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there should be no such provision in the Toombs bill ; and it is my understanding, in all the intercourse I had, that that Convention would make a Constitution and send it here without submitting it to the popular vote.
In speaking of this meeting again on the 21st December, 1857 (
Congressional Globe, same vol., page 113),
Senator Bigler said:
Nothing was farther from my mind than to allude to any social or confidential interview.
The meeting was not of that character.
Indeed, it was semi-official, and called to promote the public good.
My recollection was clear that I left the conference under the impression that, it had been deemed best to adopt measures to admit Kansas as a State through the agency of one popular election, and that for delegates to the Convention.
This impression was the stronger, because I thought the spirit of the bill infringed upon the doctrine of non-intervention, to which I had great aversion ; but with the hope of accomplishing great good, and as no movement had been made in that direction in the Territory, I waived this objection, and concluded to support the measure.
I have a few items of testimony as to the correctness of these impressions, and with their submission I shall be content.
I have before me the bill reported by the Senator from Illinois, on the 7th of March, 1956, providing for the admission of Kansas as a State, the third section of which reads as follows:
That the following propositions be, and the same arc hereby offered to the said Convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for their free acceptance or rejection; which, if accepted by the Convention and ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of the Constitution, shall be obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said State of Kansas.
The bill read in place by the Senator from Georgia, on the 25th of June, and referred to the Committee on Territories, contained the same section, word for word.
Both these bills were under consideration at the conference referred to, but, sir, when the Senator from Illinois reported the Toombs bill to the Senate, with amendments, the next morning, it did not contain that portion of the third section which indicated to the Convention that the Constitution should be approved by the people.
The words had ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of the Constitution had been stricken out.
I am not now seeking to prove that
Douglas was in the plot to force a Constitution upon
Kansas without allowing the people to vote directly upon it. I shall attend to that branch of the subject by and by. My object now is to prove the existence of the plot, what the design was, and I ask if I have not already done so. Here are the facts:
The introduction of a bill on the 7th of March, 1856, providing for the calling of a Convention in
Kansas, to form a State Constitution, and providing that the
Constitution should be submitted to the people for adoption ; an amendment to this bill, proposed by
Mr. Toombs, containing the same requirement ; a reference of these various bills to the
Committee on Territories ; a consultation of
Senators to determine whether it was advisable to have the
Constitution submitted for ratification ; the determination that it was not advisable; and a report of the bill back to the Senate next morning, with the clause providing for the submission stricken out. Could evidence be more complete to establish the first part of the charge I have made of a plot having been entered into by somebody, to have a Constitution adopted without submitting it to the people?
Now, for the other part of the charge, that
Judge Douglas was in this plot, whether knowingly or ignorantly, is not material to my purpose.
The charge is that he was an instrument co-operating in the project to have a Constitution formed and put into operation, without affording the people an opportunity to pass upon it. The first evidence to sustain the charge is the fact that he reported back the Toombs amendment with the clause providing for the submission stricken out. This, in connection with his speech in the Senate on the 9th of December, 1857 (
Congressional Globe, part 1, page 14), wherein he stated:
That during the last Congress, I [Mr. Douglas] reported a bill from the
