for this State to complain of freedom
on the side of Kansas, when freedom exists
without complaint on the side of Iowa and also
on the side of Illinois; but it has been done
for the sake of political power, in order to
bring two new slaveholding senators upon this
floor, and thus to fortify in the National
Government the desperate chances of a waning
Oligarchy. As the ship, voyaging on pleasant
summer seas, is assailed by a pirate crew, and
robbed for the sake of its doubloons and dollars
-- so is this beautiful Territory now assailed
in its peace and prosperity, and robbed, in
order [to] wrest its political power to the side
of Slavery. Even now the black flag of the land
pirates from Missouri waves at the mast-head; in
their laws you hear the pirate yell, and se the
flash of the pirate knife; while, incredible to
relate! the President, gathering the Slave Power
at his back, testifies a pirate sympathy.
Sir, all this was done in the name of Popular
Sovereignty. And this is the close of the
tragedy. Popular sovereignty, which, when truly
understood, is a fountain of just power, has
ended in Popular slavery; not merely in the
subjection of the unhappy African race, but of
this proud Caucasian blood, which you boast. The
profession with which you began, of All by the
People, has been lost in the wretched reality of
Nothing for the People. Popular sovereignty, in
whose deceitful name plighted faith was broken,
and an ancient Landmark of freedom was
overturned, now lifts itself before us, like
Sin, in the terrible picture of Milton,
“That seemed a woman to the waist, and fair; But
ended foul in many a scaly fold, Voluminous and
vast! a serpent arm'd With mortal sting; about
her middle round A cry of hell-hounds never
ceasing bark'd With wide Cerberian mouths full
loud, and rung A hideous peal; yet, when they
list, would creep, If aught disturb'd their
noise, into her womb, And kennel there; yet
there still bark'd and howl'd Within, unseen.”
The image is complete at all points; and, with
this exposure, I take my leave of the crime
against Kansas.
II. Emerging from all the blackness of this
crime, in which we seem to have been lost, as in
a savage wood, and turning our backs upon it, as
upon desolation and death, from which, while
others have suffered, we have escaped, I come
now to The Apologies which the crime has found.
Sir, well may you start at the suggestion that
such a series of wrongs, so clearly proved by
various testimony, so openly confessed by the
wrong-doers, and so widely recognised throughout
the country, should find Apologies. But the
partisan spirit, now, as in other days,
hesitates at nothing. The great crimes of
history have never been without Apologies. The
massacre of St. Bartholomew, which you now
instinctively condemn, was, at the time,
applauded in high quarters, and even
commemorated by a Papal medal, which may still
be procured at Rome; as the crime against
Kansas, which is hardly less conspicuous in
dreadful eminence, has been shielded of this
floor by extenuating words and even by a
Presidential message, which, like the Papal
medal, can never be forgotten in considering the
madness and perversity of men.
Sir, the crime cannot be denied. The President
himself has admitted "illegal and reprehensible"
conduct. To such conclusion he was compelled by
irresistible evidence; but what he mildly
describes I openly arraign. senators may affect
to put it aside by a sneer; or to reason it away
by figures; or to explain it by a theory, such
as desperate invention has produced on this
floor, that the Assassins and Thugs of Missouri
were in reality citizens of Kansas; but all
these efforts, so far as made, are only tokens
of the weakness of the cause, while to the
original crime they add another offence of false
testimony against innocent and suffering men.
But the Apologies for the crime are worse than
the efforts at denial. In cruelty and
heartlessness they identify their authors with
the great transgression.
They are four in number, and four-fold in
character. The first is the Apology tyrannical;;
the second, the Apology imbecile; the third, the
Apology absurd; and the fourth, the Apology
infamous. This is all. Tyranny, imbecility,
absurdity, and infamy, all unite to dance, like
the weird sisters, about this crime.
The Apology tyrannical; is founded on the
mistaking act of Governor Reeder, in
authenticating the Usurping Legislature, by
which it is asserted that, whatever may have
been the actual force or fraud in its election,
the people of Kansas are effectually concluded,
and the whole proceeding is placed under the
formal sanction of law. According to this
assumption, complaint is now in vain, and it
only remains that Congress should sit and
hearken to it, without correcting the wrong, as
the ancient tyrant listened and granted no
redress to the human moans that issued from the
heated brazen bull, which subtle cruelty had
devised. This I call the Apology of technicality
inspired by tyranny.
The facts on this head are few and plain.
Governor Reeder, after allowing only five days
for objections to the returns -- a space of time
unreasonably brief in that extensive Territory
-- declared a majority of the members of the
Council and of the House of Representatives
"duly elected," withheld certificates from
certain others because of satisfactory proof
that they were not duly elected, and appointed a
day for new elections to supply these vacancies.
Afterwards, by formal messages, he recognised
the Legislature as a legal body, and when he
vetoed their act of adjournment to the
neighborhood of Missouri, he did it simply on
the ground of the illegality of such an
adjournment under the organic law. Now, to every
assumption founded on these facts, there are two
satisfactory replies: first, that no certificate
of the Governor can do more than authenticate a
subsisting legal act, without of itself infusing
legality where the essence of legality is not
already; and secondly, that violence or fraud,
wherever disclosed, vitiates completely every
proceeding. In denying these principles, you
place the certificate above the thing certified,
and give a perpetual lease to violence and
fraud, merely because at any ephemeral moment
they were unquestioned. This will not do.
Sir, I am no apologist for Governor Reeder.
There is sad reason to believe that he went to
Kansas originally as the tool of the President;
but his simple nature, nurtured in the
atmosphere of Pennsylvania, revolted at the
service required, and he turned from his patron
to duty. Grievously did he err in yielding to
the Legislature any act of authentication, but
he has in some measure answered for this error
by determined efforts since to expose the utter
illegality of that body, which he now repudiates
entirely. It was said, of certain Roman
Emperors, who did infinite mischief in their
beginnings, and infinite good towards their
ends, that they should never have been born, or
never died; and I would apply the same to the
official life of this Kansas Governor. At all
events, I dismiss the Apology founded on his
acts, as the utterance of tyranny by the voice
of law transcending the declaration of the
pedantic judge in the British Parliament, on the
eve of our Revolution, that our fathers,
notwithstanding their complaints, were in
reality represented in Parliament, inasmuch as
their lands, under the original charters, were
held "in common socage, as the manor of
Greenwich in Kent," which, being duly
represented, carried with it all the Colonies.
Thus in other ages has tyranny assumed the voice
of law.
Next comes the Apology imbicile, which is
founded on the alleged want of power in the
President to arrest this crime. It is openly
asserted that, under the existing laws of the
United States, the Chief Magistrate had no
authority to interfere in Kansas for this
purpose. Such is the broad statement, which,
even if correct, furnishes no Apology for any
proposed ratification of the crime, but which is
in reality untrue; and this I call the Apology
of Imbecility.
In other matters, no such ostentatious
imbecility appears. Only lately, a vessel of war
in the Pacific has chastised the cannibals of
the Fejee Islands, for alleged outrages on
American citizens. But no person of ordinary
intelligence will pretend that American citizens
in the Pacific have received wrongs from these
cannibals comparable in atrocity to those
received by American citizens in Kansas. Ah,
sir, the interests of slavery are not touched by
any chastisement of the Fejees!
Constantly we are informed of efforts at New
York, through the agency of the Government, and
sometimes only on the breath of suspicion, to
arrest vessels about to sail on foreign voyages
in violation of our neutrality laws or treaty
stipulations. Now, no man familiar with these
cases will presume to suggest that the urgency
for these arrests was equal to the urgency for
interposition against these successive invasions
from Missouri. But the Slave Power is not
disturbed by such arrests at New York!
