of depriving the people of the just exercise of their rights, cannot be too strongly condemned.

A faithful performance of duty should be exacted from all public officers.

As the executive, I desire that the most cordial relations may exist between myself and all other departments of the government.

Homesteads should be held sacred. Nothing so much strengthens a government as giving its citizens a solid stake in the country. I am in favor of assuring to every industrious citizen one hundred and sixty acres of land.

The money appropriated by Congress for the erection of our capitol has been nearly expended. I have asked for an additional appropriation of fifty thousand dollars, which will scarcely be sufficient to complete the building upon the plan adopted by the architect.

Where crime has been so abundant, the necessity for a territorial penitentiary is too evident to require elaboration, and I have therefore suggested a congressional appropriation for this purpose.

The Kansas River, the natural channel to the west; which runs through a valley of unparalleled fertility, can be made navigable as far as Fort Riley, a distance of over one hundred miles, and Congress should be petitioned for aid to accomplish this laudable purpose. Fort Riley has been built, at an expense exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, with the expectation that the river was navigable to that place, and doubtless the general government will readily unite with this territory to secure this object.

A geological survey, developing the great mineral resources of this territory, is so necessary as merely to require notice. Provision for this useful work should immediately be made.

The early disposal of the public lands and their settlement, will materially advance our substantial prosperity. Great anxiety prevails among the settlers to secure titles to their lands. The facilities for this purpose, by but one land-office in the territory, are inadequate to the public wants, and I have consequently recommended the establishment of two or more additional land-offices, in such positions as will best accommodate the people.

After mature consideration, and from a thorough conviction of its propriety, I have suggested large congressional appropri ations. The coming immigration, attracted by our unrivalled

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soil and climate, will speedily furnish the requisite population to make a sovereign state. Other territories have been for years the recipients of congressional bounty, and a similar amount of money and land bestowed upon them during a long period, should at once be given to Kansas, as, like the Eureka state, she will spring into full life, and the prosperity of the territory, and the welfare and protection of the people coming here from every state of the Union, to test anew the experiment of republican government, require ample and munificent appropriations.

All

As citizens of a territory, we are peculiarly and immediately under the protecting influence of the Union, and, like the inhabitants of the states comprising it, feel lively interest in all that concerns its welfare and prosperity. Within the last few years sundry conflicting questions have been agitated throughout the country, and discussed in a spirit calculated to impair confidence in its strength and perpetuity, and furnish abundant cause for apprehension and alarm. These questions have mostly been of a local or sectional character, and as such should never have acquired general significance or importance. All American citizens should divest themselves of selfish considerations in relation to public affairs, and in the spirit of patriotism make dispassionate inquisition into the causes which have produced much alienation and bitterness among men whom the highest considerations require should be united in the bonds of fraternal fellowship. Union-loving men should unite upon a platform of reason, equality and patriotism. All sectionalism should be annihilated. All sections of the Union should be harmonized under a national, conservative government, as during the early days of the republic. The value of the Union is beyond computation, and no respect is due to those who will even dare to calculate its value. One of our ablest statesmen has wisely and eloquently said, "Who shall assign limits to the achievements of free minds and free hands under the protection of this glorious Union? No treason to mankind since the organization of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest structure of human wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow man. He would stop the progress of free government, and involve his country either in anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty which warms and animates the

hearts of happy millions, and invites all the nations of the earth to imitate our example."

That soldier-president, whose exploits in the field were only equalled by his wisdom in the cabinet, with that singular sagacity which has stamped with the seal of prophecy all his foreshadowings, has repudiated, as morbid and unwise, that philanthropy which looks to the amalgamation of the American.

with any inferior race. The white man, with his intellectual

energy, far-reaching science, and indomitable perseverance, is the pecular object of my sympathy, and should receive the especial protection and support of government. In this ter ritory there are numerous "Indian reserves," of magnificent extent and choice fertility, capable of sustaining a dense civilized population, now held unimproved by numerous Indian tribes. These tribes are governed by Indian agents, entirely independent of the executive of this territory, and are, indeed, governments within a government. Frequent aggression upon these reserves are occurring, which have produced collisions between the Indian agents and the settlers, who appeal to me for protection. Seeing so much land unoccupied and unimproved, these enterprising pioneers naturally question the policy which excludes them from soil devoted to no useful or legitimate purpose. Impressed with the conviction that the large Indian reserves, if permitted to remain in their present condition, cannot fail to exercise a blighting influence on the prosperity of Kansas, and result in great injury to the Indians themselves, I shall be pleased to unite with the legislature in any measures deemed advisable, looking to the speedy extinguishment of the Indian title to all surplus land lying in this territory, so as to throw it open for settlement and improvement.

For official action, I know no better rule than a conscientious conviction of duty-none more variable than the vain attempt to conciliate temporary prejudice. Principles and justice are eternal, and if tampered with, sooner or later the sure and indignant verdict of popular condemnation against those who are untrue to their leadings, will be rendered. Let us not be false to our country, our duty, and our constituents. The triumph of truth and principle, not of partisan and selfish objects, should be our steady purpose-the general welfare, and not the interests of the few, our sole aim. Let the past, which few men can review with satisfaction, be forgotten. Let us not deal in criminations and recriminations; but, as

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far as possible, let us make restitution and offer regrets for past excesses. The dead, whom the madness of partisan fury has consigned to premature graves, cannot be recalled to life; the insults, the outrages, the robberies and murders, "enough to stir a fever in the blood of age," in this world of imperfection and guilt, can never be fully atoned for or justly punished. The innocent blood, however, shall not cry in vain for redress, as we are promised by the great Executive of the Universe, whose power is almighty and whose knowledge is perfect, that he "will repay."

"To fight in a just cause and for our country's glory, is the best office of the best of men." Let "justice be the laurel" which crowns your deliberations; let your aims be purely patriotic, and your sole purpose the general welfare and the substantial interests of the whole people. If we fix our steady gaze upon the Constitution and the Organic Act as "the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night," our footsteps will never wander into any unknown or forbidden paths. Then will this Legislative Assembly be as a beacon light, placed high in the pages of our history, shedding its luminous and benign influence to the most remote generations; its members will be remembered with veneration and respect as among the early fathers of the magnificent commonwealth, which, in the not distant future, will overshadow with its protection, a population of freemen unsurpassed by any state in this beloved Union for intelligence, wealth, religion, and all the elements which make and insure the true greatness of a nation; the present citizens of Kansas will rejoice in the benefits conferred; the mourning and gloom, which too long, like a pall, have covered the people, will be dispersed by the sunshine of joy with which they will hail the advent of peace founded upon justice; we will enter upon a career of unprecedented prosperity; good feeling and confidence will prevail; the just rule of action which you are about to establish, will be recognised; the entire country, now watching your deliberations with momentous interest, will award you their enthusiastic applause; and above and over all, you will have the sanction of your own consciences, enjoy self-respect, and meet with divine approbation, without which all human praise is worthless and unavailing.

Lecompton, K. T., Jan. 12, 1857.

JNO. W. GEARY.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF ROBERT J. WALKER, GOVERNOR OF KANSAS TERRITORY.

Delivered in Lecompton, Kansas Territory, May 27, 1857.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF KANSAS:-At the earnest request of the President of the United States, I have accepted the position of governor of the territory of Kansas. The president, with the cordial concurrence of all his cabinet, expressed to me the conviction that the condition of Kansas was fraught with imminent peril to the Union, and asked me to undertake the settlement of that momentous question, which has introduced discord and civil war throughout your borders, and threatens to involve you and our country in the same common ruin. This was a duty thus presented, the performance of which I could not decline consistently with my view of the sacred obligation which every citizen owes to his country.

The mode of adjustment is provided in the act organizing your territory-namely, by the people of Kansas, who, by a majority of their own votes, must decide this question for themselves in forming their state constitution.

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 recognised 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 recognised in my instructions from the President of the United States. Those who oppose this course cannot aver the alleged irregularity of the territorial legislature, whose laws in town and city elections, in corporate franchises, and on all other subjects but slavery, they acknowledge by their. votes and acquiescence. If that legislature was invalid, then are we without law or order in Kansas, without town, city, or county organization; all legal and judicial transactions are