pted it, and under it elected a governor and other
officers and a Representative to Congress. In extenuation of these
illegal acts it is alleged that the States of California, Michigan, and
others were self-organized, and as such were admitted into the Union
without a previous enabling act of Congress. It is true that while
in a majority of cases a previous act of Congress has been passed to
authorize the Territory to present itself as a State, and that this is
deemed the most regular course, yet such an act has not been held to be
indispensable, and in some cases the Territory has proceeded without it,
and has nevertheless been admitted into the Union as a State. It lies
with Congress to authorize beforehand or to confirm afterwards, in
its discretion. But in no instance has a State been admitted upon the
application of persons acting against authorities duly constituted by
act of Congress. In every case it is the people of the Territory, not
a party among them, who have the power to form a constitution and ask
for admission as a State. No principle of public law, no practice or
precedent under the Constitution of the United States, no rule of
reason, right, or common sense, confers any such power as that now
claimed by a mere party in the Territory. In fact what has been done
is of revolutionary character. It is avowedly so in motive and in aim
as respects the local law of the Territory. It will become treasonable
insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance by force to
the fundamental or any other Federal law and to the authority of the
General Government. In such an event the path of duty for the Executive
is plain. The Constitution requiring him to take care that the laws of
the United States be faithfully executed, if they be opposed in the
Territory of Kansas he may, and should, place at the disposal of the
marshal any public force of the United States which happens to be within
the jurisdiction, to be used as a portion of the _posse comitatus_; and
if that do not suffice to maintain order, then he may call forth the
militia of one or more States for that object, or employ for the same
object any part of the land or naval force of the United States. So,
also, if the obstruction be to the laws of the Territory, and it be
duly presented to him as a case of insurrection, he may employ for its
suppression the militia of any State or the land or naval force of the
United States. And if the Territory be in