Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-12-09
WHAT COL. BENTON THINKS OF IT.

The veteran Benton yet retains that old
leaven of honesty in him which was also in
the statesmen Of the generation to which he
belongs. He has recently written a letter to
ex-Chief Justice George Robertson, of Ken
lucky, who has lately published in the Nation
al IntelHgencer his views against the decision
of the Supreme Court touching the Dred Scott
case. Mr.. Benton agrees with the ex-Judge
entirely, and in the course of his letter says:
81 mean what say, when l say the Supreme
Court had as well been looking into Robinson
Crusoe as looking into the Constitution of the
United States to find the power of Congress
to legislate for Territories for it is not there,
but in the ordinance of 'S7, adopted by the
Constitution and by the first Congress under
Washington, and in their right sovereign
proprietors, having the right to govern what
they have a right to acquire, and become their
duty under the State cession acts and under
the treaties OF cession. The ssneedful rules
and regulations clause" as the Court said,
gave no power to govern the Territories it
only applied to property, and that the prop
erty of the United States-its territories, id
est, land, and its other property, id est, perso-
nal estate. 1t conferred no powers of govern
ment, and that for the reason known to every
body at the time, and to nobody (hardly) now,
Uidekicit: because the government of the Ter
ritories was provided for in another place
namely, in the ordinance of 1887, and protec-
ted by a clause in the Constitution, and adopt
ed by Congress August 9TH, 1889, and in the
right of sovereign proprietors. The Court
looked in the wrong place to find the power of
Congress TO legislate for Territories.
Twas breaking down under the appalling at
tack which fell upon me when L was writing
the ssExaminaton, and had TO leave some
heads unfinished, and also to add some part
after had given up this world. Ny physician,
DR.. May, saw with astonishment that rose
from what he knew l considered the bed of
death, (and which he feared to be so,) and
went to my table and wrote. L was adding
something TO the ssExamination, and could
hardly refrain from a postscript: ssThis is my
political testament, written with dying hand. /"
Well | did not die, but L have to and will
die upon the truth and justice of what | wrote.
1t is a long time since each other !;
and what is called politics have sadly run
down since that time, and especially in the
| last Presidential term, presenting but little
for the attraction Of any man who has nothing
but the public good in view but here is a
question of new kind, national and elevated,
upon which all who are for the Constitution as
our fathers made it, and as they administered
it in their day and generation, and as the next
generation administered it, (and that without
distinction OF party or default of a man, may
come together and stand. For one, / can give
no political aid or comfort to any man or party
in any future election who shall uphold the
opinion of the Supreme Court in declaring
| the nullity of the Missouri Compromise and
in deereeing the selfextension of the Consti-
tuition to Territories, carrying Slavery with it,,
and preventing Congress and the people of the
Territory from saying yea or nay to IFS intro
duction repusion.
1 am now well recovered, and working as
usual, and expect to finish the Abridgment
next summer, and then to add another volume
to the two of the Third Years View, bringing
it down to 1860, if l live that long at all
events, to the time of the Pierce Administra-
ton, if We must call by his name an Admins
tration in which he was imperative, and in
which nullifiers, disunionists and renegades
used his name and his power for their own
audacious and criminal purposes.
Respectfully, THOMAS III. BENTON.
Washington, Nov. l, 1857.