The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-29

I
ed by the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial
departments of our Government, from the day
OF It's organisation.
Let 1t be borne in ming sir, that on the 29th
day OF August, 1887, wbl,n the constitutional
Convention had the report of its committee
| providing for the admission of new States under
consideration, and rejected the provision for
their admission On the same terms with the
original States" the Ordinance passed on the
18th of July, 1877, by tie Congress of the Con-
federation, for the government of the North
west Territory, was in full force; that it was
the law of all the national territory, and provi-
ded for the erection of aete States therein, and
for their admission intosthe Union of the Con-
federation "on equal oting with the orig
inal States" in respect . all rights sanction
ed by the Articles of Cor ederation, but SUBJ
ject, nevertheless, to cert-in terms, conditions
and restrictions, which w re- not imposed upon
| the original States. Theses.etms, conditions, and
| restrictions, were, that SfsTery, otherwise than
in punishment of crime, fon due conviction,
should be forerer prohi. ted within said ne,s
States; that no man shot, be therein deprived
of his liberty or property -ibt by the Judgment
of his peers or the law of the land that the in
habitants thereof (all the. snhabitsnts) should
be alcays entitled to the Benefits of the writ
ltubeqs corpus and of the srial by jury that
private property should nit be taken, even for
public use, without full cosapensation therefor !;
and that the Constitutoussand Governments of
such ne,o States should be republican,, and in
conformity to the principles of the Ordinance.
These were provisions of the six articles of the
Ordinance which were declared to be unalter-
able but by the common consent, not of the ne,o
States merely, but of all the States. Upon the
| adoption of the Constitution, the Ordinance
was superseded, and ceased to be law, for the
| reason that the Government to which it owed
its origin and validity had ceased to be. have
the authority of the President himself for that.
He says in his last annual message, page 20s
"The Ordinance for the government of the
Terri. west of the river Ohio had con-
tanned provision which prohibited the use
of servie labor therein" "Sub-
sequent to the adoption of the Constitution,
this provision ceased to remain as law, for its
| operation, as Such, acGS absolutely superseded
6 by The Constitution"
But, sir, / rely not merely upon the Presi-
dents assertion for the authority for saying that
this Ordinance ceased to be law upon the adop-
ton of the Constitution The Supreme Court
of the United States has so ruled and declared,
in the case of Strader ct al. Us. Graham, 90
Howard, p. 82.) In that case, Chief Justice
fancy says
at has been settled by judicial decision in
this court, that this Ordinance of 1877 is not
in force. AS we have already said, I ceased
to be law upon the adoption Of the COnstitu-
'fion."
1t is significant that the court in this case
further decided that
"Most of the material provisions and princ-
'ples of the six articles, of the Ordinance of
1881 not inconsistent with the Constitution of
the United States, ever since the 7th day of
August, 1889, have been established law with
| in that Territory. But these provisions owed
their legal validity and force after the Consttu-
| ton was adopted, and while the Territorial Gov
| eminent continued, to the act of Congress of
| '7th August, 1899, which adopted and continued
the Ordinance OF 1887, and carried its provis-
ions into execution, with some notifications,
| which were necessary to adapt its form of
| Government to the new Constitution. And
| IN tie States since formed in the Territories,
these provisions. so far as they have been
| preserved, owe their validity and authority to
| the Constitution of the UNITED STATES, and
the Constitutions and laws of the respective
| States, Therein established, and not to the
| authority of the Ordinance of the old Confed
| Grafton"
What were the "most material provisions
| and principles of these six articles" of the Or
| dinance? They are those which have already
| enumerated. Not one of those principles and
| provisions enumerated are Inconsistent with the
| Constitution; on the contrary, they were each
and all incorporated in the Constitution, not as
| the Constitution was originally adopted, but as
| it was thereafter amended BY the action of the
| First Congress in 1889, and the subsequent &C.
ton of the people OF the several States. The
Constitution, as originally adopted, provided
for the government of the territory of the United
States by Congressional enactment, and for the
admission of new States into the Union but it
did not, like the articles of the Ordinance, de-
clare that no man should be deprived Of liberty
or property but by the Judgment of his peers
and the law of the land that the Inhabitants
all the inhabitants-should be entitled in all
cases involving liberty or life, to the trial by
jury, and that private property should not be
taken, even for public use, without full compen-
sation therefor. To the honor of the First Con-
gress under the Constitution-the Congress of
l7S9-be it said, that the first ten articles of
amendment to the Constitution were reported
to the several States for adoption; and were,
by the people of the States, ratified and incor-
| porated in the Constitution.
The fifth and sixth of these amendments con-
tain substantially, and almost literally, the pro-
| visions of the articles of the Ordinance, and
like them, declared that no person shall be
| deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
| due process of laws" that the people shall have
the trial by jury in all cases involving life or
| liberty; and that private property shall not be
| taken for public use without Just compensa
| ton.
The articles of the Ordinance had been adopt
ed by the First Congress under the Constitution; ;
| and as the Constitution was to be the supreme
law Of the land, it was but Just that the First
| Congress should have those great principles in
| corporated by the consent of the whole people
| of ha M IN, fba tpfio hot
done. Why did the First Congress adopt these
| provisions and principles of the Ordinance, and
| procure their incorporation into the Constitu-
| ton :? That can be most fifty answered in the
words of the Ordinance itself:
| "For extending the fundamental principles
of civil and religious liberty" "and to
fix and establish those principles as the basis
of all Laws, Constitutions, and Governments,
which, forever hereaftSsS shall be formed with
in the Territories"
The act of 1889 adouGng this Ordinance, as
| also the amendment Incorporating its great
principles in the Constitution, were statute re-
strictions upon the ms, sntion Of new States"
of perpetual obligation md if those restrictions
violated the alleged "islprescriptible right of
| equality of the several SsAtes," the First Con-
gress, and Washington, and the people of the
| United States, were guilty of that violation.
| Perchance Mey had not Learned that the several
States, as States, had an imprescriptible right
to enslave men throughout the National Terri
tory or that ne,o States, under the Constitution,
might assert any such right.
| That Congress had the power to exclude Sla-
very from the Territories, and thereby impose
statute restrictions upon new States, is clearly
| implied in the deed of cession made By North
Carolina. and accepted by the Congress of 1890,
of the Territory out of which Tennessee has
since become State. That deed of cession con.