for themselves, in their own way, and your party will be united and irresistible in power.  Abandon that great principle and the party is not worth saving, and cannot be saved after it shall be violated.  I trust we are not to be rushed upon this question.  Why shall it be done?  Who is to be benefited?  Is the South to be the gainer?  Is the North to be the gainer?  Neither the North nor the South has the right to gain a sectional advantage by trickery or fraud....  But I am told on all sides, ‘Oh! just wait; the pro-slavery clause will be voted down.’  That does not obviate any of my objections; it does not diminish any of them.  You have no more right to force a free-State constitution on Kansas than a slave-State constitution.  If Kansas wants a slave-State constitution she has a right to it; if she wants a free-State constitution she has a right to it.  It is none of my business which way the slavery clause is decided.  I care not whether it is voted down or voted up.  Do you suppose, after the pledges of my honor that I would go for that principle and leave the people to vote as they choose, that I would now degrade myself by voting one way if the slavery clause be voted down, and another way if it be voted up?  I care not how that vote may stand....  Ignore Lecompton; ignore Topeka; treat both those party movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill—­the one that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have a fair election—­and you will have peace in the Democratic party, and peace throughout the country, in ninety days.  The people want a fair vote.  They will never be satisfied without it....  But if this constitution is to be forced down our throats in violation of the fundamental principle of free government, under a mode of submission that is a mockery and insult, I will resist it to the last.”

President Buchanan and the strong pro-slavery faction which was directing his course paid no attention whatever to this proposal of a compromise.  Shylock had come into court to demand his bond, and would heed no pleas of equity or appeals to grace.  The elections of December 21 and January 4 were held in due time, and with what result we have already seen.  John Calhoun counted the votes on January 13 and declared the “Lecompton Constitution with slavery” adopted, prudently reserving, however, any announcement concerning the State officers or Legislature under it.  This much accomplished, he hurried away to Washington, where he was received with open arms by the President and his advisers, who at once proceeded with a united and formidable effort to legalize the transparent farce by Congressional sanction.