The Washington union., 1857-06-02

mtee on aci 10 arrange and put them into satisfactory
! language.
Gouverneur Morris constructed the clauses and COM
bned the views of majority the two provisions
admit new States and secondly TO dispose of the public
lands, and TO govern the Territories in the mean time
between the cesons of the States and the admission into
the Union OF States asng IN the ceded territory
% Madison Papers, 1886 10 i466)
II hardly possible to separate the power ''to make
all needul rules and regulations respecting the gov
ernment OF the territory and the disposition OF the public
lands
North of the Ohio Virginia conveyed the lands, and
vested the jurisdiction In the thirteen original States
before the constitution formed. She had the
sole title and sole sovereignty and the same power
TO vede, ON any terms she proper, that the King
OF England had to grant the Virginia colonial char
ter of l609 grant the charter of Pennsylvania
William Penn The thirteen States, through their rep
resentatves and depued ministers in the old Congress-
had the right to govern that Virginia had before the
cesson. QBadwins Constitutional Views, DO And the
sixth article of the constitution adopted all engagements
entered into by the Congress OF the Confederation valid
against tie United States and that the laws made in
pursuance of the constitution, to carry out this
gagement should be the supreme law of the land, and
the ndes bound thereby To give the compact and the
ordinance which part OF it, full effect under the
government the Of August T. i7s9 was passed which
declares, Whereas In order that the ordinance of the
United States in Congress assembled for the government
OF the Territory northwest of the river Ohio, may have
full effect 1t s requisite that certain provisions should be
made SO to adapt the to the present constitution
of the United States II is then provided that the gov
dent with the consent of the Senate and be subject to
removal &c, in like that they by the old
Congress, whose functions had ceased.
BY the powers to govern given by the constitution,
those amendments to the ordinance could he made but
Congress guaedly abstancd from touching the compact
of Virginia further than to adapt it to the constitu
tion.
1t is due to myself to say that il is asking much of
judge who has for nearly twenty years been exercising
jurisdiction from the western Missouri line to the Rocky
mountains and this understanding of the constitu-
ion intcting the extreme penalty of death for crimes
committed where the direct legislation of Congress the
only rule to agree that he had been all the while acting
in mistake, and a usurpcr.
More than sixty years passed away since Congress
has exercised power to govern the Territories by its legs
laton directly or by territorial charters subject to repeal
at all tines and it is too late to call that power into
question: if this court could disregard its decisions
which it cannot do, think. 1t held in the
of Cross rs. Harrison, (l6 How 1913, A. that the
eregnty of California in the United States in virtue
of the constitution by which power had been given to
Congress to dispose Of and make all needul rules and
regulations respecting the territory other property be-
longing to the United States with the power to admit
States into the Union That decision followed pre-
ceding ones, there cited. The question then pre-
scnted how it possible for the judicial mind to
ccive that the United States government created solely
by the constitution could by lawful treaty, acquire
territory which the acquiring power had jurisdc
ton to hold and govern it, by force of the instrument
der whose authority the country acquired and the
foregoing the conclusion of this court the propo
ston. What was there announced most deliberate
y done and with purpose. The only question here is
as think, how far the power of Congress is limited
As to the Northwest Territory, Virginia had the right
to abolish slavery there and she did SO agree in 1881
with the other States in the Congress of the Confederation
by asserting to and adopting the ordinance of ls7 for
the government of the Northwest Territory She did
this, Also by act of her legislature passed afterwards
which was treaty in fact.
Before the new constitution was adopted she had as
much right to treat and agree any European govern
ment had And having excluded slavery the new gov
h, Iy NJ
the constitution. This only meant that slavery
should not exist whilst the United States exercised the
power of government in the territorial form for when
State came in, it might do so, with without sla
very.
NY opinion is that Congress had power in face of
the compact between Virginia and the twelve other
States to force slavery into the Northwest Territory, be-
cause there it was bound to that engagement, and
could not break 1t. %
In 1890 North Carolina cedcd her western territory,
the State of Tennessee and stipulated that the in
habtants thereof should enjoy all the privileges and adj
vantages of the ordinance for governing the territory
north of the Ohio river and that Congress should
the government and accept the cesion, under the
press conditions contained in the ordinance Prorided
THAT regulation made to be made by Congress,
shall tend to emancipate slaves "
In 1902 Georgia ccded her western territory to the
United States with the provision that the ordinance of
1887 should in all its parts extend to the territory cedcd
..that article only excepted which orbids slavery"
Congress had power to legisatc slavery from
the North Carolina and Georgia cessions than it had
power to legislae slavery north of the Ohio No
power existed in Congress to egsate at all affecting sla
vcry in either The inhabitants, respected this
description of property stood protected whilst they
governed by Congress- in like that they pro-
tcctcd before the ceson made and when they WERE
respectively, parts of North Carolina and Georgia.
And how does the power Congress stand west of the
Mississippi river The country there acquired from
France by treaty 1903 1t declares that the First Con-
SUI the Of the French republic doth hereby cede
the United States, in full sovereignty, the colony
province of Louisiana with all the rights and appurte
Of the said territory And, by article third that
rated in the Union of the United States and admitted as
possible according to the principles of the federal
constitution to the enjoyment of all the rights, advan-
tages and mmunitics OF citizens of the United States
and in the time, they shall be maintained and pro-
tected in the free enjoyment of their liberty property
and the religion which they profess.
Louisiana province where slavery not only
lawful but where property in slaves the most valua
bic Of all personal property The province ceded as
unit, with equal right pertaining to all its inhabi-
tants i'm every part thereof to slaves 1t was to
great extent vacant country having in it few civilized
inhabitants No portion of the colony of proper
size for State of the Union had sufficient number of
inhabitants to claim admission into the Union To
bic the United States to fulfil the treaty additional pop
uation Indispensable and obviously desired with
iety by both Sides so that the whole country should
possible become States of the Union and for this
contemplated future population, the treaty expressly
provided il did for the inhabitants residing in the prov
incc when the treaty made. All these to he
protected The time that is to say, at all times
between the date of the treaty and the time when the
portion of the territory where the inhabitants resided