The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1844-03-20

oS iotmCu ~ TIC Junction oil TWO or more
States or parts Of States, without the consent
OF the Legislatures of the States concerned,
as well as the Congress-
Here, then. was an ample field for the ex-
ercise, and exhaustion, of the power of admit
ting new States. 1t was within the immedi-
ate view, and evidently in the contemplation,
ofthe trainers olthel Constitution. It is incredi-
BILE, if the admission of States beyond these
limits was contemplated, that other and more
specific language should not have been en-
ployed TO grant the power-a power which, if
construed to extend to the admission Of for
eign States without limit-and it is without
limit, if AT ALT would not need the saeAcity
OF very wise men to see would involve a pow
er OF adding States to such an extent as to
Overshadow the whole of the old thirteen with
all their territories, and make them mere
appendage to the added foreign States.
And all this placed within the power of Con-
greSs, which, though it cannot alter line Of
the Constitution, would thus BE invested with
power to bring that instrument, which was ex-
pressly ordained "to secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselres, and our posterify'' within
the annihilating power of the whole North
American Continent.
But the precedent Of the purchase Of Lou
isiana, and the admission OF the States form
ed from it into the Union, is relied on. 1t is
sufficient reply to this, that Mr.. Jefferson
himself admitted that, in making the treaty,
the powers Of the Constitution were exceed
ed. This is fully declared in the posthumous
publication Of his writings, as will appear by
the following quotations from them:
"When | consider that the limits of the L.
States are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1888
that the Constitution expressly declares it.
selfto be made for the United States can
not help believing that the intention was not
to permit Congress to admit into the Union
new States which should be formed without
the territory for which, and under whose au-
thority alone, they were then acting"
"a Jellerson,2
Again. 1.-THE Constitution has made no
provision for our holding foreign territory
still less for Incorporating foreign nations
into our Union" g, Jefferson, 5l2.)
The purchase Of Louisiana was the result
of what was deemed an overruling necessity
for the acquisition OF New Orleans with its
outlet for the commerce Of the Mississippi,
including its free navigation, TO the ocean; an
, acquisition certainly of very great import
ance, rs was also the removal Of foreign iu-
risdiction from the country west of that riv-
CIR; and yet the violation Of the Constitution
in the purchase of the territory, with its
more fragrant violation, in the stipulation
for its admission as State or States into
the Union, and its admission accordingly, con-
stitutes very great, if not preponderating
weight in the opposite scale.
But the precedent does not cover this case.
That necessity does not exist-unless the eX-
tension of stareTy, to enable it to maintain a
successful competition with freedom, is to be
compared with the purpose in the acquisition
of Louisiana. That was a purpose at once
noble and national in its character. This is
as detestable as slavery, and as sectional as
its ends and aims are at war with the spirit of
the Constitution. II is, moreover, not the
mere purchase Of a territory, which, in the
progress Of time, might he moulded by the
legislation OF Congress into a fitting condi-
ton TO become State in our cOnlederated
Republic; but il is an attempt TO introduce,
at once, into the confederacy, STATE. usher
cd into existence in the act Of revolt from a
foreign government, with Slavery made per-
petual by its organic law.
/ will only add, that the annexation of
Texas would as certainly work dissolution
of the Union in fact, as it would be, in theO-
ry, violation of the Constitution. 1t is i'm
possible-utterly impossible, that the free
States should submit to the measure. They
have been long enough ruled by slavery. In
the absence of artificial means to check the
growth, or balance the power of freedom, it
will one day, obtain its Just ascendancy in this
Union. The attempt to check or control this
natural tendency, by colonizing slavery in
foreign government-effecting a revolt from
that government, and then annexing the re-
volters to this Union TO perpetuate slHery's
detestable and detcsted rule, an outrage too
fragrant to be submitted to by the sons Of
the Pilgrims. No. Slavery must not at
tempt this. There was a time when it might
have been submitted to-when the nation
was drugged with the opiate of slavery, TO
stupefaction. But the stup0r is passing a.
way. The North is roused-not as much as
it should be, but so much that 1riH Hcccr
sleep again on his subject. Slavery is grow
ing old; while Freedom is bounding onward
with the vigor of youth, in her glorious Ca
reer.
The North has no motive for a continu-
ance of the Union which can outweigh the
intolerable curse Of Slavery's endless rule
But the days of that rule are numbered; and
no forced effort to augment the power Of sla
very can avert its doom.