The State guard., 1848-06-20

'hoSf cases, where lney nave turrendereu iC the General Government a portion oftheil rights, in order to give effect to the objects of the Union, whether these concern foreign nations or the several States them- selves. Local institutions, if l may so speak, whether they have reference to slavery, or to any other relations, domestic or public, are left to local authority, either original or derivative. Congress has no right to say, that there shall be slavery in New York, or that there shall be no slave ry in Georgia; nor is there any other hu- man power but the people of those States, respectively, which can change the rela- tions existing therein; and they can say, if they will. We will have slavery in the ormer, and we will abolish it in the latter.
 In various respects the Territories diff fer from the States. Some of their rights are inchoate, and they do not possess the peculiar attributes of sovereignty. Their relation to the General Government is very imperfectly defined by the Constitu- tion; and it will be found, upon examina. ton, that in that instrument the only grant of power concerning them is conveyed in the phrase "Congress shall have the pow CT to dispose of and make all necdfhl rules and regulations, respecting the territory and other property belonging to the Uni ted States" Certainly this phraseology is very loose, If it were designed to include in the grant the whole power of legisla. tion over persons, as well as things. The expression, the 'territory and other proper. ty," fairly construed. relates to the public lands, as such, to arsonals, dock yards, forts, ships, and all the various kinds of property, weich the United States may and must possess.
 But surely the simple authority to dis. pose of and regulate these, does not ex- tend to the unlimited power of legislation |; to the passage of all lams, in the most general acceptation of the word which, by the by, is carefully excluded from the sentence. And, indeed, if this were so, it would render unnecessary another provis- ion of the Constitution, which grants to Congress the powers to legisate, with the consent of the States, respectively, over all places purchased for the "erection of forts. magazines, arsenals, dock yards, J &c. These being the ''property" of the United States, if the power to make ''neediul rules and regulations concerning them includes the general power of legis. lation, then the grant of authority to regu- late "the territory and other property ol the United States is unlimited, wherever subjects are found for it's operation, and Fl exercise needed no auxiliary provision.- If, on the other hand, it does not include such power of legislation over the 'othcr property" of the United States, then it does not include it over their "territory , for the same terms which grant the one, grant the other. "1err itory" is here classed with property, and treated as such; and the object was evidently to enable the General Government, as to "dispose of' such property as it might possess, and which authority is essential almost to its being. Bat the lives and persons of oul citizens. with the vast variety of objects connected with them, cannot be controlled by an authority, which is merely called into existence for the purpose of making rules and regulations for the dispositio, and management of property.
 Such, it appears to me, would be the construction put upon this provision of the Constitution. were this question now firs presented for consideration, and not con. trolled by imperious circumstances. Tho original ordnance of the Congress of tho Confederation, passed in l7s7, and whicf was the only act upon this subject in force at the adoption of the Constitution, provi. ded a complete frame of Government fol the country north of the Ohio, while in $ territoria! condition, and for it's eventua admission in separate States into the Un ion. And the persuasion, that this ordi nance contained within itself all the ne cessary means of executive, probably prevented any direct reference to the sub ject in the Constitution, further than vest ing in Congress the right to a6mit the States form ed under it into the Union.- However, circustanc es arose, which re quired legislation, as well over tLe terri tory north of the Ohio, as over the terri tory, both within and without the origina Union, ceded to the General Government and, at various times, more enlarged power has been exercised over the Terri tories-meaning thereby the difleren Territorial Governments-than is convey ed by the limited grant referred to. How far an existing necessity may have opera ted in producing this legislation, and thus extending, by rather violent implication powers not directly given, l know not.-- But certain it is, that the principle of in terlerenc should not be carried beyond the necessary implication, which produces it It should be limited to the creation o proper governments for new countries acquired or settled, and to the necessary provision for their eventual admission into the Union leaving, in the meantime, t' the people inhabiting them to regulate their internal concerns in their own way They are just as capable of doing so al the people of the States and they can d' so, at any rate, as soon as their poliiica independence is recognized by admission into the Union During this temporary ~o-J:ts... .t {. L. s.s.