Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1820-12-19

the WemDefS Oh tins and t1e other house
not eguatty bound by The act of the Iasi
session respecting Missouri Whether VIC
ought or not 10 have given TO the people
of Missouri tie power 10 form constj-
tuition and state government, we havt
igiyen it. Whether or not We individually
wished Missouri TO fern constitution,
the authority 10 do so vas given by Con-
lgress. The Constitution was formed, and
Congress we're now asked to declare that
ii was SO. For himself, Mr.. T.. went 90
TO say, he believed that the law Of the
last session gave Missouri right to form
constitution aud iiIas, having done SO,
she is now state.
/ II we look at the caRrse which Con-
gress has pursued hilhealn, il will be found
that, Oh eievaling territories from the
grade and dependence of territorial
government, Congress had done 20 more
than emancipate them from IFS control.
On doing this. said Mr.. T.. you have re-
served nothing like an authority to remand
them TO their colonial condition. Yen
have determined 10 each case, by he aci
| of allowing the territory to form CON
stitution, that, for certain purposes, she is
an independent state. Aa the act Of the
last session, i, would be soniad. on referring
to it, there was 90 difference between the
mode Of legislation 10 Missouri, and that
which had occurred integard 10 the old
est OF the states sdmi,ted into the Union.
Comparing that act witt ether acts for the
admission Of states, it would be found 10
confer the same powers and Impose the
same restrictions. Ii was impossible 10
distinguish, in any manner, between the
power which has been given to Missouri,
and that which had, iniike circumstances,
been granted 10 the oldest Of the new
states. MIL. went Cd TO quote the cases
|of admission Of States into the Union.
He referred 10 thai OF UiiIiio. The act for
her admission was couched ia the broad
est terms, requiring slle convention, as
usual, first to deierdine the question
whether it was expedseat to form con-
stitution. Although tie mere act for the
admission Of a territory ioto the union
does not make her a state, inasmuch as
her acceptance Of the offer is required,
get, a. the moment iiiiat she declares that
it is expedient to form Constitution
that precise moment $se acquires all the
rights Of state. The people Of Missouri,
as Of every other admitted state, at that
moment acquired rights which 1t Is not
competent for the legislature OF this couu-
liry-which it is not competent, upon the
principles which we hold sacred, for any
Legislature under Heaven to divest them of.
Before he proceeded further to refer to-
the practice of former times, Mr.. L. said
he would notice an argument which he
had heard suggested, which was in some
degree veEbal one. 1t is said that the
words Of the law 10 regard to the admis-
sion Of Missouri are prospective that the
Constitution says that Congress may adj
NIT new states into the Union; that no
authority but Congress can admit them !;
4 that Congress has not admitted Missouri
into the Union; and that it is necessary
she should now address Congress and OBJ.
tain It's consent to her coming into the
Union. 1t is true, Mr.. l.. said, that the
law provides that Missouri ashaIr' be
admitted; that is, prospectively as to the
date of the law. 1t is true, also, that new
states can be admitted into the Union only
by Congress But that admission may be
from the time the law passes, OF on the
performance Of condition, whatever that
condition may be. There was nothing,
Mr.. L. argued, in the law Of the last ses-
sion, to show that the act Of admission
was not complete on the part Of Congress
when that law passed, although 1t did re-
fer to future time. That this was Just
construction of the matter, he said, was
obvious by reference to former exam
pies. In the case Of Kentucky, for ex.
ample, her admission into the Union was
deferred, by the act of Congress authori
ling it, he did not know how many months,
but more than year after the passage of
the act. Nothing more was necessary,
after the passage Of the act for the admis-
sion of Missouri, than lapse Of time
sufficient for the determination Of the peo-
pie to be ascertained, whether they chose
to form constitution or not.
But his strongest argument, Mr.. L. said
he was aware, must be derived from the
course pursued by Congress in former
times. He disclaiuled any particular de-
votion to precedent; but, in time when
parties were as firmly marshalled as they
were on this subject at the last session;
when the true import of the constitution
was contested by nearly. equal parties on
this floor; when geographical lines were
observable in the division Of opinion, it
was wise, ii was becoming, TO look to what
HAD been the practice in former times,
when no canse existed SO likely to disturb
aud misIead the sober judgment. Every
man ought to examine the records Of those
notbar Icon IN a dorsason ron