Weekly national intelligencer., 1857-06-27


the exclusive power of the people Of the United States
Their will respecting it manifested in the Constitution
be subject to restriction The purposes and OBJ
ecs of the clause the enactment of laws concern
ing the disposal of the public lands and the temporary
government Of the settlers thereon until new States
should be formed 1t will not be questioned that when
the Constitution of the United States was framed and
adopted the allowance and the prohibition of negro sla
very recognised subjects of municipal legislation
every State had in acted hereon and the
only Legislative act concerning the terriory-he ord
nance Of l7S7 which had then recently been passed
contained prohibition of slavery. The purpose and
object Of the clause being enable Congress provide
body of municipal law for the government of the set
tiers, the allowance the prohibition Of slavery
within the known and recognised scope of that purpose
and object. ss f@
There is nothing in the context which qualities the
grant of power The regulations be respecting
the territory" An enactment that slavery may may
not exist there is regulation respecting the territory
Regulations b, needfu but it is necessarily left
to the Legislative discretion to determine whether law
be neediul No other clause of the Constitution has
been referred to at the bar, has been seen by me-
which imposes any restriction makes any exception
concerning the power Of Congress to allow prohibit
slavery in the territory belonging to the United States
practical construction, nearly contemporaneous with
the adoption of Constitution, and continued by repeated
instances through long series of years. may always in
auence and in doubtful should determine the ju
dcis mind on question of the interpretation of the
Constitution. stuart Laird Cranch, 269; Martin
Hunter, Wheat, 304; Cohens Virginia, Wheat,
2e4; Prgg Pennsylvania, 16 Pet, 621 Cooley
Port Wardens, II How, 315)
In this view proceed briefly to examine the pract-
cal construction placed the clause in question
far respects the inclusion therein of power to
permit prohibit slavery in the Territories.
1t has already been stated that after the Government
Of the United States was organized under the Constu
ton the temporary government of the territory north
of the river Ohio could longer exist under
the powers conferred Congress by the Constitution
Whatever legislative, judicial executive authority
should be exercised therein could be derived only from
the people of the United States under the Constitution
And accordingly act passed the 9TH day of
August, 1859, Il Stat at Large, 50) which recites
Whereas in order that the ordinance of the United
States in Congress assembled for the government of the
territory northwest of the river Ohio ay hare
u sc is required that certain provisions should be
made adapt the to the present Constitution
of the United States 1t then provides for the appoint
By the President of all officers who by force of the
ordinance have been appointed by the Congress
of the Confederation, and their commission in the
required by the Constitution and empowers the
secretary of the Territory to exercise the powers of the
Governor in case of the death or necessary absence Of
the latter.
Here is explicit declaration of the will of the first
Congress, of which fourteen members, including Mr..
Madison, had been members Of the Convention which
framed the Constitution that the ordinance article
of which prohibited slavery should continue to have
full effect General Washington, who signed this bill
as President the President of that Convention.
II does not appear to to be important in this
that tnat clause IN the ordnance
tied slavery of series of articles of what is
therein termed compact The Congress of the Confed-
GRAFTON had power to make such compact to act
at all the subeet and after what had been recently
said by Mr. Madison this subject in the thrty-eighth
number of the Federalist cannot suppose that he
any others who voted for this b attributed any ntrn
sic effect to what denominated in the ordinance
compact between the original States and the people
and States in the territory'-there being new
States then in existence in the territory with whom
compact could be made, and the few scattered nhab
ants unorganzed into political body not being capable
of becoming party to treaty, if the Congress of
the Confederation had had power make touching
the government of that territory.
| consider the passage of this law to have been an
assertion by the first Congress of the power of the United
States prohibit slavery within this part of the territory
of the United Sates for it clearly shows that slavery
thereafter to be prohibited there and it could be
prohibited only exeron of the power of the United
States under the Constitution, other power being
capable of operating within that territory after the Con-
stitution took effect
On the I'd of April 179O q Stat at Large 1O6 the first
Con2ress passed accepting deed of eession by
North Carolina that Territory afterwards erected into
the State of Tennessee The fourth express condition
contained in this deed of cesson after providing that
the inhabitants of the Territory shall be temporarily
governed in the those beyond the Ohio
is followed by these words 8. PROVIDED ARRAYS That no
regulations made to be made by Congress shall tend
TO emancipate slaves"
This provision shows that it was then understood
Congress might make regulation prohibiting slavery
and that Congress might also allow il to continue to
exist in the Territory and, accordingly, when, few
days later Congress passed the of May 20h $780,
Il Stat at Large, 123 for the government of the Terri
tory south OF the river Ohio, it provided sand the gov
ernment of the territory south Of the Ohio shall be
similar that exercised in the territory northwest
of the Ohio except far is otherwise provided in the
conditions expressed in of Congress of the present
session, entitled can act to accept cesson of the
claims of the State of North Carolina certain district
fwestern territory Under the thus estab
lshed slavery existed until the Territory became the
State of Tennessee
On the 7th of April 17ss q Stat at Large, 649,) an
act passed to establish government in the Mssis
spp Territory in all respects like that exercised in the
territory northwest of the Ohio exeepting and exclud
ing the last article of the ordinance made for the
ment thereSf by the late Congress- the 18th day of
July 1887" When the limits of this territory had been
amicably settled with Georgia, and the latter ceded all
its claim thereto it stipulation in the compact
Of cesson that the ordinance of July 13h 17S7 shall
in all its parts extend to the territory contained in the
present act of cesson that article only excepted which
subsequently established and organized under the act
May 10h, 1900; but much Of the ordinance pro-
hibted slavery not put in operation there.
Without going mnutey into the details of each ease
will give reference to two classes of acts in of
which Congress has extended the ordinance Of 1787
including the article prohibiting slavery over different
Territories and thus exerted its power prohibit it,
the oher Congress has erected Terri
tories acquired from France and Span in which slavery
already existed but refused to apply to them that part
of the government under the ordinance which excluded
slavery.
OF the first class the act of May 7th 1800 q Stat
at Large 3d. for the government of the Indiana Terri
tory the act of January 1lth 1906 e Stat at Large
of May 3d. 1S09 q Stat Large 514 for the govern
ment of the Illinois Terriory the of April 20th
1885, 5 Stat. Large 10) for the government of the
Territory of Wisconsin,; the act of June 12h 1885,