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1 Preston King, The Rights of the People of Kansas. Speech of Preston King, of New York, in the Senate of the United States, March 16th, 1858, on the Frauds, Usurpation, and Purpose, in which the Slave Constitution of the Lecompton Convention Had Its Origin 1 (1858)

handle is hein.statecon/ripplks0001 and id is 1 raw text is: THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF KISAS. SPEECH OF PRESTON KING, OF NEW YORK, In the Senate of the United States, March 16th, 1858, ON THE FRAUDS1 USURPATION, AND PURPOSE, IN WHICH THE SLAVE CONSTITUTION OF THE LECOMPTON CONVENTION HAD ITS ORIGIN. Mr. KING. Mr. President, before the Rev- olution, charters were granted to the colonies by the Crown. Since ther., up to this time, the people of the States of the Union have made their Constitutions for themselves. Now, for the first time since the Continental Con- gress declared the colonies free and independ- ent States, the question is raised of the iight of the people to adopt or reject the Constitution which is to create them a State qualified to come into the Union, one of the equal States of our Confederacy. Kansas, brought to the door of the Senate for the purpose of having the Lecompton con- stitution imposed upon her people by the au- thority of an act of Congress, presents that question to us. Benjamin Franklin, contemplating his coun- try when her independence had been acknowl- edged and the Rdpublie was established, is said to have expressed the wish that he might be permitted to look upon this country after the lapse of a hundred years. If the shade of that venerable man could appear here, and listen to these debates upon the proposition to add a new State from beyond the Mississippi to the Union, he would hear from the Government side calls for more troops, and argumentA to show, the necessity of an increase of the standing army; he would hear that the people of the State proposed to be added to the Union are a factious people; that they claim the right to vote on the adoption of their Constitution; to have the charter that defines their rights and their form of government submitted by the convention that made it to themselves, and to express their opinion of it; that in this new State the people are unwilling to have slavery established as one of their institutions; that, although the President declares the constitu- tion prepared for them by the Lecompton con- vention to be a good one, they contumaciously reply that it is not their constitution; that they complain of fraud and corruption in the officials appointed and sustained by the central Government; that they refuse to pay the taxes levied by the Legislature, alleging that they had no voice in its election, and were not rep- resented in it; that they agitate and annoy the Government and disturb the quiet of the coun- try by their turbulent and disorderly conduct; that they remonstrate against stuffed ballot- boxes, spurious votes, forged certificates, and false returns at their elections, and demand of the Government investigation and punishment of these offences; that they insist upon the right to decide for themselves the character of their State institutions, and refuse to accept the constitution which the Government offers to them; that they complain of the intrusion of regular troops belonging to the standing army of the Federal Government sent to maintain law and order in their Territory; that they are seditious; that they are rebels; that they have been permitted'to occupy the attention of the Government and the country too long; that they must have a local govern- ment instituted over them by Congress, and be subdued by the army. He would hear some uncertain and mystical suggestions that the people of the State, when reduced to order, might possibly, at some future time, be allow- ed to alter their obnoxious constitution in some legal manner. I think, after listening so

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