ey
silently and patiently to submit to the Topeka usurpation, or adopt the
necessary measures to establish a constitution under the authority of
the organic law of Congress?

That this law recognized the right of the people of the Territory,
without any enabling act from Congress, to form a State constitution
is too clear for argument. For Congress "to leave the people of the
Territory perfectly free," in framing their constitution, "to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to
the Constitution of the United States," and then to say that they shall
not be permitted to proceed and frame a constitution in their own way
without an express authority from Congress, appears to be almost a
contradiction in terms. It would be much more plausible to contend
that Congress had no power to pass such an enabling act than to argue
that the people of a Territory might be kept out of the Union for an
indefinite period, and until it might please Congress to permit them
to exercise the right of self-government. This would be to adopt not
"their own way," but the way which Congress might prescribe.

It is impossible that any people could have proceeded with more
regularity in the formation of a constitution than the people of Kansas
have done. It was necessary, first, to ascertain whether it was the
desire of the people to be relieved from their Territorial dependence
and establish a State government. For this purpose the Territorial
legislature in 1855 passed a law "for taking the sense of the people
of this Territory upon the expediency of calling a convention to form
a State constitution," at the general election to be held in October,
1856. The "sense of the people" was accordingly taken and they decided
in favor of a convention. It is true that at this election the enemies
of the Territorial government did not vote, because they were then
engaged at Topeka, without the slightest pretext of lawful authority,
in framing a constitution of their own for the purpose of subverting
the Territorial government.

In pursuance of this decision of the people in favor of a convention,
the Territorial legislature, on the 27th day of February, 1857, passed
an act for the election of delegates on the third Monday of June, 1857,
to frame a State constitution. This law is as fair in its provisions as
any that ever passed a legislative body for a similar purpose. The right
of suffrage at this election is clearly