Southern patriot. (Houston, Chickasaw County, Miss.) 18??-18??, 1849-10-02

territories and / am the more thor
ouehly confirmed in it from She fact
that entertain the opinion long be.
fore | knew il 10 be his. As TO the |
right Of acquiring territory, / agree
with the Senator from New York, that
il is embraced, without going further,
both in the war and treaty powers.
Admitting then-what has never
been denied, and what il would be
idle 10 do so in a discussion which
relates 10 territories acquired both
by war and ueatia that the United
States have the riglii to acquire terri
tories, it would seem to follow, BY
necessary consequence, that they
have the right to govern them. as
they possess the entire right Of soil,
dominion, and sovereignty over them,
they must necessarily carry with
them the right TO govern. But this
Government, as the sole agent and
representative Of the United States
that is, the State of the Union in
their Federa character-must,as such
possess the sole right, il it exists at
all. Bnt ifthere be any one disposed
to take a different view Of the origin
Of the power, ! shall make no points
with him for whatever may be its
origin, the conclusion would be the
same, as | shall presently show.
But it will be a great error to con
clude that Congress has the absolute
power Of governing the Territories,
because it has the sole or exclusive
power. The reverse is the case. L.
is subject to many and important re-
strictions and conditions, of which
some are expressed and others i'm
piled Among the former may be
classed all the general and absolute
prohibition of the Constitution; that
is, all those who prohibit the exercise
Of certain powers under any circum-
stances. In this class is included
prohibition of granting titles of no.
bility; passing en- post tactO laws and
bills Of attainder; the suspension of
the writ of habeaS corpus, except in
certain cases; making laws respect
ing the establishment Of religion, or
prohibition its free exercise; and
every other Of like description, which
conclusively shows that the power of
Congress over the Territories is not
absolute. Indeed, it is a great error
to suppose, that either this or the
State government possess in any
case absolute power. Such power
can belong only to the supreme ulti-
mate power called sovereignty, and
that, in our system, resides in the
people ofthe several States of the
Union. With us, government, both
Federal and State, are but agents,
or, more properly, trustees, and, as
such, possess, not absolute, but subs
ordinent and limited powers; for all
powers possessed by such govern
ments must from their nature, be
trust powers, and subject to all re-
striction to which that class of powers
are.
Among them, they are restricted
to the.nature and the objects of the
trust; and hence no government IN
der our system, Federal or State, has
the right to do anything inconsistent
with the nature of the powers intrust-
ed to it, or the object for which it
was intrusted, or, to express it in
more usual language, fer which it
was delegated. To do either would
be TO pervert the power to purposes
neverintended, and would be a viola.
ton to the Constitution, and that in
the most dangerous way it could be
made, because more easily done and
less eseily detected But there is
another and important class OF re-
]slriction which more directly relate
to the subject under discussion, re-
fer to those imposed on the trustees
by the nature and character of the
party who constitutional the trustees
and invested them with the trust pow
ers to be exercised for its benefit. In
this case it is the United States, that
is, the several States of the Union
1t was they who constituted the
/ Government as their representative
or trustee, and intrusted it with pow
ers to be exercised Tor their common
and joint benefit. To them, in their
united character the territories be-
long, as is expressly declared by the
Constitution They are their joint
and common owners, regarded as
property or land; and in them, sew
orally, reside the dominion and SOW
ernignty over them. They are as
much the territories Of one State as
another-ol Virginia as Of New York
80 fkm &l,tH,.- FL.