armed resistance to the laws" in a marked and special manner; and if there was any doubt as to the object of this denunciation, the speech of the author of the Nebraska bill himself, Mr. Douglas, at the ratification meeting in this city, a few nights since, shows plainly its "intent and meaning." Wishing to do no injustice to any one, I quote from his speech, as reported in the national Democratic organ here, the Washingion Union, of June 10, which I hold in my hand:
"The platform was equally explicit in reference to the disturbances in relation to the Territory of Kansas. It declared that treason was to be punished, and resistance to the laws was to be put down."****
"He rejoiced that the convention, by a unanimous vote, had approved of the creed that law must and shall prevail. [Applause.] He rejoiced that we had a standard-bearer [Mr. Buchanan] with so much wisdom and nerve as to enforce a firm and undivided execution of those laws."
And Mr. Buchanan, after the nomination, replied to the Keystone Club, who called on him on their return from Cincinnati, as follows:
"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made you a longer speech, but now I have been placed upon a platform of which I most heartily approve, and that can speak for me. Being the representative of the great Democratic party, and not simply James Buchanan, I must square my conduct according to the platform of that party, and insert no new plank, nor take one from it. That platform is sufficiently broad and national for the whole Democratic party."
I shall now proceed to show you no less than seven palpable violations of the organic law (the Nebraska bill), incorporated into this code by the bogus Legislature which enacted it. The President, Judge Douglas, and Mr. Buchanan, who are all pledged "to enforce these territorial laws," cannot have failed to notice that the conquerors of Kansas enacted their code, regardless of whether its provisions coincided with the organic law or not; but, nevertheless, where they differ, the law of the United States is to be forgotten, and the pro-slavery behests of the Kansas invaders are to be carried out at the point of the bayonet, if necessary.
First. Section twenty-two of the Nebraska bill enacts that the House of Representatives in Kansas shall consist of twenty-six members, "whose term of service shall continue one year." That does not mean eighteen, nineteen or twenty months, but "one year," and one year only. The Legislature of Kansas was elected on the 30th day of March, 1855—a day which has become famous for the discussions in this House and elsewhere in regard to it; ⟨and, Sir,⟩ if you will turn to page 280 of this Kansas code, you will see that there is not to be an election for members of the lower House of the Legislature until the first Monday in October, in the year 1856—over eighteen months after the first Legislature was elected. If you turn, then, to page 403, you will find that no regular session of that Legislature is to be held until January, 1857; so that the term of that House of Representatives, in defiance of the organic law, is prolonged to twenty-two months instead of twelve months. Sir, their term has expired now. There is no Legislature in the Territory of Kansas this day; and therefore, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, "the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise." For exercising them, however, in no conflict with the territorial government, but carefully avoiding it, and abstaining from putting any legislation in force, but only organizing as a State to apply for admission here as "a redress for their grievances"—for doing this, the court of Judge Lecompte arraigns them for treason, and scatters its indictments all over the Territory.
Second. The same section of the Kansas organic law says that the members of the council shall serve for "two years;" but their term has been prolonged in the same manner to nearly three years, so that the councilors elected in March, 1855, remain in office until the 1st of January, 1858, longer than a member of this House holds his seat by the authority of his constituents. And it is to this Legislature, the Senatorial branch of which, even if legally elected, should expire in nine months from this time, but which, in defiance of the organic law, have taken upon themselves to extend their term to a period nineteen months distant, that Judge Douglas desires, in his bill, to submit the question of when a census shall be taken preparatory to admission as a State, and to clothe them with the superintendence of the movements in the Territory, preliminary to said admission. When we have investigated to-day the "constitutionality," the "justice," the "impartiality," the "humanity," of their acts thus far, no one will need to ask, why I am not willing, for one, to give them the slightest degree of power or authority hereafter, but, on the contrary, desire to take from them that which they have illegally usurped and tyrannically exercised.
But if to these two points, it is replied, that the term of the House of Representatives was intended by this mock Legislature to expire on the 30th of March, 1856, ten months before the new House takes its seat, and the Council, in March, 1857, ten months before the new Council meets, it follows that, though the Nebraska bill extended "popular sovereignty" by giving the President absolute control of two of the three branches of the Government, the executive and judicial, and left to the people only the legislative, subject to a two-thirds veto of the President's Governor, this Legislature so legislates that there is no House of Representatives there from March 1856 to January 1857, and no Council from March, 1857, to January 1858—in a word, so that
