the eleventh section (quoted in my remarks above, on the five violations of the constitution) against one who but brings into the Territory any book, paper, or handbill, containing any "sentiment" "calculated" in the eyes of a pro-slavery jury, to make slaves "disorderly." The man who takes into the Territory Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, can be under this law, hurried away to the chain gang, and manacled, arm to arm, with the murderous poisoner.
On page 210, the kidnapping and confinement of a free white person, for any purpose, even, if a man, to sell him into slavery, or if a woman, for a still baser purpose, is to be punished "not exceeding ten years." Decoying and enticing away a child under twelve years of age, from its parents, "not less than six months, and not exceeding five years." But decoying and enticing away (mark the similarity of the language) a slave from his master, is punished by death, or confinement, no less than ten years. Here is the section, page 604:
"Sec. 4: If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away out of this Territory, any slave belonging to another, with intent to deprive the owner thereof of the services of such slave, or with intent to effect or procure the freedom of such slave, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and, on conviction thereof, shall suffer death, or be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than ten years."
I had hoped to find time to cite and comment upon other sections in this code, but I will quote but one more, showing, that while a white man is compelled to serve out the penalty of his crime, at hard labor, these slave holding legislators have, in their great regard for the value of the slave's labor to his master, enacted that a slave, for the same offence, shall be whipped, and then returned to him. Here is the section, which I commend to the consideration of those who, while defending these laws, nickname the Republicans "nigger-worshipers." It is found on page 252:
"Sec. 27: If any slave shall commit petit larceny, or shall steal any cattle, sheep, or hog, or be guilty of any misdemeanor, or other offence punishable under the provisions of this act only by fine or imprisonment in a county jail, or by both such fine and imprisonment, he shall, instead of such punishment, be punished. If a male, by stripes on his bare back not exceeding thirty-nine, or if a female, by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding twenty-one days or by stripes not exceeding twenty-one, at the discretion of the justice."
Such, sir, is an impartial analysis of the code of Kansas, every allusion to which has been proven by extracts from the official copy now in my hand, and in quoting which I have referred, in every instance, to the page, the number of the section, and its exact words; and I think that the strong language at the outset of my remarks, in which I denounce this disgraceful and tyrannical code, has been fully justified by the proofs I have laid before you from its pages. Let it not be forgotten, Mr. Chairman, that it is because the people of Kansas—an overwhelming majority of the actual settlers there—refuse to obey these enactments passed by a body of men elected by armed mobs of invaders—that they have been delivered over to persecutions without parallel, and to all the horrors of a civil war.
Had I time, I would desire to refer to the history of events in that Territory; to the reckless and ruthless violation of plighted faith in the repeal of the Missouri compromise, which opened the door for legislation like this to the entire absence of any protection by the President to the settlers against personal outrage; to the repeated invasions by which the whole machinary of legislation was usurped, but the fruits of which the President upholds by cannon and bayonet, with proclamations and penalties to the causes which led to the civil war that has existed in that Territory; the very Jones who headed an invading party of Missourians at one of the polls, and with his revolver at the breast of an election judge, gave him five minutes to resign or die, was commissioned as a sheriff, to ride booted and spurred over the people whose rights he had thus assisted in striking down;—and many other things that make the blood of the great mass of freemen at the North course, as it never before coursed, through their veins, But I must allude, before concluding, to the mockery of relief held out to the people by the President and his coadjutors.
In his special message to Congress, on the 27th of January last, the President thus spoke:
"Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts for the constitutional means of relieving the people of unjust administrations and laws, by a change of public agents and repeal, are ample."
And in his speech, as reported in the Union of June 10, made to the Buchanan ratification meeting, who marched to the White House, he coolly told them:
"There will be, on your part, no appeal to unworthy passions, no inflammatory calls for a second revolution, like those which are occasionally reported as coming from men who have received nothing at the hands of their government but protection and political blessing, no declaration of resistance to the laws of the land."
But I will not stop to allude to the "protection and political blessings" which the people of Kansas have received from the "hands of their Government." It was bitter irony indeed.
Judge Douglas, too, at the same meeting, speaking of the Kansas laws, declared as follows:
"Or, if they desire to have any of the laws repealed, let them try to carry their point at the polls, and let the majority decide the question."
