SLAVERY IN KANSAS.
We have from time to time submitted to our readers the opinion of men in various sections of the country, in support of our own, that Kansas was reasonably certain to come into the Union as a Free State. We find a strong corroboration of this belief in the following extract of a letter written by Col. JAMES L. ORR, member of Congress from South Carolina, written soon after his return from Kansas, which he visited for the purpose of personal observation:
“The Southern States have contributed large amounts of money in support of their cause, but their Emigrant Aid Societies and other proselyting agencies have not succeeded in throwing into Kansas more than 5,000 voters, while the Northern Free State vote is 17,000 or more than three to one.”
This is very properly styled by the Albany Evening Journal “an important admission from a high quarter.” We find, the denunciations of the ultra pro-Slavery press of the South, additional evidence of Col. ORR’s inclination to regard as fruitless and absurd the attempt that is waged to force slavery upon Kansas. The Charleston Mercury of the 15th inst. Publishes extracts from letters received from Kansas, which warranted its suspicion that Col. ORR was no longer to be ranked among the reliable propagandists, at all hazards, of the peculiar institution. Of these letters, the Mercury says that one of them contains the following paragraph:
WYANDOTTE CITY, AUG. 3, 1857.
“Mr. WALKER has bullied some State Rights Democrats into his ranks, and is trying to bully others. Mr. ORR is a National Democrat, or rather gone with that party, though off now railroad building.”
Another from a South Carolinian, and a member of the Kansas Legislature, contains the following:
ATCHISON, K.T. July 31.
“I saw Col. ORR at Leavenworth and he stated, in a conversations which I did not understand to be at all confidential that in his opinion, Kansas would not be admitted into the Union unless the Constitution was submitted to the people. He thought that the qualification of the voters upon it should be so defined as to submit the vote to the bona fide inhabitants. He did not seem to think that a submission to the registered voters under the Convention Act would suffice-but thought there ought to be provision made to exclude from the polls more transient persons. WALKER’s Inaugural had not yet appeared, and no one knew what would be left of his policy. If I am not mistaken, he left Kansas before it reached the Missouri River.”
The Mercury attributes this position of Colonel ORR to his desire for the support of the “National Democratic” party in his canvass for the Speaker ship; for it concedes that “the whole National Democracy North, and God knows how many South,” are in favor of submitting the Constitution to a fair popular vote, and of abiding the issue. We trust its anticipations will be justified by the event.
