Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/766

, deeply conscious of the blessings which ever flow from our beloved state. I did not consider myself at liberty to shrink from any duties, however delicate and onerous, required of me by my country.

"With a full knowledge of all the circumstances surrounding the executive office, I have deliberately accepted it, and as God may give me strength and ability, I will endeavor faithfully to discharge its varied requirements. When I received my commission I was solemnly sworn to support the constitution of the United States, and to discharge my duties as governor of Kansas with fidelity. By reference to the act for the organization of this territory, passed by congress on the 30th day of March, 1854, I find my duties more particularly defined. Among other things, I am 'to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.'

"The constitution of the United States and the organic law of the territory, will be the lights by which I will be guided in my official career.

"A careful and dispassionate examination of our organic act will satisfy any reasonable person that its provisions are eminently just and beneficial. If this act has been distorted to unworthy purposes, it is not the fault of its provisions. The great leading feature of that act is the right therein conferred upon the actual and bona fide inhabitants of this territory 'in the exercise of self-government, to determine for themselves what shall be their domestic institutions, subject only to the constitution and the laws duly enacted by congress, under it.' The people, accustomed to self-government in the states from whence they came, and having removed to this territory with the bona fide intention of making it their future residence, were supposed to be capable of creating their own municipal government, and to be the best judges of their own local necessities and institutions; This is what is termed "popular sovereignty." By this phrase we simply mean the right of the majority of the people of the several states and territories, being qualified electors, to regulate their own domestic concerns, and to make their own municipal laws. Thus understood, this doctrine underlies the whole system of republican government. It is the great right of self-government, for the establishment of which our ancestors, in the stormy days of the revolution, pledged 'their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.'

"A doctrine so eminently just should receive the willing homage of every American citizen. When legitimately expressed, and duly ascertained, the will of the majority must be the imperative rule of civil action for every law abiding citizen. This simple, just rule of action has brought order out of chaos, and by a progress unparalleled in the history of the world, has made a few feeble, infant colonies, a giant confederated republic.

"No man, conversant with the state of affairs now in Kansas, can close his eyes to the fact that much civil disturbance has for a long time past existed in this territory. Various reasons have been assigned for this unfortunate state of affairs, and numerous remedies have been proposed.

"The house of representatives of the United States have ignored the claims of both gentlemen claiming the legal right to represent the people of this