as the organic act of Kansas and Nebraska extended the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law to both of those Territories.

[After quoting the 15th and 16th sections of the bill, the report continues:] It will be observed that these two sections recognize the validity and binding force of the entire code of laws enacted at the Shawnee Mission, by the Legislature of Kansas Territory, and provide for the faithful execution of all those enactments except the criminal code. All justices of the peace, constables, sheriffs, and all other judicial and ministerial officers now in office, are required to continue to exercise and perform the duties of their respective offices. All these officers, with the exception of the governor, three judges, secretary, and marshal, and district attorney, were elected or appointed under the laws enacted by the Legislature of Kansas, while their powers, functions, and duties are all prescribed by those laws and none others. These officers are all required to continue to perform the duties of their respective offices, by observing and enforcing all the laws enacted at the Shawnee Mission, except the criminal code. "All suits, process, and proceedings, civil and criminal, at law and in chancery, and all indictments and informations which shall be pending and undetermined in the courts of the Territory of Kansas or New Mexico when this act shall take effect, shall remain in said courts where pending, to be held, tried, prosecuted, and determined in such courts AS THOUGH THIS ACT HAD NOT BEEN PASSED." The election laws, and the laws concerning slaves and slavery, and all laws protecting the rights of persons and property, and affecting all the relations of life, are recognized as valid and required to be enforced, EXCEPTING CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS, BY INFORMATION OR INDICTMENT, for violating or disregarding the laws of the Legislature of Kansas, all such prosecutions are required to be forthwith dismissed, and the prisoners set at liberty, and no new prosecutions are to be commenced for " any violation or disregard of said legislative enactments. at any time." Such is the legislation provided for in these two sections of the bill. They recognize the validity of the laws enacted at Shawnee Mission, and provide for the enforcement of all of them except in cases of criminal prosecution. Your committee are unable to perceive how the passage of such a bill would restore peace, quiet, and security to the people of Kansas. It has been alleged that there are in that Territory organized bands of lawless and desperate men, who are in the constant habit of perpetrating deeds of violence-murdering and plundering the inhabitants, stealing their property, burning their houses, and driving peaceable citizens from the polls on election day, and even from the Territory. The remedy proposed in the bill is to grant to the perpetrators of these crimes a general amnesty for the past, and a full license in the future to continue their bloody work.

There is no law in force in Kansas by which murder, robbery, larceny, arson, and other crimes known to the criminal codes of all civilized states, can be punished, except under the code enacted by the Legislature of Kansas at the Shawnee Mission. The provisions of "An Act for the Punishment of Crimes against the United States," approved April 30, 1790, are, by its terms, confined in its application to such crimes as shall be committed "within any fort, arsenal, dock-yard, magazine, or any other place or district of country under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States," and "upon the high seas and navigable waters out of the jurisdiction of any particular state," but has never been held or construed to apply to the Territories of the United States. The act of the 3d of March, 1817, "to provide for the punishment of crimes and offenses committed within the Indian boundaries," extends the provisions of the said act of 1790 to the Indian country, but expressly restricts its application, as its title imports, to crimes committed "within any town, district, or territory belonging to any nation or nations, tribe or tribes of Indians." Hence, the moment the Indian title is extinguished,

and the country placed under the jurisdiction of a Territorial government, it ceases to be "under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States," and is no longer subject to the provisions of either of the above-cited acts. Thus it will be seen that if the bill from the House of Representatives should become a law with the provisions granting a general amnesty in respect to all past crimes, and unlimited license in the future to perpetrate such outrages as their own bad passions might instigate, there would be no law in force in Kansas to punish the guilty or protect the innocent.

Inasmuch as the House of Representatives, by the passage of the bill under consideration, and the Senate, by its bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union, have each recognized the validity of the laws enacted by the Kansas Legislature at Shawnee Mission, so far as they are consistent with the Constitution and the organic act, and affirmed the propriety and duty of enforcing the same, except in certain specified cases, it becomes important to inquire into the extent of the differences of opinion between the House of Representatives and the Senate, in respect to the particular laws which ought not to be enforced. The Senate has already declared in the bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union that all laws and enactments in said Territory which are repugnant to, or in conflict with, the great principles of liberty and justice, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and the organic act, and embodied in the 18th section of that bill, shall be null and void, and that none such shall ever be enforced or executed in said Territory.

* * *

It is true that there is apparently another point of difference between the two houses, arising out of the question whether the people of Kansas shall be authorized to elect delegates to a convention (with proper and satisfactory safeguards against fraud, violence, and illegal voting), and form a Constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into the Union, or whether the Territory shall be reorganized in accordance with the provisions of the bill from the House, and left, for some years to come, in that condition. While the House of Representatives has recently expressed its preference for the latter proposition by the passage of the bill under consideration, your committee are not permitted to assume that they have insuperable objections to the admission of Kansas at this time, for the reason that a few weeks previous they passed a bill to admit that Territory as a state, with the Topeka Constitution. Hence, the change of policy on the part of the House, in abandoning the state movement with the Topeka Constitution, and substituting for it the proposition to reorganize the Territory and leave it in that condition, must be taken only as a strong expression of a decided preference on the part of the House for the bill under consideration, and not as conclusive evidence of insuperable objections to a fair bill, with proper and suitable guarantees against fraud and illegal voting, to authorize the people of Kansas to form a Constitution and state government at this time.

The committee recommended that the bill be laid on the table. The bill was laid on the table in the Senate-yeas 35, nays 12, no one venturing to approve or endorse it in that body.

The House did not act on either of the Senate bills relating to Kansas. In the General Appropriation Bill a clause was inserted providing that no part of the money appropriated thereby to defray the expenses of the Territorial government in Kansas should be drawn from the treasury until all the crim

inal prosecutions on charges of treason in Kansas, or for violation of the laws of the Territorial Legislature, should be dismissed, and the accused parties discharged.

To the Army Bill the House attached a clause that no part of the military force of the United States should be employed to aid in the enforcement of any act of the Kansas Legislature; requiring the President to disband the armed militia of the Territory, to recall all the United States arms therein distributed, and to "prevent armed men going into the Territory to disturb the peace or to aid in the enforcement or resistance of real or pretended law."

These provisions the Senate struck out of the bills. The House refused to agree to the amendments of the Senate, and the Senate insisted on their action. Finally, the House yielded, except in the case of the Army Bill; and, though various committees of conference were held, no agreement was had, and Congress, on the 18th of August, adjourned without passing the Army Bill.

The President convened Congress next day, and sent a message to both houses urging the necessity for the passage of appropriations for the army. The old Army Appropriation Bill was revived, and a new one was introduced; but the House insisting on its Kansas legislation, both failed under the disagreeing votes of the two houses. At last, on a third bill, on the 30th of August, the House, by a vote of 101 to 98, receded from its position, and the bill passed. Congress adjourned the same day without any legislation for Kansas.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LECOMPTON CONTROVERSY.

THE Lecompton controversy was the most severe and painful that has ever attended Mr. Douglas's public career. It was also one that elicited from him a greater exhibition of his native abilities than any other of the many in which he has been engaged. In 1846 he took the high strong ground of the Democratic party as declared at Baltimore upon the Oregon Boundary question. He sustained the President to the utmost of his ability. President Polk, however, induced by high and patriotic motives, thought proper to yield to the ad

vice of the co-ordinate branch of the treaty-making power, and disposed of that question by abandoning 54° 40′ and accepting 49°. Upon the annexation of Texas, Mr. Douglas took ground in favor of extending and renewing the line of 36° 30′ as a settlement of the Slavery question. He succeeded. In the fierce controversies on the Oregon Territorial Bill he renewed time and again the proposition to extend the Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30' to the Pacific; his efforts proved unavailing, and that bill passed. In 1850 he had supported and defended the Fugitive Slave Law and the compromise acts of that year -defended them in the presence of an armed and hostile meeting at Chicago, and succeeded. In 1854 he had carried through successfully the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and, through violence and denunciation at home and throughout the North, had maintained with unfaltering nerve the rectitude of his conduct. In 1856 he had canvassed Illinois from one end to the other, urging the election of Mr. Buchanan upon the ground that the Democratic party and its candidates were pledged in the most solemn manner to secure to the people of the Territories the right of having slavery or not, as they of their own free action might determine. In answer to the cry that came up from every Republican orator-and in Illinois the leading men of that party from all parts of the country were on the stumpthat the government of Kansas, her officers, and Legislature, were in the hands of the "Border Ruffians," his answer was, that no matter who were placed over the people temporarily, no Constitution could be adopted nor state government erected that was not called into being by the votes of the people in ratifying that Constitution. That the ultimate power of adopting a Constitution was in the hands of the people, and could not be taken from them, was the universal answer made to the charge that under the Nebraska Act Kansas would be made a slave state in defiance of the wishes of the people. On that defense, and on that pledge made every where throughout the campaign, Illinois preserved her ancient credit, and gave her electoral vote to Mr. Buchanan.

After the inauguration of Mr. Buchanan it was deemed advisable to select as governor of Kansas some person of ability, who had also discretion to regulate that ability, and personal character entitling him to the respect of men of all parties, not only in the country generally, but particularly in Kansas.

Such a man was Robert J. Walker.

When tendered the office

he peremptorily declined it. It was a position in which there was little credit to be gained, and a vast amount of responsibility and vexation. Those who had previously gone there had failed, and failed most miserably; indeed, much of the trouble that had existed might have been traced to the incompetency, personal unfitness, or corruption of those who had been selected as governors. Mr. Douglas was particularly anxious for the appointment of Mr. Walker, and took an active part in inducing him to consent to go to Kansas as governor. After long and serious consideration, Mr. Walker accepted the office; in so doing, he placed a condition on file that he was to be governor with the assurance that he was to tell the people of Kansas that they should have the privilege of voting directly for or against any Constitution that might be prepared for them. He proceeded to Kansas, and in his speeches he repeated this pledge, and in so doing stated that he made it with the knowledge and approval of the President and his cabinet; and that, unless the Constitution was submitted to the people for ratification or rejection, he should endeavor to defeat it before Congress.

Mr. Douglas, in Illinois, by speeches delivered at various parts of the state, referred to Governor Walker's course as a proof that the pledges he had made during the previous year, that Mr. Buchanan would faithfully carry out the spirit of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, were about to be redeemed to their

letter.

When the convention met in Kansas, and while it was in session, it became obvious that a large portion of the people, led on by fanatical and turbulent spirits, would not participate in forming a state government. While this was to be regretted, yet no person in Illinois believed that the convention would attempt to adopt a Constitution without providing for its submission to the people. Mr. Calhoun himself was solemnly pledged, in writing, to submit the Constitution to the people. Mr. Douglas had justified the course of Governor Walker and the administration. When Congress met, in December, 1857, the President's Message indicated that, as a matter of peace, the administration would, in the event of the Lecompton Constitution being presented, urge the admission of Kansas under that Constitution.