Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/706

 might be changed, in 1856; but the council, which is elected for two years, could not be changed so as to allow a change of the laws or officers until the session of 1858, however much the inhabitants of the territory might desire it.

These laws, made by an assembly created by a foreign force, are but a manifestation of the spirit of oppression which was the parent of the whole transaction. No excuse can be found for it in the pretense that the inhabitants had carried with them into said territory a quantity of Sharp's rifles—first, because that, if true, formed no excuse; secondly, it is untrue, as their Sharp's rifles were only obtained afterwards, and entirely for the purpose of self-defense, the necessity for which, this invasion and other acts of violence and threats clearly demonstrated. These laws were obviously made to oppress and drive out all who were inclined to the exclusion of slavery; and if they remained, to silence them on this subject, and subject them to the will and control of the people of Missouri. These are the laws which the president says must be enforced by the army and the whole power of the nation. The people of Kansas, thus invaded, subdued, oppressed, and insulted, seeing their territorial government (such only in form) perverted into an engine to crush them in the dust, and to defeat and destroy the professed object of their organic law, by depriving them of the "perfect freedom" therein provided, and finding no ground to hope for rights in that organization, they proceeded, under the guaranty of the United States constitution, "peaceably to assemble to petition the government for the redress of (their) grievances." They saw no earthly source of relief bat in the formation of a state government by the people, and the acceptance and ratification thereof by congress.

In this view of the subject, in the first part of August, 1855, a call was published in the public papers for a meeting of the citizens of Kansas, irrespective of party, to meet at Lawrence, in said territory, on the 15th of said August, to take into consideration the propriety of calling a convention of the people of the whole territory, to consider that subject. That meeting was held on the 15th day of August last, and it proceeded to call such convention of delegates to be elected and to assemble at Topeka, in said territory, on the 19th day of September, 1855, not to form a constitution, but to consider the propriety of calling, formally, a convention for that purpose.

The meeting was duly held, and resulted in the call for a constitutional convention.

Delegates were elected agreeably to a proclamation issued, and they met at Topeka on the fourth Tuesday in October, 1855, and formed a constitution, which was submitted to the people, and was ratified by them by vote in the districts. An election of state officers and members of the state legislature has been had, and a representative to congress elected, and it is intended to proceed to the election of senators, with the view to present the same, with the constitution, to congress for admission into the Union.

It now becomes proper to inquire what should be done by congress; for we are informed by the president, in substance, that he has no power to correct a usurpation, and that the laws, even though made by usurped authority, must