lidity. Had I
entertained such an opinion, this would have been in opposition to
many precedents in our history, commencing in the very best age of
the Republic. It would have been in opposition to the principle which
pervades our institutions, and which is every day carried out into
practice, that the people have the right to delegate to representatives
chosen by themselves their sovereign power to frame constitutions, enact
laws, and perform many other important acts without requiring that these
should be subjected to their subsequent approbation. It would be a most
inconvenient limitation of their own power, imposed by the people upon
themselves, to exclude them from exercising their sovereignty in any
lawful manner they think proper. It is true that the people of Kansas
might, if they had pleased, have required the convention to submit the
constitution to a popular vote; but this they have not done. The only
remedy, therefore, in this case is that which exists in all other
similar cases. If the delegates who framed the Kansas constitution have
in any manner violated the will of their constituents, the people always
possess the power to change their constitution or their laws according
to their own pleasure.

The question of slavery was submitted to an election of the people of
Kansas on the 21st December last, in obedience to the mandate of the
constitution. Here again a fair opportunity was presented to the
adherents of the Topeka constitution, if they were the majority, to
decide this exciting question "in their own way" and thus restore peace
to the distracted Territory; but they again refused to exercise their
right of popular sovereignty, and again suffered the election to pass
by default.

I heartily rejoice that a wiser and better spirit prevailed among a
large majority of these people on the first Monday of January, and that
they did on that day vote under the Lecompton constitution for a
governor and other State officers, a Member of Congress, and for members
of the legislature. This election was warmly contested by the parties,
and a larger vote was polled than at any previous election in the
Territory. We may now reasonably hope that the revolutionary Topeka
organization will be speedily and finally abandoned, and this will go
far toward the final settlement of the unhappy differences in Kansas.
If frauds have been committed at this election, either by one or both
parties, the legislature and the people