ARGUMENTS TO VOTE FOR THE SEPTEMBER, 1859

A SPEECH BY JOHN A. MARTIN

Transcribed by Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D. Thousand Oaks, California July 14,2004

[John A. Martin's "stump speech" advocating the adopting of the Wyandotte Constitution, in which he had no little part in authoring as Secretary of the convention, is hastily written, with many strike-outs and emendations. The ten pages of the manuscript are in the State Historical Society library. In it he is addressing citizens of the Territory of Kansas who had experienced the ravages of the "boarder ruffians" from Missouri, and who had witnessed the machinations of the Pro-slavery forces in seeking to impose the institution upon the people who were settling the forests and prairies of the new land. The twenty year-old Martin is already wise from his observations of the plight of the Territory, and suspicious of the statements of the "squatter sovereign" party. He urges his audience to stay alert to its wiles and see through its specious motives and reasons. His fears are justified, as is his confidence in his audience. -Ernst F. Tonsing]

Fellow citizens: Another scene in the mingled melo-drama and tragedy of which Kansas has been the theatre, is now passing. The third Convention of the people has assembled, done its work, and the result is now in the hands of nearly every citizen of the Territory. Twice before have the Free State men—the people of Kansas—met in Convention to frame an organic act for their Government, and twice before has the slave power of the nation defeated the free expression of their will.1 A third Constitution,2 formed by delegates legally elected by the people, and commissioned with the sovereignty which belongs alone to them, a Constitution broad in its views, progressive in its policy, comprehensive in its positions; a Constitution affording the fullest and widest and largest protection to the interests and rights of the Free Labor and Free in its [?] men; a Constitution worthy of the past , is submitted for our consideration, and will be voted upon by us in October next.

Twice before have Constitutions, eminating [sic] from the~only power which has authority to delegate its sovereign, the people, and sanctioned by their suffrages, been voted down in Washington by the partizens [sic] of that Democracy which could neither force nor bribe into compliance with its wishes. And once has a Constitution, originating in fraud, and formed by usurped authority, received the vote of the entire Democratic party in Congress.

1 A Free-state constitution had been devised in Topeka, , in October, 1855, which provided that, "There shall be no slavery in this State, or involuntary servitude except for crime." It was presented to Congress and turned down. The constitution framed at Lecompton, Kansas Territory, in September through November, 1857, also was rejected. 2 The Wyandotte Constitution, for which Martin is arguing in this speech, was the fourth. A third constitution was written in Leavenworth in March, 1857, and presented to Congress. It was never voted on by either house of Congress. And now, upon the eve of the ratification a third Constitution, we find the party which framed the Lecompton Swindle and supported it,3 arrayed against the Free State Constitution of Wyantdot,4 and we have to ask what is their motive. What [is] the cause of this bitter, uncompromising opposition to our release from a territorial thraldom [sic] which is acknowledge[d] to be oppressive and unwelcome[d], and the assumption of State Sovereignty and independence.

I have long since, my fellow-citizens, ceased to regard the actions of that party in the hypothesis or light its partizans [sic] give to them. Experience, which implants its lessons firmly and deeply, has taught me to fear this party—corrupt in its aims and unscrupulous as to the means of advancing them. The specious plea of Squatter Sovereignty5 with which it opened this fair Territory to the ingress of Slavery, but when successful, gave instead the sovereignty of the knife, the revolver, and the torch; the right of the people to form their own domestic institutions, of which it assumed to be the champion, but betrayed with a kiss, and gave, in place of that right, a Constitution formed by usurpers and sustained by fraud—all these specious promises, so alluringly made, so quickly broken—form a bitter experience, and have taught the people of Kansas to suspect every act of the party so debased and depraved.

My experience has taught me, also, that this party does nothing at random. Every move upon its chess-board has a distinct and definite purpose, at times as subtle and affecting results as far in the future as the well-considered words of Paul Murphy. Bold through its aims may be, infamous as are the methods it must adopt to secure their accomplishment, it never swerves from the course it has marked out. Taking its key-note from the head at Washington,6 it aims at some result, and neither the collonial [sic] policy of England nor the Russian policy of annexation is pursued with more firmness or resolve.

It behooves us, then, to examine into the results which might follow the success of its present uncompromising crusade against a Free State Constitution, which its leaders in Convention, pronounced a model instrument. And I think I see in this movement a deep- laid plan for our enslavement and the Lecomptonizing of Kansas. Through the agency of

3 The provided that a vote be taken on the "Constitution without slavery," or the "Constitution with slavery," but no vote being permitted against the constitution. The voting took place December 21, with the results of 6,226 for the "Constitution with slavery," and 569 against, the Free State party abstaining. The fraud was evident. 4 A Constitutional convention was held in July, 1859, at Wyandotte, now part of Kansas City, Kansas, with the twenty-year-old John A. Martin, too young to vote. Instead, he was appointed Secretary, and the twenty-one foot scroll in the Kansas State Historical Society bears his name at the bottom. The old "Free State" and "Pro-slavery" terms were abandoned, but the sixth section of its Bill of Rights read: "There shall be no slavery in this State, and no involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." A last attempt was made to suspend this section, but it was defeated twenty- eight to eleven. This was the final try to introduce slavery into the constitutioa 5 Members of Martin's audience would recall that he had assumed the ownership of the most powerful Slave-state newspaper in the Territory, the Atchison Squatter Sovereign, and, as an eighteen year-old, transformed its editorial policies and renamed it the Freedom's Champion, a paper which he was to edit throughout his life. 6 President favored the pro-slavery direction for the territories. a servile fidiciary [sic], Slavery has procured the sanction of the law to support its legal right to retain possession of Kansas, beyond the power of the people to prevent, while we remain a Territory. Having adopted this theory, that the constitution of the U.S. carries Slavery with it into the Territories and the people have no right to exclude it therefrom, it is proposed to make Kansas the test of the doctrine, by carrying it into practical operation. Pledged by the provisions of the English Bill,7 against our admission without a representative population, they would yet fear to reject us with a Constitution sanctioned by the vote of the people, upon the eve of a Presidential election. But if they can deceive the people into the support of their measures, if they can secure the defeat of the constitution in Kansas, and thus prevent the necessity of rejecting us, and at the same time keep us out of the Union until the national election of 1860 shall have passed, a new census will have been taken, and the ratio of representation raised probably to 120,000 or 130,000. Then the Supreme Court will be ready for another dicta. It will be declared that Slave property in a Territory is a vested right, and that the progeny is to be held as property forever within the State. The enslavement of Kansas will then be complete. This principle established, and we must yield to it, or rebel against the law and the Federal power.

This plan is not imaginary—it is one predicated upon good and well-founded reasons; and if, in our fancied power we over-estimate our security, we may be wofully [sic] deceived; if, in our imaginary strength, we pressure that Democracy wold scruple at this, on us must rest the countless evils flowing from it. We thought it would not, could not, dare not, repeal the Missouri Compromised [sic],8 sanctioned as it was, by the plyted [sic] faith of the nation, and yet it did. We would not believe it could debase itself so thoroughly as to use the Federal army to establish Slavery upon our soil, and the green grassy graves of the Free State settlers, murdered for their many support of their rights, too fearfully attest its working. We deceived ourselves with the flattering hope that they would not dare pass the Lecompton Constitution; the fearful struggle and the final passage of that foul cancer of Constitutional government answered us. We believed in their specious promises of conceded rights—let the plundered homestead, the devastated field, and the murdered brother answer how they were fulfilled. We felt secure in their protection—they gave us the protection of discord, and civil strife, and anarchy, and stung the bosom of generous confidence which they had inspired by their blandishments. And will we again trust this party, which has inspired confidence only to betray it; which has pretended friendship, only to inflict deeper stabs, which has assumed our protection, only to oppress us.

7 The "English Bill" promised that if the Kansans agreed to the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, it would bring extensive land grants and . Its rejection meant that the grants would be lost and Kansas would remain a territory and would have to wait until it achieved a population of 93,000 before being allowed to resubmit its petition for statehood. The vote took place in August, 1858, and was defeated soundly 11,812 to 1,926 votes. 8 The "" of 1820 prohibited slavery north of the 36° 30' line. The bill of Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1854, commonly called the "Nebraska Bill," and later, the "Kansas-Nebraska Act," cancelled the Missouri Compromise to allow Missouri to enter the union as a slave state, leaving the populations of the territories to decide the question of allowing slavery into their lands. The latter was passed by Congress in March, 1854, and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce May 30. I am aware, fellow-citizens, that every artifice which cunning can devise will be played off upon your understanding to prevent the adoption of the constitution. The ghost of taxation, which they wished, when advocating the Lecompton Constitution, to repose, will be evoked from its peaceful grave, to intimidate you from a spirited assertion of your rights. Does this man advocate a policy which properly belongs to the legislature under the Constitution, every effort will be made to convince him that it should have been incorporated in that instrument, and to induce him to vote against it because it is not. Does that man believe in another principle, which, if correct, true, and necessity [sic], will demonstrate to the people and their representatives his passion will be appealed to, and his prejudice inflamed, against the Constitution, because it does not embody these special enactments [sic]. Although the instrument itself is explicit in declaring that all powers and privileges not delegated therein remain with the people, and can be exercised at any and all times by their legal representatives, perversion and misrepresentation will be resorted to, to inspire the belief that measures which the people demand can not be enacted. And should these devices of the Democracy succeed, and you be induced to vote against investing yourselves with independent sovereignty, no men will laugh more at your credulity, than the partizans [sic] of the Administration, whose dupes you will have been.

The great object of law is to secure to us the enjoyment of our lives, and the certain possession of our property. Can this be effected under our present system, dependent, as we are, upon the caprices and favors of the satelites [sic] of an Administration which has on all occasions shown a disposition to oppress and harrass [sic] us?9 We must purchase justice which should be freely dispensed. We are subservient to and controlled by federal officers who have no interest in common nor sympathy with our people. As much money is spent in the attempt to obtain our right to property, as it is worth, and he who is not injured by a partial decision, is frequently ruined by the delay of justice. Criminals go unwhipt [sic] of punishment, or if trial be had, the innocent are as liable to suffer as the guilty. If property is at stake, delay and obstructions are thrown in our way, but if life is the subject of decisions, as few hours are sufficient to determine. Dispatch is given where there should be deliberation, and deliberation where there should be dispatch; every substantial rule of justice subverted by partizans [sic] judges or unworthy officials, whom we have no voice or will in selecting; and our present condition is legislation without law, an organic act without authority, wisdom without a plan, and perfect dependence contending for absolute independence.10

9 President James Buchanan urged the Congress to accept the Lecompton Constitution, remarking that Kansas was "afcfeuiy a slave State, as much as Georgia or South Carolina." 10 The manuscript seems incomplete without the peroration summing up the arguments of the speech. The Wyandotte Constitution was adopted on September 12, 1859, and the vote taken in the Kansas Territory on October 4, 1859, had 10,421 for the Constitution, 5,530 against. It remained only for the House to pass the bill on April 11, 1860, for Kansas to be admitted as a state under this constitution. There were consequences: the bill went to the Senate and was rejected, and, on January 21, 1861, Jefferson Davis and other Southern Senators withdrew from the body. William H. Seward then called up the bill, and the Senate passed it 36 to 16. It was returned to the House, and passed 117 to 42, and, on January 29, President James Buchanan signed the bill. Kansas was now a state and free!