you can, the difference which exists between that and other incorporations.
In the first place, the other railroad charters are granted to certain persons in continuous succession. In this charier, with a capital of $3,000,000, for a railroad from Leavenworth to his favorite city of Lecompton, (which was made the capital of the territory by this same Legislature,) with an indefinite and unrestrained power to build brunch railroads from the capital in any and every direction, Judge Lecompte and his associates, including Woodson, the Secretary of the Territory, are granted perpetual succession. In section 21, page 777, there is this special exception, which, though brief in its language, is momentous in its importance, for the benefit of Judge Lecompte & Co.:
"That sections seven, thirteen, and twenty of article first, and so much of section eleven, article second, as relates to stock owned, of an act concerning corporations, shall not apply to this act."
In the examination which I gave to these laws, it struck me that this exception of this charter, for the benefit of Lecompton and Lecompte, from the provisions of the general law relative to corporations, was singular, to say the least; and I turned back to the general law to see the character of the provisions thus suspended, so far as this act was concerned; and the proof that it furnishes of the intention, on the part of the Legislature, to make Judge Lecompte interested in their behalf, is so strong, that I will refer you to these sections as circumstantial evidence of no ordinary character.
Section seven of the general corporation law, (see page 164,) provides as follows:
"The charter of every corporation that shall hereafter be granted by law, shall be subject to alteration, suspension, or repeal by any succeeding Legislature: Provided, Such alteration, suspension, or repeal, shall in nowise conflict with any right vested in such corporation by its charter."
But in Lecompte's charter, the power even to amend it, is, by the suspension of the above section, withheld from "any succeeding Legislature," even if said Legislature, or the people of Kansas, unanimously desired its amendment.
Section thirteen (see page 165) makes the stockholders of all corporations individually liable for all its debts. But this too, is suspended by the mock Legislature of Kansas, for the benefit of Judge Lecompte.
Section twenty (see page 166) makes directors liable for debts incurred by them exceeding the capital stock. But this, also, is suspended in Judge Lecompte's charter, and he is one of the directors of the road.
But there is still another extraordinary provision in this charter, which I find in no other grant of this Legislature. Section fifteen (page 776) provides:
"If said company shall require for the construction or repair of said road, any stone, gravel, or other materials from the land of any person adjoining to or near said road, and cannot contract for the same with the owner thereof, said company may proceed to take possession of and use the same, and have the property assessed," &c.
Not only are they empowered to take stone, gravel, and other materials, including timber of such great value in Kansas, from land through which the road runs, but also from "adjoining" tracts; and still further, from tracts "near said road," which may be construed to mean one mile, or five miles, or ten miles off, as the case may be. And if the owner refuses to part with his timber or gravel, the company are authorized to take it first, and pay for it afterwards; and the man who resists, and seeks to protect his own property, would be amenable to the penalties of this bloody code for resisting the "laws of Kansas." What was the object of these extraordinary grants and privileges to Judge Lecompte and his associates, I submit to the American people to decide.
Before I leave this Judge—the central figure as he is in the group of men in Kansas, who are using the power of the judiciary as it was used during "the bloody assizes" in England, and Reign of Terror in France, to enforce the decrees of tyranny—I must call attention to the last charge to the grand jury which he addressed in Kansas; and in which, instead of alluding to the destruction of property of free-State men by unauthorized mobs; to the tarring and feathering, and other personal outrages, to which many of them had been subjected; to the repeated invasions of the Territory by armed marauders, of which he had been a witness; and to the murders of unoffending free-State men, of which he could not have failed to hear; his virtuous desire to uphold "the laws" found vent in another direction—the direction of persecution instead of protection. I quote from this extraordinary charge, as published in the National Intelligencer of this city, of June 5, 1856, the following extraordinary paragraphs:
This Territory was organized by an act of Congress, and, so far, its authority is from the United States. It has a Legislature, elected in pursuance of that organic act. This Legislature, being an instrument of Congress, by which in governs the Territory, has passed laws. These laws, therefore, are of United States authority and making; and all that resist these laws resist the power and authority of the United States, and are therefore guilty of high treason.
"Now, gentlemen, if you find that any persons have resisted these laws, then you must, under your oaths, find bills against such persons for high treason. If you find that no such resistance has been made, but that combinations have been formed for the purpose of resisting them, and individuals of influence and notoriety have been aiding and abetting in such combinations, then must you still find bills for constructive treason," &c., &c.
Mr. Chairman, I am no lawyer; but I think
