be more clearly or distinctly presented to the people than it is at the
present moment. Should this opportunity be rejected she may be involved
for years in domestic discord, and possibly in civil war, before she can
again make up the issue now so fortunately tendered and again reach the
point she has already attained.

Kansas has for some years occupied too much of the public attention.
It is high time this should be directed to far more important objects.
When once admitted into the Union, whether with or without slavery, the
excitement beyond her own limits will speedily pass away, and she will
then for the first time be left, as she ought to have been long since,
to manage her own affairs in her own way. If her constitution on the
subject of slavery or on any other subject be displeasing to a majority
of the people, no human power can prevent them from changing it within
a brief period. Under these circumstances it may well be questioned
whether the peace and quiet of the whole country are not of greater
importance than the mere temporary triumph of either of the political
parties in Kansas.

Should the constitution without slavery be adopted by the votes of the
majority, the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory are
reserved. The number of these is very small, but if it were greater the
provision would be equally just and reasonable. The slaves were brought
into the Territory under the Constitution of the United States and are
now the property of their masters. This point has at length been finally
decided by the highest judicial tribunal of the country, and this upon
the plain principle that when a confederacy of sovereign States acquire
a new territory at their joint expense both equality and justice demand
that the citizens of one and all of them shall have the right to take
into it whatsoever is recognized as property by the common Constitution.