Origin of Slavery—Mr. Keitt.

itance;" and the tenth verse of the epistle peals into their ears:

"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."

They would supply the silence of the Savior, or interpolate His Gospel, when they clamor that it condemns slavery; and the ninth verse of the first chapter of the same epistle again meets them with the threat of God's wrath:

"If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed!"

And here, Mr. Chairman, I protest against any misapplication of my remarks, so as to involve in them the whole body of the clergy of the free States. I am free to acknowledge, sir, that they number among their ranks men of whom, either as scholars or divines, any country might justly be proud; men to whose sterling piety and faithful pastorates not even the duty which I owe to a slandered and long-enduring people could induce me to do injustice or to deny the praise. I trust, therefore, that these remarks shall not be understood, as they are not intended for any but those notorious disparagers of sacred functions who draggle the robes of the priesthood in the sloughs of fanatical politics, and pervert the ministrations of their pulpits to dishonor their Master, traduce our people, and convulse our society. To those, sir, I mean my remarks to apply, who are truly the representatives of that dissatisfied, incorrigible race of meddlers which the Religio Laici so aptly illustrates:

"It is but dubbing themselves the saints of God, which it is the interest of their teachers to tell them and their own interest to believe; and after that, they cannot dip into the Bible but one text or another will turn up for their purpose." Ay, sir, this willful perversion, or convenient manipulation, of texts to their purposes, is a not inapposite illustration of the poetical dictum, "Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt."

-a change of climate, but no change of spirit, from good Old England to good New England. With us it seems to have put on all the appearances of a disease of chronic character. The most repulsive of its indications I find in the distortion of the text of St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, the only one which they could succeed, by such distortions, in tinkering into a condemnation of slavery, against the clear precepts of the Mosaic law, and the no less lucid injunctions of the Apostle's charge. This condemnation of slavery, sir, I find our good friends invariably attempting to contrive, by a perversion of the text of the epistle, in the face of the mandate of the law, and of the teachings of the Savior, through the lips of His Apostle. He, sir, was besieged by questions from those "foolish Galatians" of the East, whom I think I have not wronged by a comparison with our “Galatians" of the North. And, sir, with the tartness-nay, with the fierce

7////

more thrifty Yankee brethren have gone for us-
to the dark places of this earth-gone to the hea-
then and inferior races of Africa for our slaves;
whilst those who have consented to be "men-
stealers" for our uses and our dollars, have also
followed, and in their way, the mandate of that
law. Some of their menial labor, sir, unless I
mistake, is drawn from Israel itself. Their free
paupers and vagabonds are, like Joseph, not un-
frequently cast" into the pit;" whilst the Simeons,
the Zabulons, and the Ashers of godly New Eng-
land-or American Israel-show themselves noth-
ing loath to chaffer away their white brethren on
time to the "Midianite merchantmen."

I claim, Mr. Chairman, that both South and
North are obedient to the law of God. We of the
South, sir, derive our slaves from the very regions
which the Lord has designed. They of the North
have no particular aversion, now and then, to man-
ufacture a few out of their own kindred and blood.
But here much of the similitude must cease. You,
and I, Mr. Chairman, know of more than one in-
stance in which, when freedom was extended to
the slave as a reward for faithful services, the gift
was declined; the beneficiary has preferred to re-
main in bondage under the roof where he had
grown, perchance, with the master and the chil-
dren around him. Yet I think that you and I,
sir, have yet to learn that any of the sold white
slaves of the North has ever shown himself so
much in love with the "peculiar institution" of
that North, as to refuse the boon of freedom when
his period of involuntary servitude had expired,
much less to offer remaining under the salutary
blessings of this Yankee pattern of white, Chris-
tian slavery!

into that repository of texts to which Dryden adverts, and they discovered that slavery is a godless abomination and a heinous crime. Having no slaves of their own, they immediately, under the auspices of Old England hypocrites, who boast of no mean representatives in New England, turned to the South to apply their late discovered Gospel doctrine of the abomination and sinfulness of slavery. Sir, sir, will these people compel us to believe that they are fools as well as hypocrites? What! they who were the special saints and agents of God in the motherland; they who, driven away from Old England through the marshes of Holland, to the eternal Plymouth Rock, to become the saints and agents of God in New England, upon this continent, where, unless I mistake, God had made a lodgment some century and a half before their fathers' ears had been cropped and their fathers' tongues had been slit, at the tithings and market-places of the land over the waters, for their headstrong, pragmatic, and meddlesome intrusions, which we of the South are not spared at the hands of their descendants! What! they who claimed to be the depositaries and the custodians of both new and old covenant snatched away from the "scarlet woman and the man of sin;" they who claimed to be the saints by excellence, and the expounders, ex professo, of the true doctrines of the Gospel of Christ; they, with the pretended condemnations of that Gospel pressing upon their consciences and their souls, remained with slavery in their midst as a constant general fact and right recognized by Church and State, without their consciousness of its violation of the Gospel law with which we of the South are charged at the eleventh hour of these godly workers in the vineyard of the Lord! Why, sir, not satisfied with holding and maintaining slavery in their midst, not satisfied with owning slaves themselves-though, with us, they are pleased to call it violation of the law of Godthey must even look for accomplices in the violation of that law; and, sending their ships over the oceans, go in quest of slaves, to import them, and to sell them where they were wanted, or where they had not yet been introduced. Would they, Mr. Chairman, have us understand that their fathers, not we, are the "men-stealers' and dealers in human flesh? Or else, would they have us, in order to save the memory of those impeccable "Puritan fathers" from the deep damnation of being the original patentees of anti-Christian sla-sir, is an essence of our organic law. Yet, sir, very, believe that those worthies, with all their claims to sanctimonious purity and evangelical grace, were but dolts, who had not yet groped their way over the threshold of the New Jerusa

lem which their descendants have since reared? That their fathers were as guiltless of knowledge of the Scriptures, especially in regard of slavery, as they themselves are of the precepts of God and the sanctities of truth? Would they have us believe, in one word, that to them, and to their brighter lights, kindled at the shrines of Exeter Hall, was reserved, once for all, the signal privilege of correcting all the unseemly errors of the inconvenient law of God?

Is the South, sir, to be damned into a change of its institutions by virtue of pseudo-Scriptures, edited with notes, and exegeses tacked to them by Yankee exponents of bogus Gospel law? Sir, there is a promise of the Master, "My word shall not pass away," which sustains our hopes through all these assaults of prejudice wedded to malevolence. Indeed, Mr. Chairman, I am even now afraid that this malevolence of our slanderers may have compelled me to be, in some measure, unjust to them in the bearing of my remarks. I am afraid, at least, sir, that the persistent calumnies, studiously contrived, and as zealously disseminated against us by our northern friends, may have led me to disparage some of their merits, or to withhold much of the acknowledgment of their deserts. I find, sir, one thing which I had overlooked. Like us, sir, I find that, in one respect at least, they are conscientious observers of the law of God in this question of slavery. That law, Mr. Chairman, if I have read it aright, established two species of servitude-the servitude of the children of Israel, and that of the bondmen purchased from the heathens around them. Instead of violating the law, Mr. Chairman, we have adhered to its enactment. We have gone-or rather our

Thus sir, have I traced, and, I think, not unfairly, the law as delivered by our Savior, and as applied by His Apostles. In either form, Mr. Chairman, it is plain and unmistakable. Into the supposed tendencies of its doctrines it is not my business to inquire, nor yet to look into what channels of action they may have been forced by the errors of human judgment or the warpings of fanatical passions. I am satisfied to take that law as it reads, and to stand by what it allows or forbids in its relation to slavery. The Constitution of the United States, sir, by the essence of creation, by its reservation of the rights of the States, recognizes the sovereignty of those States, whilst it discards the idea of a supreme authority. This,

HO. OF REPS.

Save where it has pleased the Maker to modify
it, it stands as the expression of His unchanged
will. It rings, as it has rung through the lapse
of ages. It speaks, as it has spoken across the
chasms of revolutions, above the tramp of gen-
erations steadily treading on their pilgrimage to
the grave; it speaks, even now, with the most
appalling denunciations which it may be given to
the mind of man to conceive. It is useless for our
politico-religious theologians to shriek out,
"old
dispensation and old law; it had its time, and it
has passed away for a better and a higher law."
What, sir, higher and better law coming from
God? This is impious, sir, beyond utterance. This
is lending to unerring wisdom the failings and im-
perfections of the human mind. Man may grope
away at higher and better laws; but God intui-
tively and ever wills the highest and the best.

I admit, sir, the fulfilling law; but I deny, from pole to pole, that that which was fulfilled has passed away! It is still living, and in our midst, touching us at every point of our existence, absorbed through every fiber of your legislations and codes. Some of the minor regulations of the civil and religious law may have been dropped -some ritual ceremonies and external forms, adapted to other purposes, may have lapsed with the changes of circumstances and of time; but the law which, deny it as they may, contains the recognition of slavery, and, therefore, the rights of the South, is a living, binding law. It is the handbook of our duties and the sum of our hopes; it is the moral law which the Savior has perfected; and that cannot pass away, because the moral law, like God himself, is an eternal essence!

ADMISSION OF KANSAS.

SPEECH OF HON. C. J. GILMAN,
OF MAINE,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
May 24, 1858.

The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union

Mr. GILMAN said:

Mr. CHAIRMAN: The President of the United States sent a message to Congress, on the 2d day of February last, with this statement: that Kansas was as much a slave State as Georgia or South Carolina. It was then taken for granted, as a proposition self-evident, that there would be no violent opposition, on the part of northern Democrats, to the admission of Kansas as a State into the Union under the Lecompton constitution. It was anticipated that there would be an apparent reluctance at once and with facility to take the Lecompton dose. Shrewd politicians in the House, in the Senate, and in the Cabinet, know how to touch the weak points of northern Democrats. They know how to remove scruples and doubts from the minds of their northern associates. They have been successful in this kind of diplomacy heretofore. Some of them have grown gray in the service. They well knew, during the past half century, how often northern men had yielded to southern solicitation, southern arts, and southern manipulation. They knew full well that heretofore, measures, sectional, obnoxious, in

is there a soundly-thinking statesman but will
admit that, by the contrivance of tendencies, by
the process of construction, and by the fatality of
precedents, it is not rapidly putting on, if it have
not already put on, all the substantial forms of a
consolidated government? Even so, sir, with the
institutes of Christianity. The theory of tendencies
has been developed so far beyond the intents of the
law-giver that the result of man's speculations have
been grafted upon his statute as parts of the law
itself. It is under this mania of tendencies, not the
spirit of truth, that the modern improvers of a Di-
vine code have, from the height of their perverted
pulpits, and from the bosom of their unholy con-
venticles, been shrieking their denunciations of
slavery as a sin and a curse, laid at the door of the
South. The law, sir, as given out by its founder,
will hold in the hollow of the hand. Its precepts
are written with the perspicuity of the light whichvolving in danger and doubt the peace and welfare
blazes on the frontlet of the stars. I read the law,
I ponder its precepts, and I find nothing in it
against slavery, but what the hands of man would
wickedly interpolate under the convenient guise
of tendency. The law of God, Mr. Chairman, is
an equation, full and complete, made up of the
modern dispensation and the old covenant. They
are both results of Divine counsels and expo-
nents of Divine truth. You cannot touch any of
its elements, you cannot add to or subtract from
either of the terms without vitiating the result.
The curse is upon those who would do so. Did
I require any proof of the subsistence of that law
and of the verity of the Book in which it is writ-
ten, I would find it in the character of the awful-
ly terrible language in which the penalties of in-
fraction are written out in every variety of form
and for every vicissitude of time. It is not the
growth of human thought, nor yet the expres-
sion of human speech. It has the unmistakable
stamp of Divine conception and Divine utterance.

of the country, had been sanctioned by northern votes secured by southern agency. The President, therefore, with a confidence of success, presented the Lecompton fraud; and early in the session it became evident that members from New England and the middle States were ready and willing to vote for a measure most offensive in its nature to the feelings and sentiments of their constituents.

But it was early discovered that more northern votes were wanted. Week after week elapsed; month after month. Who will write the history of these weeks and months? The record of Congress, the public proceedings, can be read by all. The secret plotting, the silent and insidious proceedings of these memorable weeks and months, may not be portrayed to the public eye. Finally it became evident that the Administration, with all its power and with all its patronage, could not induce a few northern Democrats to succumb. These few Democrats had manfully resisted the

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

persuasion of the pro-slavery leaders. There had
To have abandoned
been too many test votes.
their position after making such a record would
have indicated a glaring want of principle and
consistency. The intelligent mind of the country
seemed to be convinced that the Administration

Admission of Kansas-Mr. Gilman.

a full sense of responsibility both to their constit-
uents and the country, they gave their votes and
voice to vindicate the rights of American freemen.
This rebuke from slave States was more keenly
felt by the President than any and all opposition
from the North. Estimating other men by his
own standard, he had conceived that any meas-
ure, how base soever it might be, would readily
be accepted by the southern mind; that his devo-
tion to the South, illustrated by a capricious po-
litical career, would not be questioned; that his
willingness to use and abuse his power and posi-
tion to uphold a sectional policy, would naturally
induce a unanimous southern support.

would be overwhelmed with defeat. So much
firmness on the part of northern Democrats called
forth expressions of approbation and admiration
throughout the country. The Crittenden-Mont-
gomery bill passed the House, approved by Re-
publicans, Americans, and Democrats; a measure
approved by northern and southern members; a
measure fraught with peace and good will to Kan-
sas; and its passage in the House was hailed with
pleasure and delight by the people of the United
States. The Senate refused to sanction the bill.
The House voted to adhere. At last it became
evident to the House, and to those who have the
confidence of the Administration, that the Lecomp-would sustain him, and honorable men every-
ton swindle could not be supported by a majority
of the members of the House of Representatives.
Some other scheme must be devised-something
that will save the honor and pride of the South
and will satisfy enough of the northern Demo-
crats to insure success.

The President did not imagine that any southern member, unaffected by geographical position, could take a clear and comprehensive view of the relations of the whole country; could so demean himself on this floor that his own constituents

where applaud and admire his independence and manliness. This blow from the South fell with great force upon the Administration; it annihilated the Lecompton monster. Grave Senators from the South and Senators from the North, southern Representatives and northern Representatives, whose highest aspiration seems to be to render themselves more obnoxious to their constituents, to impose upon an unoffending people a measure fraught with danger to the peace and welfare of the country-a measure sustained by traitors to their country and the enemies of free institutions; traitors who have been upheld by the Army of the United States; by the patronage of the past and present Administration; Grave Senators, I say, distinguished members of this House, assembled to devise a new scheme that would save the Hunker or Buchanan party from disintegration or dissolution. It would be impossible and even improper to portray too vividly the different scenes and the appearance of the different actors. To a favored few is known all that transpired beneath the roof of the White House. It is not difficult to imagine what transpired there. The sachems of the party, with elongated visages, and the President, whose countenance, as Byron hath it," was a tablet of unutterable thoughts, were without doubt assembled. And had the President expressed himself in a truthful manner, he could with propriety have said: "I, James Buchanan, have done all that I could do to cheat the people of Kansas out of their rights and privileges? I have sent to the House of Representatives the Lecompton swindle, a gigantic fraud, gentlemen, which, had it been approved by the House, would have done more than anything that I can conceive or suggest to degrade American labor, to tarnish the honor of the Republic, and to involve the Government in disgrace before the civilized world; but the House, a most obstinate, inflexible, and incorrigible body, will not take this Lecompton dose. Now, ye gentlemen who love slavery more than you love liberty, ye men whose conception of the growth and grandeur of the Republic is derived from the servility and degradation of the African, come forward and give us a plan. Give us the scheme to preserve the unity and indivisibility of the pro-slavery party. This party, which we all love so tenderly, so deeply, and which we all

It had been said by southern gentlemen that if Kansas were not admitted under the Lecompton constitution, the South would resort to extreme measures. The dissolution of the Union was threatened. Sentiments were uttered well calculated to excite terror and alarm in minds unaccustomed to vehemence of manner and high-sounding declamation-sentiments that might disturb the equanimity of those who do not know and do not believe that the Union of the States is the security and protection of slavery. The dark, dismal, and murky cloud of disunion rose before us. Not one of the ninety-two Republicans lost the possession of his faculties; the South Americans were composed; the Douglas Democrats were calm and tranquil; the Lecompton monster was slain; southern members did not abandon their seats. In no southern State was the flag of disunion raised. But, sir, if something had not been done to relieve the pro-slavery leaders from a most disagreeable dilemma, and the Administration from disgrace, how could the southern members go back to their constituents with any hope of their approbation and support? James Buchanan, President of the United States, presented a constitution to the House of Representatives, which he knew to be a fraud. He had brought down disgrace upon himself, upon his Administration, upon the Republic, by this base attempt to impose upon the people of Kansas a constitution which they spurned and hated-a constitution presented at Lecompton by men who had no higher sense of duty and justice than to uphold and sustain murderers of innocent citizens and destroyers of property, without cause or provocation. The President of the United States must be preserved from a lower depth of disgrace. His deep-laid plots, his ingenious plans, the skill, the dexterity of his officials in Kansas, availed nothing. The crimes, the outrages, committed under the sanction of law, availed nothing. The Lecompton monster was slain. A majority of the House of Representatives, through weeks and months, withstood the pressure and policy of the Admin-worship with a more than oriental devotion, must istration, and resolutely and repeatedly refused to insult and degrade the people of a Territory, whose only crime had been that they preferred a constitution for freedom rather than for slavery. Resolutely and nobly did the majority refuse to present to the intelligent but abused people of Kansas the terrible issue of lasting disgrace or revolutionary resistance. The Lecompton mon-public lands, and through the land offices of the ster was slain. The desire and purpose of the President to create civil discord, to impose slavery upon an unwilling and reluctant people, was not satisfied. Executive power, so potent, so liable to be exerted beyond constitutional limits, could not compel the House to sanction a crime

and call it a constitution. Members from slave States, with all the risks and hazards to which they were exposed, gave their votes and their influence to uphold the honor of the Republic, to save the Territory of Kansas from the horrors of civil war, and the Union from calamities which

threatened to befall it. No man can attribute unworthy or unpatriotic motives to such men. With

be preserved. By this Democratic organization
we have done much to cripple the industry of the
free States. Much have we done to enable British
capital and British power to control American

markets, and to enervate the arm of American
labor. By this Democratic organization we have
given direction to the disposition and sale of the
western country have enabled prominent men of
our party to accumulate immense fortunes. By
controlling the Government we have been able to
maintain a sectional policy; to array the North
against the South; and by the timely aid of the
Supreme Court have established the doctrine that
the rights and privileges of a human being are to
be acknowledged and determined, not according
to the self-evident truths of the human mind, not
according to those qualities and faculties which
distinguish man from the brute, but according to
color. If a man is very black he is not a citizen,
and has no rights. If a man is very white he can
enjoy all that is comprehended in American citi-

Ho. OF REPS.

zenship. Look ye out, gentlemen, upon the vast southern domain, and behold what has been done for the South by the accretion of new territory! Behold a vast area consecrated to African slavery! Consider, too, what political advantages you have derived from territorial aggrandizement. The creation of slave States has given to you the sway in the Senate. The Senate can appropriate money without limit. The Senate controls the Treasury. The Senate can add millions to ap propriation bills. The House can add nothing to an appropriation bill not provided by law. The Senate is under your control, and it generally has been; and if you would realize your schemes of southern expansion, absorption, and accretion, your dreams of a southern confederacy, then you must retain a pro-slavery sway in the Senate. If you would have a balance of power, you must have that sway. The sentiment of the civilized world is against you. All those great agencies which have done so much to supplant physical energies or muscular power, give to freedom an advantage over slavery, enable free men to move with great rapidity and great facility; and, unless you are on the alert, will enable free men to occupy the Territories of the Republic, and adorn them with all the arts of civilized and enlightened communities. Let us, then, have the scheme that will save the Democratic party from dissolution, and enable the southern States to control the Treasury of the Republic. "The conference bill is produced; and the sachems of the party, after a severe debate and a thorough examination, determine to take the dose and also to commend it to the lips of such Doug. las Democrats as would abandon the bold and manly position which they had pledged themselves to maintain.

I will now present, for the consideration of the House, my views in relation to this wonderful creation of artful politicians-the conference bill. I will not call it the English bill, because it smacks more of Virginia and Georgia than of Indiana. The people of Kansas, on the 4th day of January, 1858, rejected the Lecompton swindle by an overwhelming majority; yet, by the conference bill, you propose to the people of Kansas to accept the swindle or not to enjoy the advantages of a State government until there is a population in the Territory of ninety-three or a hundred and twenty thousand. By what article, or section, or clause, of the Constitution of the United States, can Congress present such an issue as this to the people of Kansas? Where do you find a prece dent for such a mode of procedure? Turn to your congressional proceedings; turn to the records of the past; examine the annals of your country. You will search in vain. If the people of Kansas will do that which is repugnant to them; if they will do that which they believe to be dishonora ble and unjust; if they will do that which would expose them to the contempt and ridicule of enlightened men; if they will yield up their sense of

self-respect and humiliate themselves before the civilized world, and will lick the dirt at the feet of three hundred and fifty-seven thousand slave-holders, then they need not wait until there are ninetythree or one hundred and twenty thousand popa lation, but can at once have a State and live under a constitution which is not of their own creationconstitution, in all human probability, concocted here, in the city of Washington, and sent out to Kansas to be approved by a convention upheld and supported by United States bayonets.

a

There is another consideration. It was as serted, in the other wing of the Capitol, by the Senator from Missouri, [Mr. GREEN,] by the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. HUNTER,] and in this House by the member from Georgia, [Mr. STEPHENS,] that the people can have no vote upo the Lecompton swindle. It will be remembered by all present, that the question was submitted to the gentleman from Georgia, and his reply was prompt, and directly to the point. It will be noticed that the bill is very carefully and adroitly and cunningly drawn. It is, in all its features, a foxy production; and, amid all the verbiage and all the periods contained in the five sections, there is but one allusion to the swindle perpetrated at Lecompton. It can be seen in the first section, and here is the language, or extract: "But, should a majority of the votes cast be for 'propo

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

sition rejected,' it shall be deemed and held that the people of Kansas do not desire admission into the Union with said constitution under the conditions set forth in said proposition; and in that event the people," &c.

The purpose and the design are evidently to leave the impression on the mind that there is only a submission of a land ordinance. The words "said constitution," however, are entitled to a slight consideration. They have a significance. Let not the people of Kansas be deceived; let them look to the relation of " said constitution" to the language of the preamble. Here is a part of the preamble:

"Whereas, the people of the Territory of Kansas did, by a convention of delegates assembled at Lecompton, on the 7th day of November, 1857, for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government, which constitution is republican," &c.

The mind that conceived the conference bill

knew well that the three words " said Lecompton constitution" might awaken disagreeable associations. But" said constitution" are words that might not arrest the attention. But let us be charitable. Certainly it was very kind and considerate to avoid the use of language offensive to an honorable people. The skillful magician was undoubtedly actuated by the most honorable motives. Like a skillful and humane physician, he would prepare a nauseating dose so that it could be administered without disagreeable sensations. Besides, there is a serpent in the grass; it would not be wise for the serpent to hiss to warn the victim, before the venom of his fangs permeates "Whereas the people of the Territory of Kansas did, by a convention of delegates assembled at Lecompton, on the 7th day of November, 1857, for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and State government," &c., is the language of the preamble.

the system.

The people having formed it, there can be no doubt as to its validity, no doubt as to its vitality. There is no other constitution. As the people formed it, there can be no other. It is the only embodiment of the will of the people. The delegates have indicated the will of the people. Kansas is therefore a State, because it has a State government. It will therefore be useless to submit more than a "land ordinance;" and in order to render the ordinance as intelligible as possible, and to give to it form and comeliness, and in order to illustrate the subtilty and ledgerdemain of its authors, the two words" said constitution" have been placed in the first section. That is indeed a profound statesmanship, and worthy of all admiration, which has induced the authors of the conference bill to inform the ignorant and deluded people of Kansas, that on the 7th day of November, 1857, they did form for themselves a State government; and, in order more deeply to impress them with the fact, to offer four million acres of land.

But there is a consideration which will be

urged by those who take another view of the bill, that the people of Kansas must take a pro-slavery constitution with the land bribe, or remain out of the Union. What an insult to an intelligent people! An American Congress has no higher standard of honor or propriety than to offer four million acres of land for a pro-slavery constitution. Grave Senators and enlightened Representatives deem it to be the part of wisdom to bestow four million acres upon forty thousand American freemen, the peers of us all, if they will only become the tools of Executive power and Executive tyranny. Four million acres of land are offered for the degradation and humiliation of a brave and enterprising people. I will, in this connection, make a quotation from the Kansas-Nebraska act, passed in the year 1854:

"It being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," &c.

In 1858, the Congress of the United States declares to the people of Kansas: accept a land ordinance with said constitution," accept the Lecompton swindle with African slavery, and the President will immediately proclaim that you are a State. This appeal to the cupidity and to the avarice of men, rather than to their judgment and common sense, is, I presume, leaving the people perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way!

Admission of Kansas-Mr. Gilman.

In 1856, the delegates of the party termed Democratic, assembled at Cincinnati to form a national platform. Here is a resolution adopted by the convention:

"Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States."

Has it not been urged on this floor, with great pertinacity and emphasis, that a body of men, assembled at Lecompton on the 7th of November, 1857, embodied the "legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents." The Administration is compelled, by this submission of a land ordinance with "said constitution," to ac

knowledge before the world that the convention

Ho. OF REPS.

faith" of the Cincinnati platform; here we behold the doctrine of "perfect equality" applied, illustrated, and demonstrated in the admission of States. Here we behold the Punic faith of modern Democracy! How long will the American people tolerate the supremacy of a class of men so faithless to their pledges, so capricious in their policy? There is another feature in the conference bill, the significance of which cannot be overlooked; and that is, the constitution of the board of commissioners:

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of insuring, as far as possible, that the elections authorized by this act may be fair and free, the Governor, United States district attorney, and Secretary of the Territory of Kansas, and the presiding officers of the two branches of the Legislature, namely, the President of the Council, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, are hereby constituted a board of commissioners to carry into effect the provisions of this act, and to use all the means necessary and proper to that end."

Now, it is well known to the House that the Governor, United States attorney, and the Secretary of the Territory, indicate and reflect the will and purpose of the Administration. The President of the Council and the Speaker of the Territorial Assembly represent the sentiment of the people. Here, then, is a majority favorable to the Administration. Compare this second section of the conference bill with the following third section of the Crittenden and Montgomery

bill:

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of insuring, as far as possible, that the elections authorized by this act may be fair and free, the Governor and Secretary of the Territory of Kansas, and the presiding officers of the two branches of its Legislature, namely, the President of the Council and Speaker of the House of Representatives, are hereby constituted a board of commissioners to carry into effect the provisions of this act, and to use all the means necessary and proper to that end."

of the 7th of November, 1857, was a convention
that did not indicate the "will of the actual resi-
dents." The Cincinnati resolution will not cover
the case; it is not equal to the emergency. The
Administration, with all its power and patronage,
has endeavored to convince the House that the
"Lecompton convention" indicated the "will
of a majority, legally and fairly expressed. If
it indicates and embodies such a "will," why
consent to a submission of a land ordinance with
"said constitution?" The Cincinnati platform
is repudiated; "the will of the people, legally and
fairly expressed," is treated with contempt. And,
by its own acknowledgment, the Administration
is held responsible for all the frauds and all the
villainy perpetrated by the pro-slavery party in
Kansas. The Lecompton swindle, undoubtedly
violence, and of Executive authority," the legally
concocted in this city, the creature of fraud, of
expressed will of a majority," is associated with
a land ordinance! What a juxtaposition of ideas;
Had the Crittenden bill become a law, there
what a heterogeneous combination; what a har- would have been two members of the board repre-
monious relation is presented in the conference senting the Administration, and two representing
bills! What an admirable contrivance to shiver the people of Kansas. An arrangement so fair, so
scheme to expose the Administration to the ridi-tration, has been rejected by Congress. That class
and shatter the Democratic party! What a just, and, I may say, so generous to the Adminis-
cule and sarcasm of intelligent minds! What an
illustration of the degeneracy of the times! What
Government! What a mournful evidence of the
a departure from the policy of the founders of the
decadence of American statesmanship! What
an example for the youth of the Republic-that
trick and legerdemain are more essential in the
administration of public affairs than the exercise
of the higher and nobler qualities and faculties of
the mind and heart.

But, sir, the Cincinnati convention, by the resolution to which I have referred, acknowledges stitution with or without domestic slavery, and be the right of the people of Kansas "to form a conadmitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States." Now, if the ordithe swindle are accepted; Kansas, by proclamation nance with "said constitution;" if the bribe and of the President, becomes a State of the Union, although the population of the Territory does not exceed thirty or forty thousand. If, according to the language of the conference bill, the proposition, or the bribe, is rejected, then

"The people of said Territory are hereby authorized and empowered to form for themselves a constitution and State government, by the name of the State of Kansas, according to the Federal Constitution, and may elect delegates for that purpose whenever, and not before, it is ascertained, by a census duly and legally taken, that the population of said Territory equals or exceeds the ratio of representation required for a member of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States."

of politicians who proclaimed at Cincinnati, and on the floor of the House of Representatives, the doctrine of "popular sovereignty," the doctrine of non-intervention, and who profess to cherish a policy that will" leave the people perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," cannot permit the people of Kansas to have a majority of the board of commissioners. The President of the United States, Cabinet officers, shrewd and sagacious polititians, all in the enjoyment of power, and good round salaries, having no feelings in common with those men who endure all the trials and all the labor in

cident to the settlement of the western wilderness, must still continue to vex and harass that people, who have received nothing from the past and vention, insult, and injury. Another deep game present Administrations but intervention, circumis to be played in Kansas, and a majority of the board of commissioners is essential to "designate and establish such precincts for voting," to cause polls to be opened at such places," and "to appoint, as judges of election," such men as will best conserve the purpose and design of the central power at Washington. What that purpose and design is, future events will unfold and indicate. The conduct of the Administration in relation to the affairs of Kansas; the consideration that the pro-slavery leaders have so much at stake, so much at hazard, in the decision of the question; so much have the leaders to gain if the majority accept the bribe, and so much to lose if the major

if an apparent majority is found for the acceptance of the bribe.

taken?" A census taken by an act of the Terrí-ity reject the bribe, that no one will be surprised
What would be a census"duly and legally
torial Legislature at any time; or a census taken
by act of Congress at some future period? are
questions naturally suggested. But the consid-
eration to which I desire to call the attention of
the House is that part of the Cincinnati resolution
relating to Kansas, "and be admitted into the
Union upon terms of perfect equality with other
States." That is, a slave State can be "admitted
into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with
other States," while a free State can only be ad-
mitted upon terms of perfect" inequality. The
people of Kansas can have a State government in
1858, if they will sanction a fraud; if they will not
sanction a fraud, they can have no State govern-
ment in 1858; and here we behold the "plighted

66

The history of Kansas presents a dark and dismal picture; but there is no part of the picture more offensive or repulsive than the frauds perpetrated at the ballot-box. Have we not reason to fear, from the organization of the board of commissioners, and from the experience of the past, that if fraudulent returns are wanted, fraudulent returns will be fabricated? The Governor, as a member of the board, and in his official capacity, certifies and proclaims the returns; the President, by the conference bill, has only to pro11 claim Kansas a State of the Union, the Administration triumphant, the power of the South vin

35TH CONG....1ST SESS.

dicated, and innumerable trials inflicted upon that people, whose only crime is that they abhor slavery, and desire to adorn their Territory with the arts of civilization, and the creations of free labor. If Kansas is made a State by proclamation of the President, what mode or manner will the people adopt to relieve themselves of the incubus of a Lecompton constitution? Suppose the people of that Territory should appeal to an American Senate: what relief could they find there? What response has the Senate already made to their appeals? The Senate has been, and will be, deaf to their entreaties and indifferent to their wrongs. The Supreme Court would not give to them an impartial hearing, but would delight in the imposition of new burdens. Even in this Assembly, which ought to be the guardian of national honor and individual rights, the people of Kansas would meet with a cool reception and tardy justice.

There is another feature of the conference bill which should not be overlooked:

"SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That, in the election hereby authorized, all white male inhabitants of said Territory, over the age of twenty-one years, who possess the qualifications which were required by the laws of said Territory for a legal voter at the last general election for the members of the Territorial Legislature, and none others, shall be allowed to vote."

Now, what was one of the qualifications which "all of the white male inhabitants" possessed who voted for members of the Territorial Legislature in October, 1857? A residence of six months in the Territory prior to the day of election. This qualification, or act establishing such qualification, was repealed by the Legislature elected in October, 1857; and an act in its stead passed the Legislature, and was approved by the Governor, which only requires "three months" residence prior to the day of election. A majority of the members of the board, by the conference bill, determine the day on which the ordinance with "said constitution" is to be submitted to the people. If a majority fix upon a day in July or August next, the entire spring emigration will be disqualified; there will not be a lapse of time sufficient to enable the new Republican recruits to vote. Even if a day in September should be preferred by a majority of the board, but few of "the white male Inhabitants" who entered the Territory since the 1st of March could vote. But it was desirable to render the conference bill as palatable as possible, to keep from the eye as many obnoxious features as possible; and the bitter pill had to be sugared over, that it might be swallowed without reluctance, and with manifestations of delight. That great relief was derived from the medicine, there can be no doubt, from the buoyant condition of the patients on that eventful morning when the experience of the distinguished converts was related to the House. But it was exceedingly adroit to cover the qualification of time and residence under the following verbiage:

"Who possess the qualifications which were required by the laws of said Territory for a legal voter at the last general election," &c.

This third section clearly indicates that the Administration desire the number of voters to be as small as possible; the more formidable the numbers the greater the opposition, and the more numerous the difficulties and obstacles that would be encountered. Besides, it is important to have the real vote of the Territory as small as possible, if fraudulent votes are to be used. A small vote contrasted with a large population, considering the nature of the issue, fully illustrates the pure and high-minded motives of that class of men who cherish a devotion so ardent for "popular sovereignty;" who entertain a regard so profound for the popular will, that they could only permit those to vote who possess the qualifications which were required by the laws of the Territory for a legal voter at the last general election for members of the Territorial Legislature." I will call the attention of my Democratic friends to the first resolution of the Cincinnati convention:

blest faculties of the human mind only could be brought into play. It has been lately discovered that statesmanship does not consist in the appli cation of those virtues and those qualities which indicate the higher nature of man.

The cause which has induced this decadence in the character of public men, has given a cast and direction to the policy of the Government during the past half century. Every department of the Government is and has been under its control. Territorial expansion has given to it consideration and power. African slavery is a condition of society in fifteen States, affecting the social and political relations of the States. It is a condition of society which has passed from generation to generation. It is the labor of the South; it is the wealth of the South. It has established a southern character; it was formerly considered by the

with "said constitution," while the law of the
Territory only requires a residence of three
months, unless the object to be attained is to
deprive the "white male inhabitants" who en-
tered the Territory this spring of the right to vote.
The emigrants that entered the Territory this
spring with the purpose to settle in the Territory,
and who shall have resided three successive months
prior to the day of election, would certainly be
ardent and desirous and competent to indicate
their opinion at the ballot-box upon questions of
vital importance; and, among other questions,
"whether or not they will disgrace themselves
and their country and the cause of freedom by
giving their sanction to a land bribe, and an in-
famous swindle." It has been said in a certain
quarter, "if the Lecompton constitution is ac-
cepted by the people of Kansas, that out of regard
to the people of a sovereign State, the sale of pub-founders of the Government as a condition of ne-
lic lands might be postponed." There are vari-
ous rumors as to the postponement of the sale.
How the public domain is to be made subserv
ient to realize the plan of the pro-slavery leaders,
time only can determine.

cessity, as an evil that had befallen the South. It is now vindicated and defended as a right founded on principles of justice, sanctioned by Holy Writ, and essential to the welfare and prosperity of the South. The severity with which the peculiar institution has been attacked, has called forth a corresponding emphasis in its defense. Southern men, conscious that they must encounter the opposition of the free States, and, in truth, the oppo sition of enlightened men throughout the civil

respected by the power that they can exert. A common sense of what they deem a common dan ger has impelled them to concentrate their efforts to preserve a supremacy in the administration of public affairs.

It is well known that many of the settlers on the public lands are at present unable to pay for their sections. It is for the President, and those who are possessed of authority, to say when the lands shall be sold. If the Executive should resort to desperate measures, or present alluring propo-ized world, have endeavored to render themselves sitions, then let us cherish the hope and confidence that the settlers, the squatters, the "popular sov ereigns," will have the moral courage and the power of endurance to meet the emergency in a mode and manner becoming American freemen who know their rights and how to maintain them. | They have suffered much; they have endured much; and "there is a point beyond which patience ceases to be a virtue." Whatever may be the decision of the people of Kansas, whether the land bribe is accepted by fair means or by foul means, whether it is reluctantly received or scornfully repelled, the conference bill never will be, and never can be, approved by the American people. It is an insult to the free States; it is a disgrace to the slave States; it is neither a measure of compromise nor of conciliation; it establishes no principle which can command the confidence and regard of the intelligent mind of the Republic. You cannot call it a compromise, because it is a trick; you cannot call it a safe precedent for the future, for the day is not remote when it may be more popular to discriminate in favor of freedom rather than in favor of slavery. It is a fit illustration and exponent of that power which controls the different departments of the Government; it is the creation of minds alike indifferent to the lessons of history and the admonitions of experience; it is the production of men who deem it a matter of small concern to trifle with the feelings, to arouse the indignation of millions of freemen. A boldness and audacity has been manifested by those who introduced and secured the passage of the conference bill, which might well excite our admiration if the bill itself were only commensurate with the magnitude of the question which it is proposed to settle.

If leading men in the Republican party would
present the same bold and fearless front in the sup-
port of a good cause; the same determined and
persistent will in the support of self-evident truths
upon which the Government is founded, the day
would not be remote when the patronage and
power of the Government would pass into other
hands, and upon others the administration of pub-

lic affairs devolve. The consideration, however,
which most deeply affects all men who wish well
for their country; all men who would preserve the
Union of the States; who cherish the hope that
the Government may yet be administered in the
spirit and sentiment of its founders, is this: that
distinguished men, whose genius and power might
be so potent to promote the prosperity of the coun-
try, and the harmony of the States, seem to take
a pleasure and satisfaction in the suggestion and
to awaken discordant and belligerent feelings, and
to excite sectional animosities; and the more art-

Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the discrinunat-adoption of those measures which tend the most ing justice of the American people."

I will simply suggest that neither the "intelligent" nor "patriotic" people of this country, nor those who discriminate justly," can comprehend why a residence of six months is essential in order to vote for or against the land ordinance

ful and cunning the device the more acceptable it
becomes as a measure of public policy. It used to
be thought that in the disposition of grave ques-
tions of national importance the highest and no-

Freedom can thrive and flourish and advance without the aid of Government. Science, art, and religion, nourish and support it. It is the natural condition of man. As you increase the mastery of mind over matter; as you tame and subdue the great forces of nature and render them subservient to the human will; as you give greater expansion to the realm of thought, so you are giving to the cause of freedom increasing momen tum. Freedom wants no compromises and no conferences. It is slavery-that state of society which involves the degradation of one class and the su periority of another class-that invokes the coun tenance and support of the Government. And the advocates and defenders of the peculiar insti tution will ever be ready to urge upon the floor of the House and upon the public mind, measures essential to shield and protect it. They will, ia time to come, give a tone and direction to the proceedings of Democratic conventions. The proslavery leaders will not hesitate to violate the Cor stitution of the Republic; nor will they be governed by any precedents of the past. Between the slave States and the free States there is a struggle for power; and the pro-slavery party will become more and more desperate as the confidence in their strength diminishes. Doctrines will be advanced on this floor in time to come, as they have been in time past, that partake of the spirit and sent ment of the dark and medieval ages. There wi be in time to come, as there has been in time past, the conflict of mind with mind; the antagonism of opinions and principles. Still there is a future for the cause of freedom. African slavery may yet be circumscribed by free institutions. The Republican party in 1860 will be triumphant; the policy of the Republican administration should be to encourage the settlement of the western ter ritory. Let us have, as soon as we can have, a preponderance of representation in the Senate and the House, from free States.

It has been the fortune of the pro-slavery of Democratic leaders to render the Territories and cherish the hope that the next Republican Admin new States subservient to their purposes. Let us istration will not only maintain a liberal territoris, policy, but will also encourage and facilitate the creation of new States. When southern mea and northern dough faces become satisfied that sa very cannot be extended on this continent, then, and not until then, can the development of the material resources of the country receive that con tion of the American people cannot be diverted sideration to which they are entitled. The atten from the issue presented by the pro-slavery party and not until that party is overwhelmed with defeat will it avail anything to commend to an