ofessed desire, could not be conducted without
collision and bloodshed.

The truth is that up till the present moment the enemies of the
existing government still adhere to their Topeka revolutionary
constitution and government. The very first paragraph of the message
of Governor Robinson, dated on the 7th of December, to the Topeka
legislature now assembled at Lawrence contains an open defiance of
the Constitution and laws of the United States. The governor says:

The convention which framed the constitution at Topeka originated
with the people of Kansas Territory. They have adopted and ratified
the same twice by a direct vote, and also indirectly through two
elections of State officers and members of the State legislature.
Yet it has pleased the Administration to regard the whole proceeding
revolutionary.

This Topeka government, adhered to with such treasonable pertinacity, is
a government in direct opposition to the existing government prescribed
and recognized by Congress. It is a usurpation of the same character as
it would be for a portion of the people of any State of the Union to
undertake to establish a separate government within its limits for
the purpose of redressing any grievance, real or imaginary, of which
they might complain against the legitimate State government. Such a
principle, if carried into execution, would destroy all lawful authority
and produce universal anarchy.

From this statement of facts the reason becomes palpable why the enemies
of the government authorized by Congress have refused to vote for
delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention, and also afterwards
on the question of slavery, submitted by it to the people. It is because
they have ever refused to sanction or recognize any other constitution
than that framed at Topeka.

Had the whole Lecompton constitution been submitted to the people the
adherents of this organization would doubtless have voted against it,
because if successful they would thus have removed an obstacle out of
the way of their own revolutionary constitution. They would have done
this, not upon a consideration of the merits of the whole or any part of
the Lecompton constitution, but simply because they have ever resisted
the authority of the government authorized by Congress, from which it
emanated.

Such being the unfortunate condition of affairs in the Territory, what
was the right as well as the duty of the law-abiding people? Were th