Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/847

 to its insignificance, let the decision be what it may, bo 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 Stales of this Union, where slavery is recognized under the Constitution of the United States.

Agaiu: 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, lie considered that at least two thousand regular troops, under the command of Gen. Harney, 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.

But the frauds and outrages had been so palpable, that Northern democrats became alarmed, and the great mass of them in the free States found it impossible to stand before the people and sustain the administration in the policy of forcing such a Constitution upon the people of that territory against their solemn protest. The South was almost a unit in demanding the admission of Kansas under what will ever be known as the Lecompton Constitution.