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QUINDARO CHINDOWAN
A FREE-STATE PAPER
VOL.I QUINDARO, KANZAS, No. 49, May 22, 1858
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
J.M. WALDEN & CO.
J.M. WALDEN..............EDITOR
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THE SWORD AND THE HARP
BY J. T. FIELDS-FROM THE GERMAN
In the old catheral resting,
Two coffins press the stones;
One holds the great King Ottmar,
And one of the Poet's bones.
High in his power, the monarch
Ancestral glories led;
The sword lies in his right hand,
And the crown upon his head.
The minstrel near the proud King
Is laid in quiet sleep;
His lifeless hands unfolded,
His gentle harp to keep.
Castles and towers are falling-
The war-cry fills the land ;
But the sword it moveth never
In the dead King's hand.
Through valleys sweet with blossoms,
Mild breezes float along,
And the poet's harp is sounding
In never-dying song.
WHY THE PEOPLE OF KANZAS SHOULD NOT ACCEPT THE BRIBERY CONSTITUTION
1. Because it makes Kanzas a Slave State. The provisions in the Constitution on this point are explicit and unequivocal.
2. Because in the event of its adoption, Kanzas will remain a slave state until 1864. The provision in the Lecompton Constitution fixing the year 1864 as the date when changes may be made, and prescribing a manner for making them, precludes and previous time and any different manner. If the people accept it with those provisions, they will be held, and rightfully held, to have agreed to those provisions. It would be so held by the Supreme Court of Kanzas itself.
3. Because it is a bribe. If the Constitution is accepted under the English bill, the people of Kanzas will have declared undeniably that they have no principles which are not for sale to the highest bidder. In this they will not only cover themselves with shame, but belie all their friends in the free states who have espoused their cause and fought their battle.
4. Because the acceptance will bring inevitable defeat upon the cause of Freedom in the nation in 1860, and thus:
5. Because the people will be debarred by another Pro-slavery triumph-through the enginery and power of the Federal Government-from throwing off the loath-some institution which Lecompton was framed to maintain.
6. Because the State Government and Legislature will be thrown by Calhoun into the hands of felons like himself, who will make their power self-perpetuating, exactly as the first bogus Legislature paved the way for all the succeeding bogus Legislatures, and for the Lecompton infamy itself.
7. Because this felon Legislature will elect two of its own felons-those who can show the blackest record, preferred-to the United States Senate; thus putting farther off the day of the triumph of freedom in that citadel of the slave power.
8. Because the Lecompton Constitution cnfirms all the bogus laws, and makes them part of the fundamental law of Kanzas-only to be repealed by a change of the Constitution itself.
9. Because it confirms all the Ruffian charters for Railroads, Banks, Ferries, Bridges, Colleges, &c.; thus giving to their enemies and oppressors exclusive privileges, nearly equal in value to the entire land bribe.
10. Because the control of the very lands with which it is hoped to buy the people's votes will be given to the first felon Legislature, whose commissions are now in Calhoun's pocket or candle-box. This Legislature will have the disposal of the 5,000,000 acres, and will inevitably vote it to themselves as the holders of the railroad charter before mentioned.
11. Because the bill providing for the submission of the Constitution contains an insulting threat, requiring the people of Kanzas to accept the Constitution under pains and penalties. It may be observed that this threat is only a bung-ling scare-crow. No Congress can tie up the hands of their successors in reference to the admission of the new States. Mississippi, Flordia and Arkansas were admitted with less than the population required for a member of Congress.- Kanzas may be so admitted, even by the present Congress, in spite of the English rule, which declares that a population of 40,000 slaves and slave-drivers are equal, politically, to 90,000 freemen.
12. Because the establishment of slavery in Kanzas for six years would retard emancipation in Missouri twice six years, and because the reflex influence from that State would, in the same way, render emancipation in Kanzas doubly difficult.
13. Because the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution will drive away emigration and capital, and consign Kanzas to the tardy growth of Arkansas and Texas.
14. Because in imitation of the fathers of the Republic, who make the great Northwest the home of freedom, the legislators of 1820 declared that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist north of the southern boundary of Kanzas.
-We might fill out the column with more reasons while the Lecompton Constitution should be trampled and spit upon by the people of Kanzas, but we think these are sufficient. Those who cannot be reached by these plain and patent truths, cannot be reached at all.-Chicago Tribune
IDIOSYNCRACIES OF INDIANA DEMOCRACY
The national democratic party have certain attributes, which, if national, are also cosmopolitian. Fraud, cunning and hypocrisy are not limited by state lines. These vices are antagonistic to our national character; but to whatever extent they prevail in this country, they are freely and profusely represented by the only national party-as it delights to call itself. But different divisions of it are characterized by local peculiarities. The Virginia democracy cherish abstractions; the South Carolina democracy worship at the alter of southern rights; the Missouri democracy revel in border-ruffianism (except when Sharp's rifles are seen in distance,) and the Indiana democracy are pre-eminent in capacity for plots, treachery and base intrigue. English comes up to the level of Bright;and Niblack is as impudent as imposter as Fitch, and a later though a lesser renegade.-The representatives are not unequal to the unelected senators. It was an Indiana democrat who was designated "a dirty dog and a great liar." Alas! the dogs are getting no clearner, and the liars have not ceased to lie.
The English bill is a true growth of the national democracy, and of the Indiana variety. It is a combination of cauistry and corruption-a compound of a dodge and a bribe. The Buchanan administration governs by the spoils.-The national democratic party is governed by the spoils. Votes are purchased by offices. Measures are carried by large apportionments of plunder. The cabinet that disposed of the military reservations by stealthy sale, that gave out the Utah commissariat contracts surreptitously, might well advise the engineers in Congress to try the virtue of a land bribe in aid of the Lecompton constitution. Secretaries and senators, whose voracity for plunder had devoured the ground of the United States, might pardonably think that a bribe of four of five million of acres would prove irresistable to the people of Kanzas. The national democratic party might also think that the means by which they themselves enslaved was after all the most effectual means of enslaving the people of Kanzas. But they (we may well believe,) who could not be intimidated by terrorism, cannot be seduced by corruption. Tried in the furnace, they have acquired a stern logic which no temptation within the power of the juggling fiends of the government can shake. We are not ignorant that there are a few in Kanzas, who would seal their own shame, and sell the cause by accepting the bribe. They style themselves conservatives. Conservatism! the last alias of cowardice and corruption.- Mo. Dem
THE RECORD
Whatever may be the ultimate political destination of the uncompromising Anti-Lecompton Democrats, they deserve all honor, and should be regaurded one and all, with the confidence they have earned, by the people, of whatever party. Of the number, in the Senate, are
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, of Illinois.
DAVID C. BRODERICK, of California.
CHARLES E. STUART, of Michigan.
In the House we find but twelve names, from among all the original Anti-Lecopton Democrats, recorded against the ENGLISH bill, though Mr. MONTGOMERY, of Pennsylvania, it should be stated, paired off, and would have otherwise have been found on that side. The Representatives thus adhering to their original course are:
GARNET B. ADRIAN, of New Jersey.
HENRY CHAPMAN, of Penn.
HORACE F. CLARK, of New York.
JOHN G. DAVIS, of Indiana.
THOMAS L. HARRIS, of Illinois.
JOHN B. HASKIN, of New York.
JOHN HICKMAN, of Pennsyvania.
J. C. MCKIBBEN, of California.
SAMUEL S. MARSHALL, of Illinois.
ISAAC N. MORRIS, of Illinois.
A. SHAW, of Illinois
ROBERT SMITH, of Illinois.
There were two Lecompton Democrats from the South, Messrs. Quitman, of Mississippi, and Bonham, of South Carolina, who refused there assent to the "tortuous" act. Messrs. Davis, Harris and Ricaud, of Maryland, and Marshall and Underwood, of Kentucky, (five Americans) voted against the bill.
WADE'S DAGUERREOTYPE OF THE DOUGHFACES
"Your allies,the doughfaces of the North, in my judgement, are the most despicable of men" The modern doughface is not a character peculiar to the age in which we live, but you find traces of him at every period of the world's history. He is void of pride; he is void of self-respect; he is actuated by a mean grovelling selfishness that would sell his Maker for a price. Why, sir, when old Moses, under the imediate inspiration of God Almighty, enticed a whole nation of slaves, and ran away, not to Canada, but to old Canaan, I suppose that Pharaoh and all the chivalry of old Egypt denounced him as the most furious Abolitionist. I do not know but that they blasphemed their God, who had assisted the fugitives from labor to escape. I have no doubt at all that, when some Southern gentlemen of the Gospel come up to preach to the North, they will say that the Almighty acted a very fanatical part in the business. I am afraid they will say so; for He was aiding and abetting in the escape. But amidst the glories of that great deliverance, even feeding upon miracles of the Almighty as they went along, there were not wanting those who loved Egypt better than they loved liberty; whose souls longed for the flesh pots of Egypt; and who could turn from the visible glories of the Almighty God to worship an Egyptian calf. These were the doughfaces of that day. They were national men. They were not exactly Northern men with Southern principles; but they were Israelites with Egyptian principles.
Again, when the Savior of the world went forth on His great mission to proclaim glad tidings of joy to all the people of the earth, to break every yoke and to preach deliverance to the captive, He met with the same class of men in the persons of Judas Iscariot and the chief priests. In the days of our own Revolution, when Washington and noble associates were carrying on the struggle to establish justice, and to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, they met with the same class of men in the admirers of George III and Lord North.
They all are the same class-false to the education of their fathers-false to the great principles which have been instilled into them by their mothers from their birth-willing to do anything that will minister to the cupidity of their masters, let the consequences be what they may. It is this class of men, aided by a close aristocracy at the South, that has enabled the minority to rule with iron hand the majority, since the organization of this Government. I have endeavored to daguerreotype these men for the benefit of future ages; for I believe that, like the Indian tribes, they are disappearing.-You have put them to very hard service, sir. They die faster than the Northern negroes in rice-swamps-politically, I mean. You put them to service that they cannot stand. When you ask them to vote for a fugitive bill, they may do it once, but political death stares them in the face. When you ask them to go for the repeal of the Missouri restriction, you find the same state of things. And now, worst of all, when ask them to fasten upon their fellow-men, in a Territory of the United States, a Constitution which that people abhor, I tell you every Northern representative who participates in this act is not only politically dead, but he may thank his God if he escapes with that.
But the Senator about a degraded class in our great commercial cities. I have to confess, that there is some truth in that. We have a degraded class in the cities. They are the offscourings generally of the Old World-men who come here reduced to beggary by their ignorance; reduced to beggary by their vice; ignorant, vicious, dangerous. I do not deny it. They are incident to all large cities; but the Senator should not complain to them. They are the chief corner-stone of your political strength in the North. Find me the vicious ward of any city that does not uphold your system of slavery, vote for its canidates, support its measures and labor for its men. No, sir, you should not complain of this vicious population. In truth and in fact, they are about the only stay and support you have there now, and you ought not to traduce them. From their very natures, they attach themselves to you, and i do not think by any treatment you will be able to drive them off. They are naturally with you; they were slaves in their own countries; they do not do anything than to be the understrappers of somebody; and when they hear that here are slave-holders contending with freemen, you find them with the former all the time.- Speech of B.F. Wade, in the United States Senate, March 13.
The Des Jardines Railway accident has cost the Great Western Railway over 8161,000.
WHAT THE COUNTRY EXPECTS OF THE PEOPLE OF KANZAS
We quote from several eastern journals extracts which indicate what is expected of the people of Kanzas in the crisis brought upon them by the English Dodge. We quote from those papers which have stood by our people in the severe trials of the past-papers which reflect the sentiments of the true friends of Freedom and of Kanzas:
Five thousands sophists, each gifted with miraculous and well-oiled tongues, could not efface the fact that here are heavy bribes offered, and menaces held out, to a harassed, struggling, impoverished community, designed to impel them to accept a Slave Constitution on the plea that they can change it at pleasure. Here are solid, palpable, immediate advantages proffered to tempt them to this course, with corresponding penalties to be incurred by standing out. If they reject Lecompton by rejecting the modified Land-Grant, they get no Lands at present, no provision for Railroade, no five per cent. on the Proceeds of the Lands about to be sold; and they are thrust back into Territorial vassalage for an indefinite period, with Denver for their Governor, Lecompte and Cato for their Judges, and Buchanan for their Grand Seignoir.
These are long odds; but the people of Kanzas are too strong for them. They will spurn the bribe; they will hold fast their integrity; they will remain a Territory under many disadvantages rather than drop into the Union a slaveholding State. Two or three thousand of them may, perhaps, go in for Lecompton, wealth and infamy, swelling the Pro-Slavery vote to Five Thousand; but this will not reduce the Free-State vote below Ten Thousand. A full poll is the only requisite; the popular weariness of election after election which settles nothing, accomplishes nothing, is the only danger.
[New York Tribune.]
What will the people of Kanzas do? This inqiry we may not assume to answer. Time will show. We do not doubt there will be some "submissionists," on the principle so boldly proclaimed by an Administration journal, of "putting money in there purse." It will give us no suprise to learn, in the progress of this controversy, that heavy personal bribes are offered to individuals in Kanzas, aside from the general one contained in the bill, to cast their influence in favor of accepting the Lecompton Constitution. That the people of Kanzas, however, under any pressure of bribes and threats, will ever organize under the Lecompton Constitution, we do not believe. Much as they may desire an end of the controversy, we must still be permitted to doubt that they will look upon the insulting terms now offered them with any more favor than on the original swindle, without this additional outrage.
[Cincinnati Gazette]
Of course, it need not be apprehended for a moment that the men of Kanzas will accept the miserable bribe. As sure as there is a sun in the heavens, they will indignantly spurn it. They could not do otherwise without covering themselves with irredeemable disgrace.
The truth is, this undertaking to coerce a people against their grain is, in this country, very absurd business. It cannot be done. It is not in the Anglo-Saxon blood. Wehave just seen what has come of a foolish attempt even in England, when the man over the channel undertook to drive things his only way. The expectation which seems to have been entertained at Washington that the people of Kanzas will forego the Leavenworth Constitution and adopt Lecompton with the ENGLIHS bait, is one of the sheerest delusions of the age; and the history of the next three months will prove it so. The whole of this business of forcing upon Kanzas institutions which its people do not want-a business which with various appliances has now been kept up for three years and a half-terminiates in a ridiculous and contemptible fiasco, that can scarcely be matched in the annals of human folly.- N.Y. Courier and Enquirer.
The courage and endurance of the people of Kanzas, under the wrongs and outrages heaped upon them by the PIERCE and BUCHANAN Administrations, and by the Ruffians who have trampled their rights under their feet, have been severely tried; but no friend of the Free-state cause has ever had occason to doubt their truth, zeal or devotion. Will they now, after having so successfully resisted the repeated invasions of their marauding neighbors, the hostility of two successive dynasties, and the flagrant abuse and misrepresentation of the Democratic party, yield to the bribe or fear the threat contained in the ENGLISH bill which waits but the signature of the President to become a law? Their previous history forbids the supposition. We are confident that they will indignantly spuru those who approach them with the price of treason in their hands, and that they will deal with the braggarts who threaten, as they have dealt with them before. Their friends expect this at their hands; and disappointment now with scatter to the winds the reputation for patriotism worthy of their New England ancestry, which they have achieved in times past. Let them plant themselves once more int he breach and the victi=ory is surely theirs.
[Chicago Tribune]
A poor jilted blade sang:
"Woman's love is like Scotch snuff
You get one pinch, and that's enough."
Whereupon a darkey of more sense, as well as soul, responds:
"Woman's lub, like ingy-rubber,
It stretch de more, de more you lub her."
THE LORD'S PRAYER
(The following article is from the pen of Rev. T. A. Taylor, late of Slatersville, R. I. :)
Such is the ordinary titlegiven to a brief form of address to God, recorded in the Scriptures. We find it in Matthew's history of Christ. It constitutesin his narrative what has been technically termed the "Sermon on the Mount." In the eleventh chapter of Luke, it occurs in substance, though with variations and omissions. Christ probably presented it in these different forms on seperate occasions:
Many opinions have been entertained of the nature and design of this prayer. Some critics have pronounced it most logical in its structure, others as constituted of incoherent parts. One class of persons has regarded it as intended for all occasions; indeed, as the only prayer which can be anywhere appropriately offered. Another class, without going tot he extreme, judge that it should berepeated in every address which is made to the High Host. These opinions, however, meet with no favor from the great proportion of true Christians. Why should they? "We find neither in the Acts, nor in any writer prior to the third century, that the Lord's Prayer was used as a form in public worship."
Obviously, this is an epitome of all genuine prayer, and sustains a relation to prayer in general, similar to what the Decalogue does to all the requirements of morality and religion. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there a moral principle expressed or implied, which is not included within the two tables of the Law. Nor can we find on any of the holy pages a requisition respecting the worship of God, which is not there, at least in the germ. Furthermore, the Gospel enjoins nothing upon manrespecting his duty on his fellow man, which is not to be found implied in the ten commandments.
We might as logically conclude that all preaching should consist in a simple repetition of ten commandments, as that all praying ought to be confined to a mere repition of the Lord's Prayer.-Nor is there better reason for appending this formula to every one of our prayers to God than there is that we should make an appendix of the Decalogue to every religious address we deliver to our fellow men. A preacher of the Gospel may, if he pleases, conclude his public prayers always with "Our Father which art in heaven," etc. so he may, if he choose, recite the ten commandments as a peroration to every public discourse; but the Scriptures require nothing of the kind in either case.
He that has offered an acceptable prayer to God only repeats what he has already said, if append the the Lord's Prayer to his own. We will not affirm that Christ's injuction, "Use not vain repetitions," is applicable in such cases. Heathen tautologies he prohibits, not pious recurrences of the same thoughts or expressions. Yet beyond a doubt we in our pleas before the throne of grace (when we are in the presence of men) should strive for brevity rather than prolixity. Omniscience does not require that we should be over careful in explaining our necessities. "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me."
One Scriptural fact to which we have alluded shows conclusively that Christ does not desire that this epitome of prayer should be repeated word for word, whenever we draw near in supplications to our Father in heaven. The prayer itself is varied in its phraseology. Twice we find it, the same in thought, but not in expression.- Congregationalist.
ITEM-The Philadelphia Press speaks thus positively in regard to the recent election in the Quaker City:
The man who should undertake to prove that Chestnut street did not extend from the Delaware to the Schuylkill would be voted a lunatic; and yet such a man would not be more insane than any other who undertook to prove that Lecompton was not the controlling element in our late city election.
ITEM-The Louisville Democrat says of the English Dodge:
Did you ever hear of the man who didn't sell drams, but sold cheese and crackers, and gave the liquor? That is just the way the Lecomptonites are juggling about Kanzas. They propose to submit the ordinance, and gave away the constitution?
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THE OATH
Unanimously taken by the Fred-State Party in Delegate Convention on the second day of December, 1857.
Resolved, First, That we uttterly repudiate said constitution framed at Lecompton; that it is an instrument hostile to the popular will; and appealing to the GOD of Justice and humanity for (???) we do solemnly enter into a league and Convenant with each other, that we shall never, under any circumstances, permit the said Constitution, so framed, and NOT SUBMITTED, to be the organic law for the state of Kanzas but do pledge our lives, our fortunes, and sacred honors, in ceaseless hostility to the same.
Hon. REUBEN E. FANTON, of New York, has our thanks for valuable Public Documents.
THE MAN
Each party will have its Leader.-There is much being hinted and said about "understandins," "agreements," "combinations," and all that sort of thing, as though the distribution of the offices of the Republic were the prerogative of a knot of wary politicians who devote the period between one campaign and another in laying wires to manage the nominations. That such a regime has obtained in the Democratic party for years, and contributed somewhat to its success, we doubt not. But, if the counsels of the Republican party are thus controlled, it will entailupon it a certain and merited defeat. The tactics which best conserve a corrupt, designing and degraded party would be disastrous to one honest in purpose-noble in aim-not skilled in the arts of intrigue, deception and political legerdemain. In one respect all revolutions whether religious or political, peaceful or sanguinary, are the same-they develope their leading spirits, their LUTHERS, their CROMWELLS, their WASHINGTONS-and no revolution has neared the day of its success until amid its champions the Man of the Times is to be found. The Republican party is revolutionary in its character-the accomplishment of its mission will constitute a revolution; not a revolution in the institutions but in the policy of our government; not the subversion of correct principles but the returning to them; not the unsettling of revered compromises but the sealing of them anew. Such a Revolution must have its Leader-one who shall possess the noblest attributes of man in a high degree of excellency-one with warm sympathics and an ardent nature, a clear intellect and a sound judgement, a fearless spirit and an iron will-one who shall have been fitted by his past labors and experiences for the exalted duties and high responsibilities of the future.
The Democratic party may take as a Standard Bearer some hybred, some wooden man, some Northern Doughface or SouthernNon-committalist. Such perhaps would be its best policy, but not so with the party which is to do battle for the ascendancy of Freedom and the restoration of the primitive policy of the nation. There is to them a Man of the Times, and success in no small degree depends upon his being brought forward. To predict who he is it were useless to attempt, but there are now, as there will be when the time for nomination arrives, some considerations by which an opinion may be formed. He must be a REPRESENTATIVE MAN-one who has been identified with the struggle which has been going on for years, known throughout the length and breadth the land as a fearless champion of Freedom-one whose nomination will be the definite and positive platform which the party can endorse-one who, combining all the grand qualities of the Leader of a Revolution, will be the living exponent of the central idea of that Revolution, LOCALITY will have something to do with the selection. Each section of the country is jealous of the talent of its sons and expects an equitable distribution of the awards which are made to genius and integrity. Some sectiions seem to have been especially favored as the homes of Presidents. Since the population expanded over the valley of the Mississippi but one has been selected west of the Alleghanies and north of Tennessee. The seaboard states have furnished Presidents enough for a time if that West which has now become the great Center of the Nation, can furnish men equal to the coming contest and competent for the duties of the Chief Magistracy. From the states erected from the Northwest Territory one President has been chosen. Those states are the fairest illustration of the power of free institutions, because of which it has occured to us, that in a contest for prin them free, it would be eminently appropriate, if not from other considerations, to select the Republican candidate from this section. In the struggle for Freedom in Kanzas the Republican party originated. It maintained the same relation to the Slave power of the country that the Freestate party here did to that of the Territory. For this reason we believe the Candidateof 1860 should not only be a Representative Man, and a citizen of the West, but likewise one whose sympathy for the peopple of Kanzas during their hard struggle, was warm and active, and whose intrest in the cause of Freedom here is unabated still, and such an one, it seems to us, would be the Man of the Times.-The West has such a man in the time-tried defender of Freedom, the sympathizing friend of Kanzas, the Governor of the first state made free by virtue of the Ordinance of '87, Hon. SALMON P. CHASE.
The frequent recurrence of elections in Kanzas has tended to divest them of intrest and to completely exhaust our people. Out of some five general elections which have taken place within twice that many months, only one has resulted in positive and indisputable good. Eight thousand of our fellow citizens voted on the first Monday of last August; over eight thousand Free-state men voted on the first Monday of October; eleven thousand votes were polled against the Lecompton Swindle on the first Monday of January; seven thousand votes were cast on the second Tuesday of March, for the Delegatesto the Constitutional Conventisn; and on last Tuesday as many votes were polled at the State Election.
The only positive good yet realized from all this labor and sacrafice of time is the securing a representation in Congress-which however, considering the talent of our Delegate and the disfranchisement of the past is something worth laboring for. But the other electionsaside from their moral weight, as yet seen barren of desired results. The election of last August amounted to very little beyond entailing expense upon the persons elected to office; the legislature chosen last October was a disgrace to the party; the vote cast against Lecompton last January was ignored by Congress; although we hope better things from the recent Constitutional Movement, we cannot yet count with any degree of certainty upon clear, evident and unequivocal advantages.
With the discouraging experiences of the past before them and doubts gathered all around the future, it is not to be surprised that a large number of Free-state men who live in remote portions of voting precincts, instead of leaving their work to attend the polls on last Tuesday, remained at home and let the election go by default so far as their sufferage was conconcerned. If under these circumstances five thousand votes were cast in the entire territory it may be considered creditable to the party though not altogether characteristic of its patience to endure and energy to perform.
THE VOTE IN QUINDARO
A small majority was thrown against the Leavenworth Constitution in Quindaro on last Tuesday. This is readily accounted for; it was the result of vigilant activity on the part of the opposition and indifference on that of those who favored it. We feel confident that every man who would have cast an opposition vote was drummed up, whilst the seventy or one hundred voters who remained from the polls would have voted in its favor. The busy season of the year; the fatigue of frequent fruitless elections, and the embarrassment occasioned by the passage of the English Compromise, considered to keep these men who have been true in every emergency in the past, away from the polls.
The vote of last Tuesday is easily analyzed. A few persons voted a against the constitution, not because they did not believe it to be a good one, but because they believed that its ratification would only tend to complicate out affairs without being followed by any beneficial result. These men formed the respectable portion of the opposition. A few others voted thus because they honestly thought there was something in all the hue and cry which has been made about Negro Sufferage and Mixed Schools. But the bulk of the opposition vote was the result of a most bigoted prejudice and servile ignorance. We assert that two-thirds of the opposition votes were cast by persons who never read the Constitution or any part of it-many of whom infact never read at all and most likely cannot-among others a score or so of Irish who were herded to the polls by one or two designing persons who dictated their votes with autocratic effrontery.
Every man who voted in favor of the Constitution is intelligent-they one and all read and think of themselves and are peaceful, sober, industrious and enterprising citizens. The real worth of Quindaro favored the Leavenworth Constitution.
ELECTION RETURNS
At Lawrence, the whole number of votes cast was 608; for the Leavenworth Consitution 526; against the Leavenworth Constitution 70. For Henry J. Adams for Governor, 536, and the rest of the State ticket about the same number. The Country ticket recieved on an average about 516 votes.
In Sumner, some 130 votes were cast-about a dozen against the Constitution. In Leavenworth City over 800 votes were cast, with a majority of 200 in favor of the Constitution.
No polls were opened in Wyandott, and only at one or two points in Johnson county.
HOW THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTIONIS SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE
John (candle-box) Calhoun's mode to submitting the Kanzas swindle to a vote, was to permit the people to say:
"Constitution with Slavery;"
or,
"Constitution without Slavery;"
-but in fact, Constitution and Slavery, whichever they should vote.
Mr. English's plan of submission is a little different, but with the same ruling idea. They can now vote:
"Land Grant and a Slave State;"
or,
"No Land Grant and a Slave Territory;"
-but Slavery at all hazards.
"Shall you have the buzzard and I the turkey, or I have the turkey and you have the buzzard?"-Akron, O., Beacon.
THE FREE-STATE PLATFORM
ADOPTED AT LEAVENWORTH, MAY 5, 1858.
I. Resolved, That the recent measure of Congress, known as the English Compromise, is an arbitary and unfair attempt to force upon the people of Kanzas a Constitution repugnant to their principles and feelings, under the penalty of exclusion from the Union for an indefinite period, thereby depriving them of the enjoyment of rights guaranteed by the Federal Constitution and Organic Act.
II. Resolved, That as the Lecompton Constitution notoriously originated in the grossest frauds, and in no sense embodies the sentiment of the people of Kanzas, all such efforts on the part of the Federal Government to forceit upon them, should be met on their part by the most determined opposition.
III. Resolved, That the attempt of Congress to bribe the people of Kanzas to a discretion of principle, by the offer of lands rightfully their own, is worthy only of their supreme contempt.
IV. Resolved, That as the rejection of the Lecompton Ordinance is understood to be a rejection of the Constitution itself, therefore we call on all true men to unite in the most determined and vigorous measures to secure that rejection by which a majority as will administer a fitting rebuke to the unprincipled politians who have dared to traffic in the inalienation right of a free people.
V. Resolved, That the Free-state party of Leavenworth county, in Delegate Convention assembled, do hereby endorse the State Ticket nominated and the Platform adopted by the Topeka Convention of April 28th and 29th, and pledge our hearty support to said Ticket and Platform.
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ITEM-The Missouri has risen considerable the past week and Coats continue to make their regular trips without delay.
ITEM-Overland emigrants are almost daily arriving from Illinois and Iowa and crossing the river at this point and pushing their way to the valleys of the Neosho and Cottonwood.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
We understand that the Catholics of this place are about to commence the erection of a Church. Mr. Robitaille contributes six acres of land towards it.
"MINNIE BELLE"
This light-draught and swift running , continues to make regular trips to points on the Kanzas river. The distance from Wyandott to Topeka is seventy-five miles, which distance she made in fifteen days.
ITEM-Capt. R.K. Reily, who has been Clerk of the U.S. Mail Steamer, White Cloud, since the opening of navigation this spring has changed to the Mail Steamer Sky-Lark. Mr Hutchins former Clerk of the Cataract, has succeeded Capt. Reily on the White Cloud.
ITEM-At Emporia an artesian well has been bored to the depth of 175 feet without seccess, but an abundance of good water has been found a short distance from the deep well, five rods from the hotel, and only twenty feet below the surface of the earth.
THE NEW ENGLAND BARDS
Last night we had the pleasure of hearing Durant's New England Bards. The company is composed of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. DURANT and Mr. W. HAYWARD. We were much pleased with the entertainment they gave. Among the ballads were some of the most exquisitely beautiful pieces which touch a cord in every heart, and they were sung in a style so masterly as to charm the nicest appreciation of the musical art, in a style so free from affectation and so truthful as to awaken emotion of pleasure in every bosom. Mr. Durant is, naturally, an humorist. Mirthfulness sparkles in his eye and plays in every feature. It is natural for him to be funny and hence his humor has a freshness that makes his auditors feel a satisfaction in laughing at his comicalities. As a Basso singer he will be admired by all who hear him. Mrs. Durant sings Alto, has a soft, pliant voice and uses it with decided skill and effect. Mr. Hayward has a tenor voice of great musical sweetness and, in singing touching and plaintive balladshe imbues it with a felling of such depth and tenderness that it falls upon the ear with the soft power of a charm. They deserve a cordial welcome from our fellow-citizens. Such concerts as they give we verily believe must have a good effect upon those who attend them. In Kanzas we have no music-its soothing and refining effect is lost to us, for which reason a company like the above may be patronized with profit, for it is profitable to any person to havethe finest emotions of their nature awakened, the pleasant memories of the past revived, the warmest and purest and best feelings of the heart quickened, just as music, the "concord of sweet sounds," only can awaken, revive, quicken.
EXCURSION TO KANZAS CITY
The excursion on the Otis Webb from Parkville to Kanzas City, advertised last Saturday took place. The "Logbook" is as follows: The morning looked promising-for rain. Steamer left Parkville as punctually as possible, with a score or moreof Excursionists, Ladies and Gentlemen-precious cargo. Reached Quindaro and was saluted by the thunders of the cannon. Parkville folks took a stroll up Kanzas Avenue to see-hills, hollows and houses. The cannon was taken on board. Time to proceed arrived. Quindaro folks tardy about getting ready, some of the ladies haven taken a notion to go. Those on board wearied with the delay and anxious to start-the bell was rung with a sharp clang and whistle sounded with a vengeance. "All aboard!" the line was thrown off, the cannon fired and away the craft glided over the waters "like a thing of life." The air began to grow chilly. Cold mist. Passed a steam boat at the bend of the river taking on wood. Saluted her by firing the cannon. Approached Wyandott and fired the cannon again. Attempted to "round to" with a graceflul curve and shot smack into the ferry-boat, breaking some things and frightening some of the ladies-a little. Wind began to blow strong by which the steamer was battled for a few minutes and then she sped down the river swiftly. Arrived at Kanzas City. Fired of the cannon. Made a landing. Went to the hotel. Began to rain in earnest. Got something of a dinner and then went out to walk around town-had to wade. Part of the company returned on the John H. Dickey on part on the Otis Webb. Got home about six o'clock, sothe wet and all more or less muddy-nobody dry. Result; a broken post, soiled dresses, soaked beavers, colds and coughs, tooth-aches and head-aches.
SPRING AND SUMMER GOODS
Messrs. Johnson & Veale, wholesale and retail merchants in this city, have just received the largest and most expensive assortment of Dry Goods, &c. ever brought to Quindaro. They keep on hand a large variety of everything usually found in a store in Kanzas, and all who wish to purchase goods, for cash, at low prices, cannot do better than to give the gentlemanly proprietors of the above firm a call.
CITY COUNCIL
(The City Clerk has failed to furnish the Proceedings this week.)
ANTI-LECOMPTON MEETING
On Thursday evening the people of Quindaro held an Anti-Lecompton meeting. It was attended by a large majority of the citizens in our town.
Gen. CHARLES CHADWICK was chosen Chairman and E. B. MAGOON, Esq., Secretary.
Judge J. W. WRIGHT, recently from Logansport, Indiana, was introduced as the speaker of the evening. He made a strong speech against the acceptance of the Proposition of Congress, by the people of Kanzas, basing his opposition upon the fact that accepting the proposition would be accepting the Lecompton Constitution. He presented in detail and in a clear and distinct light the leading objections to the Constitution-showing that it was vitiated by its origin and is intrinsically bad. He demonstrated wherein by its provisions respecting Slavery, Schools, Taxation and it own Amendment, it was intended as an instrumentality to perpetuate Slavery in the only way it can be, namely, by limiting the facilities for education; by discriminating in its system of Taxation in favor of the Rich and Indolent and against the POOR MAN and the Laborer which would result in cramping the energies of the people and discouraging the spirit of enterprise; by asserting that property in Slaves is above and prior to law; and by prohibiting any change in its provisions for years to come, and making it possible for one-third of the Legislature to prevent the calling of a Constitutional Convention at any and all times. He urged upon every men to vote against the Ordinance.
Capt. E. MURRAY, late of Huntington, Indiana, was then called for. He endorsed the position taken by Judge Wright. Said that he expected to make Kanzas his home; wanted to see Lecompton voted down, and was willing to have this continue a territory until a future Congress should admit us as a state of honorable terms.
A. J. ROWELL, Esq., was then called for and made a few pointed remarks against the DOdge.
These speeches were listened to with marked attention by all presentand with unmistakable evidences of general approval. We feel satisfied that upon the issue now presented, Quindaro will be all right.
It was announced that there would be an Educational Convention at Leavenworth City, on the first day of June, and Dr. Geo. E. Budington, J. M. Walden and Alfred Gray were appointed delegates to attend its session.
Meeting adjourned.