To F. Gwinner, D. A. N. Grover, Robert C. Miller, William F. Dyer and Alfred
Jones, Esqrs., Committee:
Gentlemen: - On the 16th inst. you called on me in the capacity of a committee
claiming to represent and speak for a meeting of citizens of Kansas Territory,
held the preceding day at Leavenworth City, and presenting me your memorial in
behalf of that meeting. The memorial commences with the statement that you are
acting under a resolution of such meeting and ends by "urgently pressing" me to
"comply with the wishes of those by whom we were appointed."
Finding that you did not come as individual citizens, acting for yourselves, but
as the representatives of others, I took the ground that it was necessary and
proper for me to know whom you represented, and that I must have a copy
of the proceedings of the meeting which appointed you. Your chairman seemed at
first to think that was unnecessary. I replied that it was very obviously
necessary I should know by the only authentic evidence, that you had been
appointed and by whom; and I further stated that unless the proceedings were
furnished I should not consider myself bound to notice your memorial. You then
agreed to furnish them. I waited their coming until last evening, when I
received from the post office a communication from you, dated the 17th inst.,
but with no postmark to inform me when it was mailed. This communication
declines to furnish the proceedings of the meeting - professes to give the
reasons for the refusal - contains the very deliberate enunciation of some
inherent rights of the people of Kansas, which no one would ever think of
questioning, and some other propositions which must, in a confusion of
correspondence have got into that letter by mistake, as I have been utterly
unable to discover how they were connected with the subject of discussion; and
again requests that my answer to your memorial be made known to you and those
"whose organ you have the honor to be." The reasons you give may be briefly
stated. First, you say, that some of you at least are "recognized inhabitants"
of Kansas, and asserting your own character as honorable men, you claim that I
should have endorsed your own opinion on that head by taking your allegation of
the facts instead of asking for the usual and natural evidence of them.
Secondly, That the people of Kansas have a right to make known their wishes to
the executive without putting them in writing, or organizing any meeting for
that purpose. To the latter, I have only to say, that I admit cheerfully the
proposition it contains, but I am at a loss to understand what possible bearing
it has upon the question whether I am entitled to have a copy of the proceedings
of this meeting which has been held, and an extract from which you profess to
give. As to the first reason, passing over the indelicacy of gentlemen putting
their personal character unnecessarily and improperly in issue, and demanding of
me who never impugned or impeached it, that I should dispense with the forms and
vouchers which the occasion demanded, by adopting in lieu thereof, any estimate
of that character whatever, and especially one made by yourselves, as the basis
of my official action, I beg leave to remind you that you are requiring more
than this, and with signal modesty, demand that I should surrender my judgment
to yours, and if you should be of opinion that the meeting who sent you was
composed of "citizens of Kansas," I should take for granted that you are
infallible, adopt your conclusions, and consider it unnecessary to judge for
myself. Doubtless this would save a vast deal of trouble, and, if I could take
your infallibility for granted, it would leave me but little to do, but to
register your decrees. That, however, is not my mode of doing business, and
although I seek the opinions and suggestions of others, I prefer to judge for
myself. There is another very singular aspect of this reason of yours. Without
inquiring of me what I intended to do in relation to an election of members of
the Legislature, you attract public attention by assembling a meeting, and after
a speech appropriate to the design of the meeting, a committee is formally
appointed to prepare a grave and diplomatic memorial to quicken me in the
performance of my official duty, and when you have made the affair thus public,
precise and ceremonious, so far as it is calculated to cast censure on my
judgment and fidelity, you modestly insist that all the residue of the
proceedings shall be as informal as you choose to make them, and whilst you by
your actions are censuring me, I shall be required in the same transaction to
recognize you as men who cannot possibly err in motive or in judgment. These
rules of logic and equity I have never learned; and I think, gentlemen, that to
you belongs the merit of their discovery.
Your reasons being thus disposed of, allow me to repeat, you come to me as the
agent of others, whom you allege are citizens of Kansas, and therefore entitled
to a reply. I ask for a copy of the proceedings in order that I may be satisfied
as to that fact. You peremptorily refuse to give them. By all the rules of
common sense, common courtesy and common justice, I would be justified in
refusing to notice your communication, as I had once resolved to do. I have,
however, changed my mind, and will proceed to state some facts within the
knowledge of the whole public in this vicinity (who will decide between us if we
disagree), and which I should have proven almost entirely by your own evidence
had you not, from the pinching exigencies of the case, been compelled to refuse
a copy of the proceedings.
The meeting was not of the citizens of Kansas, as your proceedings will show if
you will produce them. It was a meeting composed mainly of the citizens of
Missouri and a few of the citizens of Kansas. Your own body, whom I am now
addressing, contains two undoubted residents of Missouri, one of whom is your
Chairman, who resides with his family in the town of Liberty, Mo., as he has
done for years, and whose only attempt at a residence in Kansas consists of a
card nailed to a tree upon ground long since occupied by other settlers, who
have built and lived upon the claim. The President of your meeting was Maj. John
Doughearty, a resident and large land-holder in Clay County, Mo., as he has
stated to me since the meeting, and will not hesitate to state again, as he is a
highminded, honorable man, above all concealment or disguise.
The gentlemen principally composing your meeting came from across the river,
thronging the road from the ferry to the town, on horseback and in wagons, in
numbers variously estimated by different persons at two hundred to three
hundred, and after the meeting was over they returned to their homes in the
State of Missouri. These are facts notorious here, as any public occurrence can
be, and every man who had eyes to see and ears to hear is cognizant of them.
They were the subject of much remark and the cause of deep dissatisfaction, and
even on the ground in the meeting and in reply to the speech of your Chairman,
who was chief spokesman of the occasion, this invasion of our Territory was
loudly complained of by some of the outnumbered citizens of Kansas, and has
frequently since been made the subject of indignant complaint to me. Such is the
meeting from which you derive authority, and such the title by which you assume
to interfere in the regulation of our affairs. Few men, with all the facts
before them, would be hardy enough to say that the assumption is entitled to any
respect. The law guarantees to us the right to manage our own affairs. It is the
great, much discussed feature of our Territorial Government, and one which our
people highly prize, under the pledges of which the inhabitants of the Territory
have come and staked their future fortunes on our soil.
The pledges of that law must be redeemed, and it is a poor and pitiless boon to
have escaped from the domination of Congress if we are only to pass under the
hands of another set of self-constituted rulers, foreign to our soil and sharing
none of our burdens, no matter what may be their virtues or their worth as men
and citizens at home. It may be very desirable for gentlemen to live among the
comforts of the States, with all the accumulated conveniences and luxuries of an
old home, and make an occasional expedition into our Territory to arrange our
affairs - instruct our people and public officers and control our government -
but it does not suit us, and I much mistake the people of this Territory if they
submit to it. One thing I am certain of, that, having sworn to perform the
duties of the office of Governor with fidelity, I shall denounce and resist it
in friend or foe, and without regard to the locality, the faction or the "ism"
from which it comes.
This much the citizens of Kansas have a right to demand at my hands, and to fail
in it would be the boldest dereliction of official duty. We believe that we are
competent to govern ourselves, and as we must bear the consequences of our own
errors and reap the fruit of our own decisions, we must decline any gratuitous
help in making them.
We shall always be glad to see our neighbors across the river as friends and
visitors among us, and will endeavor to treat them with kindness and
hospitality. We shall be still more pleased if they will abandon their present
homes and dot our beautiful country with their residences to contribute to our
wealth and progress, but until they do the latter we must respectfully but
determinedly decline to allow them any participation in regulating our affairs.
When that is to be done, we insist that they shall stand aside and permit us to
do the work ourselves.
This, gentlemen, with due respect for you personally, is the only reply that I
shall give to the suggestion in behalf of your meeting relative to the time and
manner of taking our census and holding our election.
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