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Senator Robert M.T. Hunter delivered this speech on the floor of the Senate in support of adopting Kansas into statehood under the Lecompton Constitution. Hunter argued that the Lecompton Constitutional Convention had been formed under the consent and election of the people of Kansas, not as an instrument of the Territorial Government. He also stated that those accused of being "foreign" Missouri voters were nothing more than settlers who had staked their claims in the fall of 1857 and left them to return the following spring. Hunter added that it would have been impossible to ascertain the true will of the people if the entire Lecompton Constitution would have been put to a vote, as it would be unlikely that voters would approve or disapprove of every single provision it might include. Ultimately, Hunter believed that "white men should have the continent, not as equals of the Indians or the negros, but as their masters."
Creator: Hunter, Robert M. T.
Date: March 12, 1858
Item Number: 5407
Call Number: 978.1 Kansas History Pamphlets v.4 no. 22
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 5407
Business and Industry - Occupations/Professions - Politicians
Collections - Library
Date - 1854-1860 - 1858
Government and Politics - Elections
Government and Politics - Federal Government - Congress - Senate
Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Pro-Slavery
Government and Politics - Territorial Government - Constitution Making - Lecompton Constitution
Government and Politics - Territorial Government - Elections
Government and Politics - Territorial Government - Political parties - Proslavery
Home and Family - Daily life - Settlement
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Speech
People - African Americans - Slavery
People - Notable People - Hunter, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, 1809-1887
Places - Other States - Missouri
Places - Other States - Virginia
Thematic Time Period - Bleeding Kansas, 1854 - 1861
Thematic Time Period - Immigration and Settlement, 1854 - 1890
Type of Material - Printed materials - Speeches
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/5407