A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
by
James D. Richardson
Part 2 out of 7
evasion of our laws, no opportunity afforded to any who may be disposed
to take advantage of it to compromit the interest or the honor of the
nation.
The crime of setting on foot or providing the means for a military
expedition within the United States to make war against a foreign state
with which we are at peace is one of an aggravated and dangerous
character, and early engaged the attention of Congress. Whether
the executive government possesses any, or what, power under the
Constitution, independently of Congress, to prevent or punish this
and similar offenses against the law of nations was a subject which
engaged the attention of our most eminent statesmen in the time of the
Administration of General Washington and on the occasion of the French
Revolution. The act of Congress of the 5th of June, 1794, fortunately
removed all the difficulties on this question which had theretofore
existed. The fifth and seventh sections of this act, which relate to the
present question, are the same in substance with the sixth and eighth
sections of the act of April 20, 1818, and have now been in force for
a period more than sixty years.
The military expedition rendered criminal by the act must have its
origin, must "begin" or be "set on foot," in the United States; but the
great object of the law was to save foreign states with whom we were at
peace from the ravages of these lawless expeditions proceeding from our
shores. The seventh section alone, therefore, which simply defines the
crime and its punishment, would have been inadequate to accomplish this
purpose and enforce our international duties. In order to render the
law effectual it was necessary to prevent "the carrying on" of such
expeditions to their consummation after they had succeeded in leaving
our shores. This has been done effectually and in clear and explicit
language by the authority given to the President under the eighth
section of the act to employ the land and naval forces of the United
States "for the purpose of preventing the carrying on of any such
expedition or enterprise from the territories or jurisdiction of the
United States against the territories or dominions of any foreign prince
or state or of any colony, district, or people with whom the United
States are at peace."
For these reasons, had Commodore Paulding intercepted the steamer
_Fashion_, with General Walker and his command on board, at any period
before they entered the port of San Juan de Nicaragua and conducted them
back to Mobile, this would have prevented them from "carrying on" the
expedition and have been not only a justifiable but a praiseworthy act.
The crime well deserves the punishment inflicted upon it by our laws. It
violates the principles of Christianity, morality, and humanity, held
sacred by all civilized nations and by none more than by the people of
the United States. Disguise it as we may, such a military expedition is
an invitation to reckless and lawless men to enlist under the banner of
any adventurer to rob, plunder, and murder the unoffending citizens of
neighboring states, who have never done them harm. It is a usurpation
of the war-making power, which belongs alone to Congress; and the
Government itself, at least in the estimation of the world, becomes
an accomplice in the commission of this crime unless it adopts all
the means necessary to prevent and to punish it.
It would be far better and more in accordance with the bold and manly
character of our countrymen for the Government itself to get up
such expeditions than to allow them to proceed under the command of
irresponsible adventurers. We could then at least exercise some control
over our own agents and prevent them from burning down cities and
committing other acts of enormity of which we have read.
The avowed principle which lies at the foundation of the law of nations
is contained in the divine command that "all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you do ye even so to them." Tried by this unerring
rule, we should be severely condemned if we shall not use our best
exertions to arrest such expeditions against our feeble sister Republic
of Nicaragua. One thing is very certain, that a people never existed
who would call any other nation to a stricter account than we should
ourselves for tolerating lawless expeditions from their shores to make
war upon any portion of our territories. By tolerating such expeditions
we shall soon lose the high character which we have enjoyed ever since
the days of Washington for the faithful performance of our international
obligations and duties, and inspire distrust against us among the
members of the great family of civilized nations.
But if motives of duty were not sufficient to restrain us from engaging
in such lawless enterprises, our evident interest ought to dictate this
policy. These expeditions are the most effectual mode of retarding
American progress, although to promote this is the avowed object of the
leaders and contributors in such undertakings.
It is beyond question the destiny of our race to spread themselves over
the continent of North America, and this at no distant day should events
be permitted to take their natural course. The tide of emigrants will
flow to the south, and nothing can eventually arrest its progress. If
permitted to go there peacefully, Central America will soon contain an
American population which will confer blessings and benefits as well
upon the natives as their respective Governments. Liberty under the
restraint of law will preserve domestic peace, whilst the different
transit routes across the Isthmus, in which we are so deeply interested,
will have assured protection.
Nothing has retarded this happy condition of affairs so much as the
unlawful expeditions which have been fitted out in the United States to
make war upon the Central American States. Had one-half the number of
American citizens who have miserably perished in the first disastrous
expedition of General Walker settled in Nicaragua as peaceful emigrants,
the object which we all desire would ere this have been in a great
degree accomplished. These expeditions have caused the people of the
Central American States to regard us with dread and suspicion. It is our
true policy to remove this apprehension and to convince them that we
intend to do them good, and not evil. We desire, as the leading power on
this continent, to open and, if need be, to protect every transit route
across the Isthmus, not only for our own benefit, but that of the world,
and thus open a free access to Central America, and through it to our
Pacific possessions. This policy was commenced under favorable auspices
when the expedition under the command of General Walker escaped from our
territories and proceeded to Punta Arenas. Should another expedition
of a similar character again evade the vigilance of our officers and
proceed to Nicaragua, this would be fatal, at least for a season, to the
peaceful settlement of these countries and to the policy of American
progress. The truth is that no Administration can successfully conduct
the foreign affairs of the country in Central America or anywhere else
if it is to be interfered with at every step by lawless military
expeditions "set on foot" in the United States.
JAMES BUCHANAN
WASHINGTON, _January 11, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have received from Samuel Medary, governor of the Territory of
Minnesota, a copy of the constitution of Minnesota, "together with an
abstract of the votes polled for and against said constitution" at the
election held in that Territory on the second Tuesday of October last,
certified by the governor in due form, which I now lay before Congress
in the manner prescribed by that instrument.
Having received but a single copy of the constitution, I transmit this
to the Senate.
JAMES BUCHANAN
WASHINGTON, _January 11, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives the reports of
the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of the Navy, and of the
Attorney-General, with the accompanying documents, containing the
information called for by the resolution of the House of the 4th
instant, concerning "the late seizure of General William Walker and
his followers in Nicaragua," etc.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a convention between the United States and the Republic of
Peru, signed on the 4th July last at Lima by the plenipotentiaries of
the contracting parties, with regard to the interpretation to be given
to article 12 of the treaty of the 26th July, 1851.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
JANUARY 12, 1858.
WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit to Congress a copy of a convention between the United States
and His Majesty the King of Denmark, for the discontinuance of the Sound
dues, the ratifications of which were exchanged in this city on the
12th instant, and recommend that an appropriation be made to enable the
Executive seasonably to carry into effect the stipulations in regard to
the sums payable to His Danish Majesty's Government.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant,
requesting information on the subject of contracts made in Europe for
inland-passage tickets for intending emigrants to the United States,
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by
which it was accompanied.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
Secretary of the Interior, under date of the 27th instant, with the
accompanying papers, in compliance with a resolution adopted by the
House on the 18th instant, requesting the President to communicate to
that body "whether the census of the Territory of Minnesota has been
taken in accordance with the provisions of the fourth section of the
act of Congress providing for the admission of Minnesota as a State,
approved February 26, 1857, and if said census has been taken and
returned to him or any Department of the Government to communicate the
same to this House, and if the said census has not been so taken and
returned to state the reasons, if any exist to his knowledge, why it
has not been done."
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have received from J. Calhoun, esq., president of the late
constitutional convention of Kansas, a copy, duly certified by himself,
of the constitution framed by that body, with the expression of a hope
that I would submit the same to the consideration of Congress "with the
view of the admission of Kansas into the Union as an independent State."
In compliance with this request, I herewith transmit to Congress, for
their action, the constitution of Kansas, with the ordinance respecting
the public lands, as well as the letter of Mr. Calhoun, dated at
Lecompton on the 14th ultimo, by which they were accompanied. Having
received but a single copy of the constitution and ordinance, I send
this to the Senate.
A great delusion seems to pervade the public mind in relation to the
condition of parties in Kansas. This arises from the difficulty of
inducing the American people to realize the fact that any portion of
them should be in a state of rebellion against the government under
which they live. When we speak of the affairs of Kansas, we are apt to
refer merely to the existence of two violent political parties in that
Territory, divided on the question of slavery, just as we speak of such
parties in the States. This presents no adequate idea of the true state
of the case. The dividing line there is not between two political
parties, both acknowledging the lawful existence of the government,
but between those who are loyal to this government and those who have
endeavored to destroy its existence by force and by usurpation--between
those who sustain and those who have done all in their power to
overthrow the Territorial government established by Congress. This
government they would long since have subverted had it not been
protected from their assaults by the troops of the United States. Such
has been the condition of affairs since my inauguration. Ever since
that period a large portion of the people of Kansas have been in a state
of rebellion against the government, with a military leader at their
head of a most turbulent and dangerous character. They have never
acknowledged, but have constantly renounced and defied, the government
to which they owe allegiance, and have been all the time in a state
of resistance against its authority. They have all the time been
endeavoring to subvert it and to establish a revolutionary government,
under the so-called Topeka constitution, in its stead. Even at this very
moment the Topeka legislature are in session. Whoever has read the
correspondence of Governor Walker with the State Department, recently
communicated to the Senate, will be convinced that this picture is not
overdrawn. He always protested against the withdrawal of any portion of
the military force of the United States from the Territory, deeming
its presence absolutely necessary for the preservation of the regular
government and the execution of the laws. In his very first dispatch
to the Secretary of State, dated June 2, 1857, he says:
The most alarming movement, however, proceeds from the assembling on
the 9th June of the so-called Topeka legislature, with a view to the
enactment of an entire code of laws. Of course it will be my endeavor
to prevent such a result, as it would lead to inevitable and disastrous
collision, and, in fact, renew the civil war in Kansas.
This was with difficulty prevented by the efforts of Governor Walker;
but soon thereafter, on the 14th of July, we find him requesting General
Harney to furnish him a regiment of dragoons to proceed to the city
of Lawrence; and this for the reason that he had received authentic
intelligence, verified by his own actual observation, that a dangerous
rebellion had occurred, "involving an open defiance of the laws and
the establishment of an insurgent government in that city."
In the governor's dispatch of July 15 he informs the Secretary of
State that--
This movement at Lawrence was the beginning of a plan, originating
in that city, to organize insurrection throughout the Territory,
and especially in all towns, cities, or counties where the Republican
party have a majority. Lawrence is the hotbed of all the abolition
movements in this Territory. It is the town established by the
abolition societies of the East, and whilst there are respectable
people there, it is filled by a considerable number of mercenaries who
are paid by abolition societies to perpetuate and diffuse agitation
throughout Kansas and prevent a peaceful settlement of this question.
Having failed in inducing their own so-called Topeka State legislature
to organize this insurrection, Lawrence has commenced it herself, and
if not arrested the rebellion will extend throughout the Territory.
And again:
In order to send this communication immediately by mail, I must close
by assuring you that the spirit of rebellion pervades the great mass
of the Republican party of this Territory, instigated, as I entertain
no doubt they are, by Eastern societies, having in view results most
disastrous to the government and to the Union; and that the continued
presence of General Harney here is indispensable, as originally
stipulated by me, with a large body of dragoons and several batteries.
On the 20th July, 1857, General Lane, under the authority of the Topeka
convention, undertook, as Governor Walker informs us--
to organize the whole so-called Free-State party into volunteers and
to take the names of all who refuse enrollment. The professed object
is to protect the polls, at the election in August, of the new
insurgent Topeka State legislature.
* * * * *
The object of taking the names of all who refuse enrollment is to
terrify the Free-State conservatives into submission. This is proved
by recent atrocities committed on such men by Topekaites. The speedy
location of large bodies of regular troops here, with two batteries,
is necessary. The Lawrence insurgents await the development of this
new revolutionary military organization....
In the governor's dispatch of July 27 he says that "General Lane and his
staff everywhere deny the authority of the Territorial laws and counsel
a total disregard of these enactments."
Without making further quotations of a similar character from other
dispatches of Governor Walker, it appears by a reference to Mr.
Stanton's communication to General Cass of the 9th of December last that
the "important step of calling the legislature together was taken after
I [he] had become satisfied that the election ordered by the convention
on the 21st instant could not be conducted without collision and
bloodshed." So intense was the disloyal feeling among the enemies of the
government established by Congress that an election which afforded them
an opportunity, if in the majority, of making Kansas a free State,
according to their own professed desire, could not be conducted without
collision and bloodshed.
The truth is that up till the present moment the enemies of the
existing government still adhere to their Topeka revolutionary
constitution and government. The very first paragraph of the message
of Governor Robinson, dated on the 7th of December, to the Topeka
legislature now assembled at Lawrence contains an open defiance of
the Constitution and laws of the United States. The governor says:
The convention which framed the constitution at Topeka originated
with the people of Kansas Territory. They have adopted and ratified
the same twice by a direct vote, and also indirectly through two
elections of State officers and members of the State legislature.
Yet it has pleased the Administration to regard the whole proceeding
revolutionary.
This Topeka government, adhered to with such treasonable pertinacity, is
a government in direct opposition to the existing government prescribed
and recognized by Congress. It is a usurpation of the same character as
it would be for a portion of the people of any State of the Union to
undertake to establish a separate government within its limits for
the purpose of redressing any grievance, real or imaginary, of which
they might complain against the legitimate State government. Such a
principle, if carried into execution, would destroy all lawful authority
and produce universal anarchy.
From this statement of facts the reason becomes palpable why the enemies
of the government authorized by Congress have refused to vote for
delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention, and also afterwards
on the question of slavery, submitted by it to the people. It is because
they have ever refused to sanction or recognize any other constitution
than that framed at Topeka.
Had the whole Lecompton constitution been submitted to the people the
adherents of this organization would doubtless have voted against it,
because if successful they would thus have removed an obstacle out of
the way of their own revolutionary constitution. They would have done
this, not upon a consideration of the merits of the whole or any part of
the Lecompton constitution, but simply because they have ever resisted
the authority of the government authorized by Congress, from which it
emanated.
Such being the unfortunate condition of affairs in the Territory, what
was the right as well as the duty of the law-abiding people? Were they
silently and patiently to submit to the Topeka usurpation, or adopt the
necessary measures to establish a constitution under the authority of
the organic law of Congress?
That this law recognized the right of the people of the Territory,
without any enabling act from Congress, to form a State constitution
is too clear for argument. For Congress "to leave the people of the
Territory perfectly free," in framing their constitution, "to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to
the Constitution of the United States," and then to say that they shall
not be permitted to proceed and frame a constitution in their own way
without an express authority from Congress, appears to be almost a
contradiction in terms. It would be much more plausible to contend
that Congress had no power to pass such an enabling act than to argue
that the people of a Territory might be kept out of the Union for an
indefinite period, and until it might please Congress to permit them
to exercise the right of self-government. This would be to adopt not
"their own way," but the way which Congress might prescribe.
It is impossible that any people could have proceeded with more
regularity in the formation of a constitution than the people of Kansas
have done. It was necessary, first, to ascertain whether it was the
desire of the people to be relieved from their Territorial dependence
and establish a State government. For this purpose the Territorial
legislature in 1855 passed a law "for taking the sense of the people
of this Territory upon the expediency of calling a convention to form
a State constitution," at the general election to be held in October,
1856. The "sense of the people" was accordingly taken and they decided
in favor of a convention. It is true that at this election the enemies
of the Territorial government did not vote, because they were then
engaged at Topeka, without the slightest pretext of lawful authority,
in framing a constitution of their own for the purpose of subverting
the Territorial government.
In pursuance of this decision of the people in favor of a convention,
the Territorial legislature, on the 27th day of February, 1857, passed
an act for the election of delegates on the third Monday of June, 1857,
to frame a State constitution. This law is as fair in its provisions as
any that ever passed a legislative body for a similar purpose. The right
of suffrage at this election is clearly and justly defined. "Every _bona
fide_ inhabitant of the Territory of Kansas," on the third Monday of
June, the day of the election, who was a citizen of the United States
above the age of 21, and had resided therein for three months previous
to that date, was entitled to vote. In order to avoid all interference
from neighboring States or Territories with the freedom and fairness of
the election, provision was made for the registry of the qualified
voters, and in pursuance thereof 9,251 voters were registered. Governor
Walker did his whole duty in urging all the qualified citizens of Kansas
to vote at this election. In his inaugural address, on the 27th May
last, he informed them that--
Under our practice the preliminary act of framing a State constitution
is uniformly performed through the instrumentality of a convention of
delegates chosen by the people themselves. That convention is now about
to be elected by you under the call of the Territorial legislature,
created and still recognized by the authority of Congress and clothed
by it, in the comprehensive language of the organic law, with full
power to make such an enactment. The Territorial legislature, then,
in assembling this convention, were fully sustained by the act of
Congress, and the authority of the convention is distinctly recognized
in my instructions from the President of the United States.
The governor also clearly and distinctly warns them what would be the
consequences if they should not participate in the election.
The people of Kansas, then [he says], are invited by the highest
authority known to the Constitution to participate freely and fairly
in the election of delegates to frame a constitution and State
government. The law has performed its entire appropriate function
when it extends to the people the right of suffrage, but it can not
compel the performance of that duty. Throughout our whole Union,
however, and wherever free government prevails those who abstain from
the exercise of the right of suffrage authorize those who do vote to
act for them in that contingency; and the absentees are as much bound
under the law and Constitution, where there is no fraud or violence,
by the act of the majority of those who do vote as if all had
participated in the election. Otherwise, as voting must be voluntary,
self-government would be impracticable and monarchy or despotism would
remain as the only alternative.
It may also be observed that at this period any hope, if such had
existed, that the Topeka constitution would ever be recognized by
Congress must have been abandoned. Congress had adjourned on the 3d
March previous, having recognized the legal existence of the Territorial
legislature in a variety of forms, which I need not enumerate. Indeed,
the Delegate elected to the House of Representatives under a Territorial
law had been admitted to his seat and had just completed his term of
service on the day previous to my inauguration.
This was the propitious moment for settling all difficulties in Kansas.
This was the time for abandoning the revolutionary Topeka organization
and for the enemies of the existing government to conform to the laws
and to unite with its friends in framing a State constitution; but this
they refused to do, and the consequences of their refusal to submit to
lawful authority and vote at the election of delegates may yet prove
to be of a most deplorable character. Would that the respect for the
laws of the land which so eminently distinguished the men of the past
generation could be revived. It is a disregard and violation of law
which have for years kept the Territory of Kansas in a state of almost
open rebellion against its government. It is the same spirit which has
produced actual rebellion in Utah. Our only safety consists in obedience
and conformity to law. Should a general spirit against its enforcement
prevail, this will prove fatal to us as a nation. We acknowledge no
master but the law, and should we cut loose from its restraints and
everyone do what seemeth good in his own eyes our case will indeed be
hopeless.
The enemies of the Territorial government determined still to resist
the authority of Congress. They refused to vote for delegates to the
convention, not because, from circumstances which I need not detail,
there was an omission to register the comparatively few voters who were
inhabitants of certain counties of Kansas in the early spring of 1857,
but because they had predetermined at all hazards to adhere to their
revolutionary organization and defeat the establishment of any other
constitution than that which they had framed at Topeka. The election was
therefore suffered to pass by default. But of this result the qualified
electors who refused to vote can never justly complain.
From this review it is manifest that the Lecompton convention, according
to every principle of constitutional law, was legally constituted and
was invested with power to frame a constitution.
The sacred principle of popular sovereignty has been invoked in favor
of the enemies of law and order in Kansas. But in what manner is
popular sovereignty to be exercised in this country if not through
the instrumentality of established law? In certain small republics
of ancient times the people did assemble in primary meetings, passed
laws, and directed public affairs. In our country this is manifestly
impossible. Popular sovereignty can be exercised here only through the
ballot box; and if the people will refuse to exercise it in this manner,
as they have done in Kansas at the election of delegates, it is not for
them to complain that their rights have been violated.
The Kansas convention, thus lawfully constituted, proceeded to frame a
constitution, and, having completed their work, finally adjourned on the
7th day of November last. They did not think proper to submit the whole
of this constitution to a popular vote, but they did submit the question
whether Kansas should be a free or a slave State to the people. This was
the question which had convulsed the Union and shaken it to its very
center. This was the question which had lighted up the flames of civil
war in Kansas and had produced dangerous sectional parties throughout
the Confederacy. It was of a character so paramount in respect to the
condition of Kansas as to rivet the anxious attention of the people of
the whole country upon it, and it alone. No person thought of any other
question. For my own part, when I instructed Governor Walker in general
terms in favor of submitting the constitution to the people, I had no
object in view except the all-absorbing question of slavery. In what
manner the people of Kansas might regulate their other concerns was not
a subject which attracted any attention. In fact, the general provisions
of our recent State constitutions, after an experience of eight years,
are so similar and so excellent that it would be difficult to go far
wrong at the present day in framing a new constitution.
I then believed and still believe that under the organic act the Kansas
convention were bound to submit this all-important question of slavery
to the people. It was never, however, my opinion that, independently
of this act, they would have been bound to submit any portion of the
constitution to a popular vote in order to give it validity. Had I
entertained such an opinion, this would have been in opposition to
many precedents in our history, commencing in the very best age of
the Republic. It would have been in opposition to the principle which
pervades our institutions, and which is every day carried out into
practice, that the people have the right to delegate to representatives
chosen by themselves their sovereign power to frame constitutions, enact
laws, and perform many other important acts without requiring that these
should be subjected to their subsequent approbation. It would be a most
inconvenient limitation of their own power, imposed by the people upon
themselves, to exclude them from exercising their sovereignty in any
lawful manner they think proper. It is true that the people of Kansas
might, if they had pleased, have required the convention to submit the
constitution to a popular vote; but this they have not done. The only
remedy, therefore, in this case is that which exists in all other
similar cases. If the delegates who framed the Kansas constitution have
in any manner violated the will of their constituents, the people always
possess the power to change their constitution or their laws according
to their own pleasure.
The question of slavery was submitted to an election of the people of
Kansas on the 21st December last, in obedience to the mandate of the
constitution. Here again a fair opportunity was presented to the
adherents of the Topeka constitution, if they were the majority, to
decide this exciting question "in their own way" and thus restore peace
to the distracted Territory; but they again refused to exercise their
right of popular sovereignty, and again suffered the election to pass
by default.
I heartily rejoice that a wiser and better spirit prevailed among a
large majority of these people on the first Monday of January, and that
they did on that day vote under the Lecompton constitution for a
governor and other State officers, a Member of Congress, and for members
of the legislature. This election was warmly contested by the parties,
and a larger vote was polled than at any previous election in the
Territory. We may now reasonably hope that the revolutionary Topeka
organization will be speedily and finally abandoned, and this will go
far toward the final settlement of the unhappy differences in Kansas.
If frauds have been committed at this election, either by one or both
parties, the legislature and the people of Kansas, under their
constitution, will know how to redress themselves and punish these
detestable but too common crimes without any outside interference.
The people of Kansas have, then, "in their own way" and in strict
accordance with the organic act, framed a constitution and State
government, have submitted the all-important question of slavery to the
people, and have elected a governor, a Member to represent them in
Congress, members of the State legislature, and other State officers.
They now ask admission into the Union under this constitution, which is
republican in its form. It is for Congress to decide whether they will
admit or reject the State which has thus been created. For my own
part, I am decidedly in favor of its admission, and thus terminating
the Kansas question. This will carry out the great principle of
nonintervention recognized and sanctioned by the organic act, which
declares in express language in favor of "nonintervention by Congress
with slavery in the States or Territories," leaving "the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." In this
manner, by localizing the question of slavery and confining it to the
people whom it immediately concerned, every patriot anxiously expected
that this question would be banished from the halls of Congress, where
it has always exerted a baneful influence throughout the whole country.
It is proper that I should briefly refer to the election held under
an act of the Territorial legislature on the first Monday of January
last on the Lecompton constitution. This election was held after the
Territory had been prepared for admission into the Union as a sovereign
State, and when no authority existed in the Territorial legislature
which could possibly destroy its existence or change its character.
The election, which was peaceably conducted under my instructions,
involved a strange inconsistency. A large majority of the persons who
voted against the Lecompton constitution were at the very same time and
place recognizing its valid existence in the most solemn and authentic
manner by voting under its provisions. I have yet received no official
information of the result of this election.
As a question of expediency, after the right has been maintained, it may
be wise to reflect upon the benefits to Kansas and to the whole country
which would result from its immediate admission into the Union, as well
as the disasters which may follow its rejection. Domestic peace will
be the happy consequence of its admission, and that fine Territory,
which has hitherto been torn by dissensions, will rapidly increase
in population and wealth and speedily realize the blessings and the
comforts which follow in the train of agricultural and mechanical
industry. The people will then be sovereign and can regulate their own
affairs in their own way. If a majority of them desire to abolish
domestic slavery within the State, there is no other possible mode by
which this can be effected so speedily as by prompt admission. The will
of the majority is supreme and irresistible when expressed in an orderly
and lawful manner. They can make and unmake constitutions at pleasure.
It would be absurd to say that they can impose fetters upon their own
power which they can not afterwards remove. If they could do this, they
might tie their own hands for a hundred as well as for ten years. These
are fundamental principles of American freedom, and are recognized,
I believe, in some form or other by every State constitution; and if
Congress, in the act of admission, should think proper to recognize
them I can perceive no objection to such a course. This has been done
emphatically in the constitution of Kansas. It declares in the bill
of rights that "all political power is inherent in the people and all
free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for
their benefit, and therefore they have at all times an inalienable and
indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their form of government
in such manner as they may think proper." The great State of New York is
at this moment governed under a constitution framed and established in
direct opposition to the mode prescribed by the previous constitution.
If, therefore, the provision changing the Kansas constitution after the
year 1864 could by possibility be construed into a prohibition to make
such a change previous to that period, this prohibition would be wholly
unavailing. The legislature already elected may at its very first
session submit the question to a vote of the people whether they will
or will not have a convention to amend their constitution and adopt
all necessary means for giving effect to the popular will.
It has been solemnly adjudged by the highest judicial tribunal known to
our laws that slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of
the United States. Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave
State as Georgia or South Carolina. Without this the equality of the
sovereign States composing the Union would be violated and the use and
enjoyment of a territory acquired by the common treasure of all the
States would be closed against the people and the property of nearly
half the members of the Confederacy. Slavery can therefore never be
prohibited in Kansas except by means of a constitutional provision, and
in no other manner can this be obtained so promptly, if a majority of
the people desire it, as by admitting it into the Union under its
present constitution.
On the other hand, should Congress reject the constitution under the
idea of affording the disaffected in Kansas a third opportunity of
prohibiting slavery in the State, which they might have done twice
before if in the majority, no man can foretell the consequences.
If Congress, for the sake of those men who refused to vote for delegates
to the convention when they might have excluded slavery from the
constitution, and who afterwards refused to vote on the 21st December
last, when they might, as they claim, have stricken slavery from the
constitution, should now reject the State because slavery remains in the
constitution, it is manifest that the agitation upon this dangerous
subject will be renewed in a more alarming form than it has ever yet
assumed.
Every patriot in the country had indulged the hope that the Kansas and
Nebraska act would put a final end to the slavery agitation, at least in
Congress, which had for more than twenty years convulsed the country
and endangered the Union. This act involved great and fundamental
principles, and if fairly carried into effect will settle the question.
Should the agitation be again revived, should the people of the sister
States be again estranged from each other with more than their former
bitterness, this will arise from a cause, so far as the interests of
Kansas are concerned, more trifling and insignificant than has ever
stirred the elements of a great people into commotion. To the people of
Kansas the only practical difference between admission or rejection
depends simply upon the fact whether they can themselves more speedily
change the present constitution if it does not accord with the will of
the majority, or frame a second constitution to be submitted to Congress
hereafter. Even if this were a question of mere expediency, and not of
right, the small difference of time one way or the other is of not the
least importance when contrasted with the evils which must necessarily
result to the whole country from a revival of the slavery agitation.
In considering this question it should never be forgotten that in
proportion to its insignificance, let the decision be what it may so far
as it may affect the few thousand inhabitants of Kansas who have from
the beginning resisted the constitution and the laws, for this very
reason the rejection of the constitution will be so much the more keenly
felt by the people of fourteen of the States of this Union, where
slavery is recognized under the Constitution of the United States.
Again, the speedy admission of Kansas into the Union would restore peace
and quiet to the whole country. Already the affairs of this Territory
have engrossed an undue proportion of public attention. They have sadly
affected the friendly relations of the people of the States with each
other and alarmed the fears of patriots for the safety of the Union.
Kansas once admitted into the Union, the excitement becomes localized
and will soon die away for want of outside aliment. Then every
difficulty will be settled at the ballot box.
Besides--and this is no trifling consideration--I shall then be enabled
to withdraw the troops of the United States from Kansas and employ them
on branches of service where they are much needed. They have been kept
there, on the earnest importunity of Governor Walker, to maintain the
existence of the Territorial government and secure the execution of
the laws. He considered that at least 2,000 regular troops, under the
command of General Harney, were necessary for this purpose. Acting
upon his reliable information, I have been obliged in some degree to
interfere with the expedition to Utah in order to keep down rebellion in
Kansas. This has involved a very heavy expense to the Government. Kansas
once admitted, it is believed there will no longer be any occasion there
for troops of the United States.
I have thus performed my duty on this important question, under a deep
sense of responsibility to God and my country. My public life will
terminate within a brief period, and I have no other object of earthly
ambition than to leave my country in a peaceful and prosperous condition
and to live in the affections and respect of my countrymen. The dark
and ominous clouds which now appear to be impending over the Union
I conscientiously believe may be dissipated with honor to every portion
of it by the admission of Kansas during the present session of Congress,
whereas if she should be rejected I greatly fear these clouds will
become darker and more ominous than any which have ever yet threatened
the Constitution and the Union.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a convention for the purpose of further regulating the
intercourse of American citizens within the Empire of Japan, signed at
Simoda on the 17th day of June last by Townsend Harris, consul-general
of the United States, and by the governors of Simoda, empowered for that
purpose by their respective Governments.
FEBRUARY 10, 1858.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, an additional article to the extradition convention
between the United States and France of the 9th of November, 1843, and
the additional article thereto of the 24th February, 1845, signed in
this city yesterday by the Secretary of State and the minister of His
Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French.
JAMES BUCHANAN
WASHINGTON, _February 12, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with the
accompanying documents, in reply to the resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 18th ultimo, requesting to be furnished with
official information and correspondence in relation to the execution
of Colonel Crabb and his associates within or near the limits of the
Republic of Mexico.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON CITY, _February 26, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives the reports
of the Secretaries of State, of War, of the Interior, and of the
Attorney-General, containing the information called for by a resolution
of the House of the 27th ultimo, requesting "the President, if not
incompatible with the public interest, to communicate to the House
of Representatives the information which gave rise to the military
expeditions ordered to Utah Territory, the instructions to the army
officers in connection with the same, and all correspondence which
has taken place with said army officers, with Brigham Young and his
followers, or with others throwing light upon the question as to how
far said Brigham Young and his followers are in a state of rebellion
or resistance to the Government of the United States."
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I herewith transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of the
Navy, dated on the 24th instant [ultimo], furnishing the information
called for by a resolution of the Senate adopted on the 16th instant
[ultimo], requesting me "to inform the Senate in executive session
on what evidence the nominees for the Marine Corps are stated to be
taken from the States as designated in his message communicating the
nominations of January 13."
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON CITY, _March 4, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives communications from
the Secretary of War and Secretary of the Interior, in answer to the
resolution adopted by the House on the 5th ultimo, requesting the
President to furnish certain information in relation to the number of
troops, whether regulars, volunteers, drafted men, or militia, who were
engaged in the service of the United States in the last war with Great
Britain, etc.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a report of the Attorney-General, with accompanying
papers, dated March 1, 1858, detailing proceedings under the act
approved March 3, 1855, entitled "An act to improve the laws of the
District of Columbia and to codify the same."
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _March 23, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
26th of January, requesting the President to communicate to the House
"so much of the correspondence between the late Secretary of War and
Major-General John E. Wool, late commander of the Pacific Department,
relative to the affairs of such department, as has not heretofore been
published under a call of this House," I herewith transmit all the
correspondence called for so far as is afforded by the files of the
War Department.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _April 7, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I submit to the Senate, for its consideration and constitutional action,
a treaty made with the Tonawanda Indians, of New York, on the 5th of
November, 1857, with the accompanying papers from the Department of the
Interior.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _April 9, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a memorial addressed to
myself by a committee appointed by the citizens of that portion of
the Territory of Utah which is situated west of the Goose Creek range
of mountains, commonly known as "Carsons Valley," in favor of the
establishment of a Territorial government over them, and containing
the request that I should communicate it to Congress. I have received
but one copy of this memorial, which I transmit to the House upon the
suggestion of James M. Crane, esq., the Delegate elect of the people
of the proposed new Territory, for the reason, as he alleges, that
the subject is now under consideration before the Committee on the
Territories of that body.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _April 20, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
papers,[2] in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 2: Instructions to William B. Reed, United States commissioner
to China.]
WASHINGTON, _April 21, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I herewith transmit the reports of the Secretary of State and the Secretary
of the Navy, with accompanying papers,[3] in answer to the resolution
of the Senate of the 19th of January last.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 3: Relating to the African slave trade and to movements of
the French Government to establish a colony in the possessions of that
Government from the coast of Africa.]
WASHINGTON, _April 28, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the
resolution of the Senate of the 24th ultimo, requesting information
relative to the seizure in the Valley of Sitana, in Peru, by authorities
of Chile of a sum of money belonging to citizens of the United States.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 1, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 24th ultimo, I
herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.[4]
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 4: Relating to outrages committed against the family of Walter
Dickson, an American citizen residing at Jaffa, Palestine.]
WASHINGTON, _May, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, for the constitutional action of the Senate, a
treaty negotiated with the Ponca tribe of Indians on the 12th of March,
1858, with the accompanying documents from the Department of the
Interior.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 3, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In compliance with the resolutions of the House of Representatives of
the 19th January, 1857, and 3d February, 1858, I herewith transmit the
report of the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying documents.[5]
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 5: Relating to Indian affairs in Oregon and Washington
Territories and to the official conduct of Anson Dart, superintendent
of Indian affairs in Oregon Territory.]
WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
3d of February, 1858, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of
War, with all papers and correspondence[6] so far as the same is
afforded by the files of the Department.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 6: Relating to Indian affairs in Oregon and Washington
Territories and to the official conduct of Anson Dart, superintendent
of Indian affairs in Oregon Territory.]
WASHINGTON CITY, _May 13, 1858_.
Hon. James L. Orr,
_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.
SIR: I herewith transmit, to be laid before the House of
Representatives, the letter of the Secretary of the Interior, dated the
12th instant, covering the report, maps, etc., of the geological survey
of Oregon and Washington Territories, which has been made by John Evans,
esq., United States geologist, under appropriations made by Congress for
that purpose.
Respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 13, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, for the constitutional action of the Senate, a
treaty negotiated on the 19th of April, 1858, with the Yancton tribe of
Sioux or Dacotah Indians, with accompanying papers from the Department
of the Interior.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate a report, dated 13th instant, with the
accompanying papers, received from the Secretary of State in answer to
the resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant, requesting information
in regard to measures which may have been adopted for the protection of
American commerce in the ports of Mexico.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON CITY, _May 18, 1858_.
Hon. J.C. Breckinridge,
_Vice-President of the United States_.
SIR: In reply to the resolutions of the Senate of the United States of
the 20th February and 14th March, 1857, I herewith transmit, to be laid
before that body, copies of all correspondence, vouchers, and other
papers having reference to the accounts of Edward F. Beale, esq., late
superintendent of Indian affairs in California, which are of file or
record in the Departments of the Treasury and Interior.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 19, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant,
requesting information concerning the recent search or seizure of
American vessels by foreign armed cruisers in the Gulf of Mexico,
I transmit reports from the Secretaries of State and of the Navy.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 27, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of
the 19th of May, a communication from the Secretary of the Navy with
copies of the correspondence, etc.,[7] as afforded by the files of the
Department.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 7: Relating to the arrest of William Walker and associates
within the territory of Nicaragua by the naval forces under Commodore
Paulding.]
WASHINGTON, _May 29, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
papers, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 22d instant,
requesting information in regard to the seizure of the American vessel
_Panchita_ on the coast of Africa.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _May 31, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th
instant, requesting information relative to attacks upon United States
vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and on the coast of Cuba, I transmit a
report from the Secretary of State, with the papers by which it was
accompanied.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _June 1, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretaries of State and Navy,
with the accompanying papers, in compliance with the resolution of
the Senate of the 11th of March, 1858, requesting the President "to
communicate to the Senate any information in possession of any of the
Executive Departments in relation to alleged discoveries of guano in
the year 1855 and the measures taken to ascertain the correctness of
the same, and also any report made to the Navy Department in relation
to the discovery of guano in Jarvis and Bakers islands, with the
charts, soundings, and sailing directions for those islands."
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _June 4, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, together
with the documents by which it is accompanied, as embracing all the
information which it is practicable or expedient to communicate in
reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 31st ultimo, on the
subject of guano.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _June 10, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit a copy of a dispatch from Governor Cumming to the Secretary
of State, dated at Great Salt Lake City on the 2d of May and received
at the Department of State on yesterday. From this there is reason to
believe that our difficulties with the Territory of Utah have terminated
and the reign of the Constitution and the laws has been restored.
I congratulate you on this auspicious event.
I lose no time in communicating this information and in expressing the
opinion that there will now be no occasion to make any appropriation for
the purpose of calling into service the two regiments of volunteers
authorized by the act of Congress approved on the 7th of April last for
the purpose of quelling disturbances in the Territory of Utah, for the
protection of supply and emigrant trains, and the suppression of Indian
hostilities on the frontier.
I am the more gratified at this satisfactory intelligence from Utah
because it will afford some relief to the Treasury at a time demanding
from us the strictest economy, and when the question which now arises
upon every new appropriation is whether it be of a character so
important and urgent as to brook no delay and to justify and require
a loan and most probably a tax upon the people to raise the money
necessary for its payment.
In regard to the regiment of volunteers authorized by the same act of
Congress to be called into service for the defense of the frontiers of
Texas against Indian hostilities, I desire to leave this question to
Congress, observing at the same time that in my opinion the State can be
defended for the present by the regular troops which have not yet been
withdrawn from its limits.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON, _June 11, 1858_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th ultimo, respecting
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, I transmit herewith a report from the
Secretary of State, with the documents by which it is accompanied,
together with the copy of a letter from the Postmaster-General of the
21st ultimo to the Department of State.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON CITY, _June 11, 1858_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with the
accompanying papers,[8] in obedience to the resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 2d of June, 1858.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
[Footnote 8: Copies of contracts for deepening the channels of the
Southwest Pass and Pass a l'Outre, at the mouth of the Mississippi
River, etc.]
WASHINGTON CITY, _June 12, 1858_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I feel it to be an indispensable duty to call your attention to the
condition of the Treasury. On the 19th day of May last the Secretary of
the Treasury submitted a report to Congress "on the present condition of
the finances of the Government." In this report he states that after a
call upon the heads of Departments he had received official information
that the sum of $37,000,000 would probably be required during the first
two quarters of the next fiscal year, from the 1st of July until the
1st of January. "This sum," the Secretary says, "does not include such
amounts as may be appropriated by Congress over and above the estimates
submitted to them by the Departments, and I have no data on which to
estimate for such expenditures. Upon this point Congress is better able
to form a correct opinion than I am."
The Secretary then estimates that the receipts into the Treasury from
all sources between the 1st of July and the 1st of January would amount
to $25,000,000, leaving a deficit of $15,000,000, inclusive of the sum
of about $3,000,000, the least amount required to be in the Treasury
at all times to secure its successful operation. For this amount he
recommends a loan. This loan, it will be observed, was required, after a
close calculation, to meet the estimates from the different Departments,
and not such appropriations as might be made by Congress over and above
these estimates.
There was embraced in this sum of $15,000,000 estimates to the amount of
about $1,750,000 for the three volunteer regiments authorized by the act
of Congress approved April 7, 1858, for two of which, if not for the
third, no appropriation will now be required. To this extent a portion
of the loan of $15,000,000 may be applied to pay the appropriations
made by Congress beyond the estimates from the different Departments,
referred to in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
To what extent a probable deficiency may exist in the Treasury between
the 1st July and the 1st January next can not be ascertained until the
appropriation bills, as well as the private bills containing
appropriations, shall have finally passed.
Adversity teaches useful lessons to nations as well as individuals. The
habit of extravagant expenditures, fostered by a large surplus in the
Treasury, must now be corrected or the country will be involved in
serious financial difficulties.
Under any form of government extravagance in expenditure must be the
natural consequence when those who authorize the expenditure feel no
responsibility in providing the means of payment. Such had been for a
number of years our condition previously to the late monetary revulsion
in the country. Fortunately, at least for the cause of public economy,
the case is now reversed, and to the extent of the appropriations,
whatever these may be, ingrafted on the different appropriation bills,
as well as those made by private bills, over and above the estimates of
the different Departments, it will be necessary for Congress to provide
the means of payment before their adjournment. Without this the Treasury
will be exhausted before the 1st of January and the public credit will
be seriously impaired. This disgrace must not fall upon the country.
It is impossible for me, however, now to ascertain this amount, nor does
there at present seem to be the least probability that this can be done
and the necessary means provided by Congress to meet any deficiency
which may exist in the Treasury before Monday next at 12 o'clock, the
hour fixed for adjournment, it being now Saturday morning at half-past
11 o'clock. To accomplish this object the appropriation bills, as they
shall have finally passed Congress, must be before me, and time must
be allowed to ascertain the amount of the moneys appropriated and to
enable Congress to provide the necessary means. At this writing it is
understood that several of these bills are yet before the committee
of conference and the amendments to some of them have not even been
printed.
Foreseeing that such a state of things might exist at the close of
the session, I stated in the annual message to Congress of December
last that--
From the practice of Congress such an examination of each bill as the
Constitution requires has been rendered impossible. The most important
business of each session is generally crowded into its last hours, and
the alternative presented to the President is either to violate the
constitutional duty which he owes to the people and approve bills
which for want of time it is impossible he should have examined, or
by his refusal to do this subject the country and individuals to great
loss and inconvenience.
* * * * *
For my own part, I have deliberately determined that I shall approve
no bills which I have not examined, and it will be a case of extreme
and most urgent necessity which shall ever induce me to depart from
this rule.
The present condition of the Treasury absolutely requires that I should
adhere to this resolution on the present occasion, for the reasons which
I have heretofore presented.
In former times it was believed to be the true character of an
appropriation bill simply to carry into effect existing laws and the
established policy of the country. A practice has, however, grown up of
late years to ingraft on such bills at the last hours of the session
large appropriations for new and important objects not provided for by
preexisting laws and when no time is left to the Executive for their
examination and investigation. No alternative is thus left to the
President but either to approve measures without examination or by
vetoing an appropriation bill seriously to embarrass the operations
of the Government. This practice could never have prevailed without a
surplus in the Treasury sufficiently large to cover an indefinite amount
of appropriations. Necessity now compels us to arrest it, at least so
far as to afford time to ascertain the amount appropriated and to
provide the means of its payment.
For all these reasons I recommend to Congress to postpone the day of
adjournment for a brief period. I promise that not an hour shall be lost
in ascertaining the amount of appropriations made by them for which it
will be necessary to provide. I know it will be inconvenient for the
members to attend a called session, and this above all things I desire
to avoid.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
PROCLAMATIONS.
[From Statutes at Large (Little, Brown & Co.), Vol. XI, p. 794.]
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1855, entitled "An act
to improve the laws of the District of Columbia and to codify the same,"
the President of the United States was directed to appoint a time and
place for taking the sense of the citizens of the District of Columbia
for or against the adoption of the code prepared in pursuance of said
act, and, further, to provide and proclaim the mode and rules of
conducting such election:
Now, therefore, be it known that I do hereby appoint Monday, the 15th
day of February, 1858, as the day for taking the sense of the citizens
of the District of Columbia as aforesaid.
The polls will be opened at 9 o'clock a.m. and closed at 5 o'clock p.m.
Every free white male citizen of the United States above the age of 21
years who shall have resided in the District of Columbia for one year
next preceding the said 15th day of February, 1858, shall be allowed to
vote at said election.
The voting shall be by ballot. Those in favor of the adoption of the
revised code will vote a ballot with the words "for the revised code"
written or printed upon the same, and those opposed to the adoption of
the said code will vote a ballot with the words "against the revised
code" written or printed upon the same.
The places where the said election shall be held and the judges who
shall conduct and preside over the same will be as follows:
For the First Ward, in the city of Washington, at Samuel Drury's office,
on Pennsylvania avenue. Judges: Southey S. Parker, Terence Drury, and
Alexander H. Mechlin.
For the Second Ward, on Twelfth street, one door above Pennsylvania
avenue. Judges: Charles L. Coltman, Charles J. Canfield, and Edward
C. Dyer.
For the Third Ward, near the corner of Ninth street, between F and G,
west of the Patent Office. Judges: Valentine Harbaugh, Joseph Bryan,
and Harvey Cruttenden.
For the Fourth Ward, at the west end of City Hall. Judges: William
A. Kennedy, John T. Clements, and Francis Mohun.
For the Fifth Ward, at the Columbia engine house. Judges: Henry
C. Purdy, Thomas Hutchinson, and James A. Brown.
For the Sixth Ward, at the Anacostia engine house. Judges: John D.
Brandt, George A. Bohrer, and George R. Ruff.
For the Seventh Ward, at Island Hall. Judges: Samuel Pumphrey, James
Espey, and John L. Smith.
For Georgetown, at the mayor's office. Judges: Edward Chapman, John L.
Kidwell, and William H. Edes.
For that portion of the county of Washington which lies west of Rock
Creek, at Conrad's Tavern, in Tenallytown. Judges: Joshua Peirce,
Charles R. Belt, and William D.C. Murdock.
For that portion of said county which lies between Rock Creek and the
Eastern Branch of the Potomac, at Seventh street tollgate. Judges:
Thomas Blagden, Dr. Henry Haw, and Abner Shoemaker.
And for that portion of said county which lies east of the Eastern
Branch of the Potomac, at Goodhope Tavern. Judges: Selby B. Scaggs,
Fenwick Young, and Dr. Wellford Manning.
The judges presiding at the respective places of holding the elections
shall be sworn to perform their duties faithfully; and immediately after
the close of the polls they shall count up the votes and certify what
number were given "for the revised code" and what number "against
the revised code," which certificates shall be transmitted within
twenty-four hours to the Attorney-General of the United States, who
will report the same to me.
Given under my hand this 24th day of December, A.D. 1857, and of
Independence the eighty-second.
[SEAL.]
JAMES BUCHANAN.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by an act of Congress of the United States of the 24th of May,
1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act concerning
discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,' and to equalize the duties
on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that upon
satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States
by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of
tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the said nation
upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, or upon
the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the
United States or from any foreign country, the President is thereby
authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign
discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are
and shall be suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels
of the said foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise
imported into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation
or from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect
from the time of such notification being given to the President of the
United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of
vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and their cargoes,
as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and
Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received from the
Government of His Holiness the Pope, through an official communication
addressed by Cardinal Antonelli, his secretary of state, to the minister
resident of the United States at Rome, under date of the 7th day of
December, 1857, that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are
imposed or levied in the ports of the Pontifical States upon vessels
wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, or upon the produce,
manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States
or from any foreign country:
Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the foreign discriminating
duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be
suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the
subjects of His Holiness the Pope and the produce, manufactures, or
merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the
Pontifical States or from any other foreign country, the said suspension
to take effect from the 7th day of December, 1857, above mentioned, and
to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to
citizens of the United States and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be
continued, and no longer.
[SEAL.]
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 25th day of
February, A.D. 1858, and of the Independence of the United States
the eighty-second.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
By the President:
LEWIS CASS,
_Secretary of State_.
BY JAMES BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas the Territory of Utah was settled by certain emigrants from
the States and from foreign countries who have for several years past
manifested a spirit of insubordination to the Constitution and laws
of the United States. The great mass of those settlers, acting under
the influence of leaders to whom they seem to have surrendered their
judgment, refuse to be controlled by any other authority. They have been
often advised to obedience, and these friendly counsels have been
answered with defiance. The officers of the Federal Government have been
driven from the Territory for no offense but an effort to do their
sworn duty; others have been prevented from going there by threats of
assassination; judges have been violently interrupted in the performance
of their functions, and the records of the courts have been seized and
destroyed or concealed. Many other acts of unlawful violence have been
perpetrated, and the right to repeat them has been openly claimed by the
leading inhabitants, with at least the silent acquiescence of nearly all
the others. Their hostility to the lawful government of the country has
at length become so violent that no officer bearing a commission from
the Chief Magistrate of the Union can enter the Territory or remain
there with safety, and all those officers recently appointed have been
unable to go to Salt Lake or anywhere else in Utah beyond the immediate
power of the Army. Indeed, such is believed to be the condition to which
a strange system of terrorism has brought the inhabitants of that region
that no one among them could express an opinion favorable to this
Government, or even propose to obey its laws, without exposing his life
and property to peril.
After carefully considering this state of affairs and maturely weighing
the obligation I was under to see the laws faithfully executed, it
seemed to me right and proper that I should make such use of the
military force at my disposal as might be necessary to protect the
Federal officers in going into the Territory of Utah and in performing
their duties after arriving there. I accordingly ordered a detachment
of the Army to march for the city of Salt Lake, or within reach of that
place, and to act in case of need as a posse for the enforcement of the
laws. But in the meantime the hatred of that misguided people for the
just and legal authority of the Government had become so intense that
they resolved to measure their military strength with that of the Union.
They have organized an armed force far from contemptible in point of
numbers and trained it, if not with skill, at least with great assiduity
and perseverance. While the troops of the United States were on their
march a train of baggage wagons, which happened to be unprotected,
was attacked and destroyed by a portion of the Mormon forces and the
provisions and stores with which the train was laden were wantonly
burnt. In short, their present attitude is one of decided and unreserved
enmity to the United States and to all their loyal citizens. Their
determination to oppose the authority of the Government by military
force has not only been expressed in words, but manifested in overt acts
of the most unequivocal character.
Fellow-citizens of Utah, this is rebellion against the Government to
which you owe allegiance; it is levying war against the United States,
and involves you in the guilt of treason. Persistence in it will bring
you to condign punishment, to ruin, and to shame; for it is mere madness
to suppose that with your limited resources you can successfully resist
the force of this great and powerful nation.
If you have calculated upon the forbearance of the United States, if you
have permitted yourselves to suppose that this Government will fail to
put forth its strength and bring you to submission, you have fallen
into a grave mistake. You have settled upon territory which lies,
geographically, in the heart of the Union. The land you live upon was
purchased by the United States and paid for out of their Treasury; the
proprietary right and title to it is in them, and not in you. Utah is
bounded on every side by States and Territories whose people are true to
the Union. It is absurd to believe that they will or can permit you to
erect in their very midst a government of your own, not only independent
of the authority which they all acknowledge, but hostile to them and
their interests.
Do not deceive yourselves nor try to mislead others by propagating the
idea that this is a crusade against your religion. The Constitution and
laws of this country can take no notice of your creed, whether it be
true or false. That is a question between your God and yourselves, in
which I disclaim all right to interfere. If you obey the laws, keep the
peace, and respect the just rights of others, you will be perfectly
secure, and may live on in your present faith or change it for another
at your pleasure. Every intelligent man among you knows very well that
this Government has never, directly or indirectly, sought to molest you
in your worship, to control you in your ecclesiastical affairs, or even
to influence you in your religious opinions.
This rebellion is not merely a violation of your legal duty; it is
without just cause, without reason, without excuse. You never made a
complaint that was not listened to with patience; you never exhibited a
real grievance that was not redressed as promptly as it could be. The
laws and regulations enacted for your government by Congress have been
equal and just, and their enforcement was manifestly necessary for your
own welfare and happiness. You have never asked their repeal. They are
similar in every material respect to the laws which have been passed for
the other Territories of the Union, and which everywhere else (with one
partial exception) have been cheerfully obeyed. No people ever lived
who were freer from unnecessary legal restraints than you. Human wisdom
never devised a political system which bestowed more blessings or
imposed lighter burdens than the Government of the United States in
its operation upon the Territories.
But being anxious to save the effusion of blood and to avoid the
indiscriminate punishment of a whole people for crimes of which it is
not probable that all are equally guilty, I offer now a free and full
pardon to all who will submit themselves to the just authority of the
Federal Government. If you refuse to accept it, let the consequences
fall upon your own heads. But I conjure you to pause deliberately and
reflect well before you reject this tender of peace and good will.
Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, have
thought proper to issue this my proclamation, enjoining upon all public
officers in the Territory of Utah to be diligent and faithful, to the
full extent of their power, in the execution of the laws; commanding all
citizens of the United States in said Territory to aid and assist the
officers in the performance of their duties; offering to the inhabitants
of Utah who shall submit to the laws a free pardon for the seditions and
treasons heretofore by them committed; warning those who shall persist,
after notice of this proclamation, in the present rebellion against the
United States that they must expect no further lenity, but look to be
rigorously dealt with according to their deserts; and declaring that
the military forces now in Utah and hereafter to be sent there will not
be withdrawn until the inhabitants of that Territory shall manifest a
proper sense of the duty which they owe to this Government.
[SEAL.]
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed to these presents.
Done at the city of Washington the 6th day of April, 1858, and of the
Independence of the United States the eighty-second.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
By the President:
LEWIS CASS,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas an extraordinary occasion has occurred rendering it necessary
and proper that the Senate of the United States shall be convened to
receive and act upon such communications as have been or may be made
to it on the part of the Executive:
Now, therefore, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, do
issue this my proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion
requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction
of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the 15th day
of this month, at 12 o'clock at noon of that day, of which all who shall
at that time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby
required to take notice.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington,
this 14th day of June, A.D. 1858, and of the Independence of the United
States the eighty-second.
[SEAL.]
JAMES BUCHANAN.
By the President:
LEWIS CASS,
_Secretary of State_.
BY JAMES BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas information has reached me from sources which I can not
disregard that certain persons, in violation of the neutrality laws of
the United States, are making a third attempt to set on foot a military
expedition within their territory against Nicaragua, a foreign State
with which they are at peace. In order to raise money for equipping
and maintaining this expedition, persons connected therewith, as I
have reason to believe, have issued and sold bonds and other contracts
pledging the public lands of Nicaragua and the transit route through
its territory as a security for their redemption and fulfillment.
The hostile design of this expedition is rendered manifest by the fact
that these bonds and contracts can be of no possible value to their
holders unless the present Government of Nicaragua shall be overthrown
by force. Besides, the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
of that Government in the United States has issued a notice, in
pursuance of his instructions, dated on the 27th instant, forbidding
the citizens or subjects of any nation, except passengers intending to
proceed through Nicaragua over the transit route from ocean to ocean,
to enter its territory without a regular passport, signed by the proper
minister or consul-general of the Republic resident in the country from
whence they shall have departed. Such persons, with this exception,
"will be stopped and compelled to return by the same conveyance that
took them to the country." From these circumstances the inference is
irresistible that persons engaged in this expedition will leave the
United States with hostile purposes against Nicaragua. They can not,
under the guise which they have assumed that they are peaceful
emigrants, conceal their real intentions, and especially when they
know in advance that their landing will be resisted and can only be
accomplished by an overpowering force. This expedient was successfully
resorted to previous to the last expedition, and the vessel in which
those composing it were conveyed to Nicaragua obtained a clearance
from the collector of the port of Mobile. Although, after a careful
examination, no arms or munitions of war were discovered on board, yet
when they arrived in Nicaragua they were found to be armed and equipped
and immediately commenced hostilities.
The leaders of former illegal expeditions of the same character have
openly expressed their intention to renew hostilities against Nicaragua.
One of them, who has already been twice expelled from Nicaragua, has
invited through the public newspapers American citizens to emigrate to
that Republic, and has designated Mobile as the place of rendezvous and
departure and San Juan del Norte as the port to which they are bound.
This person, who has renounced his allegiance to the United States and
claims to be President of Nicaragua, has given notice to the collector
of the port of Mobile that two or three hundred of these emigrants will
be prepared to embark from that port about the middle of November.
For these and other good reasons, and for the purpose of saving American
citizens who may have been honestly deluded into the belief that they
are about to proceed to Nicaragua as peaceful emigrants, if any such
there be, from the disastrous consequences to which they will be
exposed, I, James Buchanan, President of the United States, have thought
it fit to issue this my proclamation, enjoining upon all officers of
the Government, civil and military, in their respective spheres, to be
vigilant, active, and faithful in suppressing these illegal enterprises
and in carrying out their standing instructions to that effect;
exhorting all good citizens, by their respect for the laws and their
regard for the peace and welfare of the country, to aid the efforts of
the public authorities in the discharge of their duties.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed to these presents.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington the 30th day of October, 1858, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-third.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
By the President:
LEWIS CASS,
_Secretary of State_.
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
WASHINGTON CITY, _December 6, 1858_.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
When we compare the condition of the country at the present day with
what it was one year ago at the meeting of Congress, we have much reason
for gratitude to that Almighty Providence which has never failed to
interpose for our relief at the most critical periods of our history.
One year ago the sectional strife between the North and the South on the
dangerous subject of slavery had again become so intense as to threaten
the peace and perpetuity of the Confederacy. The application for the
admission of Kansas as a State into the Union fostered this unhappy
agitation and brought the whole subject once more before Congress. It
was the desire of every patriot that such measures of legislation might
be adopted as would remove the excitement from the States and confine
it to the Territory where it legitimately belonged. Much has been done,
I am happy to say, toward the accomplishment of this object during the
last session of Congress.
The Supreme Court of the United States had previously decided that all
American citizens have an equal right to take into the Territories
whatever is held as property under the laws of any of the States,
and to hold such property there under the guardianship of the Federal
Constitution so long as the Territorial condition shall remain.
This is now a well-established position, and the proceedings of the last
session were alone wanting to give it practical effect. The principle
has been recognized in some form or other by an almost unanimous vote of
both Houses of Congress that a Territory has a right to come into the
Union either as a free or a slave State, according to the will of a
majority of its people. The just equality of all the States has thus
been vindicated and a fruitful source of dangerous dissension among them
has been removed.
Whilst such has been the beneficial tendency of your legislative
proceedings outside of Kansas, their influence has nowhere been so happy
as within that Territory itself. Left to manage and control its own
affairs in its own way, without the pressure of external influence, the
revolutionary Topeka organization and all resistance to the Territorial
government established by Congress have been finally abandoned. As a
natural consequence that fine Territory now appears to be tranquil and
prosperous and is attracting increasing thousands of immigrants to make
it their happy home.
The past unfortunate experience of Kansas has enforced the lesson, so
often already taught, that resistance to lawful authority under our
form of government can not fail in the end to prove disastrous to its
authors. Had the people of the Territory yielded obedience to the laws
enacted by their legislature, it would at the present moment have
contained a large additional population of industrious and enterprising
citizens, who have been deterred from entering its borders by the
existence of civil strife and organized rebellion.
It was the resistance to rightful authority and the persevering attempts
to establish a revolutionary government under the Topeka constitution
which caused the people of Kansas to commit the grave error of refusing
to vote for delegates to the convention to frame a constitution under
a law not denied to be fair and just in its provisions. This refusal
to vote been the prolific source of all the evils which have followed.
In their hostility to the Territorial government they disregarded
the principle, absolutely essential to the working of our form of
government, that a majority of those who vote, not the majority who
may remain at home, from whatever cause, must decide the result of an
election. For this reason, seeking to take advantage of their own error,
they denied the authority of the convention thus elected to frame a
constitution.
The convention, notwithstanding, proceeded to adopt a constitution
unexceptionable in its general features, and providing for the
submission of the slavery question to a vote of the people, which, in my
opinion, they were bound to do under the Kansas and Nebraska act. This
was the all-important question which had alone convulsed the Territory;
and yet the opponents of the lawful government, persisting in their
first error, refrained from exercising their right to vote, and
preferred that slavery should continue rather than surrender their
revolutionary Topeka organization.
A wiser and better spirit seemed to prevail before the first Monday
of January last, when an election was held under the constitution.
A majority of the people then voted for a governor and other State
officers, for a Member of Congress and members of the State legislature.
This election was warmly contested by the two political parties in
Kansas, and a greater vote was polled than at any previous election.
A large majority of the members of the legislature elect belonged to
that party which had previously refused to vote. The antislavery party
were thus placed in the ascendant, and the political power of the State
was in their own hands. Had Congress admitted Kansas into the Union
under the Lecompton constitution, the legislature might at its very
first session have submitted the question to a vote of the people
whether they would or would not have a convention to amend their
constitution, either on the slavery or any other question, and have
adopted all necessary means for giving speedy effect to the will of
the majority. Thus the Kansas question would have been immediately
and finally settled.
Under these circumstances I submitted to Congress the constitution thus
framed, with all the officers already elected necessary to put the State
government into operation, accompanied by a strong recommendation in
favor of the admission of Kansas as a State. In the course of my long
public life I have never performed any official act which in the
retrospect has afforded me more heartfelt satisfaction. Its admission
could have inflicted no possible injury on any human being, whilst it
would within a brief period have restored peace to Kansas and harmony to
the Union. In that event the slavery question would ere this have been
finally settled according to the legally expressed will of a majority of
the voters, and popular sovereignty would thus have been vindicated in
a constitutional manner.
With my deep convictions of duty I could have pursued no other course.
It is true that as an individual I had expressed an opinion, both before
and during the session of the convention, in favor of submitting the
remaining clauses of the constitution, as well as that concerning
slavery, to the people. But, acting in an official character, neither
myself nor any human authority had the power to rejudge the proceedings
of the convention and declare the constitution which it had framed to be
a nullity. To have done this would have been a violation of the Kansas
and Nebraska act, which left the people of the Territory "perfectly
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
subject only to the Constitution of the United States." It would
equally have violated the great principle of popular sovereignty, at
the foundation of our institutions, to deprive the people of the power,
if they thought proper to exercise it, of confiding to delegates elected
by themselves the trust of framing a constitution without requiring them
to subject their constituents to the trouble, expense, and delay of a
second election. It would have been in opposition to many precedents in
our history, commencing in the very best age of the Republic, of the
admission of Territories as States into the Union without a previous
vote of the people approving their constitution.
It is to be lamented that a question so insignificant when viewed in its
practical effects on the people of Kansas, whether decided one way or
the other, should have kindled such a flame of excitement throughout
the country. This reflection may prove to be a lesson of wisdom and of
warning for our future guidance. Practically considered, the question is
simply whether the people of that Territory should first come into the
Union and then change any provision in their constitution not agreeable
to themselves, or accomplish the very same object by remaining out of
the Union and framing another constitution in accordance with their
will. In either case the result would be precisely the same. The only
difference, in point of fact, is that the object would have been much
sooner attained and the pacification of Kansas more speedily effected
had it been admitted as a State during the last session of Congress.
My recommendation, however, for the immediate admission of Kansas failed
to meet the approbation of Congress. They deemed it wiser to adopt a
different measure for the settlement of the question. For my own part, I
should have been willing to yield my assent to almost any constitutional
measure to accomplish this object. I therefore cordially acquiesced in
what has been called the English compromise and approved the "act for
the admission of the State of Kansas into the Union" upon the terms
therein prescribed.
Under the ordinance which accompanied the Lecompton constitution the
people of Kansas had claimed double the quantity of public lands for the
support of common schools which had ever been previously granted to any
State upon entering the Union, and also the alternate sections of land
for 12 miles on each side of two railroads proposed to be constructed
from the northern to the southern boundary and from the eastern to
the western boundary of the State. Congress, deeming these claims
unreasonable, provided by the act of May 4, 1858, to which I have just
referred, for the admission of the State on an equal footing with the
original States, but "upon the fundamental condition precedent" that
a majority of the people thereof, at an election to be held for that
purpose, should, in place of the very large grants of public lands
which they had demanded under the ordinance, accept such grants as had
been made to Minnesota and other new States. Under this act, should
a majority reject the proposition offered them, "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," In that event the act authorizes the people of the
Territory to elect delegates to form a constitution and State government
for themselves "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." The delegates
thus assembled "shall first determine by a vote whether it is the wish
of the people of the proposed State to be admitted into the Union at
that time, and, if so, shall proceed to form a constitution and take
all necessary steps for the establishment of a State government in
conformity with the Federal Constitution." After this constitution shall
have been formed, Congress, carrying out the principles of popular
sovereignty and nonintervention, have left "the mode and manner of its
approval or ratification by the people of the proposed State" to be
"prescribed by law," and they "shall then be admitted into the Union as
a State under such constitution, thus fairly and legally made, with or
without slavery, as said constitution may prescribe."
An election was held throughout Kansas, in pursuance of the provisions
of this act, on the 2d day of August last, and it resulted in the
rejection by a large majority of the proposition submitted to the people
by Congress. This being the case, they are now authorized to form
another constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union, but not
until their number, as ascertained by a census, shall equal or exceed
the ratio required to elect a member to the House of Representatives.
It is not probable, in the present state of the case, that a third
constitution can be lawfully framed and presented to Congress by Kansas
before its population shall have reached the designated number. Nor is
it to be presumed that after their sad experience in resisting the
Territorial laws they will attempt to adopt a constitution in express
violation of the provisions of an act of Congress. During the session
of 1856 much of the time of Congress was occupied on the question of
admitting Kansas under the Topeka constitution. Again, nearly the whole
of the last session was devoted to the question of its admission under
the Lecompton constitution. Surely it is not unreasonable to require the
people of Kansas to wait before making a third attempt until the number
of their inhabitants shall amount to 93,420. During this brief period
the harmony of the States as well as the great business interests of the
country demand that the people of the Union shall not for a third time
be convulsed by another agitation on the Kansas question. By waiting for
a short time and acting in obedience to law Kansas will glide into the
Union without the slightest impediment.
This excellent provision, which Congress have applied to Kansas, ought
to be extended and rendered applicable to all Territories which may
hereafter seek admission into the Union.
Whilst Congress possess the undoubted power of admitting a new State
into the Union, however small may be the number of its inhabitants,
yet this power ought not, in my opinion, to be exercised before the
population shall amount to the ratio required by the act for the
admission of Kansas. Had this been previously the rule, the country
would have escaped all the evils and misfortunes to which it has been
exposed by the Kansas question.
Of course it would be unjust to give this rule a retrospective
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