An appeal to patriots against fraud and disunion. Speech of Hon. Anson Burlingame, of Massachusetts. Delivered in the U. S. House of Representatives, March 31, 1858

AN APPEAL TO PATRIOTS AGAINST FRAUD AND DISUNION.

SPEECH

OF

HON, ANSON BURLINGAME,

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Delivered in the U. S. Hcaise of Representatives, March 31, 1858,

WASHINGTON, D. C.
SUELL & BLANCH A RD, PRINTERS,

1858.

SPEECH OF MR. BURLINGAME.

MR. CHAIRMAN : It has been shown,
in the great debate which we have had,
that the people of Kansas never author-
ized the Lecompton Constitution ; that
they never made it ; that they never rat-
ified it ; that it does not reflect their
will. It has been shown that the first
Legislature was a fraud ; that the sec-
ond was a fraud ; that test oaths and
gag laws were put upon the people,
so that they could not vote ; that then
they were held responsible for the crimes
of those who did ; that when they were
persuaded to vote, they were cheated ;
that when nobody voted, returns were
made as if from populous regions. It
has been shown that the honesty of the
officers of the Government, who tried to
stay the hand of these frauds, was con-
sidered an offence by the Government.
It has been shown that the people have
been menaced in their property and their
lives ; that armies were sent there to
vote them down, or to shoot them down,
and without authority of law. It has
appeared, that the men who did these
things were held dear by the Govern-
ment, and they are its officers to-day.
It has been shown that, through all this
time, that devoted people has held itself
in such an attitude as to win not only
the respect of the people of the United
States, but the respect of the officers of
the Government who have been sent,
from time to time, to persuade or to
subdue them to the policy of the Gov-
ernment.

But, Mr. Chairman, it is not my pur-
pose here to-day to go over the history
of Kansas affairs ; that has been done,
as the gentleman from South Carolina
[Mr. MILES] has just now well said,
sufficiently. Every fact has been stated ;
every principle has been argued. Day
by day, we have urged our cause with
all the zeal of men who know they are
right. Every fact has been met on the
other side, by some daring and insolent as-
sumption ; every argument, with scornful
sneers, which no man can answer. When
we have offered to prove facts, the will
of the people of the United States, as
reflected by the Representatives upon
this floor, has been baffled by parlia-
mentary tactics. Yes, you who belong
to the party that went behind the great
seal of New Jersey, as my eloquent friend
from Indiana [Mr. COLFAX] very truly
said, you who go behind the certificates
of the Governors of Ohio and Maryland,
when the interests of a whole people are
at stake, and fraud is charged, you say
you cannot go behind the record ; you
say that you are estopped ; you say " it
is so nominated in the bond; " you refuse
to investigate, and propose speedily to
force upon the people of Kansas a Con-
stitution never made by them. Yes, you
who say, with us, that the people are the
source of power ; you, who say that power
should floAV forth from the people into
practical government on the line of their
desires ; you, who shouted your great
radical rule of Democracy in the ears of

the country — Buchanan at your head —
to be this, that inasmuch as the people
are sovereign, inasmuch as that sover-
eignty cannot be alienated by them in
such a manner that it cannot be resumed
when the safety of the people shall re-
quire it, therefore it is for them to deter-
mine at what time and in what manner
they will change their fundamental law ;
that ivas your radical rule of Democracy.
It is now pronounced Dorrism by the j
Democracy on this floor. You planted
your rule in opposition to the rule of the
other great school of the country, which
rule was stated most clearly by Mr. Web-
ster, in the great Rhode Island case, to
be this : He said that the will of the
majority must govern ; that it was as
potent as the will of the Czar of Muscovy,
when it was legally ascertained. But
how will you ascertain it, said he; it
must be ascertained by some rule pre-
scribed by previous law. That rule, the
fierce Democracy denounced as the rule
of tyranny.

Well, sir, here we have a case where
even the requirements of that rule have
been met by the people of Kansas.
Their will was collected legally, by a
legal Legislature ; and it appears that
their will, by 10,000 majority, is against
your Lecompton Constitution ; and yet,
in the face of that declaration, you come
forward as a party ; and propose to force
that Constitution, in defiance of your
own rule of Democracy, in defiance of
the Federal rule, upon that people ; aye,
sir, worse than that— you declare, through
the lips of your boldest and ablest lead-
er, through the lips of the distinguished
Senator from Georgia, [Mr. TOOMBS,]
through the lips of men upon this floor,
through the lips of the gentleman who
has but just taken his seat, if I under-
stood him, that it involves a question of
union or disunion. I agree with the gen-
tleman from South Carolina, [Mr.
MILES,] who said that we might as well
meet this question now. I, for my part,
am ready to meet it now. I accept the
issue which is tendered. I accept the
more eagerly, in the presence of this
menace. A representative of the people
would be craven, did he shrink from his

duty in the presence of such a threat as
that. What, you dissolve this Union
because you cannot have your own wild
will ! You dissolve this Union because
the Lecompton Constitution, born of
fraud and violence, is legally voted down
in this House ! Has your nationality
no better quality than that '? How will
you do it ? Who is to do it ? Whose
hand is ready to strike the first blow ?
Where is your army chest 1 Where
your battalions, to cope with the people
of this country ? You cannot do it. It
would be wrong to do it. It would not
be legal. It would not be safe to do it.
I tell you, that on the banks of the San-
tee it would require no Federal army to
subdue rebellion.

The descendants of Surnter and of
Marion, as their fathers struck down
the Tory spirit in the brave days of old,
would quell the spirit of rebellion to-day.
We have heard this threat before. We
have deemed it but the idle vaunt of idle
men ; but it comes now with an empha-
sis and an authority that it never had
before. We find the fire-eater giving
his will as the law of the great Demo-
cratic party. He has the right to rule
it, from his courage and his activity.

I say it comes with new emphasis when
the leader of the Democratic party gets
up in the Senate of the United States,
and with deliberation — not acting on an
impulse — declares, and I heard him, that
this Union is a myth ; that he has cal-
culated its value ; that the people of
Kentucky love it "not wisely, but too
well;" and that this Lecomptou Consti-
tution involves the safety of the Union ;
and when the gallant Senator from Ten-
nessee [Mr. BELL] accepted the issue,
when he re-stated these points, the dis-
tinguished Senator from Georgia bowed
his assent, and I saw him ; and no mem-
ber of the Democratic party in the Sen-
ate protested against that doctrine. I
say, when such men express such senti-
ments, the time has arrived when the
national men of the country should unite
to'rebuke such sentiments, and vote them
down here, and vote them down else-
where. These are the men, are they, to
taunt the loyal old State of Massachu-

setts with Laving legislated herself out
of the Union, because she has declared,
that of two given offices it is incompati-
ble for one of her citizens to hold both
of them? She had a right to pass such
a law. No cour't has decided it to be
unconstitutional. When the court shall
so decide, Massachusetts, with her ac-
customed obedience to law, will submit.
She simply says this : "If you desire to
carry men ' back to old Virginia — to old
Virginia's shore ' — you must do it with
your officers, and not with hers." That
is all. But I am not here to-day to
defend her ; lam not here to plead for
her. She denies the jurisdiction of this
House. She is not responsible to it for
her local legislation. I stand here upon
the great doctrine, which I believe in,
that the will of the majority, constitu-
tionally expressed, must stand until it
shall be constitutional^ reversed ; and,
so far as the threat which has been made
is concerned, I — disdaining to argue in
its presence — stand here, before the
people of this great country, and tram-
ple that threat of disunion scornfully
and defiantly down under my feet.

Why have you brought 'this sectional
question here? Why do you seek to
force a Constitution upon a people whom
you know abhor it 1 What are you to
gain by it 1 Did n»t the gentleman from
South Carolina [Mr. MILES] very truly
say that it would be a barren victory—
that it would wither in your grasp 1 And
he said, speaking more fully in the inter-
ests of the South than most of you, that,
he did not care now much about the pas-
sage of the Lecompton Constitution.
What are you to gain? Is your dogma
that there can be property in man, borne
in the bosom of that Constitution, rec-
ommended by such a course more warm-
ly to the hearts of the American people ?
Will you more easily persuade, them at
some future time, to be more willing to
admit States from other Territories,
where the system may be more congenial
to the climate? Will not the people
say, and with truth, that this system,
which requires such means as these to
strengthen and sustain itself, is danger-
ous to the peace and prosperity of the

Republic? Will they not hate your
system, because of your conduct in this
case? What! will two Si-imlovs fnmi
that State, who must be fugitives from
the State that they will pretend to rep-
resent— will that State, held down, as
the gentleman from South Carolina said
he would hold it until 1864 — compen-
sate for the ill feeling you have cre-
ated ? Will they compensate you for
the alienation of the people which will
take place ? Will they compensate you
for }rour part}7 dismembered, broken, and
lost ? The gentleman from South Caro-
lina [Mr. MILES] gave us statistics of the
last election. It is true, that with the
suspicion that you would do this thing,
we swept the North, and the East, and
the West, with, as he says, more than
1,300,000 votes. We swept the great
and populous States of the country Avith
the mighty ten-wave of the people's en-
thusiasm. We brought down the victo-
ry into the very shadow of your malign
system. If we did it then, what will
now be your fate at the polls, when
you go back to an indignant and be-
trayed constituency? You can no longer
say you are for Free Kansas ; we will nail
you to the record. You cannot say any
longer that you are in favor of the great
doctrine of popular sovereignty ; ice will
nail you to the record. You cannot say
any longer that we are mere Freedom-
shriekers, because there shall stand side
by side with us the great chief of Democ-
racy, the distinguished author of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and he will tell
you that you have betrayed your constit-
uents.

We will summon clouds of witnesses
from all the winds of heaven. We will
summon them from the South, the East,
and the West. We shall summon the
gallant Wise of Virginia, who desires
that the State shall be slave, but who is
too honest to cheat the people. We shall
summon Walker, who has added a
new empire to strengthen the South.
We shall summon Stanton, and Forney,
and Bancroft, and a host of .others ; and,
above all, we shall summon those gallant
Senators from Kentucky and Tennessee,
the acts of whose lives for a quarter of a

century shine along the annals of their
country. We will call upon them, and
they will tell you you have hetrayed the
people; that }7ou are forcing upon the
people of Kansas a Constitution con-
ceived in fraud and violence. And how
are you to meet those charges'? How
are you to answer to a great and indignant
people — for they will question you as
with a tongue of fire 1 They will go back
beyond your proceedings here ; they will
question you as to the doings and pur-
poses of the Administration ; they will
ask you why you did not adhere to the
doctrine of popular sovereignty ; why,
after you had maintained that the people
01 a Territory could exclude Slavery, you
changed around, and said they could do
it when they formed a State ; and why
it is that your popular sovereignty has
vanished away into the Hibernian sug-
gestion of the President, that the quickest
way to make Kansas a free State is first
to make it a slave State. They will ask
you why you have substituted the dog-
mas of Calhouu for the doctrines of Jef-
ferson. They will ask you how it is that
the President of the United States, after
having, in 1819 and 1847, held that Con-
gress had power over the Territories,
in 1857 expressed his amazing surprise
that anybody should have ever held
that doctrine. They will desire to know
why it is that there was a complicity
between him and the Supreme Court of
the United States, by which, upon yonder
steps of the Capitol, he was enabled to
foreshadow what they afterwards an-
nounced as an opinion. They will ask
you why it was that that court, wearing
the ermine of a Jay, a Marshall, and a
Story, when there was no case before
the court calling for it, went beyond the
line of their duty, and published politi-
cal opinions. They will ask you why
the army of the United States have shot
down American citizens in the streets of
Washington, and why it was held in
terrorem over the people of Kansas so
long. And they will ask you, doughfaces
of the North, why you sat still in your
seats, and allowed men to call your con-
stituents, because they toiled, mud-sills
and slaves 1 You will have to answer

all these things. You cannot do it, and
we shall beat you like a threshing-floor.
We shall hereafter have a majority in
this House. We shall strengthen our-
selves in the Senate, and we are to-day
filling all the land with the portents of
your general doom in 1860. And I say,
in the presence of this state of things,
that our first dut}r to God and our coun-
try is to devote ourselves to the political
destruction of doughfaces, who say one
thing at home, and come here to vote an-
other ; and who fawn and tremble, and
fall down, in the presence of the Admin-
istration. No wonder that you, Southern
men, call us slaves, judging us from these
specimens of the people. But I tell you
they do not represent the fire and flint
of the grim and grizzly North. They are
but our waiters on Providence, our Mac-
sycophants ; they are our Uriah Keeps;
they belong with Dante's selfish men, of
whom he said, heaven would not have
them, and hell rejected them. I tell you,
Southern men, I am ready to strike hands
with fire-eaters, and exterminate the race.
It is becoming extinct. Look in their
faces for the last time ; they are fading
away — fading away. Oh ! for an artist
to take their features, to transmit them
to a curious and scornful posterity. Do
it quickly, for the places which now know
them shall soon know them no more for-
ever.

I think it is the first duty of republi-
cans to extinguish the doughfaces, but
I hold it also their duty to bear testimo-
ny as to the manner in which the Doug-
las men — and they will pardon me for
giving them the name of their gallant
and gifted leader — to bear testimony to
the manner in which they have borne
themselves. They have kept the faith ;
they have adhered to the doctrine of
popular sovereignty ; they have voted it in
this House, and they have not fawned and
trembled in the presence of a dominating
Administration — in the presence of that
great tyranny which holds the Govern-
ment in its thrall at Washington. They
have given flash for flash to every indig-
nant look ; and when a gentleman from
Virginia, the other day, tauntingly told
them that certain language which they

used upon the floor of this House was
the language of rebellion, they shouted
out, through the lips of the gentleman
from Indiana, [Mr. DAVIS,] u it was the
language of freemen." I say that it is
due to them that we should say that they
have home the brunt of the battle — and
that they, whether from New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois,
have kept the whiteness of their souls,
and have made a record which has lain
in light ; and if my voice can have any
weight with the young men of the coun-
try where those men dwell, I should
say to them, stand by these men with
all your young enthusiasm, stand by
them without distinction of party ; they
may not agree exactly with you, but
they have stood the test here, where
brave men falter and fall. Let them
teach this tyrannical Administration, that
if it is strong, that the people are stron-
ger behind it. Thus I would speak to
the young men of the country. I differ
in some points with those men. and I do
not wish to complicate them. I pay
also the high tribute of my admiration to
that band of men who have been reposing
outside of the boundaries of the great par-
ties of the country as a patriotic corps
of reserve, for the purpose, I suppose, of
saving the Union when it is endangered.
When they saw this sectional issue made,
standing as they did in a position to look
fairly on between the parties, the}7 saw who
made it, and they instantly took sides ;
and in the language of Mr. BELL, in
his reply to Mr. TOOMBS, they accepted
the issue of disunion. They accepted it ;
and when, sir, they saw that Lecompton
was synonymous with "fraud, with for-
gery, with perjury, with ballot-box stuff-
ing," then they trampled it with their
high manly honesty under their feet.
They have taken it in charge to preserve
the ballot-box pure and open to Ameri-
can citizens. Sir, it was a proud day
to me, when I heard the speech of the
venerable Senator from Kentucky, [Mr.
CRITTENDEN.] The melody of his voice,
and his patriotic accent, still sound in
my ears. I was glad to hear him de-
nounce fraud ; I was glad to hear him
stand for the truth. As I listened, it

seemed tome that the spirit of the Ken-
tucky Commoner had come back again
to visit his old place in the Senate. It
seemed to me as if his spirit was hover-
ing there, looking, as in days of old,
after the interests of the Union. At
that moment, the heart of Massachusetts
beat responsive once again to that of
grand old Kentucky ; and I longed to
have the day come again, when there
should be such feelings as in the olden
time, when the Bay State bore the name of
Henry Clay on her banners over her hills
and through her valleys, everywhere to
victory, and with an affection equal to
the affection of Kentucky herself.

I also felt proud to hear the speech of
the distinguished Senator from Tennes-
see, [Mr. BELL.] I was glad to hear
their confreres on this floor, Messrs.
UNDERWOOD of Kentucky, GILMER of
North Carolina, RICAUD and HARRIS
of Maryland, and DAVIS, with his sur-
passing eloquence, worthy of the best
days of Pinkney and of Wirt ; and I also
express my gratitude to Mr. MARSHALL
of Kentucky, who has labored so long to
secure this union of patriotic men. I
owe it to these men, and to myself, to
say that I do not agree with them on the
subject of Slavery, and I know that they
do not agree with me. Neither do I
agree with the Douglas men ; I take
what I think is a higher position. I
hold to the power of Congress over the
Territories ; they do not. But while I
oppose the Lecompton Constitution for
one reason, and while the Douglas Dem-
ocrats oppose it for another, the South
Americans may oppose it for still an-
other. God knows we have all cause of
war against it, and against the Admin-
istration. And we have come together
here as a unit, not by any preconcert, not
by any trade among leaders, but by the
spontaneous convictions of our own hon-
est minds. I trust that this may be an
omen of what may happen in the future.
As to what may happen, it is not for me
to prophesy. Let time and chance de-
termine. We come together, not in a
spirit of compromise, because we com-
promise nothing, but in a spirit of pa-
triotism. And, acting in that spirit, I,

for one, am prepared to sustain the sub-
stitute offered by the distinguished Sen-
ator from Kentucky. After first voting to
reject the bill, I will vote for that substi-
tute, not because I would vote for it as an
original measure ; I will vote for it'be-
cause I think 'that it will make Kansas
a free State. The Administration says
it is a slave Territory to-day — the Le-
compton Constitution makes it a slave
State. I feel that the Lecompton Con-
stitution, without this substitute, would
pass in its naked form, and that Kansas
would be a slave State under it ; and if
I forego this opportunity to make it a
free State, the opportunity will be lost
forever. And how could I meet my con-
stituents, and say that, because I desired
to appear consistent, I would not vote
for that substitute, and give the people
of Kansas one more chance for Freedom.
If there were only one chance in a hun-
dred, I would do it. But it is not a
chance ; it is a certainty. Doughfaces
will undoubtedly feel very sad about my
vote, and complain that I am not con-
sistent. That word " consistency " is a
coward's word. It is the refuge of self-
i,~;mess and timidity. I will do right
to-day, and let yesterday take care of
itself. That word " consistency ' is
what has lured many a noble man to
ruin. It has stopped all generous re-
form. When I am ready to adopt it,
and to depart from practicability, I will
join the immovable civilization of Chinn,
and take the false doctrines of Confucius
for my guide, with their backward-look-
ing thoughts.

These are my reasons, these are the
reasons that animate my associates
among the Republicans. And I tell
you,, the common enemy, fairly and
openly, that our cause is just and our
union is perfect. We Republicans i
will place to-morrow our united vote
upon the record in favor of the substi-
tute. Our great chieftain here, [Mr.
GIDDINGS,] with his white hairs, who
has stood for twenty years the great

champion of Liberty, we will bear with
affection to the record — to this de-
termination he has come, after much
thought. At last, he felt that his princi-
ples required him so to vote, and, obey-
ing the impulses of an honest and patri-
otic and not fanatical heart, he points
the way of duty and victory. The
member from South Carolina, [Mr.
MILES,] if he knew him better, would
find his heart to be a loving one ; and I
will tell that member that his interests
and the interests of South Carolina are
safer to-day in the hands of that good
old man, than they are in the hands of
the most malignant of doughfaces. 1
say our union is perfect. We^ill put
our votes on record to-morrow in favor
of the substitute, not as a choice of evils,
but because it is the good thing to do ;
it is the only thing for honest men to
"do, if we wish to have Kansas a free
State.

Mr. Chairman, a great many thoughts
suggest themselves to my mind, to which
I would like to give utterance, I am
told that my time is about to expire, and
therefore will not prolong my remarks
to greater length. I say, for our party,
that we are ready. WTe seek no post-
ponement of the question. All that men
could, do we have done. We have argued
the question ; we have implored ; we have
voted ; we have done everything to se-
cure our triumph ; we have been baffled
by parliamentary tactics ; we have been
sometimes betrayed. The President has
given way ; the Senate has given way ;
but, thank God, the tribunes of the people,
standing here in this House, have not yet
betrayed their trust. They stand firm,
and my high hope is - - 1 do not know
why, looking to our past conflicts here,
I should have it — that on the great to-
morrow, when the sun shall sink behind
the hills of your own loved Virginia,
this Lecompton Constitution will be de-
feated ; Kansas will be saved, and the
whole country repose in good will, and
peace dwell in all our borders.