[169] it rest upon the declaration that I had introduced a clause into the bill prohibiting the people from voting upon the Constitution. I am told that he made the same charge here that he made at Alton, that I had actually introduced and incorporated into the bill, a clause which prohibited the people from voting upon their Constitution. I hold his Alton speech in my hand, and will read the amendment, which he alleges that I offered. It is in these words:
And until the complete execution of this act no other election shall be held in said Territory.Trumbull says the object of that amendment was to prevent the Convention from submitting the Constitution to a vote of the people. I will read what he said at Alton on that subject:
This clause put it out of the power of the Convention, had it been so disposed, to submit the Constitution to the people for adoption ; for it absolutely prohibited the holding of any other election, than that for the election of delegates, till that act was completely executed, which would not have been till Kansas was admitted as a State, or, at all events, till her Constitution was fully prepared and ready for submission to Congress for admission.Now, do you suppose that Mr. Trumbull supposed that that clause prohibited the Convention from submitting the Constitution to the people, when, in his speech in the Senate, he declared that the Convention had a right to submit it? In his Alton speech, as will be seen by the extract which I have read, he declared that the clause put it out of the power of the Convention to submit the Constitution, and in his speech in the Senate he said:
There is nothing said in this bill, so far as I have discovered, about submitting the Constitution which is to be formed, to the people, for their sanction or rejection. Perhaps the Convention could have the right to submit it, if it should think proper, but it is certainly not compelled to do so according to the provisions of the bill.Thus you see that, in Congress, he declared the bill to be silent on the subject, and a few days since, at Alton, he made a speech, and said that there was a provision in the bill prohibiting submission. I have two answers to make to that. In the first place, the amendment which he quotes as depriving the people of an opportunity to vote upon the Constitution, was stricken out on my motion--absolutely stricken out and not voted on at all! In the second place, in lieu of it, a provision was voted in authorizing the Convention to order an election whenever it pleased. I will read. After Trumbull had made his speech in the Senate, declaring that the Constitution would probably be submitted to the people, although the bill was silent upon that subject, I made a few remarks, and, offered two amendments, which you may find in the Appendix to the Congressional Globe, volume thirty-three, first session of the thirty-fourth Congress, page 795. I quote:
Mr. Douglas--I have an amendment to offer from the Committee on Territories. On page 8, section 11, strike out the words ‘until the complete execution of this act no other election shall be held in said Territory,’ and insert the amendment which I hold in my hand.The amendment was as follows:
That all persons who shall possess the other qualifications prescribed for voters under this act, and who shall have been bona fide inhabitants of said Territory since its organization, and who shall have absented themselves therefrom in consequence of the disturbances therein, and who shall return before the first day of October next, and become bona fide inhabitants of the Territory, with the intent of making it their permanent home, and shall present satisfactory evidence of these facts to the Board of Commissioners, shall be entitled to vote at said election, and shall have their names placed on said corrected list of voters for that purpose.That amendment was adopted unanimously. After its adoption, the record shows the following:
