Mt. Vernon Republican (Mount Vernon, Ohio : 1854), 1856-03-18

              '.i ;M ..' ' ' V VI? : .1 '1 ." VOL. II. MOUNT VERNON, OHIO, TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 18, 1856. NO, 18; rr - If-'.. I I T.: .r.'. V k.AA SZK A. I - .r -.w -HlOUN'l' VEKNOIV UEI'UBJLICAN ' UWHD EVtUT TVKHIIAT MuaHINOt ' ' B ' WM, H. COCHRAN. 'VyBEMLIN HLOCK,.yr-STAIKH. TERMS ! i $2,00 Per Annum, if in Advance. ' ADVEKTISIXO' Tbo RxruBLioAN had the largest circulation ' in the county and Is, therefore the best medium through which business men can advertise. A d ! vertlsementu will bo iimortcd at tho following i RATES. 2 SB i j i a g a a o o o o S E a a M PI u 1 square J c. c.$ c. $ c. $ c. $, c $, c c. ,1 00 1 251 75 2 25 3 00 3,50 4,50 G 00 B sqr's., 1 75 2 25 3 25 4 25 5 256,00 0,75 8 00 8 sqr's" 3 50 3 50 4 505 00G 00.7,00 8,00 10 4 Sir's" 350 4 00 5 00 6 00 7 00 8,(10 1000 12 i sauare changeable mimlhly, I0:weekly, $15 . fi column changeable quarterly, 15 5 column changeable quarterly, 18 column changeable quarterly, 25 1 column changeable quarterly 40 ETTwelve line in this type, aro counted ata square. : i ErElitorial notices of advertisements, or callingatten'ion to any enterprise, intended to benefit individuals or corporations, will be cbarired for at the rate of 10 cents per line D" Special notices, before marriages, ortnking precedence of regular advertisements, double usual rates. CTNotices for meetings, charitable societies, fire companies, itc, hair price. "Advertisements displayed inlarge type to be charged one-hall more than regular raus. "All transient advertisements to be paid in advance, and none will be inserted unless for a dc6nite time mentioned AGENTS. The following persons aro authorized to re ceive money on subscriptions for Tho Refuhm oa v, and receipt therolor: Dr. J. B. Ckooly, Homer, Ohio. ( Qco. Moobk, -(.Ratmosu Bur, i)r S. D Jo.i, David Res, , Hivri L Osnony, . Thomas Hance, W G. Strong. Yev. T. M. Finney, AV Sait. Utica, Delaware, Granville Oliestervilla, Bennington, Marenua, Fredericktown, Miirtiiisburgh, Danville, THiiNAQSRESSIONS AND USURPA-TfjS OE THE SLAVE P0WHR. Decliira'lon of Principles nnJ Purpo-'i ee8 of the Republican Party! Address of the Republican Convention at Pittsburgh, February 22, 1S56. To the People of the United States: Having met in Convention nl the City ol Pittsburgh, in the Sate of Pt nrisjlvaiiia, this 22J day of February, 1856, as tin-representa'ives of tl,e people in different p irts of the Union, to consult up'in the po- litical evils by which this cmn'ry is menaced, and the puli ical nciion by which those evils maybe averted, we address to you this Declara ion of our Principles, and ol the Purposes which we seek to promote. We declare, in the Gist j lace, our fixed : ond unalterable devotion to the Consti;u-lion of the United Satis, to the ends for ' - which it was established and to the means which it proviJed for thi'ir attainment. We accept the solemn pnvesin ion of the People of the United States, that they or dained it, "in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common do-fence, promote the general welfurc, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity." We b.leve that the -' powers which it confers upon the Government of the United States, are ample for the accomplishment of these objects; and if these powers are exi-rei-sed in the spirit of the Constitution itself, they cinnot had to any otlur result. We rvepect those great rights which the Constitution declares to ' be inviolable, freedom of B?t eh and of the . Press, tho free exercise ot religious belitf, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for 'a redress of grievances. We would preserve those (reat safegunrds of civil freedom, the habeas corpus, the riht of trial . by Jury, and the right of personal liberty . unless deprived thereof for crime by due process of law. We declare our purpose to obey, in all things, the requirements of ' the Constitution and of all laws enacted in .. pursuance thereof. We cherish a profound respect for the wise and patriotic men by whom it was framed, and a lively sense of the blessings it has conterred upon our country and upon mankind throughout the world. In every crisis of difficulty and .danger we shall invoke its spirit and pro- - claim the supremacy of its authority. In the next place, we declare our ardent - and unbhaken attachment to the Union of American States, which the Constitution . created and has thus far preserved. We revere it as the purchase, of the blood of .. our national renown, and ns (he guardian . and guaranty of that liberty which the Con- stitution was designed totecurc. We will .' defind and protect it ngainst nil em mies. . We will recognize nogeographicul divisions, no local interests, no narrow or sectional ' prtjudiccs, in our endeavor to preserve the r union of these States against foreign ag-' . gression and donustic strife. What we , claim for ourselves, we claim foi all. The . rights, privileges and liberties which we de mand as our inheritance, we concede as (. their inheritance to all the citiicns of the Republic. ' ,. .,, ' . "" Holding these opinions and animated by ! these sentiments, -we declare our conviction : that the Government of the United S ates .,is not administered in accordance with the Constitution, or for the preservation and ' prosperity of American Union; but that its 'powers are systematically wielded for the 'promotion ond extension of tht interest of Slavery, in direct hostility to the letter tand spiiit of the Constitution, in flagrant disregard of the other great interest of the "country, and in open contempt of the public sentiment of the American people and of the Christian world. We proclaim our belief that the policy which has for -years 'past been adopted in the administration of 'the General Goycrpmcnf, tends, to tho utter subversion of each of the great ends for which the Constitution was established, and that, unless it shall be arrested by the prompt interposition of the People, tho hold of tho Union upon their loyalty and affection will be relaxed, the domestic tranquility will ba disturbed, and all con-btitu.ional securities for the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, will be destroyed. The Slaveholding interests can not be made permanently paramount in tho General Government without involving consequences fatal to free institutions. We acknowledge that it is largo and powerful; that in the States where it exists it is entitled under the Constitution, like nil other local interests, to immunity from the interferences of the General Government, and that it must necessarily exercise through its representatives a considerable share of political poser. But there is nothing in its chnructir, to sustain the supremacy which it seeks to establish. There is no. n Stale in the Union in which the slavehol ders number one tenth part of the free white population nor in the aggregate they num bcr one fflitlh part of the white population of the Uniied States. The annual produc tions of the other classes in the Union far exceed the total value of all the slaves To say nothing, therefore, of the question of naturnl justice, and of political economy which Slavery involves, neither its magnitude nor the numbers of those by whom it is represented entitle it to one tenth part of the political powers conferred upon the federal uovernment by the Con stitution. Yet we see it seeking, and at this moment wielding, all the functions of the government cxeculive.legislative, and judicial and using them for the augmen tation of its powers and the establisument of its ascendancy. From this ascendnncy the principles of the Constitution, the rights ot the se viral Slates, the safety of the Union, and the welfare of the people of the United States, demand that it should be dislodged. HISTORICAL OUTLINE OP THE FROORE-8 OF SLAVERY T.iWARO ASCENDANCT IN THE VEDEKAL GOVERNMENT. It is not necessary for us to rehearse in detail the successive steps by which the slhveholding interests has secured ihf in-flu nee it now ex rls in the Gentrl Government. Close students of political events will nadily trace the path of its ambition through the past twenty five years of our national history. It was under the administration of President Tyler, and during the cegotia ion which p eceded the annex ilitn of Texas, that the Federal Administration for the distune declared, in its diplomatic correspondence with foreign nations, that shivery in the United States was a "political institution, essentiul to the peace, safety and pros-ye'ily of those States of the Union in which it exists;" and that the paramount motive of the American Government, in annexing Texts, was two-fold First: to prevent the abuliuon of Slavery wiiliin it limits, and Second: To render Slavery more secure and more powerful within the Slave holding States of the Union. Shivery was thus taken under the special care and pro tection of the federal Government. It was no long,er to be left as State institution, to ba controlled exclusively by the States themselves, it was to be defended by the General Government, not only against invasion or insurrection of armed enemies, hut against the moral sentiment of humanity and the natural development of population and mati rial power. Thm was tho whole current of our national history suddenly and unconstitutionally reversed. The General Government, abandoning the posi ion it had always held, declared its purpose to protect and purpeture what the great founders of the Republic had regarded ns an evil as at variance with the principles on which our institutions were ba-ed, and as a source of weakness, social and political, to the com-j muiiities in which it existed. At the time of the Revolution Slavery existed in all the Coiun:e.-; but neither then, nor Tor half a century afterward, it had been an element of political strife, for there wai no difference -of opinion or of policy in regard to it. The tendency of affairs had been toward emancipation. Half the original thirteen States had taken measures at nn early day to free themselves from the blighting influence and the reproach of Slavery. Virginia nnd North Carolina had anticipated the Continental Congress of 1774, in cheeking the increase of their Slave population by prohibiting the Slave trade at any of their ports. SENTIMENTS OF TUB FRAMBRS OF THE CONSTITUTION CONCERNING SLAVERY. The Constitution, conferring upon Congress full power to prevent the increase of Slavery by prohibiting tho Slave Trade, had, out of regard for existing interests and vested rights, postponed the exercise of that power over States then existing until the year 1300; leaving Congress power to exercise it over new States, by pro hibiting the migration or importa'ion into them, without any restriction only such rs its own discretion mhrht sunnlv. CumrreM ! promptly availed itself of this permis- j sion, by reaffirming that great O.dinance' of the Confederation, by which it was then1 ordained and decreed that all tlje Teiritory j then belonging to the United St ilea should! be fortver free. Foiir new slnte States wprpfriimirl nut of Territory Ivin'f Koiitli of the Ohio River, and were admitted loi the Slate of Missouri, Slavery and invol-the Union previous to 1820: but the Ter-j uninry servitude, otherwise than in the ritory from which they were formed had i punishment of crimes whereof the paflies belonged to States in which Slavery exist ed nt the time of their formation; and in cetding it to the General Government, or in assenting to the formation of new States within it, the old Stales to which it belonged had inserted a proviso against any regulation of Congress that should tend to the emancipation of Slaves. Congress was thus prevented from prohibiting Slavery in llieso new States, by the action of tbe old States out of which they hud been formed. But, as eeon aa the Constitutional limitation upon its powtr over Ibe Slates then existing had expired, CongreS prohibited by fearful penalties, the addition by importation of a single Slave, to the numbers al ready in the country 1 he tramcri of the constitution, although! the historical record of their opinion proves that they were earnest and undivided in their dislike of Slavery, and in their conviction that it was hostile in its nature and in its influences to Republican freedom, after taking these steps to prevent its increase, did not interfere with it further in the States where it then existed. Those States were separate communities, jealous of their sovereignty and unwilling to enter into any league which should trench, in tho least de gree, upon their own control of their own uffuirs. This sentiment the framers of the Constitution were compelled to respect; and they accordingly left all other local interests, to the control of the seperato States. But no one who reads with care the de-bales and recorded opinions of the agc.can doubt that the ultimate removal of Slavery was desired by the people of the whole country, anu that Congress had been empowered to prevent its increase, with a view to its gradual and ultimate extinction, Nor did the period of emancipation seem remote, blave labor, employed, as it was, in agriculture, was less profitable than the free labor that was pouring in to take its place. And even in States where this con sideralion did not prevail, other influences tended to the same result. The spiiit of liberty was then young, genorous nnd strong. The men of the nation had made sacrifices and waged battles for the vindi cation of their inalienable rights of life, lib' erty and pursuit of happiness; nnd it wand possible for them to sit down in the qui et enjoyment of blessings thus achieved, without feeling the injustice, as well ns the inconvenience, of holding great numbers of their fellow-men in bondage. In all the States, therefore, there existed a strong tendency towards emancipation. The removal of so great nn evil was felt to be a worthy object of ambition by the best and most sagacious statesmen of that age; and Washington, Jefferson nnd Franklin, and all the great leaders and representatives of public opinion, were active and earnest m devising measures by which it coul d be ac complished. But the great change produced in the industry of the Southern States, in the early part of tho present oentury, by the in creased culture of cotton, the introduction of new inventions to prepare it for U;'e, nnd its growing importance to the connr.erce ol the country and the labor of the world, by making Slave labor more profitable than it had ever been betore, checked tilts tendency towards emancipation and soon put an end to it altogether. As the demand for cotton increased, the interests of the cotton growing Stales became more and more connected with Shivery; the spirit of tree dom gradually gave way before the spirit of gain; tho sentiment and the language of the Southern Stales became changed; and all atlempis at emancipation bgan to be regarded, and raised, as assaults upon the rights and the interests of the slave-holding siciion of tne Union. For many years, however, this change did notali'..ct the political relations of the subject. b'.ates, bJth free and elaveholding, were successively added to the confederacy with out exciting the fears of either section. Vermont enme into the Union in 1791, with a constitution excluding Slavery. Ken-tucky, formed out of Virginia, was admitted in 1795!; Tennessee in 1796; Mississippi in 1817; and Alabama in 1819; all Slave States, formed out of Territory belonging to Slave States, and having Slavery established in them at the lime ot their formation. On the other hand Ohio was admitted in 1803, Indiana in 1816, and Illinois in 1818, having formed Slate Governments under acts of Congress which made it a fundamental condition that their Constitutions should contain nothing repugnant to the ordinance of 1787, or in other words, that Slavery should be prohibited withiu its limits forever. In all these occurrences, as in the admission of j Louisiana in 1812, there had been no con-I test between Freedom and Slavery, for it had not been generally felt that tne interests of either were seriously involved. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. The first contest concerning the admission of anew Suite, which turued upon the question of Slavery, occured in 1817, wheu Missouri, formed out of territory purchased of France in 1803, npp ied to Congress for admission into the Union as a Slaveholding State. The application was strenuously resisted by Hie people of the Free States. It was every where tell that the decision involved consequences of the last importance to tbe welfare of the country and that it tho progress ot blavery was ever to be arrested, that it was time to ar rest it. Tbe Slaveholdintr interests de manded its-admission as a right, arid denied the power of Congress to impose condt tious upon new Slates applying to be ad milled into the Confederacy. Xhe power rested with tne free Stales, and Missouri was denied ndinission. But the subject was reviewed. Tho slaveholding interest, with clmracleiistio and timely sagacity, abated something of its pretentions, and sealed the controveisy on the basis of com promise. Missouri was admitted into the Union by un act Dearing unie aiarcu o, 1820, in which was also declared that "in that territory ceded by France to the U. Slates, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36 deg. nnd '60 min. of norlh latitude, not includtd within the limits of shall have betn d July convicted, shall be, orever prohibited." In Snd is hereby torever p each House of Congress, a mnoriiy of the members from the Slaveholding States voted iri favor of this bill with this provision, thus declaring and exercising by their voles, the Constitutional power of Congress to prohibit Slavery even in Territories where it had been permitted by the law of France, at the date of their cession to the United Stales. A new Slave State, Arkansas, formed out of that portion of this Territory lying south of 36 deg. 30 min., to which the prohibition was sot extended, was admitted into tbe Union in 1836. .Two Slave Slates thus came into the Confederacy by virtue of this arrangement; while Freedom gained nothing by it but the prohibition of Slavery from a vast region, which civilization had made no attempt to penetrate. Thus ended the first great contest of r reedom and blavery tor position nnd now er in the General Government. The Slave holding interest had achieved a virtual vio tory, It secured all the immediate results for which it struggled; it acquired the power or ollsetling in the lederal benate, two of the Free States of the Confederacy; and the time could not bo foreseen when, in the fulfillment of its compact, it would yield any positive and practical advantage to the interests of Freedom. Neither then, nor for many years thereafter, did ony statesman drjam that, when the period should arrive, the Slaveholding interest would trample on its bond and fling lis faith to Ihe winds, A quarter of a century elapsed before the annexation of Texts. Slavery had been active, meantime, in fastening its hold upon the Government, in binding political parties to its chariot, and in seeking in Congress to stifle Ihe right of petition, nnd to crush all freedom of speech and the press. In Slaveholding States, none but slaveholders, or those whose interests are identified with Slavery, were admilt'-d to fill any office, or exercise Hny nuihoiity, civil or political. Five whites, not slavehold ers, in their presence, or in the midst of their society, were reduced to n vassalage little less degiadii g than that of the slaves theme-elves. Even at this day, iilihouah the white population of the Slaveholding btntes is more than six millions, of whom but 347,525, or less than one -eoeiitcctith, are the owners of Slaves, none hut a slaveholder, or one who will act niili exclusive reference to Slavery, is evir allowed to represent Ihe btate in any Xsational Convention, in either branch of Congress, or in any high position of civil trust and political power. The slaveholding class, shapes legislation and guides all public action for the advancement of its own interest and the promotion of its own ends. During all that time, nnd from that even to tbe present, all slaveholding delegates in national Uoiiventions, upon whatever else they may differ, always concur in imposing upon the Convention assent to their requisitions in regard to slavt ry, as the indispensable condition of their support. Holding thus in their hands power to decide tlie result of the election, and using that power lo deci le undevialingly and sternly for the extortion of their demands, Ihey have always been able to control the nominations of both parties, and thus, whatever may be tho issue, to secure a Presi dent who is sure to be the instrument of their behests. Thus it has come to pnss thai, lor twenty years we have never had a President who would appoint to the hum- blebl office within his gilt, in nuy section of Ute Union, tiny man known to hold opinions hostile to Slavery, or to be active in reiisting iis aggressions and usurpations of power. Men, the most upright and ihe most respectable, in btales where Slavery is only known by name, have been ineligible to tho smallest tru.t have been held unfit to dis ribute letters from the federal p st-office to their ntighbors, or trim the lamps of a light-house upon the remotest point of our ex'ended const. Millions of our citizens have been thus di.-fraiichised lor their opinions concerning Slavery, and tbe vast patronage of the General Government has been systematically wielded in its service, and for the promotion of its designs.It was by such a discipline, and under such influences, that the Government and the country were prepared for the second great stride of Slavery towards new do minion, and for the avowal of motives by whicn it was nttmdcd. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND TflK WAR WITH MEXICO. Texas was admitted into the Union on the 29th of Drcember, 1845, with a Conslitution forbidding the Abolition of Slavery, nnd a stipulation that four more States should become members ot the Confederacy whenever they mi jht he formed wiihin her limt's, an 1 with or without Slavery, as their inhabitants might decide. The General Government then made virtual provision for Ihe addition of five new Slave Slates to ihe Union practically seeming to the Slaveholding interest ten additional members in the Senate representing States, it might be, with less than a million of inhabitants and out-voting five of the old States with nn aggregate population of eleven millions. The corrupt and tyrannical Kings of England, when votes were needed in ihe House of Lords to sustain them against the people, created Peers ns Ihe emergency required. Is there in this anything in more flagrant contradiction to the principles of Republican Freedom, or more dangerous to the public liberties, than in the system practiced by the Slaveholding interest represented in the General Government? But a third opportunity was close at hand, and Slavery made a third stiuggle for the extension of its domain and the enlargement of iu power. The annexation of Texas involved us in war with Mexico. The war was waged on our part with vigor, skill and success, It resumed in the cession lo the United States of New Mexico, California and Deseret, vast territories over which was extended by Mexican law a prohibition of Slavery. The Slaveholders di manded access to them all, resisted the admission of California and New Mexico, which the energy of freemen, outstripping in its activity the Government nnd even the Slaveholding interest, had already converted into Free States, nnd treasonably menaced Congress and the Union with overthrow, if its demands were not conceded.' Tbe free spirit of the country was roused with indignation by these pretensions, and for a time the whole nation roused to the tempest which they had created. Untoward events aided the wrong The death of the President threw the whote power of the Administration into timid and faithless hands. ' Party resentments and party ambitions' interposed against the right. Great men, leaders of the people, from whom in better days the people ( had learned lessons of principles and patriotism, yielded to the howling of the storm and sought shelter, in submis- sion from its rage. , The Slaveholding interest was again victorious, California, with her free Constitution, was indeed admitted into the Union; but New Mexico, with her constitution forbidding slavery wiihin her borders, was denied admission, nnd remanded to the condition of a territory! and whilo Congress refused to enact' a positive prohibition of Slavery in New Mexico and Deseret, it was provided that, when they should apply for admission as States, they should come in with, or without Slavery, as their inhabitants might do-cide. Additional concessions were made to the Slave Power: the General Government assumed the recapture of fugitive slaves, nnd passed laws for the accomplishment of that end, subversive at once of Stnto sovreignty, and of tho established' safeguards of civil freedom. Then the country ngain had rest. Wearied with its efforts, or content with their success, the Slaveholding interest proclaimed a truce. When Franklin Pierce on the fourth of March, 1853, became Prcsidenl'of the United States no controversy growing out of Slavery was agitating tho country. Established laws, some of them enacted with unusual solemnity and under circumstances which mnde them of more than ordinry obligation, had fixed the clnncterof all the Stall s, nnd ended the contests concerning tho Territories. Sixteen States were Free States, nnd fifteen States were Slave States. By tho Missouri Compromise of 1820, Slavery was forever prohibited in the Louisiana Territory lying north of the line of 3d deg. 30 mm.; whilo over that Territory lying south of that lino, and over the Territories of New Mexico nnd Deseret, no such prohibition had been extended. Tno whole country reposed upon this arrangement. All sections and all interests, whether approving of it or not, seemed to acquiesce to its terms. The Slaveholding interest, through all its organs, and especially through the General Government proclaimed that this was a final and irrepealable adjustment of the struggle between Freedom nnd Slavery for political power: that it had been effected by mutual concessions and in the spirit of compromise: and that it should be as tnduring as the Union, and as sacred as the Constitution itself. Both political parties gave it their sanction in their National conventions: the whole country consented to its validity; and President Pierce, in his first official message to Con gress, pledged himself lo use all the power in his position to prevent it from being dis turbed. But nil these protestations proved delu sive, and the acquiesence and contentment which they produced ntlorded the opportunity, not only for new aggressions on the part of Slavery, but for the repudiation of engngemtnts into whicn us ngenis naa solemnly entered. Less than a year had elapsed before these pledges were broken, and the advantages which they secured to Freedom withdrawn by the Slaveholding fower. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. In the couise of time and the natural progress of population, that portion of (he Louisiana Territory lying west of the Mississippi River and north of the line of 36 deg. 30 rain., cnine to be desired for occu-pa.ion; and on the 24th of May, 1854, an net was passed treeing upon it the two Territories of Kansas and JNebrasba, and organizing governments for them boih. From this whole region the Slaveholding interest 34 years before had agieed that "Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, should be forever prohibited" and had received, as the prices of this pgreement, the admission of Missouri, nnd subsequently the admission of Arkansas, into the Union. By the Kansas and Nebraska bill, this prohibition was declared to be "inoperative and void," and tho intent and me aning of the bill was further declared to be, "not to legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of tho United States." Thus, without a single petition for such action from any quarter of the Union, but ngainst the remonstrances of thousands of our citizens, ngainst the settled and profound convictions of the great body of the pcple in every portion of the country, nnd in wanton disregard of the obligations of justice and of good fiith, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was repealed, and the seal which had guaranteed Freedom to that vast Territory which the United States had purchased frou France, was snatched from the bond. Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Deseret, and the new Stato acquired from Texas north of 36 deg. 30 min., by compact, were all opened up to Slavery, and those who might first become tbe inhabitants thereof were authorized to make laws for its establishment and perpetuation. THE INVASION OF KANSAS AND ACTION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. Nor did the Slaveholding interest stop here in its crusade of injustice and wrong. The first election of members for the Territorial Legislature of Kansas was fixed for the 30ih of March, 1855, and the law of Congress prescribed that at that elec tion none but "actual residents ot the territory" should be allowed to vote. . Yet, to prevent people of the Territory them selves from exercising the right to prohibit Slavery, which the act Of Congress had conferred upon them, the blavehoming interests sent armed bands of men from the neifrhboriuir State of Missouri, who enter ed the Territory on the day of election, took possession ot the polls, excluded the lerral voters, and proceeded themselves to elect members of the Legislature without the slightest regard to the qualifications prescribed by law. The judges of election appointed under authority of the Administration at Washington, aided and abetted in the perpetration of the outrages upon the rights of the people of Kansas, and the President of the United States removed from office the Governor whom he had himself appointed, but who refused to acknowledge the Legislature which tbe Slave-holding invaders from Missouri had thus imposed upon the Territory. v That Legislature met on the 2d of July, 1055. Its first act was to exclude those members, duly elected, who could not consent to tbo enactment of laws for the admission of Slavery into the Territory. Having thus silenced all opposition to its behests, the Legislature proceeded to the enactment of laws for the government ol Kansas upon the subject of Slavery. The laws of Missouri in regard to it were at first extended over tho Territory. It was then enacted, that every person who should raise an insurrection or rebellion of nesroes in the Territory, everv nerson who should entice away a Slave with intent to procure his freedom; every person who should aid or assist in so enticing away a Slave within tho Territory; and every person who should entice or carry away a Slave from any other State or Territory of the Union, and bring him within the Territory of Kansas, with the intent to effect or procure his freedom, upon the convic tion thereof should suffer Death. It was further enacted, that if any person should write, print or publish any book, paper, argument, opinion, advice or iuuendo, calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous or rebellious disaffection among the Slaves in the Territory, or lo induce them to escape from their masters, he should be deemed guilty of felony, nnd be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than five years; and that if any free person, by speaking or writing, should assent or maintain that persons have not tbe right to hold slaves in that Territory, or should introduce or circulate any book, paper, pamphlet or circular containing any such denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in that Territory, he should be deemed guilty of felony, and be. punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than five years. It was still further enacted by the same Legislature that every free white male citizen of the United States, and inhabitant of the Territory, who should pay a tax of one dollar and take an oath to support the Constitulion of the United States, tbe act organizing the Territory of Kansas, the Territorial laws, and the act for the recapture of fugitive slaves should be entitled to vote at any election in said Territory, thus making citizens of Missouri, or of any other State, legal voters in Kansas, upon their presentation at the polls, upon taking the oath nrescribed. and unon navment of one dol lar in direct violation of the spirit of the act of Congress, and in open disregard of the rights of the people of the Territory. And having made these enactments for the establishment of blavery, tne Legislature appointed Sheriffs, Judges and other officers of the Territory for their enforcement, thus depriving the peoplo of nil power over the enactment of their own. laws, and tbe choice of officers for their execution. That these despotic- acts, even if they had been passed by a Legislature duly elected by the people of the Territory, would nave been cull and void, inasmuch as they are plainly in violation of the Fed eral Constitution, is too clear for argument. Congress itself is expressly forbidden by the Constitution of the United States to make any laws abridging the freedom of speech and ot the press; and it is absurd to suppose that a Territorial Legislature, de riving all its power from Congress, should not be subject to the same restrictions. But these laws were not enacted by the people of Kansas. They were imposed upon them by an armed force. Yet the President of the United States, in a special message sent to Congress on the 24th of January, 1856, declares that they have been enacted by the duly constituted authorities of the Territory, and that they are of binding obligation upon the people thereof. And on the 12th of February, 1856, ho issued his Proclamation, denouncing any attempt to resist or subvert these barbarous and void enactments, nnd warning all persons engaged in such attempts, thai they will be opposed, not only by the local militia, but by any ovoilable forces belonging to the regular array of the United Slates. Thus has the Fede ral Government solemnly recognized tho usurpation set up in Kansas by invaders from Missouri, and pledged all the power of the United States to its support, Americnu history furnishes no parallel to the cruelty and tyranny of these acts of the present Administration. The expulsion of aliens, and the penalties inflicted upon citizens for exercising freedom of speech and of the press, under the alien and sedition laws which were overthrown by the Republican party of 1798, were lenient and mild when compared with the outrages perpetrated upon tho people of Kansas, under color oflaw, by the usurp- j log invaders sustained by the federal uovernment.With a full sense of the importance of the declaration, we affirm that the execution of these threats by the President of the United States upon the people of Kansas, would be an unconstitutional exercise of Executive power, presenting a case of intolerable tyranny; that American citizens cannot submit to it and remain free, and that if blood shall be shed in the prosecution of so unlawful a purpose, those by whose agency it may be spilt will be held to a strict and a stern account by the freemen of the Republic. So plain, palpable nnd deliberate a violation of the Constitution would justify the interposition of the States, whose duty it would be, by all the constitutional means in their power, to vin dicate the tights and liberties of tne citizen ngainst the power of the Federal Government; and we take this occasion to express to our fellow citizens in Kansas, against whom these unconstitutional acts are directed, our profound sympathy wih them in the resistance which it is their right and their duty to make to them, and our determination to make that sympathy efficient by all the means which we may lawfully employ. , , Thus, for a period of twenty-five years, baa Slavery been contending, under various pretexts, but with constant success, against the tendencies of civilization and tbe spirit of our institutions for tbe extension and perpetuation of its power. The degree in which the General Government has aided its efforts may be traced in the successive steps it has taken. In 1787 all the States in the Confederacy united in or- daining that Slavery should be forever pro- hibitedfrora all the territory belonging to the United States. In 1789 the first Qon-grees of the United States passed a law re affirming this ordinance and re-enacting the prohibition of Slavery which it contained. In 1820, the slaveholding ioterot secured the admission of Missouri, as a Slave. State, into the Union, by .acceding to similar prohibition of Slavery from the Lou isiana territory lying .North of 33 deg. 30 min. In 1 854 that prohibition was repealed, and tho people of the territory were left free to admit or exclude Slavery, in their own discretion. In 1856 the Gener al Government proclaims its determination, to use all tho power of the United States to enforce upon the peoplo obedience, -to laws imposed upon them by. armed iova ders, establishing Slavery and visiting with terriDie penalties ttieir exerciso ot ti'eeuom of. speech and of the press upon that sub-, ject. . Winlo two-thirds of the American people lives :n stales where Slavery is for bidden by law, and while five-sixths of the capital, enterprise and productive industry of the country rest upon freedom as their basis, Slavery thus controls all departments of their common government, and wields their powers ct its own behalf. TUI I'LIAS l-BOOD IX Dl-KIXC! Ot THIS! AOOBIS- 10X8 Or SL4TIET., , As a matter of course, for all these acts and for all the outrages by which ther have been nttenclel, the Slaveholding in- i , . I , CJ . ? kcicoto fjicicuu iu uuu n .warium in ino Constitution of the United States. . AIL usurpation in countries professing to be free, must have the color of law for its support. No outrage committed by Power upon popular rights, is left without some attempt at vindication. The partition of Po-' land, the overthrow of the Constitution of Hungary, the destruction of Irish Independence,, like the repeal of the Missouri Com promise and the Conquest of Kansas, were consumated with a scrupulous observance of the forms of law.. . . ,. TBE fLJtA TDAT TUK MISaOCKlCOUPnOMlSB WISXOt A COMPACT. ... . ,., I. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, it is urged on -behalf of those by whom it was effected, involved no violation of good faith, because that Compromise was merely an act of Congress and as suck repealable at pleasure. Regarded as a legal technicality, we are not disposed to' contest this plea. The Compromise was undoubtedly embodied in a Congressional enactment, subject to repeal. But in this, case, by the very nature of the transaction, the faith of the parties was pledged, that this enactment should cot bo repealed. The spirit of the law, whatever its form, was the spirit of a compact. Its enactment was secured by an exchange of equivalents. The Slaveholding interests procured the admission of Missouri into the Union, bj consenting, and voting, through its representatives in Congress, that north of its' southern line, in tho territory of Louisiana, Slavery should be prohibited forever. Without that consent and that vote the admission of Missouri could not hare been secured: nor would the prohibition of slavery until 1854, or until any other date, or for any other time than the one specified in the act namely, forever, have, purchased the assent of the Free States to the admission of Missouri aa a Slave State into, the Union. The word "forever." therefore, was a part of the lavr, and of Us enactment. Such a law may be repealed; but its repeal is the rupture of a compact the rupture of a solemn cove nant. 1 be Missouri Compromise has been regarded as such a compact from the date of its enac'ment, in all sections and by all the people of the country. Successive Presidents Lave invoked for it a respect nnd obligation scarcely inferior to that of the Constitution itself, and Senator Douglass himself, as late as 1845, declared, that it had been "canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reck less enough to disturb." Whatever, there, fore, the mere form of the bond may have permitted, good faith on the part of tbe representatives of the blaveliohlintr inter ests, required that it should be kept inviolate. ... , .....:', II. Nor is this charge of bad - faith. brought against the Slaveholding interest. for having repealed the Missouri Compro., mise, antwered or evndcd by the plea ar gued in its defence, that originally it was forcibly imposed by the Free States upon the Slave Slates, without their consent; that it was subsequently violated by the Free States in their refusal to extend its provisions over New-Mexico and Utah: or that its repeal, having been offered by the Free States themselves could not be resisted or refused by the representatives,; of Slavery. (I.) Even if it were true that the prohibition of Slavery north of 36 deg. 30 min. was originally enacted by the Free States against the votes of the South, the. fact that the admission of Missouri was accepted as tbe price of that prohibition, would have made the Slaveholding interest a party to the transaction, assenting' to its terms and bound by its obligations. . But the fact is not so. ..Tho act of March 6, 1820, which admitted Missouri and prohibited Slavejy in the Louisiana Territory north of 39 deg. 30 min., received jn . lbs Senate the votes of fourteen members from, Slaveholding States, while only eiht were cast against it, and in the House of Bep-reteutniives thirty-eight members from tbe Slave S'ates voted for it, and thirty-seven against it. A majority of the votes front... Slaveholding State, in each branch of Congress, were thus given for the bill; and to' far were the representatives of Slavery from regarding it as having been forced., upon them that Charles Pinckney, one of their greatest and ablest leaders declared on the night of its passage, "that it was regarded In the Slaveholding States as a.triumph."- (2) Still more absurd is It to say that the refusal of the North to extend the provisions of the Compromise over other regions, was a violation of, its terms or in . any way released tbe parties to it from their obligation to abide by its reqniremente (3.) It is lru:e that tho ostensible au'horpf the proposition lb repeal it was a Senator, from a Free State: but that fact does sot authoriie the inference that the, sentiment of the Free Stslet was justly and truly f -V-i'" au.- w;