onal impediments in respect to forms be set aside, and the
people take it in hand to amend the constitution on revolutionary
principles, there can be no end of agitation on this subject in less
than three years. I long since ventured the prediction that there
would be no settlement of the difficulties in Kansas until the next
presidential election. To continue the agitation is too important
to the interests of both the great parties of the country to
dispense with it, as long as any pretext can be found for prolonging
it. In the closing debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, I told its
supporters that they could do nothing more certain to disturb the
composure of the two Senators who sat on the opposite side of the
chamber, the one from Massachusetts [Mr. Sumner] and the other from
Ohio [Mr. Chase], than to reject that bill. Its passage was the
only thing in the range of possible events by which their political
fortunes could be resuscitated, so completely had the Free-Soil
movement at the North been paralyzed by the compromise measures of
1850. I say now to the advocates of this measure, if they want to
strengthen the Republican party, and give the reins of government
into their hands, pass this bill. If they desire to weaken the
power of that party, and arrest the progress of slavery agitation,
reject it. And if it is their policy to put an end to the agitation
connected with Kansas affairs at the earliest day practicable, as
they say it is, then let them remit this constitution back to the
people of Kansas, for their ratification or rejection. In that way
the whole difficulty will be settled before the adjournment of the
present session of Congress, without the violation of any sound
principle, or the sacrifice of the rights of either section of the
Union.

But the President informs us that threatening and ominous clouds
impend over the country; and he fears that if Kansas is not admitted
under the Lecompton constitution, slavery agitation will be revived
in a more dangerous form than it has ever yet assumed. There may be
grounds for that opinion, for aught I know; but it seems to me that
if any of the States of the South have taken any position on this
question which endangers the peace of the country, they could not
have been informed of the true condition of affairs in Kansas, and
of the strong objections which may be urged on principle against the
acceptance by Congress of the Lecompton constitution. And I