short of giving a popular government; it would be but a government of force or fraud. I deeply regret that those who support the Lecompton constitution have not rested that support upon a principle, but upon expediency. As I read the message of the President, he sanctions it in order that the country may get rid of the excitement which has so long prevailed on the subject. What excitement, pray? That which has been caused by repeated acts of violence, smothering the popular will, and gagging the popular voice. Its language is: "When once admitted into the Union, whether with or without slavery, the excitement beyond her own limits will speedily pass away, and she will then, for the first time, be left, as she ought to have been long since, to manage her own affairs in her own way. If her constitution on the subject of slavery, or on any other subject, be displeasing to a majority of the people, no human power can prevent them from changing it within a brief period." In my judgment a principle should never be sacrificed to expediency. But I deny the expediency of the course recommended, and the argument to sustain it is, to my mind, unfortunate. The President says: "if her constitution on the subject of slavery, or on any other subject, be displeasing to a majority of the people, no human power can prevent them from changing it within a brief period." The organic act promises the people that they may "form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way;" now they are told they should take a fundamental law, in the making of which they had no part, and of which they totally disapprove, because "no human power can prevent them from changing it within a brief period." Now, at the time they seek admission into the Union, oppression forces institutions upon them; but when admitted, that hand will be withdrawn and they will regain their rights. This is sovereignty with suspended animation. In opposition to the proposed policy of forcing upon the people what they do not want, I place the Democratic doctrine of popular sovereignty, which will give to the people what they do want. The President requires us to take a new but ragged garment, and attempts to comfort us by saying it can be patched and made sound. I will never traffic in goods which are defective, and will not wear, if I know it, notwithstanding I may buy, others if I do not like them. I will never barter truths for errors, knowing that I may support the latter by sophistries. I believe, with Milton, that And I will follow her wherever she may lead. If from power, then I am against power. If from the mass, then I am against the mass. If from my friends, then I am against my friends. If into solitude and the desert, I will make her my companion forever. The rules of the House deny me the time to pursue this branch of my argument further, how ever much I may desire to do so. I shall now contend that, to adopt the course recommended by the President to Congress to support the action of the Lecompton convention, would be to violate the manifold and manifest pledges of the Democratic party touching the doctrine of popular sovereignty in the Territories. publican party has been, that the Democracy were not to be trusted on questions involving the interests of slavery, and that their management of Kansas affairs afforded the sustaining proof. It will not do for us to say that it produced no effect upon the public mind. We were constrained to admit the policy, although we denied the justice of the appeal. In Pennsylvania, within sight of Wheatland, the home of the present Chief Magistrate, an impression had been made against us. The reply was ready and potent, that Mr. Buchanan, having favored the extension of the Missouri compromise to the Pacific, had favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory north of that line, including Kansas; that he was a northern man, having, as such, sympathies with the white laborer, and likely, for that reason, to see full justice done him; that he had proved himself hopest, and as the resolves of his party bound him to the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and the sentiment in Kansas was most unmistakably for a free State, there could be no doubt he would see the organic act fully and impartially carried out, and slavery repressed. Confidence was reestablished and a Democratic victory achieved. If the recent message could have been then anticipated, I do not hesitate to express my conviction that Pennsylvania would have cast an immense majority of her votes against him. His old congressional district a part of which I have the honor to represent-I am satisfied would have spoken in a very different voice. You know but little of the present feeling in Pennsylvania if you suppose her sons can be induced to support the views of the Executive regarding the Lecompton convention. There is an accusation of bad faith, and I confess I have felt myself unable to answer it, and consequently unwilling to attempt it. It was not alone in. Pennsylvania our party committed itself to a faithful expression of the popular wish in Kansas. North and South, throughout the States, it was pledged in the most solemn terms to the same thing. There was no conflict of political opinion in the different sections of the Union; all acknowledged the obligation of the principle of the Nebraska-Kansas bill, and all expressed their unfaltering determination to defend the sovereign will of the people, whether its expression was for freedom or slavery. That these declarations were honestly made I do not doubt; the Cincinnati platform had then but recently been constructed, and all seemed to fully understand it. The resolution, to which I more especially refer, was demanded by the South, and fully accepted by the North. This demand was occasioned, doubtless, by a fear of the former that the latter was more or less unfriendly to the new territorial legislation. The principle of this legislation was hence reasserted and embodied, and became the bond of Democratic fellowship. It is too plain for misconstruction even now: "Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kapsas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States." It did not speak for Kansas merely but for "all the Territories." "The people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting The main or principal ground taken by the Re-through the legally and fairly-expressed will of a majority of actual residents" are to form constitutions. And here, let me observe, that in no other way are constitutions to be formed. The resolution follows the act of Congress in indicating the mode in which constitutions are to be formed, namely, by "the people acting through the legally and fairly-expressed will of a majority of actual residents. It was thus emphatically announced that a constitution could not be given to Kansas in any but the one way. Again, I say, the party was trusted, and it triumphed. tri The inaugural address of the new President evinced a clear comprehension of the grounds upon which his election had been accomplished, and a determination to observe the most perfect good faith. In speaking of the Territories its language was: "It is the imperative and indispensable duty of the Government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinfon by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved!" This is not a passage framed for the purpose of ambiguity; it removes all doubt, if any existed before, as to the conviction of the speaker, that "the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote" must be secured "to every resident" of Kansas, at all times. Here was a conclusion reached; and we find the President, afterwards, consistently and persistently carrying it out. Be it remembered "the resident" of Kansas was to be secured in the "free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote." The President of the United States had so determined; and with this purpose fixed, he insisted upon the Hon. Robert J. Walker accepting from him the appointment of Governor of Kansas, to effectuate it. The reason for selecting the individual named, is to be found in the fact that there was a perfect agreement of the two as to the course to be pursued. This is most evident from the letter of Governor Walker accepting the appointment, and from the instructions issued to him. In the letter alluded to Governor Walker says: "I understand that you and your Cabinet cordially coneur in the opinion expressed by me, that the actual bona fide residents of the Territory of Kansas, by a fair and regular vote, unaffected by fraud or violence, must be permitted, in adopting their State constitution, to decide for themselves what shall be their social institutions. This is the great fundamental principle of the act of Congress organizing that Territory, affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, and is in accordance with the views uniformly expressed by me throughout my public career. I contemplate a peaceful solution of this question by an appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the people of Kansas, who should all participate fully and freely in this decision, and by a majority of whose votes the decision must be made, as the only and constitutional mode of adjustment. "I will go, then, and endeavor to adjust these difficulties, in the full confidence, as strongly expressed by you, that I will be sustained by all your own high authority, with the cordial cooperation of all your Cabinet." The instructions to this officer are equally conclusive of the fact: "The institutions of Kansas should be established by the votes of the people of Kansas, unawed and uninterrupted by force and fraud. "When such a constitution shall be submitted to the people of the Territory, they must be protected in the exercise of their right to vote for or against the instrument, and the fair expression of the popular will must not be interrupted by fraud or violence."" But the letter and instructions, as quoted, are proof of a much more important matter than that for which I have used them, for they conclusively I establish that there was then an anxious wish on the part of the President that the people of the Territory should be fully protected in the exercise of their right to vote upon their constitution. repeat his words: "They must be protected in the exercise of their right to vote for or against the instrument." Not in their right to vote for or against a part of the instrument, but the instrument-the whole instrument. The Union, the organ of the Administration, of the 7th of July last, seems fully to appreciate the ground then held by the President, and, in defending that position, gives a most satisfactory reason for assuming it. I will read an extract from that paper of the date named: "When there is no serious dispute upon the constitution, either in the convention or among the people, the power of the delegates alone may put it in operation. But such is not the case in Kansas. The most violent struggle this country ever saw, upon the most important issue which the Constitution is to determine, has been going on there for several years, between parties so evenly balanced that both claim the majority, and so hostile to one another that numerous lives have been lost in the contest. Under these circumstances there can be no such thing as ascertaining clearly and without doubt, the will of the people in any way except by their own direct expression of it at the polls. A constitution not subjected to test, no matter it contains, will never be acknowledged by its opponents to be anything but a "We do most * * * * devoutly believe that unless the constitution of Kansas be submitted to a direct vote of the people, the unhappy controversy which has heretofore raged in that Territory will be prolonged for an indefinite time to come." It is no answer to all this to say that other States have been admitted into the Union without sub mitting their constitutions to a popular vote. It would not be an answer if such had been the case with each and every one of the eighteen admitted States. If there were a thousand precedent cases of States so admitted, where there was no serious dispute among the citizens as to the particular form of their institutions, they would fall short of affording an argument for the admission of one where such difficulty does exist. Kansas is a case standing by itself; it has no parallels; it is not to be illustrated by precedent. Its feature are peculiar-anomalous; and the circumstances surrounding it such as never before surrounded the inchoate State. To it popular sovereignty most specially applies. Congress, the dominant political party, the President of the United States, the Governor of the Territory, all declared the people should have just such republican institutions as they might desire. All looked to a vote of the people as the means to determine the popular will. The people now ask that such vote may indicate their wishes. All sovereignty resides in the people, and no admitted principle refuses its exercise in the mode desired. Why shall they not, then, speak at the polls? Here I pause for a moment. In looking back from the point now reached, we see the Democratic party and the President have alike pursued a comparatively new, yet well-defined and strongly-marked policy. The Missouri compromise line, after continuing for years, is found to be too restrictive; the common territory of the nation should be open to the occupancy of our citizens in common. The Nebraska-Kansas bill is enacted, and the people of the Territories are to "form" as they are to "regulate" their "domestic institutions." In the North and in the South the doctrine is accepted, and eagerly they push forward their respective schemes for colonizing Kansas, for now numbers shall control the institutions there. By river and by land the emigration hastens forward, and the cabin is scarcely prepared for shelter before the struggle for power, for control, commences, and it is grasped and held by the friends of the South. It is alleged that strangers to the soil, Missouri borderers, decide the contest: the reply is, you shall not inquire as to that, or any other matter; the people rule. The hasty and surperficial observer declares the South has gained an undue advantage over the North, and a sound of exultation is heard around us and in the distance. Thus baffled in the Territories, will the North, aspiring to executive power, still adhere to that sovereignty which has failed her? She must do so, or abandon her long-cherished object. The pledge is presented to her; she accepts it boldly, and repeats to the world what the faint-hearted believe is to degrade her free-born and undaunted sons: "We recognize the right of the people of all the Territo ries, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of the majority of actual residents; and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of per fect equality with the other States." There is a hand-to-hand encounter. Now, again, the cry, as one of victory, resounds throughout the land, "the will of the majority, legally and fairly expressed, shall be the law of the Territories." It is barely uttered before an attempt is made to stifle in the far Northwest South has been outcolonized, and slavery is likely to be excluded from the soil. We were not prepared for this; for if the act of a minority, or, at best, a doubtful majority, can, for the time, establish a domestic institution, an actual majority should be able to form and regulate and perpet uate other or all domestic The Democratic party and the President were honest in their support of popular sovereignty. This was not only the case before, but after the election. On no other hypothesis can you account for their early, distinct, and repeated avowals of it. The President intended to enforce it in Kansas literally and truly. There had never been but one interpretation given to it by the party of which he was, the head, and he understood it clearly. It was, that the fundamental law, the constitution, which gave form and regulation to their institutions, all their institutions, should not be imposed upon the people until sanctioned and adopted by of majority. If such was not case, how came it that the President did not at once re pudiate the action of Governor Walker in giving assurance that the Lecompton convention must submit their constitution to a vote, or it would be rejected by Congress? How could he pass over this sentence, in the address of that officer to the people of the Territory, without notice? "Kansas never can be brought into the Union, with or without slavery, except by a previous solemn decision, fully, freely, and fairly made by a inajority of her people, in voting for or against the adoption of the State constitution." It must be conceded that the President approved of Governor Walker's course, and that it required him to do so to make his own course consistent, and the party true to their avowals. I here leave the discussion. I am unwilling to repeat points raised in the earlier portion of my remarks, to assist this branch of my argument, and I do not think it necessary to do so. I can only use this general expression, that, in my opinion, the course now recommended to us by the Presi dent in his message is unjust to, because inconsistent with, himself, and would, if carried out, rob the Nebraska-Kansas act of its vital principle, and stand as an accusing record against the good faith of the Democratic party, crippling it for years to come, if not destroying it for the future. In such an event, where is that strong hand which is to lay hold of the rudder and still direct the ship of State, freighted with the hopes of mankind, in her course of material greatness and increasing glory: What, in that day, will constitute the break water against which fanaticism shall dash in its wild fury as the hurricane may bear it from the North or the South? How will then fare the Union, with which we are everything, without which we are nothing: Do you believe you can satisfy the country of the propriety of planting slavery on that soil. from which the Missouri compromise excluded it, upon the newest doctrine that it should be left to the laws of climate and production alone, and that neither of these will exclude it? that popu lar sovereignty, applied by the legislation of 1654 to the rule of the Territories of the United States, it? may be trampled under foot upon the pretense that forms of law have been duly observed in estab lishing under solemn guarantees to the voter, and all that popular elections may be carried pledges be broken the moment they have performed their work? that the principal may in struct the agent, and the agent, by faithfully obeying the instructions given, shall render himself obnoxious to the just indignation of his supe rior? that that Territory is self-governed whose highest law is made and riveted upon it by a con vention in whose composition one half the Terri tory was unrepresented and disfranchised, which was ordained by a Legislature never acknowl edged because never elected? in short, that all is well, and that principle and faith are inviolably kept in Kansas, when they know that nine tenths of her citizens, acting together, are unable to prevent the adoption of institutions which they never can acknowledge without disgrace?. Do you believe you can satisfy the country of all this? I tell you here to-day plainly that the northern Democracy never will be able to satisfy knight those who like policy wil northern men of these things. Unlike the ancient be known, although they may change the coler after. The time has charge that, and not tee of their armor at every they make here soon, when a new requisition will be made by northern constituencies an earnest and manly defense of northern honor and of northern rights. whilst giving the utmost demands of justice to their brethren of the South. If unpardonable to insist upon so much equality, then we have reached the end of national platforms, and the beginning of sectional Presidents to my mind the last calamity to be survived; for then will begin those acts of aggressive interference which, leading to protracted and desolating wars, must end in establishing among children of the same blood the cruel relation of conqueror and captive. Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. SPEECH OF HON. HENRY WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS, ON THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ON THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. Delivered in the Senate, February 3d and 4th, 1858. The pending question being the motion to refer the President's message and the Lecomp ton Constitution to the Committee on Territo ries, Mr. WILSON moved to amend the motion by adding: "And that the committee be instructed to ascertain the number of votes given at each county in the Territory upon the question of calling a Convention to form a Consutution; to inquire into the appointment of delegates to the Convention, and the census and registration under which the same was made, and whether the same was in compliance with law; the number of votes cast for each candidate for delegate to the Convention, and the places where east, and whether said Constitution received the voles of a majority of the delegates to said Convention; the number of votes cast in said Territory on the 21st of December last, for and against said Constitution, and for and against any parts thereof, and the number so cast at each place of voting; the number of votes cast on the 4th day of January last for and against said Consututhon, and the number so cast at each place of voting; the number of votes cast on the 4th day of January last for any State and legislative officers thereof, and the number of votes cast for each candidate for such offices, and the places where east; and that said committee also ascertain, as nearly as possible, what portion, if any, of the votes so cast at any of the times and places aforesaid were fraudulent or illegal; and that said committee have power to send for persons and papers." questions concerning the rights and the interests of the people of the Territory, shall be fully investigated. To accomplish this object, which every honorable gentleman in America must desire, I have submitted the motion that the Committee on Territories be instructed to make this investigation, and that they have power to send for persons and papers. I indulge the hope, Mr. President, that every Senator on this floor will promptly vote for these instructions, and that the Committee on Territories will make the most searching, thorough, and complete investigation into this whole subject; and if there be frauds, if there be wrongs, if there be anything in the action of that Territory which baffles the popular will, which robs the people of their rights, that the facts will be presented to the Senate and to the country, and that we shall be guided by the simple idea of ascertaining the real will of the people of the Territory of Kansas, and letting that will control our action. Before I sit down, sir, I wish to call the attention of the Senate to some of the allusions, assumptions, and declarations, of the President, in this extraordinary communication to Congress. The President told us, in his annual message, that the attention of the country had been too much drawn to the Territory of Kansas. I regret, I think the country will regret, Mr. WILSON. This application, Mr. President, for the admission of Kansas into this sisterhood of free Commonwealths, comes to us under circumstances that demand the prompt, thorough, and full investigation of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. Charges have been made by the people of Kansas, by Government officials in Kansas, of illegalities I think every man who cares anything for right and frauds illegalities and frauds which have deprived the people of that Territory of their rights, and defeated their will. These reports have gone over the country, over the Christian and civilized world, bringing dishonor and shame upon free democratic institutions. Under these circumstances, sir, I take it that every Senator, every member of Congress, every fair-minded and honorable man throughout the Republic, desires, before we vote to bring which have transpired in that Territory. I say Kansas into the Union or to reject her applica- here, sir, what I know to be true, what every or justice, who cares anything for the honor of the American name and the American character-aye, anything for the reputation of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic-will regret that the President himself had not devoted time enough to the consideration of the affairs of Kansas, to have enabled him to present to the Senate and the country a full, intelligent, accurate, and truthful statement of the events tion, that all the facts connected with the calling of the Convention to frame a Constitution, the election of delegates, the framing of the Constitution, the mode of submission to the people, the election under the Constitution, and all the intelligent man in the Senate knows to be true, what the country and the world know to be true, that the statements in this message misrepresent, wholly and entirely, the events which have transpired in that Territory; and that wherever this message goes, it will carry to the world a stupendous and gigantic misrepresenta tion of affairs in the Territory of Kansas. I know, sir, that the President cannot be ex pected, in the midst of the vast duties that devolve upon him, to understand everything that has transpired in that Territory. He was out of the country when the act for the organiza tion of Kansas was passed; he was out of the country during the eventful years of 1854 and 1855, and a portion of 1856-years in which events of great magnitude transpired in Kansas. He was nominated, we all know, sir, be cause he was out of the country, and had no con nection with those events, because he was able to prove an alibi. But, sir, he sends to us, to men familiar with the events of the past four years, this message, covering this application for the admission of Karsas, and he gives a coloring to events in that Territory which will give to the country and to the world about as correct an idea of the affairs of that Territory as the bulletins of Napoleon gave to the people of France of the condition of the grand army on its retreat from Moscow. The President tells us that there is a delusion in the country in regard to the condition of affairs in Kansas; that it is supposed there are two parties in that Territory, contending for the government of the Territory. He gives us to understand that this is not the fact; that there is not a great Free State party, struggling to make Kansas a Free State, and a Slave State party struggling to make Kansas a slave State. He would have the country understand that this is the state of affairs in that Territory; that there is a party of law and order, a party that legitimately and legally governs the Ter ritory; and that there is another party setting at defiance the laws of Congress and the Con stitution of the country, and that they are laboring to overthrow by lawless violence the Government of the Territory, and to impose on the people a Constitution of their own choice. Now, sir, I know, you know, every man here knows, that this is not the fact I say there is no party and there has been no party in the Territory of Kansas, setting at defiance the Constitution of the United States or the laws of the United States; no party, nobody, no set men, in that Territory, in rebellion against Fed eral authority. thse the Territory who had a right to vote, lesa fourteen bundred voted on that day, and yet a majority of actual residents were in favor of a free State, and had majorities in sixteen of the eighteen districts. These facts have been proved, demonstrated, by taking the names of the persons enrolled as actual voters, and ta king the names of the persons who voted on the 30th of March. These facts were provel under the order of the House of Representa tives, and by a thorough investigation by a committee of that House, and no man here t elsewhere can deny them. The people of Kansas had imposed upon them that day a Government not elected by themselves-a Government imposed upon them by those forty-nine hundred men from the State of Missouri. The people of the Territory fels this to be a great outrage on their rights-thef had a right to feel so. The people of any Sla would have felt outraged on going to the ballot boxes and finding them in the possession c armed men from another State. Gov. Reeder undertook to correct some of these frauds upon the ballot-box, by withholding certificates from the members thus elected; and Gov. Reeder, on that day when he undertook to right thess wrongs, was marked for swift destruction. The Legislature assemb'ed; it threw out the Free State members who held certificates from Governor Reeder; it passed laws violating the rights of a free people; it violated the freedom of speech and of the press; it denied to the people the right to go to the ballot-box, unless they took a test oath that no freeman could take without degradation. Those laws world not allow a man to sit in a jury-box, if he denied the right to hold slaves in the Territory. These laws were intended (to use the language of one of the leading who men the people) to degrade and drive out of the Ter ritory the Free State men. What were fret men to do under such circumstances? They had been brought up in the belief that the people were the inherent source of power-that all power came from the people, in their sovereign capacity. They had read the Kansas-Nebraska act, and they supposed that act conferred on imposed them on of a Tem the people, without the intervention On the 30th March, 1855, the people of the Ter ritory were summoned to the ballot-box to elect had framed such Constitutions. They assem thir een members of the Legislative Council and bled in Convention, they framed such a Consti twenty six members of the House of Representa- tution, they submitted that Constitution to the tives. On that day there was an invasion of the people, and it received the popular verdic Territory of forty-nine hundred men from the They elected their officers under it; they chose neighboring State of Missouri. These forty-nine their Senators, and sent them to this Chambe hundred armed men went into every Council dis- to ask for admission into the Union. They under trict and into every Representative district but took to enforce no laws, and from that time to one. They took possession of the electoral urns; the present they have kept that Topeka Gor they selected the Legislature to frame the laws ernment in existence; they have framed some for the Territory, and to shape and mould its acts necessary for its preservation, but from future. Of the twenty-nine hundred men in that day to this they have never attempted to |