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QUINDARO CHINDOWAN
A FREE STATE PAPER
VOL. I. QUINDARO, KANZAS, No. 2, May 23, 1857
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
J.M. WALDEN & CO.
J.M. Walden Edmund Babb.
J.M. WALDEN....................EDITOR
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QUINDARO.
We re-publish the following article on Quindaro, as very many persons will receive this number of the 'Chindowan' who did not get the first number, and we wish that all who may become our readers may know the facts in regard to the past history and present prospects of our young and thriving town:
As we have commenced publishing a new paper in a new town, our readers will, perhaps, expect us to say something of the prospects and promises of the place which, above all others in Kanzas, we preferred. It has become so common for persons interested in a new place, who have an opportunity to speak to the public relative thereto, to do so in such glowing terms, that we approach the task before us with reluctance, and with the old and homely adage forcing itself upon our mind, that "self praise is half scandal." That little coin which because of its influence is frequently called "the almighty dollar," we can assure our readers, has lost none of its potency by being transported to Kanzas. Persons pursue it with an avidity that would astonish many of its zealous devotees in the States. Speculation is the resort of many of its votaries, and this speculation very often causes them to see their interests through a colored medium.
There are few towns or "cities" started in the Territory, that were not originated for the purpose of making money, and very few persons become interested in a town enterprize through any other motive. If they buy lots, or open a business, or even only select it for a home, as a general thing, one consideration, and often the paramount one, will be of a pecuniary character, which, while it may be altogether right and proper, makes it natural for them to think they have made a good selection, and quite as natural for them to try to convince others of the same thing. At most it is pleasant for a person to have others concur in any opinion, and particularly so when that concurrence is likely to result in a pecuniary advantage. Hence we infer that our readers will expect us to say something very nice about Quindaro, to dilate upon the wonderful advantages of which we think it possessed, and go into a rhapsody over some vision in which we may behold it a city, with busy wharves and thronged streets, great stores and extensive factories, lecture-rooms and seminaries, "gorgeous palaces and solemn temples!" in which conjecture, however, they are likely to be mistaken. We must leave the journalists of other places to write about "the great metropolis of that vast region of country lying between Missouri and the Rocky Mountains," which "is destined to hold a proud position as a commercial and mercantile emporium," and, in the nature of things, "is the National gateway into Kanzas."
The position of Kanzas and the rapidly expanding commerce of the Great West, or rather the Great Center of our country, will cause the upbuilding of a mart of trade at some point on the Missouri river, and that too, within the limits of Kanzas, but we do not say that point will be Quindaro. It may with certainty be predicted that in a few years there will be some city west of St. Louis, in Kanzas, and on the Missouri, that will hold the same commercial relation to the western portion of the Mississippi Valley that Cincinnati does to the eastern, but we are not disposed to predict that the village which is now our pioneer home, will be the Cincinnati of this region. There will be some great Railway center, some commercial point where northern and southern and eastern and western routes will intersect each other, but those roads are yet to be built, and it is the business of the capitalists to select the location of their routes, and not ours to prophesy in regard to them. Wherever this fortune-favored point may be, there most surely will be a fair proportion of American artisans and manufacturers make for themselves a useful and profitable field of labor. As there are "cities" in Kanzas on the Missouri, whilst this place is only a thriving village, might it not hazard our foresight to vaticinate in its especial favor? We think it best to state what we know, in preferences to what we may anticipate about Quindaro.
ITS HISTORY
The founding of Quindaro was the result of necessity. Its existence is attributable to circumstances which form an important chapter in the history of Kanzas. A large proportion of the Free-State men residing in the Territory one year ago had sought homes on the Kanzas river, and in portions of the country south of that stream. Many had selected those locations when all was tranquil and subsequent difficulties were not dreamed of. When the disturbances arose and the opposition "Came down like the wolf on the fold," the Free-State men found themselves hemmed in by their foes, found that even in the Territory they could only reach the nearest national highway, the Missouri river, by going to ports under the control of the enemy, for there was not a town on the river which was not under the dominion of the Pro-Slavery men.
These circumstances led active Free-State men to engage in the project of selecting and improving a town site on the Missouri, through which they might with safety, pass into and out of the Territory. The party that engaged in this were somewhat divided as to where that place should be located, but after a careful examination of all the practicable points, the leaders and most prominent Free-State men of the prospecting party and engaged in the enterprise, selected this site, organized a town company, bought the land, plotted the town and styled it Quindaro, the given name of the person from whom part of the purchase was made-a favorite name for females, common among the Wyandott Indians. The officers of the town were chosen: Joel Walker, President; A. Guthrie, Vice President; C. Robinson, Treasurer, and S. N. Simpson, Secretary. The town was surveyed by O.A. Bassett, in December, 1856.
NATURAL ADVANTAGES
Quindaro is situated on the Missouri, about three miles by land and six by water, above the mouth of the Kanzas river. The site is hilly and rocky. Without a rocky formation it is almost impossible to make a wharf on the Missouri that will be permanent, and along its course such a formation is found only where the banks rise up into hills. Besides this solid base for a wharf the course of the river is such that the channel must remain on this side, which will ensure the continuation of a good landing steamers. Along the town site, when the river has been at a very low stage, by accurate sounding the shallowest place found was seven feet, and most of the way the water was ten feet deep.
To persons accustomed to living in a level country, the hills here at first sight, seem high, but one soon become familiarized to them that they loose their apparent magnitude. The rock which they contain are of a good quality for building purposes, durable and yet not hard to work.
The town site was a woodland, and it is yet surrounded by an extensive tract of forest, which abound in huge walnut, hickory, lin, ash and oak trees, and other valuable timber. Excellent stone and dusty trees being so near at hand, will render the erection of substantial business houses and elegant dwellings comparatively easy.
The lands adjacent in Kanzas, composed of the grants of the Wyandott and Delaware Indians are very fertile. These grants extend westward from the Missouri along the north side of the Kanzas river, so that while they contain much valuable prairie lands, they also are abundantly supplied with timber. To the south and south-west lie the Shawnee Lands, that desirable portion of the Territory, with which we are already connected by a good road, as well as with the rich region beyond them. Immediately opposite to Quindaro, and extending northward in Missouri, is a "..."country much of which is now under cultivation.
PROGRAMS AND IMPROVEMENTS
Under this head we will not speak of the future, which to all persons is adorned with glorious expectations, but of the past, which is a reality.-On the first day of January, 1857, the ground was broken, the first spade full of earth removed. On that day nearly every primitive tree stood here, scarcely due had ever been cut down; the rocks jutted their grey edges out of the hill-side, but the moss that grew on there had not been disturbed; the river swept along in its swift course, washing against a bank that had not been touched by pick-ax or shovel. Since then there have been two rigorous winter months, and two inclement spring months to impede the transportation of implements, and machinery essential to improvements, and to retard the labor here. The ice, snow, rain and cold weather were obstacles not to be controlled.
The trees have been removed from several acres of the town site. Enough grading has been done on the hills nearest the river to make access to the wharf very easy. Kanzas Avenue, the main street running south from the river, has been sufficiently improved to its junction with a good road leading into the country, to enable heavy loads to be hauled along it without difficulty. A considerable force is now engaged upon grading the wharf and its avenue. Between thirty and forty houses have been erected and are occupied. The largest is a hotel, which is the second in size in the Territory, and among other buildings is a school house, in which during the week there is a school, and for the present, on every Sabbath there is Church. There are also sixteen business houses in progress of erection, some of which are nearly completed. Most of them are being built of stone, in a substantial manner and good style.
CHARACTER OF BUSINESS
By referring to our advertising column it will be seen that there are already opened, two Hotels, two commission houses, two dry goods store, and an apothecary shop, a saw mill, stone yard, carpenter shops, several land agencies, a surveyor's office, and, that in case of affliction, the citizens will not be without medical attendance. Besides the business exhibited in the advertisements, there are builders, cabinet makers and blacksmiths located here.
The term Hotel, as used in this Territory, is a very equivocal in its signification. It is applied in common, to places where travelers are fleeced for sleeping on boards, and where they can get good accommodations at reasonable prices. The accommodations here are ample and good enough for us, and persons who have traveled extensively in Kanzas attest that they are not equalled at any other point. The stores are not mere "shops" where remnants and antiquated articles are sold at exhorbitant prices, but are furnished with complete and fresh stocks, which besides supplying an already active retail trade, are sold to other dealers in wholesale quantities at wholesale prices. The saw mill is projected on a large scale, having sufficient motive power to drive five saws, a lath machine, turning lathe, &e. One saw is in operation that cuts at the rate of 5,000 feet of lumber per day.
PROSPECTS
In this paper we are not declined to expatiate upon the future, but feel disposed to say in conclusion, that the prospects for the rapid growth of Quindaro in size and business importance are flattering. The fact that her citizens manifest no discouragement and no laxity in their respective enterprises, we do not think attributable to any illusion from speculation but to actual profits which they are already realizing, and richer rewards which they have a conscious assurance will soon be theirs.
In regard to Quindaro it has been our object to deliver "a round unvarnished tale," that whoever may be induced to come here, will not be disappointed through aught we have published.
ROADS FROM QUINDARO.
Not railroads, but roads, common roads, wagon roads. In the States editors do not think it worth their while to write about a road unless it is one over which the puffing, whistling, tireless iron-horse is to the scamper, with enough people behind it to make a Kanzas "city," or enough produce to feed a multitude. But we are in a Territory, and while we expect to see the day when that same iron-horse will be fitting across valleys where wild flowers are now undisturbed, and through woods which echo with few sounds of improvements, we for the present are gratified to have the priviledge to announce that roads are being constructed for wagons, stages, &c.
The citizens of Quindaro not being satisfied with having the travel between here and inland portions of Kanzas, to follow Indian trails over prairies, go miles out of the way to fords and ferries over streams, and follow devious courses to find places where it is practicable to ascend and descend hill-sides, have set about building roads. Of two of these enterprises we design speaking that by which Lawrence is connected with our town, and the other by which there is access to the rich region south and south-west of here.
We have passed over the road to Lawrence and know that it is in excellent condition. From Quindaro there is a grade twenty feet wide for two miles by which the hill from town is raised, and the few remaining hills on the route have all been graded so that their ascent and descent is very easy. There are three streams to cross on the way, all of which are now spanned by substanial bridges: that at Muddy creek, four miles this side of Lawrence, over which all the Leavenworth trade now passes, was completed six weeks ago: that at Stranger creek which is a very substanial structure, is just finished; that at Wolf creek has been finished more than two weeks. This road has one of the best locations there is in any portion of the Territory bordering on the Missouri, following as it does for the greater part of its length, the same dividing ridge. More than half of it is through prairies, and cannot be excelled by any prairie road. By this route the distance from Quindaro to Lawrence is thirty-one miles, and, considering the grades that have been made, the bridges that have been built, and the excellent condition in which it is where it passes through woods and over prairies, there is no road connecting Lawrence with the Missouri river, that will compare favorably with it. A line of stages pass over it daily, and the whole distance can be driven in six hours without injuring the teams. This road was commenced on the first of February, since which time it has been completed, and as we wish it to be distinctly understood, was built by the citizens of Quindaro.
We have not traveled over the other road mentioned above, but have been enabled to gather reliable information in regard to it. It connects Quindaro with Ossowattomie, makes the distance two miles less from Ossowattomie to the Missouri at this point, than it is to that river by the Kanzas city road and is preferable to travel. From Kanzas Avenue in Quindaro, it runs nearly south, (bending but slightly westward,) to the Kanzas or Kaw river, where an excellent free ferry is kept by the Quindaro company.--From either side of this river the ridges are reached by an easy ascent. To the southward when the top of the ascent is attained the road is on a level ridge. It intersects the Military road at Blue Jackets, eight miles from Quindaro and thence runs southward, crossing the Lawrence and Westport road at the new town of Shawnee, the county seat for Johnson county. From there it passes along a high and level ridge until it intersects the Kanzas city and Ossowattomie road three miles south from McLeans and nineteen miles from Quindaro. From the Military road at Blue-jackets, its course over the prairie is marked by furrows turned up with a plow. By this road Quindaro is connected with Centropolis and other towns south and south-west from here. Although it is a new road, those who have traveled it and hauled goods over it, assert that it is a very easy route to drive over. Only last week some teams came and returned, traveling about one hundred and forty miles in four days, and so well pleased were the persons with the route that they readily engaged to team over it constantly.
From the above it will be seen that our citizens do not confine their exertions to the improvement of the town site, but a likewise apply them beyond in preparing avenues for trade and travel to pass to and from the rich heart of the Territory through the town they are building up.
KANZAS AND HER RAILROADS.
(Communicated,)
In accordance with the custom of every other undeveloped portion of this great confederacy when the tide of emigration has begun irresistably to set towards it, Kanzas late the scene of bloody conflicts for the right, is having her capabilities presented to the business men of the country, and her probable requirements forced upon their attention. It becomes then the duty of all who are interested in her welfare, to examine her resources, and lay them before the public, Kanzas is to be the theatre of some of the most stupendous Railway schemes that ever engaged the active men of any country, and we request to this and to the rest of our articles on the same subject, the attention of every man of enterprise. Unlike most of the states of the union, the soil of Kanzas is every where of very nearly the same fertility. There are of course some portions which are somewhat superior to the others, as portions of the Kanzas valley, the Neosha and Osage valleys, the country of the Big Blue and Saline creeks, that washed by the Nemana and Wolf rivers and their tributaries, and the valley of the Grasshopper. It follows then that a railroad built anywhere in the Territory would run through a good country, and it only remains to see which are the natural routes connecting with those roads already built, or in process towards the north and east, to determine which shall be occupied first. There appear to be three great throughfares in Kanzas which will be the trunk roads of the country. First in importance is that which may run from Quindaro in a direction about S. S. W. following the dividing ridge or streams, crossing the Osage at or near the Ossowattomie and thence proceed in a more southernly direction, crossing the Arkansas and Red rivers and meeting the line now building from Galveston north. This great trunk line, first in importance in this western country will run all the way through one of the most fertile valleys in the world, that lying between the mountains which cover nearly one half of Western Arkansas, and the eastern spurs of the Rocky mountains. This line will take the emigrant from the cold blasting winds of the north and allow him to develop into activity the sunny plains of the south. It will facilitate the exchange of cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco and other crops of the south for the productions of our more northern latitudes, while eventually, when the line is continued up to the Lake Superior, the timber, ice and minerals of that region will be transported southward, and at some intermediate point between the termini of this great road will necessarily spring up a large commercial city, which will also become the location of those various manufactures which turn the raw material into articles ready for use.
Next in importance is the line up the Kanzas Valley to Fort Riley and eventually to the Pacific coast. The country demands this line and the people are more clamerous for its construction. At short intervals all along the Kanzas river are thriving towns, each of which are well supported by a fertile back country, almost every quarter section of which has an occupant.
The third in importance is that running from St. Joseph in an almost westerly direction, towards Marysville. This route is through the Nemaha, Wolf, Grasshopper and Big Blue countries, the prairies of which are of the first quality for cultivation. This line by means of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railway, now nearly completed, will have a direct connection with the east. No part of Kanzas is superior to this in fertility, while timber is abundant, and it is only from ignorance of the country, that emigration has in a measure neglected this superior section and gone southward. There are even now good claims to had of unsurpassed soil, within ten miles of the Missouri river.
These three great trunk routes are destined, in our opinion, soon to be built, and in fewer years than has been required to complete such enterprises elsewhere, will their long lines teem with a highly prosperous population. Neither is Missouri to be neglected, for her prosperity is inseperably linked with that of Kanzas, and she will soon with her immense resources stand in the foremost rank of States. The Parkville, Grand river and Burlington railroad is now a fixed fact, and will probably be finished within two years. This line, running in a north-easterly direction from Parkville, crossing all the railway lines across Iowa, and connecting with the line that is to be built from Dubuque to Lake Superior, is a trunk road of Missouri, and the benefit the construction of this will secure to Missouri will not be confined within her limits, but will spread over into Kanzas, pouring millions of dollars worth of commerce into her uprising cities.
These two sister states, then bound firmly together by bands of iron, more lasting and effective than any other compact, will compete with each other in the race of progress.
BROWNSON ON TANEY.
The last number of Brownson's Quarterly Review, much the ablest Roman Catholic periodical on this side of the Atlantic, severely rebukes Chief Justic Taney for his decision in the Dred Scott case. Mr. Brownson castigates Mr. Taney not only as a bad Judge, but as a bad Roman Catholic, and denounces his decision as subversive at once of the constitution, and of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and such, therefore, as no true son of that church either could, would, or should have sanctioned. He truely charactorizes the decision as at war with the authoritative teachings of the Popes for nearly four centuries, and therefore at war with the tenets of the Church. He holds that the Chief Justice, in giving the decision upon the Supreme Bench, should look beyond the law and the constitution of the United States--should look to the doctorines of the church, and decide in conformity with those doctorines. And there can be no doubt that all our courts and our juries would, if the power of the Roman Catholic Church were established in the land, be required to make their official action subordinate to ecclesiastical authority. Mr. Brownson says:
"In the States where slaves are property, the Federal Courts are bound to treat them as property, and cannot discriminate between them and other species of property; but not, therefore, does it follow that it must treat them as property in the Territories, where no local law makes them property.
God, as Pope Gregory VII has declared, never gave to man dominion over man, nor to one man the right to lord it over another. He has never created some men to be kings and others to be subjects, some to be masters and others to be slaves; but he has created all men to be equal, and therefore Alexander III asserts that by nature all men are free. This is the teaching of the Catholic doctors, and of all Christian ex pounders of the law of nature.
The negro being is a man, a human soul, endowed by the law or nature with all the rights of a white man, he must in all things be held the equal of white men, except where the municipal law makes a distinction to his prejudice.
Mr. Chief Justice Taney seems to us to proceed on the assuption that negroes are politically and legally a degraded race in the Union; but such is not the fact. They may be so in some of the States, but they are not so in the Union, nor indeed in all the States. We regret that in giving the opinion of the Court the learned Judge did not recollect what he is taught by his religion, namely, the unity of the race, that all men by the natural law are equal, and that negroes are men, and therefore, as to their rights, must be regarded as standing on the same footing with white men, where there is no positive or municipal law that degrades them.
There can be no reasonable doubt that Mr. Jefferson and many others, when they declared all men created equal, intended the principle, thus asserted after Pope Alexander III, should apply in its fullest extent. Mr. Chief Justice Taney is a Catholic, and knows that from 1482 the Popes have condemned, on pain of excommunication, the reduction of African negroes to slavery; and he knows that Mr. Jefferson, in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, enumerated, among the things which justified the Colonies in severing the tie which bound them to Great Britain, and the casting off their allegiance to the British Crown, the fact that the Crown had refused to assent to laws prohibiting the importation of Africans to be held as slaves."
Mr Pryor's paper at Richmond, speaking of the plan of Eli Thayer and the other Northern people, to purchase and cultivate lands in Virginia, says:
Eli and his Mammonites will find ample field for their operations in Virginia. We promise them a cordial reception; will show them that Virginia hospitality is not a mere name; take as many shares of "stock" as they desire, and finally permit them the enviable privilege of choosing between a rope and a grape-vine, as the least ignominious instrument of summary justice.
It is not said or intimated that this punishment will be administered to the Northern immigrants into Virginia merely in the event of their propagating or uttering abolition or freesoil sentiments.--No, the threat is that it shall be administered to them for the simple crime of removing to Virginia, purchasing lands at the prices at which Virginians may be willing to sell, and quietly carrying on the business of agriculture within the limits of that State.
We know nothing and care very little about Eli Thayer, but we think such articles as the ultra Virginia newspapers are putting forth upon the subject are mischievous and outrageous. We say, let the laws of the land be observed.--Those laws guarantee to citizens of each State certain privileges in other States. It may be worth the while of the people of Virginia, if they undertake to hang with ropes or grape-vines all Massachusetts men who come to reside among them, to ask themselves as somebody else how long it will be before Massachusetts will take to hanging the Virginians that come among them. What sort of condition of things will exist if ever the time shall come when the citizens of free States and the citizens of the slave States cannot emigrate to each others' sections and do business quietly without being strung up by ropes and grape-vines to trees and rafters?--Louisville Journal.
The ridiculousness of the practice of re-producing the names of Eastern cities in every State in the West, is seen in the following local announcement in the Louisville Journal:
OMNIBUSSES FOR NEW HAVEN,--Hereafter an omnibus line will connect at Boston with the trains of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and run to New Haven, Nelson county.
SAVING THE UNION.
Mr. Pryor, the editor of the new Democratic paper in Richmond, is fertile in expedients for saving the Union, although he isn't insincere enough, to pretend to care much whether it be saved or not.
Two or three months ago this editor laid down, as the only condition upon which he and his friends would consent to the maintenance of the Union, the absurd plan that slave States and free States should come into the Union with equal step, so that the North and the South should forever have equal power, at least in the U. S. Senate. He now gives up that plan as manifestly impracticable and proposes the following:
The most efficient [plan for this purpose, i.e. "saving the Union"] in practice and perhaps the easiest to obtain, would be a provision in the Constitution which would require the representatives for each section, in both branches of Congress, to vote separately on all questions affecting the institution of slavery and all tax or appropriation bills and permitting no such bills to become laws and no such questions to be decided until they are assented to by the majorities of the delegates from the respective sections. On all other questions the majorities in the two branches of Congress might vote and decide as at present.
This plan is quite absurd and impracticable as the other. Doubts and discussions would always arise as to what questions did and what ones did not affect the institution of slavery. And even if no such doubts and discussions should arise, the thing wouldn't work. It is very true, as the Baltimore American remarks, that the Richmond editor supports his new proposition by some very pretty conceits based upon the natural amiability of combatants when held asunder and the utter insufficiency of the original Democratic idea that the majority are more likely to be just, generous, and right than the minority, as "wisdom dwells in mulitude of counsel." Now, we think if the representatives of the North and South were separated to vote upon such issues as are named, it would perpetuate the antagonism, by keeping it always in view, always eager, and always irritated, and that therefore they would never agree upon any subject at all, and no "appropriate" or "tax bills" would ever become laws. There could scarcely be a more certain way to increase the jeopardy of the Union. When the politicians have put the Union in danger, the men who fill the ranks of the armies, "???" the topsails of navies, hold the plow handles, and wield the implements of labor, will have something to say, and in this country will not be led by the nose or tied by the disunion treaties.--Louisville Journal.
NEW YORK APPOINTMENTS.
The New York Herald, which, since the Presidential election, has manifested every disposition to give a cordial support to Mr. Buchanan's administration, makes the following remarks upon the wretched executive appointments in New York city. Unquestionably those appointments were such as no honest chief magistrate could make, and their influence must inevitably be disastrous:
These appointments will create a greater internal and external revolution among the unterrified Democracy than has been known in years. It may be remembered that the appointments of poor Pierce created a great commotion in the party in this city and State, and split the concern into two sections both equally sound on all the great Democratic principles. The appointments of the present Administration cannot reduce the Democracy to a smaller minority than it was left by the election of this last Novemeber, but they will create such a revolution in the internal management of the party as will give this State to the opposition for several years to come. The new federal officers, Mr. Scell excepted, have produced the most singular results in all circles, and will stimulate a degree of political activity which will reorganize the party upon a new and curious basis; and give rise to strange, interesting developments in a financial, philosophical and political points of view. To George N. Sanders, Isaac Rynders, Emanuel B. Hart, Anson Herrick, and Isaac V. Fowler is now given the responsibility of leading, managing, and guiding the Democratic masses, thus relieving the shoulders of Mayor Wood and his friends of the load under which they toiled so long.
ITEM-We occasionally find a vivid description of the Democratic party in its own organs. The following from perhaps the very ablest of its organs, the Charleston (S.C.) Mercury, is rich in its own truth:
The Democratic party, overwhelmed in every State north of Mason and Dixon's line, excepting three--half-drowned, sinking, struggling in the boisterous, swelling tide of Abolitionism, clutching at and clinging to every passing piece of driftwood--finds its head still, for a little while, above water, by means of the staying power of the Southern Rights party, and shouts in its delirious joy--eternal calm.
The Supreme Court, repudiated in politics by South Carolina in 1828, defied and scoffed in law by the North in 1857, delivers its opinion and forthwith the potent opinion is proclaimed, like Perry Davis's painkiller and Townsend's sarsaparilla, a universal "???" for all ills pertaining to the body politic, past, present, and to come.
Liberal Southern politicians, by their ingenious, if not altogether "?ingenuous?" policy and politics, are to creep, some into a corner of the Executive department--some would like to go abroad, with Uncle Sam to pay expenses and give prestige in their entertainments--other felicitate themselves in "a lively sense of favors to come" in Speakerships, Senatorial honors, &c.; while the party tools, political hacks, and underlings from Maine to Texas, gorge, and snarl, and revel over the offals of Government patronage that are thrown to them in every nook and cranny of the United States. As a logical sequence in the "?minds?" of these worthies, and a "?matter?" of course; their reigns over the whole land, the very harmony of the sphere's; new life has been instilled into Southern institutions, and "?enlarged?" prospects opened.
A VICTIM TO HIS OWN AMBITION.
The Princeton (Ind.) Courier tells of an ambitious rat which ascended to the roof of a large barn belonging to Mr. Wilkinton, near Cynthiana, in Posey county, and not being satisfied with the roof, concluded to ascend the lightning rod; got fast on the point, and was never able to extricate himself. Herehe was found dead.
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ITEM-"???" Printing neatly and promptly executed.
ITEM-Sam. F. Tappan, jr., of Lawrence Kanzas, is our authorized Agent to secure subscriptions and advertisements, and receipt for the same.
ITEM-See advertisements under head of for sale in another column.
ITEM-Persons in the Territory wishing to purchase improved Reaping and Mowing machines read Alfred Gray's advertisement in to-day's paper.
ITEM-Last week we printed near a thousand copies of our paper. The entire edition was exhausted on the day of publication, and we are confident fifteen hundred copies would not more than have supplied the demand. This week's edition is larger.
ITEM-The article headed "Kanzas and her Railroads," published in another column, is worthy the attention of persons who desire the rapid development of Kanzas, as it contains facts and suggestions that will bear upon railroad enterprises here. It was written by a person who has had simple opportunity to become acquainted with the soil and surface of the Territory.
ITEM-We are under obligations to the Messengers of Richardson's Missouri Express for the daily St. Louis papers of the latest dates. This company makes very quick trips to and from St. Louis, and promptly delivers articles entrusted to their care. In this connection we would like to enquire what grounds or authority Mr. Fullerton, the Messenger on the F X Aubry, has for circulating among passengers a report that persons who stop at Quindaro are in danger of their lives? What is this imminent danger that so terrifies him? Are we all assassins here? Or does he fear that strangers will slip down the hills and break their necks?
On our fourth page will be found a letter from the pen of Thomas Jefferson, in which he has spoken of the Supreme Court of the United States. The recent decision of that body in the Dred Scot case has turned the eyes of the nation towards it. Its legitimate province in the affairs of government, will be a matter of protracted discussion, if it is not carried into the arena of politics. Already have many persons chosen sides, and we find one class conceding that the decision of the Court must be considered a finality, whilst the other dissent from this position. Now, before it becomes more directly a political question, should every person endeavor to form a correct conclusion. The high authority of the letter we publish, attaches an importance to it at this crisis, and being the views of a man who knew as much as any other man, if not more, in regard to the intention of the Framers of our Government, it is worthy an attentive and careful reading and study. It is the first of a number of these important papers we design to publish from time to time.
Our senior has made his bow, beaver in hand, defining his position politically. Now friends, here's our sun-bonnet, and as for our positions, political or social, we simply pledge ourself for the future by the past, to speak for what we regard as truth and right, in the love of them and of our neighbor, and trust God for the result. We confess, that, from our own stand point of observation, we have come to feel the deeper interest in the social structure, as underlying and determining the character and stability of our political institutions. With intemperance, ignorance and idleness, lounging in and about our homes and public houses, what better can we expect than mis-rule and lawlessness in "the Powers that be?" As individuals, we must, one and all, labor to promote intelligence and virtue in our neighborhood relations, and loving freedom lay broad and deep its foundations in the great social heart.
"I'm a free mon," "I'm a free mon," was the exclammation of an Irishman at the recent municipal election at Leavenworth, and throwing up his well-worn cap, he added--significant words--"I haven't had a chance to be a free mon before."
This honest-hearted Irishman had probably never heard Pollok's definition--"He is the Freeman whom the Truth make free."
But he did his duty of truth and right when he "had a chance," and thus won the right to rejoice, as he did, in the result, and "???" for the triumph of his ticket. To be a free-man, or a free-woman, in a legal sense even, is a glorious estate. To be free in a political sense is more desirable still. Our fathers felt this when they perilled their fortunes and lives for civil freedom.--Our mothers, when they blessed their sons, and bade them face the cannon's mouth for it.
But to be free morally--unfettered intellectually, is immeasurably better worth the devotion of our entire energies for a life time. As a people, civil freedom is our most precious treasure, our noblest "???". As individual members of young and growing communities, to hold ourselves free in the truth, is of still higher moment, since the best Governments, while they guard, are but representatives of the aggregate virtue and intelligence of the people--they follow, but never lead, the popular sentiment.
As a people we claim the right of self-government, and are justly indignant at a usurpation which attempts to govern "???" laws made for us, not by us. The people that submits to be governed by Legislatures and laws, from the making of which they have been excluded--we call an enslaved people. Our national Declaration of Rights presents them as such. Our position as a people at the present writing, is one of earnest protest against this usurpation, and also of firm determination to resist its demands. This is as it should be. But there is a tyranny more to be feared, because radical in its effects, and insidious in its operations. It is the tyranny of ignorance and prejudice (mother and child,) born of exploded and exploded despotisms. Protesting and battling against these, we may take the nobler stand individually, and maintaining it socially, dig deep the foundations of popular freedom.
The measure of success, ultimately in securing the right of self-government to all "who have an evident common interst in the institutions under which we live," depends mainly upon the educating of all such up to a just appreciation of the virtue and intelligence," which "perpetuate free institutions," by making the exercise of the right of self-government, an unqualified blessing.
The perpetuity of free institutions depends upon the virtue and intelligence of a people," and "He is the Freeman whom the truth makes free," are declarations alike involving the momentous truth, that to know what is right or true in principle, and live it, is to be free,--free as an individual, free as a people.
May it never be said of the people of Kanzas--of the citizens of Quindaro,--either politically or socially,--"Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not?"
New friends, old friends, we pledge you our hand, with our heart in it, or earnest work wherever the interests of our own or other mother's sons and daughters are involved in the threatened ill or promised good. N.
THE POWER THAT BE.
From the Address of the Acting Governor, we extract the following, to which we wish to direct the attention of our readers:
It will be no less the duty, than the earnest desire and great pleasure of the Governor, or Acting Governor of the Territory, to carry out, in good faith, the policy avowed by the President of the United States in his recent Inaugural Address, in which he declares it to be "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 opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved," and "that being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all foreign interference, to decide their own destinies for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
Should the policy here set forth be carried out in good faith, the result will be a peaceful adjustment of the affairs of the Territory. Whilst we object to the doctrine of "popular sovereignty" in territories, so far as it admits of slavery extension--the only purpose for which it was placed in the platform of a party--it having for the present, become the rule under which new states are to be organized, we see no good reason why its operation in Kanzas should involve her people in any further difficulties.
The first statement of the President here quoted, is a trueism--the mere declaration of a principle recognized in the formation of the General Government, and ever since then held sacred in theory, at least, and generally in practice, as it not only has not been gainsayed nor called in question, but has been to uniformly adhered to that, in almost every instance, to each resident citizen "the right of a free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote" has been secured. After an unobstructed operation for more than three-score years, its reiteration may be regarded as merely a rhetorical flourish, as a play upon words for the benefit of a party supposed to be at the zenith of its career, or as a cloak, to conceal some questionable design, the open and manly avowal of which would grate even on disciplined ears. It is not for us to say that it is either, but coming events in Kanzas, when they have transpired, will reveal the light in which it is to be regarded.
In the present crisis of affairs in Kanzas, and with the views of Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Stanton before us, it becomes a matter of interest to inquire what are the just restrictions of the elective franchise. There are but two; and as we conceive them, they are not very difficult to comprehend. As this franchise is but an element of freedom, it is subject to the same general limitation--no man having a right so to use it as to inflict a wrong upon another. He may have the power to do so--his moral agency gives him the power--but it is not the province of a just government to give him the privilege to exercise that power, whereas it is legitimate for a government to withhold it. The other restriction is citizenship. None but the governed should have a voice in the government. The President in the above extract, specifies the latter restriction, but for reasons which may have already occurred to our readers, he passes over the former. Subject, then, only to the latter limitation, the people of Kanzas are by his declaration, to decide by their votes what shall be the character of her institutions. The question now arises, is the policy which the President and Acting Government have avowed intended or calculated to secure to the citizens of our Territory this right? Will it secure to them this "free and independent expression of their opinions by their votes?" Does it not so distort and deflect a limitation which is right and proper in itself, that it becomes onerous and unjust?
The Acting Governor informs us that the Government of the United States "especially recognizes the Territorial Act which provides for the assembling of a Convention to form a Constitution," that is, that the citizens are to have a "free and independent expression of their opinions" only under that act. The manner in which the members of the first Legislature were elected, is familiar to the whole country. No one will deny that they were not the chosen representation of the people of Kanzas. No one will deny that they were not chosen at polls where the ballot-box was withheld, from a large proportion of those who wished to vote. If such be the case, the laws they made, even had they been just and equitable, could not have been entitled to respect. A usurper of power, may, by artfulness and leniency obtain a willing submission from those over whom he elevates himself, but however wisely he may have managed his power, the world would justify a revolt against it; and, surely if at any time a body of usurpers should pass odious laws and subvert the great democratic principles of a representative government, the people thus oppressed should incur no censure for only refusing to acknowledge the power or recognize the laws of those usurpers.
Upon this general principle, the Free-State men of Kanzas declared against the Territorial Legislature, as having forcibly and fraudulently seized upon the powers granted to the citizens of the Territory by act of Congress, and in November last thirteen hundred thousand men in the Union endorsed the position they had taken. Because of the character of that first Legislature through whose regulations the new members of the present Territorial Legislature were elected, the laws passed last winter are entitled to no more respect than enactments of the former sessions, even if those laws be wholesome and equitable--people are no more in duty bound to obey a good law than a bad one if it be made by usurped power. There might be circumstances where it would seem to be the wisest policy for a subjugated people to choose obedience to either good or bad laws in preference to chosing an open rebellion, but of these alternatives they are morally free by every principle of justice to make their own election, yet if they choose submission to revolt, it is a vassalage not only yielded to, but purchased by them at the price of that principle dearer than all others to every true American, that governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed.
The past history of Kanzas written in blood and uttered in groans, proves that the position of the Free-State men of the Territory, and the Republican party of the Country, in regard to the Territorial Legislature is correct, and therefore the Free-State men cannot, without a compromise of principle, recognize any of the Territorial Laws. Mr. Buchanan knew this when he wrote his Inaugural, he knew it when he instructed Mr. Stanton, and yet the declaration has gone forth that the State Constitution is to be framed by a Convention called by the Territorial Legislature, and by men to be chosen under the rules and regulations it prescribed, that is, the Free-State men, if they vote, they must recognize the very law-making power they, endorsed by the majority of the voters in eleven States, have refused to, and at the same time compromise a principle as sacred as Truth. If they are compelled to bow their necks as vassals in order to vote have they secured to them "the free and independent" expression of their opinions by their votes? Can they go to the polls and deposit their ballots with a consciousness of having freely exercised the sovereignty of American citizens and not of having bargained away the principle that underlies that sovereignty for the bare privilege of voting? Do they have secured to them that right which Mr. Buchanan has declared. General Government ought to guarantee them? Will that "sacred right" be inviolate which he affirms must be so presrved?
The President further declares, that the sacred right of voting, freely and independently, having been preserved, "nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all foreign interference, to declide their own destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
So long as "Popular Sovereignty" continues to be the dominant doctorine relative to the formation of new States, no one can object to its application in the manner here stated, for if thus applied the best fruits it is competent to produce would be the result. Of this there can be no doubt, and, the only doubt that the extract suggests, is was it written in sincerity, and if so, will its author cling to the intentions which it has led a large portion of the American people to attribute to him, of dealing fairly with all parties, where the doctrine is to be carried out? Two months have passed since the Inaugural was read on the east portico of the Capitol at Washington. Within that time a policy has been set in motion in regard to Kanzas, a Governor has been appointed, an Acting Governor has been sent here, and a programme of intentions published in the press and from the rostrum. Among other things we find that the citizens of Kanzas are required "to decide their own destiny for themselves," under and only under the authority of the Territorial Legislature, a number of whose members were elected by a portion of the people of the Territory and by a portion of the citizens of another State, by votes cast, at polls from a majority of which the Free-State men were forcibly driven away and drived in part, if not mainly by the "foreign influence" brought to bear against them. That foreign element still exists to a greater or less degree in the Territorial Legislature. To act under the laws it made, is no less than to be con-controlled by "foreign influence." If the Free-State men go into the delegate election of June next, there is no choice left them but to do so under the provisions enacted at Lecompton. Are they then permitted, "free from all foreign influence," to participate in an election by which it is assumed the people of the Territory are to decide their own destiny for themselves?" Can Mr. Buchanan, or Mr. Stanton, or Mr. Walker be ignorant of the fact that even if the Government of the United States does especially recognize the Territiorial Act that cognizance does not and cannot neutralize the "foreign influence" which has been in the Legislature from the first and still is felt therein?
The only condition upon the right of suffrage in territories, which Mr. Buchanan has mentioned in his inaugural, is that of citizenship, or in his own words, that the voter be one of "the people of the Territory," by which, we will say, he meant that he be a citizen by some proper standard of citizenship. Than this there, could be nothing fairer, as to determine who are citizens there must of course be some standard of qualifications. If the President intends to deal justly with all parties in Kanzas, we give the true intent and meaning of his language, and if he choose to carry out the intentions we have ascribed to him, no Free-State man will have cause to withhold his commendation. The Acting Governor in his address uses this language:
"That act (the one which provides for the election of delegates) is regarded as presenting the only test of the qualification of voters for the delegates to the convention, and all precedings repugnant restrictions are hereby repealed."
A test of the qualification of voters is necessary, but the right to specify what that shall be belongs as much to the people as does the right to vote itself, it goes hand in hand with this right--in fact specifying a test is the exercise of the elective franchise, either by the people directly or mediately through their fairly elected representatives. To impose upon a people a test made by authority in which they have no voice, is an infringement upon the right of suffurage, against which every man, thereby affected is justified in opposing himself, and especially justified in refusing to recognize yea more, he is duty bound to ignore the test and to repudiate the power by which it was made. Yet it is expressly declared by "the powers that be," that the Free-State men if they vote at all must vote under a standard of qualifications in the erection of which they had no voice, but which instead, was erected by a Legislature to which they owe no allegience, a Legislature which is almost as foreign to the soil of Kanzas as Walker's band of Fillibusters is to Nicaragua. Even if the standard were as fair as human minds could devise it, would Mr. Buchanan on Mr. Stanton ask the people to vote under it? Ought they to expect it of Americans who would cling to their just rights? But, under that act, is not the whole power of determining who are citizens placed in the hands of the appointees of that Bogus Legislature? May they not enroll what names they please, and after the returns are made, may they not amend it to suit themselves--or in other words may not the Pro-Slavery Managers say what the Free-State men may and what shall not vote. Will those who are permitted to go to the polls be allowed to vote in virtue of a God-given and inalienable right, or merely, through, the grace of those who have subjugated them? Viewing the subject in this light, we ask, using Mr. Stanton's own words interrogatively, must "the net be allowed to have provided for a full and fair expression of the will of the people through the delegates who may be chosen to represent them in the constitutional convention?"
BRAGGING AND BLOWING.
Applying these terms antithetically as they sometimes are used, they express as nearly as may be the chiefest part of many persons' occupation in Kanzas. "Puffing" has been amply tested in the States; its potency has long been acknowledged throughout our land; by it fortunes have been made and through it a vast deal of money has been spent; by its speculators have often been enabled to rid themselves of dubious stocks, and through it many a poor editor earned a loaf when in the most hopeless strait, and by it and through it many other such singular results have been produced. It is not surprising that a scheme so successful in the States should be carried to the Territories and put into practice, and a very short sojourn will suffice to convince every person that people here seem to have a faith in the power of words as unbounded as in the states, a belief is the credulity of mankind as rigidly orthodox.
We have hertofore had occasion to allude to the fact that many of the Kanzas folks are fast people. In this we have another instance. Not content with casting their all upon systematic bragging are they. It is too slow; too much after the fashion of sharpers about our former homes; it don't seem to fill the bill. In their enterprise many of our Kanzas folks have gone beyond the accomplishments of the adroitest and sharpest in the states. However profitable "puffing" might promise to be, they conclude that it will be far more profitable to join with bragging about their own interests the very amiable business of "blowing" or "running down" others' interests which may seem likely to come into competition. Among other queer things a person coming to Kanzas will be very apt to notice this perpetual "bragging and blowing," landing this and disparaging that.
Especially is this the case with those who are interested in rival towns and "cities" located in the Territory, and more especially with those towns on or near the Missouri river. If a person enters one and after prospecting, begins to enquire about this or that rival point, if he relies upon the replies he generally receives there is little danger of his getting correct information in regard to a single point. Distances, location, advantages, every thing, will be distorted and misrepresented to a greater or less degree. We have known instances where persons have descended so low as to purposely misdirect those who were seeking a neighboring town, and have heard of divers such petty, paltry tricks, unknown perhaps everywhere save in Kanzas, and unknown in Kanzas save in rival towns. Why there should be recourse to such unmitigated baseness we are at a loss to know. What there is to be gained by it we cannot discern. Why this mode of procedure, is a problem requiring other rules of political economy to solve, than those of which we have any knowledge. That it advances property at any one point surely no one can be so credulous as to believe. That it will retard the growth of any place is no less incredulous. Then cui bono?
Our residents in the Territory does not date back very far, but we are inclined to believe that since we landed here, we have seen enough of different places, and heard enough "bragging and blowing" by those interested in them, to feel safe in saying that when the proprietors of a town take especial pains to disparage a rival town they have very few advantages of their own to boast of, and we farther think that those persons who come west to invest and have but a short time to make selections will do well to avoid purchasing at any point the proprietors of which adopt this new-fangled-Kanzas system of "puffing" their own place by saying what they can in its favor and all they can conjure up unfavorable to other places. Under all circumstances beware of "bragging and blowing."
ITEM-In our last issue we published the letter addressed by several of the leading citizens of Lawrence to Acting Gov. Stanton. That letter proposed to the Governor that a member of the Pro-Slavery party and a member of the Free-State party should be selected to proceed in company to take the census, re-register all legal voters and that the Probate Judges should correct their firsts list and make the appointment of delegates according to these returns. Also, that four Judges of ELection should be elected from each voting precinct--two by the Pro-Slavery party and two by the Free-State party--and the names of three of these Judges should be required to a certificate of election to entitle a person to a seat in the Convention.
This is simply a proposition for fair play. It asks of the Acting Governor to secure an equal representation of both parties in the selection of persons to take the census and to preside as Judges of Elections.
To this the Gov. replies, that any attempt for him to do so would be an act of gross usurpation, not less objectionable in character and effect than the fraudulent interference attributed to the citizens of Missouri and therefore he can do nothing to deny or invalidate the laws of the Territory.
The General Government takes the position that the rule of Missouri in the Territory must be enforced. The Territorial Legislature--the result of the infamous fraud upon the ballot box of the 30th March, 1855, is simply a machine to force slavery into Kanzas and keep freedom out. It was the duty of that Legislature to so make and perfect that machine that it should accomplish its end. To perfect it, they denied freedom of speech, of the press and surrounded the ballot box with oaths which no American could take without degrading himself. All the officers selected and chosen by it, from the Probate Judge down to the pettiest commissioner were selected for the purpose of strengthening and perpetuating this great fraud upon our rights. That was the object then, and it is the object now. The persons filling these positions were chosen on account of their willingness and capacity to secure by any means, no matter how unjust or fraudulent, the end designed by the invaders from Missouri.
That end is secured by Territorial statute, sanctioned by the administration, and Acting Gov. Stanton is instructed and apparently very willing to enforce it.
We are glad to see that Acting Gov. Stanton has such a holy regard for what he terms law. When he addressed the citizens of Lawrence, he said that he "wished he could inspire in their minds the same love for the Union and the Constitution that he possessed himself." Notwithstanding his great love for the Constitution, he does not hesitate to "attempt" to enforce statutes made in direct violation of it, and also in violation of the Kanzas-Nebraska act. He cannot "attempt" so gross a usurpation as to secure to the squatters of Kanzas their rights under the Constitution of his "glorious Union." This is all the settlers in Kanzas demand. But according to Stanton it is "gross usurpation" to sustain the provisions of the Constitution, and only proper to substain the rule of Missouri in Kanzas.
Stanton don't believe that the Territorial Legislature was elected by the people of an adjoining State. This is pardonable in him considering that he came from Tennessee. We had a Deputy Sheriff from that State in the Territory last year. He wrote a "pass" as that, but we do say that a man who declares that the Bogus Legislature was not elected by the people of an adjoining State, is worthy of representing a constituency composed of just such beings as this Deputy Sheriff is the example. We shall waste no words upon the Acting Governor's belief. We say that any man guilty of such a belief is too ignorant to be Governor of Kanzas Territory.
The Governor advises the people to register their names and apply to the authorities for correction of the voting lists. We regret to inform him that we cannot accept his advice. Our regard for the "Union and the Constitution" "inspires" us to oppose everything bogus. We demand that the Kansas-Nebraska act shall be carried out in good faith. We demand of the General Government to see to it that the provision of the Constitution, the spirit and letter of which were violated by the infamous Territorial Legislature shall be restored to us before we "register" our namesor attempt to "correct" the voting lists. Our love for the instrument is too high and holy to permit us for a moment to respect the laws enacted or officers appointed by unconstitutional authority. We wish we could "inspire" in Acting Gov. Stanton the same love for pure constitutional law as that possessed by the people of Kanzas. Could we do so, we should not find him advising fifty thousand American citizens, to violate its plainest obligations and accept instead a Legislation based upon the most damning fraud recorded in history.
Thank God! the people of Kanzas are not willing to submit to any such degradation.
PARKVILLE RAILROAD.
By this we mean the route usually styled the Quindaro, Parkville and Burlington Railroad, or so much of it as will connect Quindaro with the Hannibal and St. Joseph road. Since we came here we have had opportunity to converse with some gentlemen who feel a deep interest in this road, and who are well acquainted with the country through which it will run and the character of the route as regards its practicability. In this paper we propose to state a few facts about this road, and we wish to do so without disparaging any of the rival roads that are in contemplation. Every enterprise should be expected to rise by its own merits, or fall throught its own demerits; and proprietors as well as advocates are not wise to cleave to aught else with a hope of success than to the intrinsic worth of a project.
No person acquainted with the surface of Missouri where it borders on the Missouri river, will claim that there is at any considerable place a single good terminus for a railroad on the northern bank of that river from Liberty to Weston, except at Parkville. The configuration of the country is such that Parkville stands without a rival on the north side of the Missouri for all that distance, while at the same time its location is most favorable. Having a good steamboat landing it is naturally the outlet for all the produce raised in the rich surrounding country. Having a situation that fits it for a railway terminus it is the point to which a road running north and south in western Missouri would naturally be directed.
Moreover, a road running to Parkville would be made to run in connection with other roads that must in a few years be built westward through Kanzas valley, and southward through the southern portion of Kanzas, and the trade and travel of these rich regions would be made to pay a tribute to western and northern Missouri. The road of which we wish to speak will connect Parkville with the Hannibal and St. Joseph's Railroad, which will be finished throughout in less than two years. From Parkville to the H. & St.J R.R. will be about forty-five miles. Some preliminary surverys have already been made. The route has proven to be a highly practicable one. We have seen a profile of sixteen miles of the road from Parkville out and from it think there are few more favorable localities for a road in any section of our country.
The remainder of the route we are informed will be even less difficult to construct than what we have seen sketched. The cost will be less than $25,000 per mile. $1,000,000 stock would complete the connection, and that too by the time the H.& S.J. R.R. is completed as far west as the proposed junction. Then between Kanzas, central and southern Kanzas, and Chicago and all the eastern cities there would be immediate and very direct railroad connection; and a large proportion of that emigration that is yet to flow to the territory west and and southwest of the Missouri river would pour along this line and a golden trade would pay a heavy tribute. Whilst Parkville and Quindaro and western and northern Missouri are directly interested in the early completion of this important road; every line of railroad running eastward and westward, located in central and northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and lines north of these in other States, should all feel interested in this road, as it will add to their business; and every business town situated on any of those roads would also reap profits from the construction of these few miles of road. If it seems incredible that so much importance is attached to it take down your maps, consult it, and see present railroad connections; think of the course of trade and travel, and we doubt not you will conclude we have not ever-estimated it.
We came up on the F X Aubry a few weeks since and thought that her officers were fine fellows. On her each trip up there were a number of passengers ticketed to Kanzas City who wished to come on to Quindaro. They were willing to pay a reasonable price to come on. The officers demanded of them $2,50 for the privilege of riding only eight miles! We hope by watching to learn soon which are the best steamers for Kanzas bound emigrants to patronize.
BROWN VS. STANTON.
Among other mental phenomena there are few more singular than the different light in which the same thing is beheld by persons looking from different stand points. A specimen of this kind of mental abberation is presented by the opposite views which Gov. Stanton and Editor Brown have taken of the action of the citizens of Lawrence in making certain compromises propositions relative to the approaching election--the one declaring that the propositions urge a course of usurpation on his part, the other raising a clamor about the Free-State party being sold out by them, &e. We publish the propositions inside by the Free-State men of Lawrence headed by Gov. Robinson, and then the remarks alluded to of Mr. Stanton and Mr. Brown:
"But if a fair election is intended not withstanding the body of men calling it was not elected by the people of Kanzas, and notwithstanding the people have already formed a constitution of which a large majority approve, we, the undersigned, are willing to overlook the past, and go into the election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention should a convention of the people of Kanzas concur, if the following course will be adopted by the officers of the election, to wit:
1st. Two persons shall be selected in each township or district, to correct the registry list--one by the pro-slavery and one by the free-state party--who shall proceed in company to take the census and re-register all legal voters; and the Probate Judges shall correct their first lists, and the apportionment of delegates shall be made according to these returns.
2d. Four judges of election shall be elected from each voting precinct--two by the pro-slavery and two by the free-state party--and the names of three of said judges shall be required to a certificate of election to entitle a person to a seat in the convention."
In replying to these propositions Gov. Stanton used the following language:
"If I believed, as I do not believe, you, assertion that the laws of Kanzas were "enacted by a Legislature elected by the people of an adjoining State," it would still be impossible for me to set them aside. The attempt to do so would be an act of gross usurpation, not less objectable in its character and effects, than the fraudulent interference which you attribute to the people of Missouri. I must therefore say to you, in the most explicit language, that I can do nothing which denies the authority and validity of the laws enacted within this Territory. Congress alone has powers to abrogate them."
The course which the Free-State men proposed, and was thus characterised as a proposition to set aside the laws passed by the bogus Legislature we find noticed as follows by Mr. Brown in the Herald of Freedom of the 16th inst., under the head, "Selling Out."
"We published in another column a correspondence which has passed between Chas. Robinson and others, and Gov. Stanton. The letter was written, we believe, by Robinson himself, and no doubt reflects his sentiments. He aggress to "overlook the past" and go into the election under the bogus laws if Stanton will give him the price demanded, which is a new census, and four judges of election, two of whom shall be free State."
And in another article alluding to the same thing we find the following:
"We publish over his own signature to-day a proposition to "sell out the party." If any man in Kanzas has been guilty of a more open and direct effort in that direction he deserves hooting from the Territory."
We ask our readers not to be surprised at this disparity of opinion for "great men will differ."
JOTTINGS.
We have spent some time in gipsying since our return to the Territory, and intend to make weekly jottings of the same, for the amusement or information of our readers. We may put the good nature of our Missouri and, Territorial friends to the test, but they will undoubtedly take into account that even flies and honey bees can't live on all sweets, and allow us to speak of their towns and external conditions as they strike us, an emigrant from a distant and long-settled State. We earnestly deprecate that spirit of rivalry, which seeks to build up one's own by pulling other's interests down, but would excite our neighbors by noble example to higher and worthier efforts at general improvement.
We made a flying visit to Kanzas City a few days since, and were astonished at the growth of the town, and evidence of business prosperity since we first landed there in the fall of '54. We went in search of certain household necessaries not yet to he had in our new town. We were successful in finding good cabinet furniture at Frame's over the store of Messrs. West, James & Shouse, and renewed our business acquaintance with the latter firm. We take pleasure in recommending Messrs. West, James & Shouseto strangers in the Territory, visiting Kanzas City for the purpose of trade. We can somment them for fair dealing and courtesy--at least to the ladies.
We have also made two or three flying visits to Parkville, Mo., opposite us on the river. We called at the stores of Messrs. Wilson, Somers, and Ringo; found very good stocks of assorted goods and were courteously treated. Mrs. Super, on Main street, keeps a choice assortment of millinery goods, and gets up articles in her line, in good taste. Besides her qualifications in Millinery and "?Mantua-making?", her prices are reasonable. There was one serious damper to the pleasure of our visits--the great amount of drunkenness in the streets and even shops. We have spent most of the last fifteen years in a "??"license" and "prohibitory law" State. In those years we have not seen many drunk men (and women!) as we have seen in Parkville and Wyandott within the last three weeks. Wyandott, our sister town, greatly to our suprise and regret, has some six or eight "?grog?" shops to add its beautiful slopes with a sprawling humanity. The Quindaro Association has been more fortunate in this direction. The article is not to boughty here, and the consequence is that the drunken and idle don't stop with us "???". They dont like." "Our hills are too steep"--(not good to sun themselves "???" ?) N.
ITEM-Day before yesterday was the anniversary of the sacking of Lawrence and destruction of hotels and residences by the Borderers.
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ITEM-Freights are $1 a hundred from Leavenworth to Lawrence. They are $1.25 a hundred from Quindaro to Wyandott--Herald of Freedom, May 16.
This is a very suggestive item, and we are not quite certain that the thoughts and queries it gives rise to are of the most generous character. It and other similar items prompts us to ask the Editor of the Herald if this statement is a fair specimen of his "?veracity?"; if it indicates the profundity of his love for truth; if it exhibits his competency to avoid the misrepresentation of facts? Editors having to depend upon other, and often interested parties for information, are frequently led to make statements of an inviduous character when such is farthest from their intention. Whilst the Herald knows the source of the above item, we know that freights are taken from Quindaro to Lawrence almost every day in the week at the rate of &1.10 per hundred has been paid. Our commission merchants ship goods to Lawrence regularly at $1, and on Tuesday last a load was shipped at 75 cents per hundred.
Last week we had occasion to suggest to the Herald that a statement contained in it about the relative distance of Lawrence from this and other points was inaccurate--in the item above quoted there was another mis-statement; that these should occur consecutively without some design we cannot believe and hence it is a query with us, why the Editor of the Herald so long as he had an interest in Quindaro, found it convenient to speak in glowing terms of its advantages, &e., and why since he sold that interest, he has found only occassion to disparage it. Some things are less respectable than other very mean things, and by its fruit may ye judge a true.
ITEM-At the late session of the Court at Lecompton all of the persons indicated for Treason, were in attendance ready for trial excepting a certain individual who in a late chapter of the Kanzas History now being published in the Herald of Freedom, is represented as a "leader" of the people.
It is reported that this individual sent a letter to Judge Cato excusing his absence on account of small pox in his family. He feared that his attendence might endanger the court to an attack of that disease.
We also understand that this "leader," during the session of the court and while his excuse for non-attendance was before it, was in daily communion with his neighbors and fellow citizens.
We do not object to the care taken to prevent the court from catching the small pox; but would most respectfully enquire (if these reports are true) whether the lives of the followers of this most eminent leader are not almost as valuable as the lives of those pure minded patriots infesting the Courts at Lecompton?
SPOT THEM.
We have made a fruitless endeavor to account for the course pursued by the officers of some steamboats on the Missouri river. Whether they are hard up for a little fun or possessed of very uneviable proclivities we cannot determine but it is very certain that they go a great way out of their course, to lie in a small way about our little town. We were rather inclined to think that the people here were very emiable and in nowise disposed to molest any persons or make them afraid. But whatever good qualities they may boast of there is something in them, or in the hills around here, or in something else that provokes these steamboats officers, to talk very strangely. We regret this from the fact that our little town by causing these persons to tell falsehoods may be censurable, for it is sure that had Quindaro never been projected these same men would not have had some prevarications to answer for that now stand against them. A few days since the clerk of the Thos. E. Tutt actually denied the existence of Quindaro, and presisted in such an assertion until he found that the applicant for passage would seek another boat and then he "cav-ed." If these individuals get paid for such proceedings we suppose it is legitimate, however contemptible it may be. So long as we hear of such instances we will the fun of posting them.
RAILROAD MEETING AT QUINDARO.
On Friday evening the 15th the citizens of Quindaro convened for the purpose of discussing the propriety of aiding in the construction of the Parkville and Burlington Railroad. Although there was but a short notice given, a large attendance was present. Mr. Monroe Henderson was called to preside, and J. M. Walken was chosen Secretary.
The object of the meeting having been stated Mr. Charles B. Ellis was called upon to give his opinion in regard to the advantages, character and probable costs of said road, which briefly summed up are, that it would make a very important connection by joining the Hannibal and St. Joseph road with the valley of the Kanzas river and other rich portions of the Territory; the route for the road as surveyed in practicable, and it is is estimated that the cost of construction would be less than the average cost of roads in Ohio or Illinois.
Gov. Robinson was called for and entertained the audience a short time at the close of Mr. Ellis remarks, and he was followed by Mr. Henderson the Chairman of the meeting.
On motion a committee of seven was chosen to solicit subscriptions. The members of this committe are M. Henderson, R.P. Gray, Chas. B. Ellis, F. Johnson, Gov. Robinson, Dr. Buddington and Capt. O. Webb.
Dr. Ainsworth moved that a committee be appointed to make arrangements for a delegation to attend a Railroad meeting at Plattville. The following persons were chosen: M. Henderson, "?" M. Walden, G.W. Veale, Dr. Buddington and M.B. Newman.
The Subscriptios were taken were of a liberal character. Many persons manifesting a willingness to take an amount of stock equal to the value of their interests in Quindaro.
Mr. Park of Parkville, Mo., has commenced the erection of a business house in Quindaro, fronting on the Levee, twenty-six feet by seventy, and five stories high. The foundation is being laid. The whole structure will be of stone.
ITEM-Several cases of Small Pox have occured at Lawrence within a few weeks past.
CHURCHES.
Within the past ten days two large stone church buildings have been contracted for in Quindaro. One is being built by the Methodist Episcopal Church and the other by the Congregational Church. Sufficient funds have already been subscribed to complete them both. Each will cost about $2,000, that erected by the M. E. Church probably a few hundred dollars the most as it is somewhat the largest. The foundation of the Congregational building is being laid and the carpenter work is under way.--Both buildings will be completed in a short time long before the town will be one year old, and when finished they will be creditable to the town, for they will be built in a substantial manner of substantial materials in a good style of church architecture. Then indeed will we have realized the poet's vision of the enterprise of western pioneers:
Scarce steal the winds, that sweep his woodland tracks,
The larch's perfume from the settler's axe,
Ere, like a vision of the morning air,
His slight framed steeple marks the house of prayer.
BUILDING STONE.
In another article we have alluded to the quality any quantity of building stone with which Quindaro is supplied, but were not so specific in our remarks as the facts do warrant us in being. The common blue limestone quarried on the town site is of a quality that no locality, can surpass. A quarry of stone more elegant for building purposes has been opened within three miles of town by Mr. Klans whose card will be seen in another column. This stone is white and works beautifully. In texture it is between Sandstone and Granite, durable and yet easily cut. In color it resembles the Dayton limestone of Ohio, or that much used in Chicago for building. A house with a front of this material will be a very handsome. Mr. K. is now erecting a dwelling for himself and fronting it from his qurry. Many persons who have seen it are so well pleased that they have given orders and during the course of the summer business houses finished with this stone will be completed. Rock of any size required in buildling can be taken from the quarry. This material together with blue limestone and brick, will render building here very convenient and not very expensive.
ITEM-Were we the least inclined to be poetic or sentimental, just now our imagination might regale itself with any flights. Such a change as a few bright and balmy days have produced in the woods around Quindaro would make us as musical as it has the sweet-voiced birds, could we roll our eye in a fine phrenzy. Nimble-fingered Spring has been about and busy at her generous task of clothing the naked hill sides with green raiments, leading forth the countless beautiful wild flowers and setting them in little cosy rustic riches, and placing on the great tree tops coronets of leaves.
"From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill,
Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And swells and deepens; to the cherished eye
The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves
Pur forth their buds, unfolding, by degrees,
Till the whole leafy forest stands displayed,
In full luxuriance to the sighing gales."
ITEM-On Monday morning last before six o'clock the steamer Australia reached our landing and took the privilege of firing off a cannon thereby arousing many from quiet slumbers and pleasant romances in dreamland. It has been intimidated that it was in honor of Gov. Walker, who is said to have been on board said boat en route for his executive post, but we believe the firing was because of the first time the U.S. mail has been carried up the Missouri river, and this is a matter worthy of having powder burned and a noise made at its inaugaration.
ITEM-On Monday evening last there was a Railroad meeting in Parkville, Mo., to take into consideration the Q.P.& B. Railroad. The meeting was well attended and very spirited. A number of gentlemen went up from Quindaro.
ITEM-Senator Wilson was in Washington on the 16th of May, en route for Kanzas. We wish him a pleasant trip to the land, in the defense of whose rights he so nobly exerted his powers and privileges in the Halls of Congress, and during the Presidential campaign. Towards such men the Free-State men of Kanzas cherish a hearty gratitude.
ITEM-On last Monday morning the Missouri Democrat of St. Louis, appeared in a complete new dress. It is now the handsomest sheet published in that city, while the true and dignified course it has maintained, and still maintains, in advocating the high claims of free over slave labor, makes it decidedly the best journal in Missouri.
ITEM-About ten days ago, Judge Cunningham started from Kanzas City to go to Fort Scott, to hold a session of court. The time for the opening of the court came, but his Honor has not been heard of or at least had not when we last heard. It is apprehended that he may have been murdered.
HOTELS.
The Quindaro House is one of the largest, and is called by travellers the best Hotel in the Territory.
The accomodations at the Wyandott House, Quindaro are good.
HEARERS WEIGHED.
A celebrated parson lately preached a rather long sermon for the text--"Thou art weighed and found wanting." After the congregation had listened about an hour, some began to get weary and went out; others soon followed, greatly to the annoyance of the minister. Another person was about to retire, whereupon the parson stopped in his sermon and said: "That is right, gentlemen; as fast as you are weighed, pass out." He continued his sermon at some length after that, but no one disturbed him by leaving.
LATEST NEWS.
RETREAT OF GEN. WALKER FROM NICARAGUA AND BRIGHAM YOUNG FROM UTAH.
New Orleans, May 13, 1857.
The Steamship Promethens, from New York 2d. inst. via Havana, arrived at this port. She connected at Harvana with the steamship Granada, from Aspinwall, and brings the California mails of April 20.
The news from Nicaragua is highly important, conveying as it does intelligence of the retreat from the country of Gen. Walker.
The Havana correspondent of the True Delta says that a private letter has been received in that city, stating that Gen. Walker has evacuated Rivas, and was on board a British man-of-war at San Juan del Sur.
FROM THE NEW YORK HERALD, MAY 12.
News reached us yesterday direct from Havana, and also by the way of New Orleans, that Walker had evacuated Nicaragua and had gone on board a British vessel of war at San Juan del Sur. We give the dispatches as they came to us. We cannot vouch for their truth.
OUR HAVANA CORRESPONDENCE.
I received last night news by express from the south side, from a most reliable source, that Gen. Walker had been compelled to abandon his defenses and had taken refuge on board of a British man-of-war at San Juan del Sur, Col. Lockridge remaining at Greytown. So ends the Nicaragua Walker dynasty, and the trouble of Lord Palmerston as to its recognition, for the present. I presume the government here received despatches last night, and possibly our papers, if allowed, may give us more particulars this morning, in which case you will have the Cuban official version and details of things that you will not have in Spanish papers.
Through mails which left San Francisco April 20, the following item from Carson Valley was brought:
A report was prevalent in the valley to the effect that a serious dissension had arisen among the saints at Salt Lake city. It is said that Brigham Young had been compelled to flee the city, to save himself from the fury of his flock. The difficulty had its origin in matters relating to the administration of the church property, we believe.
BY TELEGRAPH.
FROM THE MISSOURI DEM., MAY 18.
WASHINGTON, May 16.
Official dispatches recently received warrant the belief that Gov. Brigham Young has fled from Utah. It is known that he was in treaty with the Indians for his safe conduct through their country.
Ex-Justice Drummond has arrived here for consultation on the affairs of the Territory.
CHARLESTON, May 16.
Washington dispatches received in this city state that the health of senator Butler of South Carolina, is in a very precarious condition, and that his death is daily expected.
DETROIT, May 16.
At the meeting last evening in the city hall, to consider the means of relief of the distressed people in Northern Michigan, a citizen of Gratrol county was present, whose wife and three children died of starvation, and who gave gloomy accounts of the suffering in that region.--He said the people were dying for want of the most common food.
MRS. CUNNINGHAM ACQUITTED--SCENES IN COURT.
There was a great crowd in the Court House in New York, when the lawyers had finished their speeches, and the Judge his charge in the case of Mrs. Cunningham alias Burdell. About two hundred ladies were present. The Jury retired. The Herald says:
"For a few minutes there was some slight departure from the wonted quiet, stillness and order of the Court. There were efforts on the part of the ladies to get a nearer view of the now celebrated woman, whose fate was at this moment hanging so awfully in the balance. But she avoided, as well as possible, this impertinent, though natural curiosity. Resting her head upon her hand, and looking downward, silent, and it may be prayerful; the daughters persisted in keeping their veils down so that the curiosity of prying eyes not gratified.
RETURN OF THE JURY.
At about five minutes to 8 o'clock the buzz went round that the Jury had agreed, and were entering the court. They entered and took their seats on the box.--All eyes were turned towards them. A painfully profound stillness reigned throughout the court.
The jury answered to their names.
Mr. Vandervoor--Gentlmen of the jury, have you agreed to your verdict?
The Foreman--we have.
(Here Mrs. Cunnigham, deeply affected and much agitated, was caused to stand up and look towards the jurors.
Mr. Vandervoor--Jurors, look upon the prisoner; prisoner, look upon the jurors. How say you, gentlemen, do you find Emma Augusta Cunningham, otherwise called, Burdell, guilty or not guilty?
The Foreman--Not guilty.
[Some manifestations of applause.]
Mrs. Cunningham was so agitated that she heard not the words that the foreman uttered, and did not know what the verdict was, till her counsel whispered it to her, then she sunk back overpowered by her feelings.
Mrs. Cunningham and her daughters were conducted out of Court into one of the Judge's chambers, and then for some time received the congratulations of their friends on the happy termination of the prosecution. We understand that they return to the fatal house in Bond street.
The verdict seemed to afford very great satisfation. Judge Davis privately expressed himself pleased with it.
ITEM-There are few things in which address and judgement are more necessary than in the giving of advice, which is showing a man that you either know more or are better than himself.
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LYING IN BED IN THE MORNING.
For the Quindaro Chindawon.
I love to rove in the shady grove
Where the gentle zephyrs are stealing,
I love to sit at the festive board
Where fowl and ven'son are smoking:
I love to gaze at the golden blaze
When Sol the West is adorning;
But this I love far better than all--
"???" in bed in the morning.
That poets should sing of the joy of Spring,
Is not in the least suprising;
But I can't conceive why a man should weave
A sonnet to early rising.
Tho' Franklin old was a sage I'm told,
I can't go with him in scorning.
The blessed scene in the land of dreams,
While lying abed in the morning.
Let those who choose, retire to snooze
When the ducks and chickens are going,
And rub their eyes when forced to rise
At chantieleer's dismal crowing;
They lose the sight of the gorgeous night,
And spend their days in yawning.
Till midnight damp I'll trim the lamp
And--lie abed in the morning. Clio.
JEFFERSON'S OPINIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT.
EXTRACTS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE.
TO JUDGE ROANE.
Poplar Forest, September 6, 1819.
Dear Sir: I have read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces signed Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation, in the copies you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every title of them. They contain the true principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of, 1776 was in its form; not affected indeed by the sword, as that out by the rational and principal instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.
The nation declared its will by dismissing functionaries of one principle and, electing those fo another in the two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election. Over the judiciary department, the Constitution had deprived them of their control. That, therefore, has continued the reprobated system, and although new matter has been incorporated into the old, yet the leaven of the old mass seems to assimmilate to itself the new, and after twenty years' confirmation of the federated system by the voice of the nation, declared through the medium of elections, we find the judiciary on every occasion still driving us into consolidation.
In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the Constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand you quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that "the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government, but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under which the judiciary is derived." If this opinion be sound, then indeed is our Constitution a complete felo de se. For intending to establish three departments, co-operate and independent, that they might check and balance one another, it has given according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the others, and that one, too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation.
For experience has already shown that the impeachment is has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the ones you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only at least, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.--Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law. My construction of the Constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the Constitution in the case submitted to its action; and without appeal. I will explain myself by example, which having occured while I was in office, are better known to me, and the principles which governed them.
A Legislature had passed the sedition law. The federal courts had subjected certain individuals to its penalties of fine and imprisonment. On coming into office I released those individuals by the power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could never be more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering without the authority of law, or, which was conivalent, a law unauthorized by the Constitution, an therefore null. In the case of Marbury and Madison, the federal judges declared that commissions, signed and sealed by the President, were valid, although not delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete the deed, which, as long as it remains in the hands of the party, is as yet no deed, it is in posse only, but not in esse, and I withheld delivery of the commissions.
They cannot issue a mandamus to the President of Legislature, or to any of their officers. WHen the British treaty of "???" arrived, without any provision against the impressment of our seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The "???" thought I should ask their advice. I "???" "???" "???" mockery of them "???" "???" against following it, should they advise its ratification. The Constitution had made their advice necessary to confirm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some, but I have never doubted its soundness.
In the case of the persons "???" under exactly similar circumstances, the federal court had determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen; the House of Representatives, nevertheless, determined the other (Smith of South Carolina) was a citizen and admitted him to his seat in this body. Duane was a Republican, and Smith a Federalist, and these decisions were made during the Federal ascendency.
These are examples of my position, that each of the three deparmtments has equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided for themselves under a similar question.
INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT AT HYATT.
In our last number some mention was made in regard to a political movement that had previously been made at Hyatt, in so-called Anderson County. We publish below the declaration of rights which was passed on that occassion. The movement needs little comment. It stands out as a matter of history. It is a fact that exemplifiss the unsettled state of affairs in the Territory, the want of government, the absence of protection, the need of security--an abnormal condition to which no remedies are being applied by those who claim to hold the only legitimate right to govern:
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, inhabitants of Kanzas, and settlers of the town of Hyatt, in convention assembled, do hereby organize ourselves into a legal corporate community, subject to laws of our own making, and to such laws as may from time to time be enacted by representatives of our own choice, and to the Constitution of the United States, and to such laws of the General Government as are in accordance therewith. Holding fast to the traditions of our fathers in respect to human rights, we receive these truths as self evident, "that all men are born free and equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends," (or any community is without government,) "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it," or "to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
The citizens of the town of Hyatt, being without any government of an operative character, and without officers or organization, are necessarily thrown back on their individual sovereignty contemplated in "the organic act of the Territory," and announced by the framers of the acts as "the squatter sovereignty principle."
As the only "divine right" of government emanates from the people, it follows that the sovereignty of the individual is first, the sovereignty of the communities, next the sovereignty of associated or States, third, and the sovereignty of a union of States is last and least.
All history warns us that the tendency of power is to centralization. This danger if less apparent in republics than in despotisms, is still imminent at all times; thus, "eternal vigilence," is now, as it has ever been "the price of liberty."
The object of our present union and organization is that we may have the benefit of "law and order." We have waited already too long for the action of the general Government. We have proved to the world or desire for peace, and our respect for legally constituted authority. To acquiesce longer in the present anarchical state of affairs, would be tostultify ourselves in the eye of the nations, and to prove ourselves to be unfit to be freemen. When the officers of the General Government shall have awakened to a true sense of their responsibilities to the people, and their allegience to freedom, and shall extend to us the benefits of that Constitution which should be their guide and our defence, then we shall be ready to yield an active obeidence, in place of a passive non-resistence.
But while we thus proclaim ourselves lovers of peace, and conservators of order, while we thus acknowledge the legally constituted authority of the General Government, and our respect for all its constitutional enactments, while we seriously and earnestly deprecate the least collision with its exercise of even doubtful or unconstitutional powers, we still cannot forget our dignity as men, nor our rights as freemen.
"Prudence" (we quote the language of our fathers,) "prudence" dictates, "that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils, are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forems to which they are accustomed." But when a community finds themselves as we now are, without any form of government, IT IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, TO PROVIDE THEMSELVES WITH A GOVERNMENT, AND THE NECESSARY GUARDS FOR THEIR FUTURE SECURITY.
A denial of this right of self government, is the keystone in the arch of every despotism. Upon this denial rests to day the throne of every tyrant, and teh superstructure of every oppression. DENIED TO MAN, IT IGNORES INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY. DENIED TO A PEOPLE, IT CRUSHES OUT THE SOVEREIGNTY OR THE MASSES.
Self government is the life blood of liberty! Self government is Freedom's divine pulsation! Deprived of it man becomes a chattle; Deprived of it, nations become the "???" and the debris of supstitions and usurpations.
Men are not made for governments, but governments are made for men. The rights of the people depend not upon governments, but governments depend upon, and are "???" by the rights of the people.
The "Magna Charta," comes down from God, the "???" "???" from Him alone. Thus, the legitimate end of all government, it is to strengthen and secure the sovereignty of the individual.--The legitimate end of despotism is to circumscribe and impair it. Because God has no favorites on earth; therefore, has he created all men equal, and made each the owner of himself. Hence man's inalienable self-hood, is a truth, questioned only by tyrants and their parasites abroad and at home.
We therefore intend to exercise the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and by the Organic Law of this Territory. And as peaceable and law abiding citizens, we hereby make this declaration of principles and intentions.
REJECTION OF THE DALLAS CLARENDON TREATY.
(From the N.Y. Herald)
The answer of England to the amended Dallas-Clarendon treaty has been received at Washington. The treaty modifications made by our Cabinet, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, are virtually rejected by Lord Palmerston, and doubtless with some suggestions through Mr. Dallas or Lord Napier to Gen. Cass, that will be likely to revive the slumbering Anglophobia of the State Department.
In the absence of any precise information touching the real objections of Palmerston to the treaty, as amended by our government, we are left upon this point, to our conjectures. We feel pretty well assured, however, that the late ultra pro-slavery Senate at Washington is mainly responsible--that its impracticable demands of England concerning niggers in the Bay Islands and elsewhere, were fatally offensive objections with the British Cabinet. Other considerations have doubtless contributed to sharpen this specific point of hostility into something of positive indifference, if not of haughty defiance, concerning the final success or failure of these negotiations. Lord Palmerston is not the man to forget such offenses as the dismissal of Crampton and his three recruiting Consuls for the Crimea. He has also entertained his misgivings of the warlike antecedents and filibustering sympathies of Gen. Cass, and of the Ostend manifesto of Mr. Buchanan, and has been anxiously waiting his opportunity to snub them. But above all, his brilliant successes in the late British elections have elevated my Lord Palmerston, and made him proud, imperious, independent and defiant, and especially inclined to carry it with a high hand over what he doubtless considers the impudent assumptions of an ultra pro-slavery and filibustering administration.
Another issue, however, rising far above the personal misgivings, prejudices, and unbalanced diplomatic accounts of of Lord Palmerston, has evidently exerted a controlling influence over his mind, adverse to this amended Dallas-Clarendon treaty. We refer to the passive armed neutrality policy adopted by our Cabinet in reference to the affairs of China. We have seen from the English newspapers press--metropolitan and provincial--that the British government and people have expected much, and have been sorely disappointed and chagrined. In this matter--that "???" our warlike and progressive democratic party in power, they at least anticipate something more in regard to China than the subordinate position and policy of "masterly inactivity." Hence the early interposition of Lord Napier in behalf of Mr. Walker as our special ambassador in China: hence the very pleasing assurances of family, friendship, common ancestry, common destiny, interests, hopes, &c., with which Lord Napier was ushured into Washington.
Now all these assurances and protestations and boastings and toastings of brotherly love attendant upon the dinings and winings of Lord Napier, go for nothing. The position refused of our government to participate with England and France in the magnificent enterprise of opening the while Chinese empire to free trade and free social intercourse with the civilized world, and the stupidity and folly of the Southern ultras controlling the Senate of the United States, in making the issue of niggers and African slavery the test question upon Central American affairs, have, in a single blow, demolished all the hopes of Lord Napier and our St. George's Society of the active "co-operation" of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, in the East and in the West, in behalf of the common objects of commerce and Christianity.
The Dallas-Clarendon treatry, as modified by our Senate and Cabinet, has been sent back by England, with a few paltry diplomatic excuses, as one of our despatches states avout the unratified Honduras convention. We believe, that Lord Palmerston in this movement will be fully substained by the public opinion of England; and that, accordingly, there is no probability of his abating a jot in his objections or demands.--What, then, is our administration to do? Succumb?--yield the disputed ground upon Central American affairs, for the sake of "our cordial relations of amity?" No! What then? We see no other way of escape from this entangling alliance, under its present significant developments, than to cut loose and henceforth stand aloof from all copartnership with England, or any other European Power, in our negotiations touching the domestic affairs of the Central American States. Let the pending joint stock negotiations be abandoned--let the required notice be given of the total abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and let the policy be inaugurated of independent American diplomacy in Central America as towards other countries, and let us hold England answerable in San Juan del Norte, as in Vera, Cruz, for any and all infractions of our independent treaty privileges. At this crisis, such, it appears to us, is our only safe and reliable policy.
Next, with regard to China, we are not necessarily bound to the beggarly expedient of a timid neutrality in refusing all proffers of an armed coalition with England and France. Of the fruits finally resulting to the civilized world from this Anglo-French enterprise we shall be among the first to claim or full share. In the interval, we have the means, the men, the ships and the opportunity for such an independent naval demonstration in the waters of China as will command the respect of all parties, now and hereafter, and contribute much, from its moral weight, to the early consummation of the common objects of all Christendom.
Finally, we perceive no cause for any special alarm or regret in this rejection of the amended Dallas-Clarendon treat. It has caused a sensation in the diplomatic and Cabinet circles at Washington, some surprise to Lord Napier, some pleasure to the Russian Minister, and a brown study, perhaps, to Gen. Cass, with a serious shake of the head from the President. But, as the effect will be the divert the attention of the Cabinet from the paltry squabbles of hungry office beggars, and their plots and bargains for the spoils, to higher and greater and more important questions, we are rather gratified, than otherwise, at the course of Lord Palmerston. The immediate question now with Mr. Buchanan and General Cass, is shall we submit to be snubbed in this way, or shall we make this the occasion for a bold, active, decisive and comprehensive independent foreign policy, in Central American, in China, and throughout the world?
SENATOR SUMNER IN PARIS.
Mr. Walsh, the Paris correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce, in his letter of April 6th, says:--
Senator Sumner has been in this capital a fortnight or more. I have seen him only once, and then he was passing with a quick stride on the Rue de Rivoli.--English gentlemen who have been seated near him at the Galignani Reading Room mention that they were struck by his stature and athletic frame; they could discover no trace of ill health. We may anticipate a complete recovery. No French notice of ??? presence has yet appeared to my knowledge. There is an attempt to get ??? an American dinner for him, which we may presume will fail; the less ??? and diffusion for our domestic dissensions, the better. Mr. Sumner has left his card at the hotel of the Minister, Mrs. Mason; the latter caused his card to be left at the lodgings of the Senator. This, I believe, is all that has passed between them.
GEN. SCOTT TO VISIT BOSTON.
The Bee reports that a letter was received in that city, Friday, from Gen. Winfield Scott, accepting an invitation to be present at the inauguration of the Warren statue, on Bunker Hill, June 17.
PRE-EMPTION.
The pre-emption law was made for the benefits of actual settlers and not only actual, but also permanent settlers. It was framed in such terms as to prevent so far as might be, the possibility of speculators and sharpers taking advantage of it, and reaping benefits for themselves, intended alone for those who might desire to make permanent homes. The object of Government was to hold out inducements to pioneers, to give an impulse to emigration, whereby the west would be rapidly settled up. The following instructions from the land office may be of interest to those who in good faith have come west to pre-empt homes:
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
Dec. 3rd, 1856.
Gentlemen: By the fourth section of the land act of the 3rd of March, 1843, it is declared that "Where an individual has filed under the late pre-emption law (1841) his declaration of intention to claim the benefits of said law for one tract of land, it shall not be lawful for the same individual, at any future time, to file a second declaration for any other tract.
This prohibition is held by the department to extend to both classes of lands, unoffered, and such as are subject to private entry.
When a claimant, however, of either class of land, files a declaration which they prove to be invalid in consequence of the land applied for not being open for pre-exemption, or by the determination against him as a conflicting claimant; or from any other similar cause, which would have prevented him from consumating a pre-emption under such declaration; such illegal filing will be treated as a nullity and as no inhibition to his subsequently filing a legal and proper declaration for the same tract, should it be liable to pre-emption, or for any other land; it being the purpose of the law to allow a claimant a pre-emption upon one tract and nothing more, and also to prevent declaration from being filed where the intention of establishing a pre-emption is not bona-fide. I am very respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient servant.
THOS. A. HENDRICKS,
Commissioner.
STEALING SAW LOGS OUT WEST.
An Englishman traveling on the Mississippi river, told rather tough stories about London thieves. A Cincinnatian, named Case, heard these stories with a silent and expressive humph! and then remarked that the western thieves beat the London operators all hollow.
"How so?" inquired the Englishman with surprise. "Pray, sir, have you lived much in the West?"
"Not a great deal. I undertook to set up business at the Des Moines Rapids, a while ago, but the rascally people stole nearly everything that I had, and finally a Welsh miner ran off with my wife."
"Good God!" exclaimed the Englishman, "and have you never found her?"
"Never to this day. But that was not the worst of it."
"Worst! Why, what could be worse than stealing a man's wife?"
"Stealing his children, I should say," said the implacable Case.
"Children?"
"yes, a niggar woman, who hadn't any of her own, abducted my youngest daughter and sloped and jined the injins."
"Did you see her?"
"See her, yes; and she hadn't ten rods the start of me; but plunged into the lake and swam off like a duck, and there wasn't a canoe to follow her with."
The Englishman leaned back in his chair, and called another mig of "'alf-and'alf;" while Case smoked his cigar and eyed his credulous friend mose remorselessly.
"I--I shan't go any farther west--I think." at length observed the excited John Bull.
"I should not advise any one to go," said Case quietly. "My brother once lived there, but he had to leave, although his business was the best in the country."
"What business was he in, pray?"
"Lumbering--had a saw mill."
"And they stole the lumber!"
"Yes, and saw-logs,too."
"Saw-logs?"
"Yes, whole dozens of hte black walnut logs were carried away in a single night."
"Is it possible?"
"True upon my honor, sir. He tried every way to prevent it, had men hired to watch his logs, but it was all of no use. They would whip them all away as easy as if there had been no one there. They would steal them out of the river, out of the cove, and even out of the railways!"
"Good gracious!"
"Just to give you an idea--did you ever work in a saw-mill?"
"Never."
"Well, one day my brother bought an all-fired fine black walnut log--four feet three at the butt, and not a knot in in it. He was determined to keep that log any how, and hired two Scotchmen a small demijohn of whisky with them, snaked the log up the hill, above the mill, built a fire and then sat down on the log and played keerds, just to keep awake, you see. 'Twas a monstrous big log--bark two inches thick. Well, as I was saying, they played keerds and drank whiskey all night, and as it began to grow light, went to sleep straddle of the log. About a minute after daylight, George went over to the mill to see how they were getting on and the log was gone."
"What were the Scotchmen doing?"
"Sitting on the bark! The thieves had drove an iron wedge in the butt end, which pointed down the hill, and hitched a yoke of oxen on and pulled it right out, leaving the shell, and the Scothcmen a-straddle of it fast asleep."
The Syndia (Australis) papers of the 3d contain an account of a diabolical massacre perpetrated at a village called in Calendonia. There were eleven Frenchmen and a large number of Sandwich Islanders, procuring sandal wood, wehn they were most savagely attacked without any warning, and every one murdered.
FREE STATE PLATFORM.
We Citizens of Kanzas, in Delegate Convention assembled at Topeka, March 10th, 1857, Resolve and Declare:
Whereas, A body of men recently assembled at Lecompton, and claiming to be the Legislative Assembly of Kanzas Territory, have adopted a regulation, purporting to be a law for taking the census and electing delegates to a Constitutional Convention, proposed to be held in that place in September next, and
Whereas, The said Assembly was the creature if fraud, and its members the representatives of a people foreign to the territory, and
Whereas, The Organic Act does not authorize the territorial legislative power, even when legitimately convened, to pass any enabling act to change the government of the same, and
Whereas, The act of this assembly is partizan in its character, clearly contemplate fraud, for the recurrence of which it offers inadequate security, while it deprives the Executive of the Territory of the power to prevent or remedy such fraud, leaves the control of the census and election in the hands of pretended officers, not chosen by the people of Kanzas, who are of violent characters and hostile to the best interests of the Territory; and
Whereas, Said act purports to disfranchise certain bona fide settlers of Kanzas; who have filed their declaration of intention to become citizens, and are recognized as voters by the Organic Act; and
Whereas, There is no provision in the said regulation for submitting the Constitution so framed to the vote of the people of the Territory; therefore
Resolved, That the people of Kanzas Territory cannot participate in any election under such regulation, without compromising their rights as American citizens, sacrificing the best interests of Kanzas and jeopardizing the public peace.
Resolved, That having suffered under this misrule of persons, pretending to be the local officials of this Territory, we have lost all confidence in the integrity of the administration of the laws, however just these laws may appear to some on their face.
Resolved, That with the people of any Territory "alone," rests the right to change the form of their government, subject to the approval of Congress, given before or after steps for the formation of a State government have been taken and further, that a Territorial government is extra constitutional, and, at best, under ordinances of Congress, purely temporary.
Resolved, That the Constitution framed at Topeka, by the representatives of the people of Kanzas, and ratified by popular vote, is still the choice of a majority of our citizens, as the form of a state government, and that we maintain and urge on Congress our immediate admission as a state under it.
Resolved, That the policy of the Free State party has always been averse to any movement of an aggressive character, and that violence has never been resorted to save in self defence.
Resolved, That we make no tests for membership in the Free State party, save that of the exclusion of domestic slavery from Kanzas by subsequent legislation.
Resolved, That we regard the presence of peaceful relations between our citizens as conducive to their best personal welfare as well as indispensable to the perfect development and expansion of the various economical interests of the Territory, to the end thereof that such relations may be obtained and permanently established amongst us, we earnestly appeal to all men of whatever party, to submit all differences of opinion growing out of the question of our future internal domestic institutions, to the test of sound reason, and enlightened, though friendly discussion, and to the final arbitrament of the ballot box.
Provided, That any attempt to abridge or impair the freedom of speech, oral or written, or on the ballot box, or other constitutional rights, will be held as just cause of departure from this policy.
Resolved, That Congress having presented the principles of squatter sovereignty enunciated in the Kanzas bill as the basis of the political action of the people of Kanzas, we are inflexibly determined to abide by its faithful executoin, as we ever have resolutely opposed its violation, and ever will while it remains on the statute book.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Whereas, Hon. James Buchanan, in a debate in the Senate of the United States, on the admission of Michigan into the Union with the Constitution framed in a similar manner to the State Consitution of Kanzas, declared the people "stood upon their rights--rights secured to them by the Constitution, that having formed a Constitution, elected their officers, "and the whole machinery of the State Government being perfected--that having assumed this attitude they could demand their admission as a matter of right, and as "an act of justice," and that to repel a State under such circumstances is sufficient to induce fear for the consequences and cause statesmen to "tremble at an act of such injustice," and
Whereas, The present Democratic Administration, by virtue of the pledges made by its leaders in the late Presidential campaign, is in all honor bound to use its influence, and lend its aid to make Kanzas a Free State;and
Whereas, The Democratic party has in some of the States, made the admission of Kanzas as a Free State, the issue in the election of James Buchanan, and large numbers of Democrats were influenced to vote for him upon this issue; therefore
1. Resolved, That the people of Kanzas have the right to look with confidence to the present Chief Executive of the nation for an approval of their course, and for his assistance in procuring their admission into the Union under the Topeka Constitution.
2. Resolved, That this Convention would urge upon the State Legislature, the importance of assembling in June according to adjournment, and take such action as may be necessary to secure the vitality of the State Government, and its recognition by Congress.
3. Resolved, That the Territorial laws (appealed,) of Kanzas had their origin in fraud, were inposed upon the Territory by usurpation and violence, in bold definance and subversion of the Constitution, the Organic Act, and every principle of justice, and are therefore null and void and we respectfully request the Territorial Executive to refuse to enforce any of said fraudulent enactments till Congress shall provide for an election of a Territorial Legislature by the people of Kanzas, without interference from foreign States.
4. Resolved, That it is a shameless hypocricy for a political party to adopt for their principles, the doctrine of "popular sovereignty," while they justify the most patent and flagant violation of it, and presist in subjecting citizens of the United States to a foreign tyranny unparalleled in history.
5. Resolved, That the banking system chartered by the Territorial Legislature, (so called,) not only had its origin in fraud, but is a fraud in itself, and we caution all against receiving its notes and currency.
6. Resolved, That as good citizens we are ever willing to contribute to the support of a legitimate government, but we have no tribute voluntarily to offer, to the tyranny that robs us of our constitutional and inalienable rights.
7. Resolved, That the act called the "rebellion act," is a relic of barbarism and more worthy to be approved and enforced by a Nero than a Geary.
8. Resolved, That the census act of the late Missouri-Kanzas Legislature, is a chest and a swindle, requiring in one section, as a condition for voting; registration without residence, and in another residence without registration--the design of which is apparent to all who are familiar with the usurpation in Kanzas.
9. Resolved, That with the most infamous and unscrupulous men to execute the laws and issue certificates of election, past experience has shown that legal voters are not essential to the election of any man to office, and until the people can choose their own election officers, or have them appointed by some respectable official, we request the people, the Governor of the Territory, Congress and the President of the United States, to treat all elections under Territorial auspices as an infamous mockery, and null and void.
10. Resolved, That the bombarding and burning of hotels and private residence, the destruction of printing presses, the pillaging and plundering of towns, the stealing of horses and cattle, and such other things, by acting Governors, Marshalls and Sheriffs, or their mobs, is to say the least disreputable business, and should these officials or any other person, attempt a repetition of the acts of the spring and summer of 1856 it will be the duty of the people at once to constitute themselves a Vigilance Committee for self-presevation.
An order has been received by a firm, in Paris for 3,000 ton and pussy cats, which are to be sent out to Australia; bagmen are out in all directions, buying up all young, sound and healthy cats that are in market. A firm in Lille has received an order for 500 grimalkins; it appears that the cats of the north of France are in repute at the antipodes, the prices ranging from 1f.25 to 1f.50.
Transcribed by Melissa Patton. 3/7/2001.