Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
8. Here, also, is amplest testimony to the Usurpation, by the
“Intelligencer,” a leading paper of St. Louis, Missouri, made in the
ensuing summer.
“Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri followers,
overwhelmed the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and bullied them,
and took the Government from their hands. Missouri votes
elected the present body of men, who insult public intelligence
and popular rights by styling themselves ‘the Legislature
of Kansas.’ This body of men are helping themselves to fat
speculations by locating the ‘seat of Government’ and getting
town lots for their votes. They are passing laws disfranchising
all the citizens of Kansas who do not believe Negro Slavery to
be a Christian institution and a national blessing. They are
proposing to punish with imprisonment the utterance of views
inconsistent with their own. And they are trying to perpetuate
their preposterous and infernal tyranny by appointing _for a
term of years_ creatures of their own, as commissioners in
every county, to lay and collect taxes, and see that the laws
they are passing are faithfully executed. Has this age anything
to compare with these acts in audacity?”
9. In harmony with all these is the authoritative declaration of
Governor Reeder, in a speech to his neighbors at Easton, Pennsylvania,
at the end of April, 1855, and immediately afterwards published in the
Washington “Union.” Here it is.
“It was, indeed, too true that Kansas had been invaded,
conquered, subjugated, by an armed force from beyond her
borders, led on by a fanatical spirit, trampling under foot the
principles of the Kansas Bill and the right of suffrage.”
10. In similar harmony is the complaint of the people of Kansas, in
public meeting at Big Springs, on the 5th of September, 1855, embodied
in these words.
“_Resolved_, That the body of men who for the last two months
have been passing laws for the people of our Territory, moved,
counselled, and dictated to by the demagogues of Missouri, are
to us a foreign body, representing only the lawless invaders
who elected them, and not the people of the Territory,--that we
repudiate their action, as the monstrous consummation of an act
of violence, usurpation, and fraud, unparalleled in the history
of the Union, and worthy only of men unfitted for the duties
and regardless of the responsibilities of Republicans.”
11. Finally, the invasion which ended in the Usurpation is clearly
established from official Minutes laid on our table by the President.
But the effect of this testimony has been so amply exposed by the
Senator from Vermont [Mr. COLLAMER], in his able and indefatigable
argument, that I content myself with simply referring to it.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account