Excerpt from Speech of Hon. George E. Pugh, of Ohio, on the Condition of Affairs in Kansas Territory: Delivered in the United States Senate, May 26, 1856
The bill to authorize the people of the Territory of Kansas toj orma constitution and State ;overnment, preparatory to their admission into the Union when they have the requisite population, bf-in under consifleration,
Mr. Pugh said: The condition of affairs in Kansas Territory for the past year has been such as to fill the heart of a patriotic statesman with unafTectad sorrow and alarm. Together, like twin sisters, that Territory and the Territory of Nebraska came into existence on the 30 th of May, 1854, by virtue of one act of Congress, and with organizations in all respects the same. In Nebraska, so far as we can learn, quiet and order have prevailed, and the foundations of a prosperous State have been securely established. But Kansas, alaiost from the hoar of its birth, has been the arena of conflict, violence, and bloodshed. These disorders became more intense, as well as more frequent, from month to month, until the assembling of Congress in December last; and at an early period of the session before the House of Representatives had notified us of its organization had attained a serious degree of importance. The season in which we are accustomed to celebrate the advent of the Prince of Peace on earth when of old the langels in manifest glory proclaimed goodwill to all mankind that season, so sacred and festal, brought us tidings of the most terrible character; tidings that discontent had ripened into rebellion, and strife proceeded to the bitterness of civil war. The promises of the jiew year came not to soothe our anxieties; but, instead, a solemn message from the President, advising us that all the appliances of conciliation had been exhausted, and that we must prepare for an appeal to arms if we would maintain the supremacy of the laws. And now, since the last adjournment of the Senate, even more dreadful reports have reached our ears; and the bloody issue threatened, as well as foretold, by ihe convention which met at the Big Springs, in September, presses onward to a fiercer stage and still more frightful consequences, in this great emergency, Mr. President, each senator and representative of the United States in Congress ought to regard well his course, and beware lest through him our mighty republic should come to a fatal and inglorious ruin. These reflections indicate with sufficient clearness the path I shall endeavor to tread. And it is rather to my constituents, for mj own sake, that I now proceed to declare the conclusions, both of law and feet, in reference to the general question, at which i have deliberately arrived. And first in order, I come to the substitute offered by the senator from New York Mr. Seward to the bill reported bj -the Committee on Territories. That proposes the admission (if Kansas into the Union as a State upon the constitution adopted by the convention of delegates which assembled at Topeka on the23d of October last. To this, sir, I have two preliminary objections, and each of them is insuperable: 1.I do not bcieve that the Territory contains more than twenty-four thousand inhabitants: and not that number, certainly, if one-half the accusations made by the senator from Vermont, Mr. CoLLAMEP., in his speech some weeks ago, be true. The votes given at the regular electiori for a delegate in Congress last fall, togethf rwith those which Andrew H.Reeder pretends U-have received on the seccnid Tuesday of October, amount to some six thousand; and as the inhabitants are chiefly men without families, or men who have left their families in the States whence they emigrated, I consider it a liberal estimate and, indeed, an extravagant one to say that the population is equal to four times the number of voters. The senator from Vermont does not claim, in his report, more than twenty-five thousand. To countervail this fact as far as. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Speech of Hon. George E. Pugh, of Ohio, on the Condition of Affairs in Kansas Territory (George E. Pugh)