shall never curse her soil. . . But, sir, it is not an abstraction; there are slaves in this territory. I have been informed that there are no less than seven or eight at Nebraska City. I have also been informed that there are some fifteen slaves near Ft. Kearney; and from the political complexion of the people of that section, I am ready to believe it. Slavery does exist here, and if it is wrong to hold a thousand slaves it is wrong to hold one. If there is only one slave here then there is a necessity for this law."

MILTON W. REYNOLDS (KICKING BIRD)

   Mr. Belden of Douglas county, Buchanan democrat, said that he voted to reject the bill on the day of its introduction because he believed it was introduced for mischievous purposes. He was unwilling to enter on a crusade against the rights and interests of the South. What had that section of the country ever done that her institutions should be continually and persistently assailed by the abolition press and party of the country? Then, again, there was no necessity for this legislation. It would do no harm to declare that the sun should go on in its accustomed course, still he had no idea that anybody would think of introducing a bill for any such purpose. The country had been thrown into constant agitation for no other purpose than to build up a sectional party. The speaker then read the resolution from the Philadelphia platform which declared that Congress had sovereign power over the territories, and in the exercise of that power it was their duty to prohibit slavery. "If Congress has this power how can the territorial legislature have it too?"
   George B. Lake, afterward judge of the, supreme court of the state of Nebraska, made a very positive and forcible speech, forecasting his ultimate desertion of the democratic party upon the issue in question. This speech created a sensation in the house. Mr. Lake was willing to meet this question today, and was opposed to occupying much time. He was prepared to canvass the question and record his vote. He believed we had the right to exclude slavery, and was not one of those who were willing to be driven from the position he had taken during the recent canvass; therefore he said emphatically and candidly, that the people of the territories, through their legislatures, had sovereign power over this subject. That principle was clearly defined in the Cincinnati platform. Mr. Buchanan, in his letter of acceptance, recognized it in the most emphatic terms. He then read from Mr. Buchanan's letter of acceptance:

    This legislation is founded upon principles as ancient as free government itself, and in accordance with them has simply declared that the people of a territory, like those of a state, shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits.

   The democracy fought the campaign of 1856 upon that issue. That was the issue made on every stump in all the free states of this Union. It was to this living principle alone that the democracy was indebted for its success in that struggle. "Does the gentleman believe we should have succeeded upon any other ground? This is a principle that is dear to every friend of free government. Men may change but principles never do. The president may declare, as he has since done, that 'slavery exists in all the territories of

this Union as much as in Georgia or South Carolina,' if he pleases; but whenever he or his cabinet meets the Little Giant of the West, the language of his letter of acceptance must stare them in the face." His colleague had said that this bill was the vitalizing principle of the republican party. "That may be so. But if the democratic party in this legislature carry out in good faith the principles promulgated in the organic act, and are not driven to take ground against the principles advocated on the stump during the recent canvass, the originators of this bill will be but little benefited by its introduction." He hoped this bill would pass the house. If it did not, and if the majority took ground in opposition to its passage, the democratic party would be driven into a hopeless minority in this territory. No party could stand for a single day if it took the ground his colleague had taken. The principle of popular sovereignty was so deeply implanted in the public mind that they would be satisfied with nothing short of it. If this question was of sufficient importance to require us to meet it as we had to upon every stump, and explaining, as we did, that the people had the right to exclude slavery, it seemed to him that every democrat would see the necessity of meeting this question promptly and deciding it by forever excluding slavery from this territory.
   The attitude of intelligent and leading democrats of this time toward the slavery question is well illustrated by the remarks, in this debate, of Mr. Milton W. Reynolds, for several years editor of the Nebraska City News. After asserting that "the object of the bill and its introduction at this time is evidently for the purpose of creating a little stock in trade for the next election," Mr. Reynolds proceeded:

   Slavery has no existence in this territory. The few persons, amounting to but five or six, held ostensibly as servants, are really in a of willing or voluntary servitude. When their Masters emigrated from Missouri to Nebraska, they voluntarily and cheerfully accompanied them. Their condition is by no means deplorable, and I cannot consider them as objects of extraordinary commiseration or worthy of the far fetched philanthropy of gentlemen ever on the alert to discover objects of pity beyond the limits of their own communities and their own neighborhoods. The only persons alleged to be held in a state of servitude in this territory are three or four in number at Nebraska City. These three or four beloved servants are in an infinitely better condition than a majority of the white servants of this very city in which is located the seat of government of the territory of Nebraska. Theirs is a paradise compared with nine-tenths of the white servants of the north. They fare better and go better dressed, and are treated more kindly and affectionately than the hotel servants throughout the entire northern states. In behalf of these servants I protest against the passage of this bill. Have they petitioned and prayed your honorable body to pass any such enactment? Do they desire its passage? Do you not know that it will operate most detrimentally, seriously and most prejudicially to their best interests? Driven out from their homes of quiet ease and luxury, they will be obliged to seek a bare and scanty subsistence in that cold, cheerless and already crowded charcoal district in Canada, or they will be transported to the cotton fields and rice plantations of the south.

   On the third trial -- at the seventh session -- the prohibitory measure was enacted into law.
   The bill was passed over the veto -- in the house by 31 to 2, Downs and Porter voting nay; and in the council by the same vote as it received on its original passage.
   While the democrats had coöperated with the republicans in the formality of prohibiting slavery in the territory, the leaders of the party dashed from their lips the cup of advantage which would have accrued to them through this moderation, by persisting in their violent opposition to anti-slavery principles or tendencies.
   At the twelfth session, Augustus F. Harvey of Otoe county introduced a bill to remove distinctions on account of race and color in the school laws of Nebraska, "by providing separate schools for negro children." The following minority report discloses the question at issue:

   Mr. Harvey from the select committee on the bill, by unanimous consent, submitted a minority report, as follows, on House File No. 9 -- An act to remove the distinctions on ac-

count of race and color in the school laws of Nebraska.
   That they do not agree with the recommendation of the majority of the committee. The bill as referred to the committee provides for the education of colored youth. It gives them all the privileges and advantages of the common school system, the means of a free education, and lays the foundation of their usefulness to the extent of their ability as humble members of the body politic. To the proposition of the original bill, authorizing the boards of education to provide separate schools for colored children, the undersigned agree, and will heartily concur in any action of the House which may adopt it.
   But the amendment proposed by the majority of the committee contemplates the admission of colored children to our schools on all equal footing with white youth. This is reaching too far in advance of the age. The people of Nebraska are not yet ready to send white boys and white girls to school to sit on the same seats with negroes; they are not yet ready to endorse in this tacit manner the dogma of miscegenation; especially are they yet far from ready to degrade their offspring to a level with so inferior a race.
   The undersigned do not believe the intention of the majority of the committee can be carried out by the people; and we do not believe that the legislative assembly should force upon the people a measure so obnoxious to their wishes and habits and the established principles of political equity.
   We therefore offer the following as a substitute for the recommendation of the majority of the committee:
   Resolved, That the amendment to H. F. No. 9, viz., to strike section 2 and 3 thereof, do not pass.
AUG. F. HARVEY.
E. P. CHILD.

    The amendments of the committee were agreed to by a vote of 19 to 13, and the bill passed 25 to 10. The bill passed the council by the following vote: Ayes, Doane, Doom, Majors, Neligh, Presson, Reeves, Sheldon, Stewart, Wardell; nays, Bates, Baumer, Freeman. Following is a copy of the bill:

    An act to remove the distinctions on account of race and color in the school laws of Nebraska.
   Section 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the territory of Nebraska, That the word "white" in the fourth line of section eight of chapter XLVIII (forty-eight) of the revised statutes of Nebraska, entitled schools, and found upon page 354 of the printed volume of said revision, and the proviso at the end of section 48 of same chapter as found upon page 372 of said printed volume, be and the same are hereby stricken out, and shall hereafter be of no effect.
   Section 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
   Secretary A. S. Paddock was acting governor at this time on account of the absence of Governor Saunders, and he interposed the following veto:

The Honorable, the House of Representatives:
   I return herewith to your honorable body, in which it originated, "an act to remove the distinctions on account of race and color in the school laws of Nebraska," without my approval.
   The amendments to the present school law, provided for in this act, contemplate the enumeration of the colored youths, and the taxation of colored persons in the territory for school purposes. I cannot think it was the design of the legislative assembly to accomplish only these things by this act. I am quite sure it was intended to give the children of colored persons who are to be taxed for school purposes the privilege of education at the public expense; yet the act itself does not sanction this.
   You will agree with me that all who are thus taxed should be allowed their proportion of the school fund for the education of their own children. Any other rule would be oppressive and unjust. I shall gladly unite with the legislative assembly in the enactment of a law providing for the education of the colored youths of the territory, as well as for the taxation of colored persons for school purposes. Permit me, however, to suggest that better results could be expected in the education of both white and colored youths if separate schools could be provided for each.
   Much as we may regret it, we cannot. close our eyes to the fact that a strong prejudice exists in the public mind against the intimate association of the youths of the two races in the same public schools, which no amount of legislation can eradicate. It cannot be otherwise than that in populous towns, contentions will arise between the two classes which must certainly retard the educational advancement of both.
   I think we should act wisely if, in changing the law so that the children of this unfortunate class of our fellow-citizens who are now excluded, are to receive education at the

public expense, we should provide for separate schools where the number of scholars is large enough to warrant it. This should not be compulsory, but optional with the citizens of the locality specially interested.
   Very respectfully your obedient servant, ALGERNON S. PADDOCK.

    On the morning of February 14th the house directed the sergeant-at-arms to return the message to Mr. Paddock because Governor ,Saunders had returned to the territory on the 13th, the day of the date of the message. Appeal was made to Governor Saunders but he declined to interfere as follows:

Omaha, Neb., Feb. 14, 1867
To the Honorable, the Speaker of the House of Representatives:
   Sir -- Your communication of this date, in which you state that "you are of the opinion, (a majority of the House agreeing), that in the case arising, in which the secretary has today returned certain bills as Acting Governor, that the House can receive no such communications," is received.
   In reply, I beg leave to state that I returned to the territory on the evening of the 13th inst., but it was at too late an hour for ordinary business, and I therefore gave no notice of my return, to the secretary, until today, the 14th inst.
   I have this day assumed the duties of my office, and I can see no impropriety in the acting governor returning, today, the business of yesterday and prior days of the session; but, of course, I do not assume to legally decide this question for the House.
   I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully.
ALVIN SAUNDERS,
Governor of Nebraska.

   The intent of the amendment plainly was to throw open the public schools to negro children; but possibly Acting Governor Paddock was right in assuming that, though they were to be enumerated and the property of negroes was to be taxed with that purpose in view, yet, without a positive provision in the law that these children should be admitted to the schools, they would be excluded. The house evidently distrusted its act, for no attempt was made to override the veto. Illustration of the fact that republican policy had now settled determinedly for general negro suffrage, and of the no less determined opposition of the democrats, is found in the majority and minority reports of the select committee to whom was referred that part of Acting Governor Paddock's message which disapproved of impartial suffrage. The majority report, made by Isaac Wiles of Cass county and George Crow and William Daily of Nemaha county, was as follows:

   We hold that the dogma of partial suffrage is a dangerous doctrine and contrary to the laws of nature and the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Your committee is of the opinion that there should be no law prohibiting any portion of our people from the exercise of the right of suffrage on account of race or color; and that the qualifications for the elective franchise should not be based on education, but patriotism, manhood, and natural intelligence. Entertaining these views your committee cheerfully endorses the action of congress in so changing the organic acts of the territories that henceforth, in any territory now organized, or hereafter to be organized, there shall be no denial of the elective franchise, on account of race or color.

   The opposing minority report, presented by Steritt M. Curran of Douglas county and Augustus F. Harvey of Otoe county, was as follows:

    We hold that the dogma of impartial suffrage is a dangerous doctrine and contrary to the laws of nature and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.
   We hold that the right to the elective franchise is not a natural and inalienable prerogative, but is one which may be granted or taken away at the pleasure of the primary governing power, that is, in a democratic form of government by the people.
   We hold also, that the dictation by congress, directing the people of any territory to confer the elective franchise upon any race or class is without warrant in the constitution of the United States, without precedent in the history of national legislation, and a gross usurpation of the most sacred rights of the people.
   The majority report was adopted by a vote

of 23 to 9, and the minority report was defeated by a like vote.
   Following is a sample Mortonism from the News: "Sir William Daily, member from 'PrU,' as he spells it, has prepared twenty-seven bills for striking out the word white in Nebraska laws. Trouble with the apportionment bill alone prevented him from striking out Brown in Brownville, and inserting 'without distinction on account of race or color.'"
   The first local record of slaveholding in Nebraska is in the Palladium of August 16, 1854. As the climax of a severe rebuke of critics of the popular sovereignty principle the editor asserts that, "an Omaha squaw is the only negro owner in the territory." The News of November 27, 1858, notes that on the day of the first appearance of the Press, the opposition organ, "two negro women were enticed from our worthy townsman, Stephen F. Nuckolls, by some white-livered abolitionist," and that Mr. Nuckolls had offered a reward of $200 for their apprehension and return to him. The Dakota City Herald tells of the arrest of a fugitive slave, Phillips by name, who had been at that place about a year; but he was rescued by citizens from the Iowa side of the river.

   A case that well illustrates the method of search employed by pursuing parties is that of the escape of the Nuckolls slaves through Iowa, the incidents of which are still vivid in the memories of some that witnessed them. Mr. Nuckolls, of Nebraska City, Nebraska, lost two slave girls in December, 1858. He instituted search for them in Tabor, an abolitionist center, and did not neglect to guard the crossings of two streams in the vicinity, Silver Creek and the Nishnabotna river. As the slaves had been promptly dispatched to Chicago, this search availed him nothing. A second and more thorough hunt was decided on, and the aid of a score or more fellows was secured. These men made entrance into houses by force and violence, when bravado failed, to gain them admission. At one house where the remonstrance against intrusion was unusually strong the person remonstrating was struck over the head and injured for life. The outcome of the whole affair was that Mr. Nuckolls had some ten thousand dollars to pay in damages and costs, and, after all, failed to recover his slaves.

   The Underground Railroad (Siebert) collects from the letters of the Rev. John Todd, Tabor, Iowa, which were published in the Tabor Beacon in 1890-1891, the following account of the pursuit of his abducted slaves:
    Eliza, a slave of Stephen Nuckolls, who had escaped late in 1859, was arrested in Chicago on the 12th of November, 1860, and to escape a mob of excited negroes the United States marshal was compelled to give the woman to the city police, who lodged her in the armory for safe-keeping. On the 24th the same paper relates that Eliza had been taken from an officer of the government and sent "kiting to Canada." The Omaha Nebraskian quoted approvingly the comment of the Chicago Times and Herald on the incident:

    A runaway slave belonging to Hon. S. F. Nuckolls, of Nebraska City, was recently captured in the city of Chicago, but almost immediately forcibly taken from the officers by a mob of drunken negroes and black republicans. In commenting on the affair, the Times and Herald of that city says:
   "In the presence of thousands assembled, a mob of drunken and infuriated negroes forcibly overrides the constituted authority of the constitution of the United States, and rescues a fugitive from the custody of the law, amid general rejoicings and midnight howls! Who can doubt henceforth the strength of the federal government? Who can question our loyalty to the constitution? Let the south dare to talk of seceding, with this glorious evidence of our fidelity to our obligations to the law? Grand government! Magnificent civilization! Down with the lawless southern barbarians! Stocks rising! Illinois banks sound! Niggers going up! The jubilee of freedom actually come!
   "Go it darkies! Hurrah for free speech, free homes, free mobs, and free negroes. The day of jubilee has come!"

   Cyrus H. McCormick, the famous manufacturer of reapers and mowers, was the owner of the Times and Herald at this time.
   In 1860 Mr. Nuckolls brought suit in the district court of the territory against Reuben S. Williams, George B. Gaston, Lester W. Platt, and thirteen other citizens of Civil Bend, Iowa, for carrying off two of his slaves to Iowa and then to Canada in 1858. Judge Miller, overruling a demurrer, decided that in this territory, where there had been no leg-

islation on the subject, under the constitution and laws of the United States, an action might be entertained against parties carrying away persons owing service or labor.
   The Missouri-Kansas line of John Brown's "underground railroad" system for running off slaves into Canada ran through southeast Nebraska. It passed through Lawrence, Topeka, Horton, and. Albany, Kansas, crossing the Nebraska line opposite the last named place. It then ran through Little Nemaha, Camp Creek, and Nebraska City, crossing the river here to Percival, about seven miles northeast, in Fremont county, Iowa; then on to Tabor, which was a sort of rendezvous. From this place there were several roads, but all toward the northeast. In December, 1858, Brown made a raid into Missouri and led away twelve slaves over the route described, and then on to Canada and freedom. The party of fugitives passed through Nebraska City on the 11th of February, 1859, and the News -- Milton W. Reynolds, editor -- gives them a God-speed little less than ferocious. The headlines of the notice were: "Horse thieves and nigger stealers. Fit associates, Boon companions! Old John Brown of Osawatomie passes through Nebraska City with a troupe of Niggers and a gang of Horse Thieves. Read! Read! Ye who are attacked with Negrophobia!" The exciting cause of this tempestuous outbreak of epithet follows:

    John Brown, Captain John Brown, Old John Brown of Osawatomie, the "Old John Brown" who Gerrit Smith, when leading on the cohorts of the simon-pure abolitionists in the last campaign of New York, being a little at the outs with the straight black republicans, declared had done more for the freedom of Kansas than the whole republican party, passed through this city late last Friday evening at the head of a herd of stolen niggers taken from southern Missouri, accompanied with a gang of horse thieves of the most desperate character. They had a large number of stolen horses in their possession -- two of which were taken and are now held by the deputy sheriff of this county.
   There is an appropriateness and fitness in nigger stealers being associated with horse thieves that the rankest black republican cannot fail to appreciate. A fellow feeling makes them wondrous kind. Their practices are similar, and it is not to be wondered at that they exhibit little discrimination in the selection of their chattels. If the amount of the property stolen is to regulate the heinousness of the crime, it must be confessed the profession of the horse thief is the more liberal and dignified calling. Osawatomie Brown and the notorious Montgomery have carried on their depredations during the last few months in a high-handed manner. Brown and his precious gang have eluded their pursuers; they have gotten into Iowa and may now be considered as safely on "tother side of Jordan."

JOHN BROWN
The abolitionist

We clip from the Daily St. Joseph Gazette an account of their escape from Kansas:
   A gentleman from Atchison, upon whose statements we can place the utmost confidence, informed us late last evening, of some new outrages in Kansas. He states that Osawatomie Brown, with eleven runaway slaves had been surrounded by a posse of men under the U. S. marshal, in a little town called Eureka. The marshal did not deem his force sufficient to attempt a capture of Brown, and sent to Atchison City for a reinforcement. Fourteen men left this latter place on Sunday evening to join the Marshal whose whole force, counting the men from Atchison, numbered but