The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-01

the ground that her Constitution, thus formed
did conform to the provisions of the Ordinance o.
l7S7.-(Statutes at Large, vol. 3, p. $780,
In the year 1920, as we have before stated
Congress declared, in the law providing for the
admission of Missouri into the Union,
"That in all that territory coded by France te
the United States, under the name OF Louisiana
which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty
minutes, not included within the limits OF the
State contemplated by this act, Slavery and in
voluntary servitude otherwise than in the pun
ishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall
have been duly convicted, shall be- and is here
'by forever prohibited" - Statutes at Large, vol
3, p. 548.
In 1896, in the passage of the organic law O
the Territory of Wisconsin, which embraced
what is now the States of Wisconsin and lows
and the Territory of Minnesota, Congress agar
extended and applied the provisions of the Ordi-
nance of 1887 to an immense country beyond the
limits of the Northwest Territory.-( Statutes a
Large, vol 5, p. 49,
In 1888, Congress again endorsed this Ordinance
OF 1887, in the passage of the organic law Of
Iowa. by extending to the people OF this Territory
ali the privileges, rights, and immunities, hlth-
erto enjoyed by the people of Wisconsin" - Stat
utes at Large, vol. 5, p. 1881
In Is45, Congress declared. (as we have before
stated in the act providing for the admission o.
Texas as a member of the Union, that Slavery
should be prohibited in any State or States there
after to be formed out Of the territory north o
the Missouri Compromise line established III
l820.-(Statu at Large, VOL 5, p. 1887
In ls4s, March 81 Congress extended the pro-
visions of the Ordinance of 1887 to all the terri
tory of the United States west of the Rocky
Mountains, north of the forty-second degree Of
north latitude, known as the Territory of Ore
gon, in the following words:
q" And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants
of said Territory shall be entitled to enjoy all
and singular the rights, privileges, and advan-
tages, granted and secured to the people of the
Territory of the United States northwest of the
river Ohio, by the articles of compact contained
in the Ordinance for the government of said Ter
ritory, on the 18th of July, 1887; and shall be
subject to all the conditions, and restrictions,
and prohibitions in said articles of compact
imposed upon the people of said Territory. -
(Statues at Large, vol. 8, p. 329.)
This embraced both Oregon and Washington
Territories. In ls49, the same provision enacted
in regard to Iowa was Incorporated into the
organic law of Minnesota Statutes at Large
vol. 9, p. 4O7)
But all this mass of consecutive legislation, ex-
cept the act of 1920, is ignored by the President
He tells us that this provision of the Ordinance OF
1897 ceased to remain as a law, being absolutely
superseded By the Constitution. 1t is unfortunate
for the correctness fths statement that the Stat
utes at Large of the United States have been pub
lished from session to session by authority OF
Congress, and scattered broadcast over these
States it is unfortunate for its credence, that so
many millions of the freemen of this Republic
can read plain English
But the honorable Senator from Georgia
takes precisely the opposite tack He denies the
position of the President and says that this Ordi-
nance
"Purported on its face to be a perpetual COM
pact between the State of Virginia, the people
of the Territories, and the then Government oil
the United States. 1t was unalterable except by
all the parties. The division of that Territory
was provided for in the Ordinance at each
division, the whole of the Ordinance was ap-
piled to each of its parts. Congress did not
assert or exercise the right to alter a compact
entered into with the former Government, (the
old Confederation,) but gave its assent to the
Government already established, and provided
for in the compact. If the original compact
was void for want of power in the old Govern
ment to make it, as Mr.. Madison supposed, Con-
gress may not have been bound to accept tit
certainly had no power to alter it."
The honorable Senator from Georgia arrives
at an erroneous conclusion, only because his
premises untrue. This Ordinance does not
ginia and the people of the Territories, and the
United States, but compact between the origi-
nal States, and the people and States in the said
Territory" Virginia was no party to the bargain,
on its face" nor were the people and States in
said Territories contracting parties. There were
no States in the said Territory; the people had
no organization they had no power to bargain
until after the Ordinance was passed; and the
Ordinance bears the signature of no representa-
tive of Virginia, nor of the Territory-and of no
one but William Grayson, chairman" of Con-
gress, and "Charles Thompson, Secretary" In
other words, it was a law of the United States,
passed in the usual form, containing a solemn
declaration of the future policy of the Govern
ment on the subject of Slavery in her Territories
1t was no more irrepealabe than the Missouri
Compromise. Like the latter, it had all the
moral elements of perpetual covenant; but,
legally, ait was a mere law of Congress ;" and
that, too, of Congress under the Confederation,
with fewer elements of sovereignty, with less
power to bind the individual States, than is now
possessed by Congress under the Constitution
Hence, if Congress had the power to repeal the
Missouri Compromise which literally means an
agreement, a bargain, compact" it had the
power to repeal the Compromise of 1887. They
were both declaratory acts of Congress-nothng
more. The veracity and honor of the nation
were at stake. She had solemnly declared that
Slavery should not be permitted in the Northwest
Territory; and that in the Louisiana Territory
north of 36o 30/ Slavery should be torere prohib-
tied. This was the voice of the supreme power
of the United States, spoken in the presence OF
the enlightened nations of the earth. But it was
=" a nude compact 1T bound no one but herself
If she chose to violate her plighted faith with
her own citizens, and to stand giant liar among
the nations, she doubtless had the power
But be this as it may, these legislative prece-
dents not confined to subdivisions of the
Northwest Territory. They have constantly fol-
lowed the progress of population in the free ter
ritory. 1t was first applied to Ohio; when the
tide of population rolled across the Miami, it was
applied to Indiana; when it crossed the Wabash
1t was applied to Illinois; when it surged up to
the Northern lakes it was applied to Michigan
when it Rugged the western shore of the lakes
up to the British possessions, and dashed across
the great Father of Waters, it was applied to Wis.
consin, including Iowa and Minnesota, both OF
which were beyond the boundaries of the North
west Territory; and when it overleaped the Rocky
Mountains, this great vertebral column of the
world, it was applied to Oregon and Washington
bounded by the Pacific Ocean. These consecutive
legislative precedents, commencing in 1887 and
continuing to 1854, stand unimpeached and un-
impeachable by any conclusive reasoning
observe, in the third place, there is no odpers,
decision Of tie Supreme Court
In 1854, Congress repealed the Missouri Com
promise, on the ground of its unconstitutonalty
The power Of Congress to exclude Slavery from
the Territories was then for the first time denied
The President has also declared these laws to
be unconstitutional. He says, on the subject O
the organization of the Territories of Utah anC
New Mexico:
" In the councils of Congress, there were man
ifested extreme differences of opinion and actor
between some Representatives, who desired the
unconstitutional employment of the legslativ,
powers of the Government to interfere in the
condition of the inchoate States, and to impos,
their own social theories upon the latter, anC
other Representatives, who repealed the inferno