New York Times, “Secretary Stanton’s Call for an Extra Session of the Kansas Legislature,” December 17, 1857

Secretary Stanton’s Call for an Extra Session of the Kansas Legislature.

Special Correspondence of the Chicago Daily Press.

LAWRENCE, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1857.

Acting-Governor STANTON was in Lawrence yesterday. The object of his visit was to settle with the members of the Legislature and the leaders of the Free State Party, the conditions upon which he would immediately issue a call for a special session of the Territorial Legislature. This is just what the Free State men have for weeks past been desiring. They requested WALKER to issue this call, and their request was not complied with. After WALKER’S departure from the Territory, Secretary STANTON was applied to for the same purpose. Their efforts alike were unsuccessful.

But now they have received direct proposals from Secretary Stanton to do the very thing which he has before so steadily refused. This sudden change of mind which Mr. STANTON has experienced, is due perhaps to two causes. In the first place it is reported that Mr. STANTON has received information from WALKER to the effect that the Administration has indorsed the Lecompton Constitution, its sham submission, and the whole programme of proceedings marked out by the Douglas clique of the Democracy.

If this be true it of course followed that Governor WALKER and STANTON, who have all along avowed themselves in favor of a fair submission of the Constitution to the people, stand on rather a precarious footing at Washington. Conscious of his loss of caste, and of the bad odium in which he is held by the purer and more ultra Democracy, Mr. STANTON has perhaps availed himself of the present opportunity of making his peace with the Free State Party. Perhaps the sacrifice of WALKER and Stanton is not intended, but Mr. BUCHANAN’S adopting a POLICY so antagonistic to their own, leaves that hint to be inferred.

Again, Secretary STANTON may have been induced to comply with the request of the Free-State men from a fear of the results which would follow a refusal. He had doubtless been informed that the convention which meets on the 2d of December, to determine a plan of action for the Free-State party, would adopt a policy looking toward civil war as the only remedy, unless this request was granted. But be that as it may, he has given his consent and his proclamation calling for a special session of the Territorial Legislature is hourly expected. As one of the required conditions, a document has been presented to Secretary Stanton, signed by two-thirds of the members of the Legislature and number of the leading citizens, in which the signers, in the first place set forth, that nothing will avert civil war in the present crisis, except the holding of a special session except to defeat the aims of the Lecompton Constitution and extricate themselves from their present difficulties. These promises were required by Stanton for the purpose of preventing the Legislature from repealing the laws enacted by the former Missouri-elected Legislature.