Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1858 — The Democratic Record. [ARTICLE]

The Democratic Record.

Plain Truths in Short Speeches. [From the Kansas Nebraska Bill,] “It being the intent and meaning of this bill not to legislate slavery into any Territory.or State nor exclude it therefrom, but to leave the paople thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject to the Constitution of the United States.” [Resolution of the Cin. Dem. Convention.] “Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas ai d Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into lhe Union Upon terms of perfect equality with the other States.”

[From President Buchanan’s Inaugural.] “What a conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this simple rule— that the will of the majority shall govern— to the settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories! “But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the government of the United States to secure to everj’ resident inhabitant tne free ahd independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved!”

[From Governor Walker’s Jjetter to the President accepting hi* Appointment.] “I understand that you and your cabinet Concur in the opinion expressed by me, that the actual bona fide residents of the Territory of Kansas, by a fair and regular vote, unaffected by fraud oT violence, must be permitted, in adopting their State Constityjuon, to decide for themselves what shall be their social institutions. This is the great fundamental principle of the act of Congress organizing that Territory, affirmed by the Su preme Court of the United States, and is in accordance with the views uniformly expressed by me throughout my public career. I contemplate a peaceful solution of this question by an appeal to the intelligence and patrotism of the people of Kansas, who should all participate freely and fully it this decision, and by a majority of whose votes the decision rpust be made, as the only and Constitutional mode of adjustment. “I will go* and endeavor to adjust these difficulties, in the full confidence,as strongly expressed by you, that I will be sustained by all your own high authority, with the cordial co-operation of your cabinet.”

[lnstructions to Governor Walker.] “There are two great objects connected with the present excitement, growing out of the affairs of Kansas, and the attainment of which will bring it to a speedy teiminatibn. These were clearly and succinctly stilted in the President’s inaugural address, and I embody the paragraphs in the communication, asking your special attention to them. It is declared in that instrument. to bo 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 accoinpllished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all foreign interference, to decide their own destiny for themselves, subject only to the U nite'-, Sta t e s. “Updii these great rights of individual action-and'of public decision rests the foundation of American institutions; and if they are faithfully secured to the people of Kanpolitical condition of the country will soon become quiet and. satisfactory. The institutions of Kansas should be established by the vote of the people of Kansas, unawed and uninterrupted by force or fraud. And foreign votes must be excluded, come whence they may, and every attempt to overawe or interrupt the free exorcise of the right of voting must be promptly repelled and punished. Freedom and safety for the legal voter, and exclu»ion and punishment for the illegal one—these should be the great principles of your administration.”

[From Walker’s Inaugural Address, approved by the whole Cabinet.] “Unless the Convention submit the C » nstition to a vote of all the actual resident settlers of Kansas, and the election be fairly .and justly, conducted, the Constitution will be and ought to be rejected by Congress.”

[From Gov. Walker’s Topeka Speech.] “I tvill say then to you, gentlemen, that if they do not appoint a fair and impartial mode by which the majority of the actual bona fide resident settlers of Kansas shall vote, through the instrumentalities of impartial judges, I will join you in all lawful opposition to their doings, und the President and Congress will reject the Constitution,. “I say to you, that unless a full opportunity is given to the people of Kansas to decide for themselves what shall be their form of government, including the sectional question which has so long divided you—undoss, I repeat, they grant you such an opportunity, I have one power of which no man or set of men can deprive me, and to which I shall unhesitatingly resort, and that is, to jpin you in lawful opposition to their acts.”

[From the Washington Union, July 7,’57.] “There can be no such a thing as ascertaining clearly and without doubt the will of the people of Kansas in any way, except by their own expression of it at the polls. A Constitution not subjected to that test, no matter what it contains, will never be acknowledged by its opponents to be anything but a fraud.”

[From the St. Louis Rep., June 16, ’57.] “It would be the greatest politica 1 absurd-, ity ever ehacted for Congress to be called upon to receive into the Union a State with a Constitution which, beforehand, it is proclaimed both North and South, the people of that State do not approve.”

. Houses of Congress have resolved to adjourn oh the 7th of Junei