Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-03-19

reported by him six years ago, by which thes,
grave questions were submitted, as they ough
to be, to that exalted constitutional tribunal.
Whatever may be the decision Of the court.
upon these questions, the practical result Of
nonintervention by Congress will follow, as q
matter of course. If it should be decided that
the Constitution, by its own intrinsic efficacy,
will carry slavery into the Territories and main.
tain it there, then every one knows that any law
Of Congress, or of the Territorial legislatures,
interdicting it, would be unconstitutional and
void; because, neither the one nor the other
can repeal the necessary effect of the Constitu.
ton. If, on the other hand, it shall be decided
that the Constitution has no such effect, but
that slavery is the mere creature of municipal
law, which cannot be maintained outside of the
State whose laws support it, it follows, neces-
sarily, that it cannot exist or be maintained in
these Territories, and that every slave carried
there will of course be free, unless the people
of the Territories or Of the States to be formed
therein, shall see fit to admit and to establish
it by the action of their respective legislatures
and thus to exercise the same power which be-
longs to the people of every State as reserved
to them BY the express provision OF the Con
stitution ITSELF
will pursue the policy of fnon-intervention which,
| will undertake to show, was the policy of the
government from the adoption of the Constitu-
ton down to the Missouri restriction, which in
1850 was re-established which, in the election
that followed, received the sanction Of twenty
seven States and of an overpowering majority
OF the American people and which, trust, is
the settled constitutional policy Of the govern
ment
/ come to the first questionable constitu-
tional power Of Congress to pass the Missouri
restriction-and whether Congress has any such
power, directly or indirectly, over the existence
of the institution of slavery anywhere, unless
it be within the purlieus of this Capitol and Of
the public buildings.
j The institution Of African slavery was intro
duced into these States when they were yet col
onies, by the policy and the power of the mo-
ther country; and if there be any responsible
ity anywhere for its introduction and establish
ment, that responsibility, whatever it may be
must rest upon the government and people o.
Great Britain, whose power the feeble colonies
were not then able TO resist. In referring to
that responsibility, it is but just to add that
this African population was removed from the
lowest state of mental moral, social, and politi.
cal degradation, in the darkest region of the
earth, into an incomparably higher state, in i'm.
mediate contact with civilization and Christian
ity; and that this removal under an ovcrruling
Providence, as intimated by the honorable SEN
ator from Massachusetts, Mr.. EVERETT, so far
as human foresight can discern, will probably be
the means of carrying civilization and Chris
tianity back into that benighted continent and
of eeyating its people to rank with the civilized
cate slavery or the slave trade, but to notice the
Il of nfa tod hryx 81
wisdom of Providence.
When these States became sovereign and in
dependent, they necessarily, as sovereign States,
each of them, assumed entire and absolute con-
troll over this as one of its domestic institutions
Each acquired an independent, absolute, SOW
ereign right to control it according to the will
of its people, No other State had fright to
interfere. The continental Congress, repre-.
senting all the States, had no right to interfere.
No foreign government had any longer any
right to interfere; but each State was as abso-
lutely sovereign and Independent, in the exer-
else of legislative power over it, as the govern
ment of any civilized country over its own in
ternal affairs.
Some Of them proceeded Immediately, by
gradual process, to abolish it; others, under an
overriding necessity imposed upon them with
| out any agency of their own, preserved it, ad.
mitting no right of interference from any
quarter, and acknowledging their response
bility.
This, sir, was the condition Of the original
States when the Constitution was formed.
There were at that time two Territories one in
the northwest, which had been ceded to the
United States by Virginia, New York, Connec-
ticut and Massachusetts, the other in the
southwest, which had been ceded by South
Carolina, and seems to have been somewhat
overlooked. The character of both Of these
Territories was fixed by law before the forma-
ton of the Constitution. Congress, under the
confederation, had passed the ordinance of
1887, and had inserted in it certain articles
which were declared to be articles of compact
between the original States and the people and
the States in that Territory, and forever to re-
main unalterable except by common consent.
One of these articles provided that there should
be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in
the Territory, otherwise than in the punish
ment of crimes where of the party shall have
been duly convicted.
This ordinance, let it be remembered, was
adopted before the formation of the Constitu-
ton. 1t had been adopted by the States before
their power had been modified or restricted by
the Constitution, and of course no constitu-
tional question could arise whether the Cont
mental Congress had the power to adopt such
an ordinance. 1t depended on the consent of
the States; and if they, in any manner, directly
or indirectly, assented to it, as they were abso-
lutely sovereign, and had the right and the power
to do so, it was valid and binding upon them.
That it was q valid ordinance, was admitted by
the first Congress that assembled under the
Constitution; but it was not re-enacted it was
alluded to as a pre-existing valid ordnance
dating back prior to the formation Of the Con-
49,
requiring the governors of the Territories to
make report to the Continental Congress; and
requiring or authorizing that Congress to ap
point certain officers; but as there was nc
longer any Continental Congress, it became
necessary in order TO carry it into effect, as an
mitted to be, that the defect should be sup
piled. The first Congress under the Constitu-
ton, therefore, supplied that defect by direct
ing the reports to be made to the President,
the officers to be nominated by the President,
- Al a~l IA NJ