Under these inauspicious circumstances

necessarily and at once under the supervision of Congress, as the judge of the the primary elections for members of the validity of the return of the delegate, and would have been determined before conflicting passions had become inflamed by time, and before opportunity could have been afforded for systematic interference of the people of individual States.

legislative Assembly were held in most, if not all, of the precincts at the time and the places and by the persons designated and appointed by the governor according to law.

Angry accusations that illegal votes had This interference, in so far as concerns been polled abounded on all sides, and its primary causes and its immediate com- imputations were made both of fraud and mencement, was one of the incidents of violence. But the governor, in the exerthat pernicious agitation on the subject cise of the power and the discharge of of the condition of the colored persons the duty conferred and imposed by law held to service in some of the States which on him alone, officially received and conhas so long disturbed the repose of our sidered the returns, declared a large macountry and excited individuals, other- jority of the members of the council and wise patriotic and law-abiding, to toil with the house of representatives "duly electmisdirected zeal in the attempt to propa- ed," withheld certificates from others begate their social theories by the perver- cause of alleged illegality of votes, apsion and abuse of the powers of Con- pointed a new election to supply the gress. places of the persons not certified, and thus at length, in all the forms of statute, and with his own official authentication, complete legality was given to the first legislative Assembly of the Territory.

The persons and the parties whom the tenor of the act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the endeavor to impose, through the agency of Congress, their particular views of social organization on the people of the future new States, now perceiving that the policy of leaving the inhabitants of each State to judge for themselves in this respect was ineradicably rooted in the convictions of the people of the Union, then had recourse, in the pursuit of their general object, to the extraordinary measure of propagandist colonization of the Territory of Kansas to prevent the free and natural action of its inhabitants in its internal organization, and thus to anticipate or to force the determination of that question in this inchoate State.

With such views associations were organized in some of the States, and their purposes were proclaimed through the press in language extremely irritating and offensive to those of whom the colonists were to become the neighbors. Those designs and acts had the necessary consequence to awaken emotions of intense indignation in States near to the Territory of Kansas, and especially in the adjoining State of Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly endangered; but they are far from justifying the illegal and reprehensible counter movements which ensued.

Those decisions of the returning officers and of the governors are final, except that by the parliamentary usage of the country applied to the organic law it may be conceded that each house of the Assembly must have been competent to determine in the last resort the qualifications and the election of its members. The subject was by its nature one appertaining exclusively to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of the Territory. Whatever irregularities may have occurred in the elections, it seems too late now to raise that question. At all events, it is a question as to which, neither now nor at any previous time, has the least possible legal authority been possessed by the President of the United States. For all present purposes the legislative body thus constituted and elected was the legitimate legislative assembly of the Territory.

Accordingly the governor by proclamation convened the Assembly thus elected to meet at a place called Pawnee City; the two houses met and were duly organized in the ordinary parliamentary form; each sent to and received from the governor the official communications usual on such occasions; an elaborate message opening the session was communicated by the governor, and the general business of

legislation was entered upon by the legis- temporarily the seat of government, still lative Assembly.

The

more had the legislative Assembly. But after a few days the Assembly re- objections are of exceptionable origin, for solved to adjourn to another place in the the further reason that the place indicated Territory. A law was accordingly passed, by the governor, without having any exagainst the consent of the governor, but clusive claim of preference in itself, was in due form otherwise, to remove the seat a proposed town site only, which he and of government temporarily to the "Shaw- others were attempting to locate unlawnee Manual Labor School" (or mission), fully upon land within a military reservaand thither the Assembly proceeded. After tion, and for participation in which ilthis, receiving a bill for the establishment legal act the commandant of the post, of a ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the a superior officer in the army, has been governor refused to sign it, and by special dismissed by sentence of court-martial. message assigned for reason of refusal not anything objectionable in the bill itself nor any pretence of the illegality or incompetency of the Assembly as such, but only the fact that the Assembly had by its act transferred the seat of government temporarily from Pawnee City to the Shawnee Mission. For the same reason he continued to refuse to sign other bills, until, in the course of a few days, he by official message communicated to the Assembly the fact that he had received notification of the termination of his functions as governor, and that the duties of the office were legally devolved on the secretary of the Territory; thus to the last recognizing the body as a duly elected and constituted legislative Assembly.

Nor is it easy to see why the legislative Assembly might not with propriety pass the Territorial act transferring its sittings to the Shawnee Mission. If it could not, that must be on account of some prohibitory or incompatible provision of act of Congress; but no such provision exists. The organic act, as already quoted, says "the seat of government is hereby located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth "; and it then provides that certain of the public buildings there "may be occupied and used under the direction of the governor and legislative Assembly." These expressions might possibly be construed to imply that when, in a previous section of the act, it was enacted that "the first legislative Assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the governor shall appoint," the word "place' means place at Fort Leavenworth, not place anywhere in the Territory. If so, the governor would have been the first to err in this matter, not only in himself having removed the seat of government to the Shawnee Mission, but in again removing it to Pawnee City. If there was any departure from the letter of the law, therefore, it was his in both instances. But however this may be, it is most unreasonSuch an objection to the proceedings able to suppose that by the terms of the of the legislative Assembly was of excep- organic act Congress intended to do imtionable origin, for the reason that by the pliedly what it has not done expresslyexpress terms of the organic law the seat that is, to forbid to the legislative Assemof government of the Territory was "lo- bly the power to choose any place it might cated temporarily at Fort Leavenworth"; see fit as the temporary seat of its deliband yet the governor himself remained erations. This is proved by the significant there less than two months, and of his language of one of the subsequent acts own discretion transferred the seat of of Congress on the subject-that of March government to the Shawnee Mission, where 3, 1855—which, in making appropriation it in fact was at the time the Assembly for public buildings of the Territory, were called to meet at Pawnee City. If enacts that the same shall not be exthe governor had any such right to change pended "until the legislature of said

It will be perceived that, if any constitutional defect attached to the legislative acts of the Assembly, it is not pretended to consist in irregularity of election or want of qualification of the members, but only in the change of its place of session. However trivial this objection may seem to be, it requires to be considered, because upon it is founded all that superstructure of acts, plainly against law, which now threaten the peace, not only of the Territory of Kansas, but of the Union.

Territory shall have fixed by law the and has nevertheless been admitted into permanent seat of government." Congress the Union as a State. It lies with Conin these expressions does not profess to gress to authorize beforehand or to conbe granting the power to fix the perma- firm afterwards, in its discretion. But nent seat of government, but recognizes the in no instance has a State been admitted power as one already granted. But how? upon the application of persons acting Undoubtedly by the comprehensive pro- against authorities duly constituted by act vision of the organic act itself, which of Congress. In every case it is the peodeclares that "the legislative power of ple of the Territory, not a party among the Territory shall extend to all rightful them, who have the power to form a consubjects of legislation consistent with the stitution and ask for admission as a State. Constitution of the United States and the No principle of public law, no practice or provisions of this act." If in view of this precedent under the Constitution of the act the legislative Assembly had the large United States, no rule of reason, right, power to fix the permanent seat of gov- or common-sense, confers any such power ernment at any place in its discretion, as that now claimed by a mere party in of course by the same enactment it had the Territory. In fact, what has been the less and the included power to fix it done is of revolutionary character. It is temporarily. avowedly so in motive and in aim as Nevertheless, the allegation that the respects the local law of the Territory. acts of the legislative Assembly were il- It will become treasonable insurrection legal by reason of this removal of its if it reach the length of organized replace of session was brought forward to sistance by force to the fundamental or justify the first great movement in dis- any other federal law and to the authority regard of law within the Territory. One of the general government. In such an of the acts of the legislative Assembly event the path of duty for the exprovided for the election of a delegate ecutive is plain. The Constitution reto the present Congress, and a delegate quiring him to take care that the laws was elected under that law. But subsequently to this a portion of the people of the Territory proceeded without authority of law to elect another delegate.

Following upon this movement was another and more important one of the same general character. Persons confessedly not constituting the body politic or all the inhabitants, but merely a party of the inhabitants, and without law, have undertaken to summon a convention for the purpose of transforming the Territory into a State, and have framed a constitution, adopted 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.

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 invaded by the citizens of other States, whether for the purpose of deciding elections or for any other, and the local authorities find themselves unable to repel or withstand it, they will be entitled to, and upon the fact being fully ascertained they shall most certainly receive, the aid of the general government.

But it is not the duty of the President of the United States to volunteer inter

position by force to preserve the purity of tion which is at this time of such diselections either in a State or Territory. turbing character. To do so would be subversive of public freedom. And whether a law be wise or unwise, just or unjust, is not a question for him to judge. If it be constitutional —that is, if it be the law of the landit is his duty to cause it to be executed, or to sustain the authorities of any State or Territory in executing it in opposition to all insurrectionary movements.

Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts, for the constitutional means of relieving the people of unjust administration and laws, by a change of public agents and by repeal, are ample, and more prompt and effective than illegal violence. These means must be scrupulously guarded, this great prerogative of popular sovereignty sacredly respected.

It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the Territory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own laws, and regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or domestic molestation. Interference on the one hand to procure the abolition or prohibition of slave labor in the Territory has produced mischievous interference on the other for its maintenance or introduction. One wrong begets another. Statements entirely unfounded, or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the Territory are sedulously diffused through remote States to feed the flame of sectional animosity there, and the agitators there exert themselves indefatigably in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the Territory.

But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances of embarrassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the States, and especially of those contiguous to the Territory, neither by intervention of non-residents in elections nor by unauthorized military force to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the Territory.

No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part of its government and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy and its measures, and that therefore the highest considerations of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain, by whatever of power or influence he may possess, the integrity of the laws of the republic.

Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the whole power of the federal executive to support public order in the Territory; to vindicate its laws, whether federal or local, against all attempts of organized resistance, and so to protect its people in the establishment of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroachment from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-government assured to them by the Constitution and the organic act of Congress.

Although serious and threatening disturbances in the Territory of Kansas, announced to me by the governor in DecemThe inflammatory agitation, of which ber last, were speedily quieted without the the present is but a part, has for twenty effusion of blood and in a satisfactory years produced nothing save unmitigated manner, there is, I regret to say, reason evil, North and South. But for it the to apprehend that disorders will continue character of the domestic institutions of to occur there, with increasing tendency the future new State would have been a to violence, until some decisive measure matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous States, personally or collectively, to produce among them any political emotion. Climate, soil, production, hopes of rapid advancement, and This, it seems to me, can best be acthe pursuit of happiness on the part of complished by providing that when the the settlers themselves, with good wishes, inhabitants of Kansas may desire it and but with no interference from without, shall be of sufficient number to constitute would have quietly determined the ques- a State, a convention of delegates, duly

be taken to dispose of the question itself which constitutes the inducement or occasion of internal agitation and of external interference.

elected by the qualified voters, shall as- Pike, ALBERT, lawyer; born in Boston, semble to frame a constitution, and thus Mass., Dec. 29, 1809. At the age of sixto prepare through regular and lawful teen years he entered Harvard College, means for its admission into the Union but, unable to support himself there, he as a State. taught school at Newburyport and Fair

I respectfully recommend the enactment haven, and in 1831 travelled (mostly on of a law to that effect.

I recommend also that a special appropriation be made to defray any expense which may become requisite in the execution of the laws for the maintenance of public order in the Territory of Kansas. Pierce, FREDERICK CLIFTON, author; born in Worcester county, Mass., July 30, 1858; received an academic education; settled in Illinois in 1880; was connected in various capacities with Chicago newspapers. His publications include History of Grafton, Mass.; History of Barre, Mass.; History of Rockford, Ill.; and numerous family genealogies.

foot) to St. Louis, where he joined an expedition to New Mexico, acting as merchant's clerk and peddler in Santa Fé. Roving with trappers awhile, he became editor and proprietor of a newspaper in Arkansas in 1834, and in 1836 was admitted to the bar. He was an advocate for State supremacy; served in the war against Mexico in command of Arkansas cavalry; and in the Civil War he organized and led a body of Cherokee Indians in the battle of PEA RIDGE (q. v.). After the war he edited the Memphis Appeal for a while. A collection of his poems was printed in Philadelphia, in 1854. He was a Free Mason of high degree. He died in Washington, D. C., April 2, 1891.

Pierrepont, EDWARDS, diplomatist; born in North Haven, Conn., March 4, 1817; graduated at Yale in 1837; removed to New York in 1845; elected judge of the Superior Court of New York in 1857; appointed one of the counsel for the prosecution of John H. Surratt, indicted for complicity in the assassination of President Lincoln. General Grant appointed him United States attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1869. In 1875 he was appointed AttorneyGeneral of the United States, which office he resigned in 1876, on his appointment as minister to Great Britain, where he remained till 1878. He died in New York City, March 6, 1892. Pike, ZEBULON MONTGOMERY, military Pierron, JEAN. See JESUIT MIS- officer; born in Lamberton, N. J., Jan. 5,

SIONS.

Pierson, ABRAHAM, first president of Yale College; born in Lynn, Mass., in 1641; graduated at Harvard College in 1668; ordained a colleague of his father, at Newark, N. J., in March, 1672; and from 1694 till his death was minister of Killingworth, Conn. He was president of Yale College in 1700-7. He died in Killingworth, Conn., March 7, 1707. His father, ABRAHAM (born in Yorkshire, England, in 1608; died in Newark, N. J., Aug. 9, 1678), was one of the first settlers of Newark (1667), and was the first minister in that town. He also preached to the Long Island Indians in their own language.

Pike, JAMES SHEPERD, diplomatist; born in Calais, Me., Sept. 8, 1811; received a common school education; was associate editor of the New York Tribune in 1850-60; exercised a strong influence in uniting the anti-slavery parties in his native State; and was minister to Holland in 1861-66. His publications include A Prostrate State; The Restoration of the Currency; The Financial Crisis, its Evils and their Remedy; Horace Greeley in 1872; The New Puritan; and The First Blows of the Civil War. He died in Calais, Me., Nov. 24, 1882.

1779; was appointed a cadet in the regiment of his father (a captain in the army of the Revolution) and brevet lieutenantcolonel United States army when twenty years of age. He was made captain in 1806, and was appointed to lead an expedition in search of the sources of the Mississippi River, which performed the required duties satisfactorily in eight months and twenty days of most fatiguing explorations. In 1806-7 he was engaged in a geographical exploration of Louisiana, when he was seized by the Spaniards, taken to Santa Fé, and, after a long examination and the seizure of his papers, was escorted to Natchitoches (July 1, 1807) and dismissed. The government