Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-06-27

circuit court of the United States The decision of the
supreme court of the State reported in Yes, L. j.,
o27 was relied on: This court unanimously held the
paper to be negotiable. f.~s'ssri ~ 5sagz
When the decisions Of the highest court of State
directly in conflict with each other has been repeated
ly held here that last decision is not necessarily to
be taken as The rule. (Sate Bank " Knoop, is How,
369; Pease v. Peck 18 How, 599l
10 these considerations desire add that it not
made known to the supreme court of Missouri far
appears that the plaintiff was married in Wisconsin with
the consent of Dr. Emerson and it is made known
to us that Dr. Emerson citizen of Missouri fact
to which that court seem to have attached much inn
portance
Sitting here administer the law between these par
tles do not feel at liberty to surrender my convc
tons of what the law requires the authority of the
cison in Is Missouri Reports.
have thus far assumed merely for the purpose of the
argument that the laws of the United States respecting
slavery in this Territory were constuonally enacted
by Congress 1t remains to inquire whether they
constitutional and binding laws
In the argument of this part of the bar it
justly considered by all the counsel be necessary to
ascertain the of the power of Congress over the
territory belonging to the United States Until this is
ascertaned it is possible determine the extent of
that power On the one side it maintained that the
constitution contains no express grant of power to
ganize and govern what known to the laws of the
United States Territory that whatever power of
this kind exists is derived by implication from the capa
city of the United States hold and acquire territory
of the limits of any State and the necessity for its
having some government.
On the other side insisted that the Constitution
has not failed to make for this end
and that it is found in the third section of the fourth ar
ticle of the Constitution.
To determine which of these is the correct view it is
needul to advert to facts respecting this subject
which existed when the Constitution was framed and
adopted 1t will be found that these facts only shed
much light the question whether the trainers of the
Constitution omitted to make provision concerning the
power of Congress to organize and govern Territories
but they will also aid in the construction of any prov
been E1ade lie hiecf
Under the Confederation the unsettled territory within
the limits of the United ates had been subject of deep
interest Some of the States insisted that these lands
within their chartered boundaries and that they
had succeeded to the title of the Grown to the soil On
the other hand it argued that the lands had
been acquired by the United States by the war carried
on by them under common Government and for the
interest.
This dispute further complicated by unsettled
questions of boundary among several States 1t not only
delayed the accession of Maryland to the Confederation
but at time seriously threatened its existence. Is
Jour- of Cong, 208 Az Under the pressure of these
circumstances Congress earnestly recommended to the
several States cesson of their claims and rights to the
United States (5 Jour. of Cong 442 And before the
Constitution was framed it had been begun That by
New York had been made the 1s day of March, ISL
that of Virginia the 1s day of March, 1884; that of
Massachusetts the 18th day of April 1885; that of
Connecticut the 18th day of September 1886; that
of South Carolina the 9Th day of August 1884, while
the Convention for framing the Constitution was in ses
sion.
1t is very material to Observe in this connexon that
each of these eedes in the United States
well the jurisdiction the soil.
1t is also equally important to note that when the
Constitution framed and adopted this plan of
ing in the United States for the good the great
tracts of ungraned lands claimed by the several States
in which SO deep interest felt, yet incom
plete 1t remained for North Carolina and Georgia to
cede their extensive and valuable Claims These were
made by North Carolina on the 25th day of February
$780, and by Georgia the oath day OF April 1902.
The terms OF these smentioned cessions will hereafter
be noticed In anothr connexions but observe here that
each of them distinctly shows upon its face that they
not only in execution of the general plan proposed
by the Congress of the Confederation but of formed
purpose of each of these States existing when the
of their respective people given the Constitution
of the United States.
1t appears then that when the Federal Constitution
was framed and presented to the people of the several
States for their consideration the unsettled territory
viewed justly applicable to the common benefit
as it then had might attain thereafter pecunary
value, and so far as it might become the seat of
States to be admitted into the Union upon equal foot
ing with the original States And also that the relations
OF the United States to that unsettled territory of
different kinds The titles of the States of New York,
Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and South Caro-
lima, as well of soil of jurisdiction, had been trans
erred to the United States North Carolina and Georgia
had not actually made transfers. but confident expec
ation founded their appreciation of the justice the
general claim, and fully justified by the results,
entertained that these cessions would be made The
government of much of the territory actually ceded
lay northwest of the river Ohio.
But it must have been apparent both to the trainers
OF the Constitution and the people of the several States
who to upon it, that the Government thus pro-
yided for could not continue unless the Constitution
should confer the United States the
to continue it. That temporary Government under the
ordinance, to consist of certain officers, to be ap
pointed by and responsible to the Congress of the Con-
federaon their powers had been conferred and defined
by the ordinance So far as it provided for the tempo
rary of the Territory it ordinary act
legislation deriving its force from the legislative
of Congress, and depending for its vitality upon the
continuance of that legislative power. But the officers
to be appointed for the Northwestern Territory after the
adoption of the Constitution must necessarily be officers
of the United States and of the Congress of the Con-
appointed and commissioned by the Presi
dent and exercising powers derived from the United
States under the Constitution.
Such was the relation between the United States and
the Northwestern Territory, which all rejecting meh
must have foreseen would exist when the Government
created by the Constitution should supersede that of the
Confederation; that if the Government should be
without power to govern this Territory it would
point and commission officers and send them into the
Territory, to exercise there legislative judicial and
executive power; and that this Territory, which was
then oreseen to be important both politically
and financially to all the existing States, must be left
only without the control of the General Government
in respect to its future political relations the of
the States, but absolutely sithout any Government
what its inhabitants acting in their primary capacity
might from time to time create for themselves.
But this Northwestern Territory the only ter
rtory the soil and jurisdiction whereof then under
stood to have been ceded the United States. The
cession by South Caroina made in August I787 Of
all the territory ncluded within the river Mississippi
and line beginning at that part of the said river which
is nterseced by the southern boundary of North Caro-
lima and continuing along the said boundary line until
it intersects the ridge or chain of mountains which d