The Kansas Prospects

The game of the free State men in Kansas is nearly played out. The vigorous measures taken by the troops of the United States which have been furnished to suppress insurrection, have defeated the hopes of those who had resolved on subverting the regular Government by the aid of Sharpe’s rifles there, and the political support of the Free Soilers elsewhere. Heretofore they have refused obedience to the Territorial laws, and resisted the Territorial officers, and claimed that the only lawful authority in the Territory is that which they set up in their party convention which made spurious State constitutions at Topeka. Intermediately they would submit to the functionaries directly appointed by authority of the United States, but they proclaimed inflexible determination to refuse obedience to anything emanating from the Territorial Legislature, or Territorial officers. They have been urged to maintain this position by the encouraging plaudits and promised support, personal and material, of enthusiastic partizans at the   North; and contributions of men, money and arms, have been sent out to them to help them in forcible resistance, which they threatened. Preachers have exhorted in their favor, and begged from the pulpit for rifles, to be sent to them, to enable them to shoot down the officers of the law which they had determined to disobey; and grave Senators, the oracles of great parties, have lauded them as heroes in a cause all but holy, and invoked for them admiration and support.

But all this time it must have been evident that when the movement could not succeed when brought up to the practical test of positive and armed resistance. There must have been some calculation upon political results and combinations which would save them from the necessity of proving their faith by actual deals of arms; something which might effect their object by other means, or so connect it with other questions of an absorbing nature as to change its character and shift its responsibilities. In its simplest form, it was resistance to established authorities, and therefore insurrection. The subversion of established authorities by force, resistance to its civil processes, made effective by superiority of force, is successful insurrection, which makes revolution. It was all the time evident that this could not be permitted by the federal authority without omitting its plainest duties under the law, and abdicating its most essential features. The crisis of trial has come, and the result is what should have been foreseen. The regular territorial organization, its laws, and its officers, are sustained by the arm of the Federal Government, and there is no escape from the obligation of obedience. The inhabitants of the Territory are compelled to obey the laws and officers of the Territory, and the adversaries are without power to resist of themselves, and there is no power anywhere to uphold them in resistance. Aid cannot come to them without incurring the guilt of levying war against the United States, and all the legal consequences of the crime, and there is no hope for them from that quarter. They must submit, and the news from the Territory leads to the belief that they have to come to the conclusion that submission is unavoidable. Some there may be with passions inflamed and heads bewildered by the violence of faction to which they have led themselves, who may commit breaches of order and expose themselves to the penalties of the law by foolish acts of insubordination, but the great body of the Free State fanatics or dupes have, we apprehend, arrived at the conclusion that they cannot maintain the position, and that they must abandon it. They will, doubtless clamor against the despotism which could not permit them to overturn governments, abolish legislatures, and resist the officers of the law at their own caprice; but they never had the right to expect any government to become partizans of a revolution to overthrow authority sanctioned by the same laws to which it owes its own powers and means of interposition.

The energy of these demonstrations will, we think, settle affairs within the Territory; so far, at least, that the regular territorial authorities will be maintained in their full vigor, and that there will be no extended or organized opposition – none that is effective, and, probably, very little more than furious declamation.

This being settled, the next and immediate question is on the permanent adjustment of the vexed questions out of which these conflicts have arisen. It is very clear that the causes for grievance will not be removed, nor the internal dissensions composed, until the inhabitants of the Territory determine their own form of government, and establish it in a manner satisfactory to themselves. That is the main question before Congress, and all parties there appear to have concurred in the opinion that the only practical settlement – the settlement which will repair past errors and secure the reign of order and harmony – is the formation of Kansas into a State, as soon as possible, with institutions freely and fairly selected by the people; and her admission into the Union.

The policy of the Anti-Slavery party – the same who have backed up the Free State men in the line of violence which they have been constrained to abandon – is to accept, now, the constitution made by the Topeka Convention, summoned in contempt of the Territorial organization by its adversaries, and adopted for the avowed purpose of subverting that as fraudulent and null, and to admit the State into the Union, at once, with that constitution.

Upon that issue the “Black Republicans” have been for some time laboring to make all the politics of the country turn for the next Presidential canvass. It was thought to be a popular measure, likely to unite all who were opposed to the Nebraska bill – leaving in abeyance all the anti-slavery and other questions upon which the coalition might not agree. For awhile this boldly agitated. It was put forth in party resolves, advocated in party addresses, elaborately wrought out into a vital issue by overpowering organs of party opinion, and strongly put forth in the Senate of the United States, by the chief leader of the anti-Nebraska forces, as the great question of the day. It still makes its appearance in many quarters as a party test; but we think we cannot be mistaken in the opinion that this, too, will be abandoned, and a more rational and politic form of settlement will be acceded to, even by the most furious zealots now, for the admission of the State.

To men not blinded by the most malignant spirit of faction, it must be evident that the immediate admission of Kansas, under the circumstances in which this application is made, is utterly impossible. An irregular convention, got up in the spirit of insubordination to the regularly constituted authorities, designed to oppose and overthrow them, chosen without any sanction of law, or a safeguard against fraud, or evidences of right, a mere party gathering of avowed malcontents, can never be permitted to stand for a whole political community and be recognized as the creators of a sovereign State. The Senate of the United States has been from the beginning so firmly fixed in its opposition to this enormous pretension, that there never has been a hope that it could be carried through Congress. It has been advanced and urged, with a view to keep up an excitement, necessary to make a cohesion for political elements that might not otherwise fuse together at election time. It is not so certain now that it could be carried through the House of Representatives, fixed as is the anti-Nebraska majority in that body. It is certain that it cannot get through Congress, and we begin to believe that it will not get through either House, and that the emergencies of the times will extract from faction a reluctant abandonment of its purposes, and a consent to an adjustment which is peaceful and practical, which will prove so satisfactory, and can be carried by both Houses. There are a great number of men very decided in their party opinions, who will not agree to keep open the disorders and contentions in Kansas, merely to be pabulum for a political canvass – or refuse to remove them by any fair measure, merely to support the lawless proceedings of Robinson, Reeder, Lane, and the other chiefs of the insurrectionary convention.

The admission of Kansas can be provided for in the regular way. The territorial authorities may be lawfully superseded, in the form to be prescribed by Congress, and a State constitution framed by the legitimate inhabitants, under the sanction of laws which Congress may prescribe. There are abundant precedents as to the forms which may be adopted. All that is required to [illegible] the dissensions is, the preliminary elections for ascertaining the will of the real people shall be fairly conducted; and it is surely competent for Congress, in the enabling act, to prescribe rules which shall guard against fraud or violence. A new convention, to be called whenever the population is ascertained to be sufficient, with effective provisions to secure fair voting, will dispose of all these disputed points of authority, and show what is the popular will, which ought to control finally. It seems to be conceded, that in a short time the population will be sufficient to justify the formation of another constitution, and that under such a bill Kansas will become a State and without opposition, sooner than it could be forced through Congress under the present constitution, even by the most complete success of the political party which patronizes it.

A bill of this character is before the Senate, and appears to be gaining ground in the House. It is a measure for peace, and these are indications, not very decided, but certainly encouraging, that it will finally prevail, and thus dispose, during the present session, of the whole practical questions connected with Kansas.