The Washington union., 1857-06-04

dispose Of and make all needful rules and regulations
respecting the territory and other property belong
ing to the United States" To show conclusivey
that they referred alone to the territory acquired by
the revolution, and that TO which some of the States
still had pretensions, they added and nothing
in this constitution shall be SO construed as to
prejudice any claims of the United States, or of
any particular State" This language is exclu-
sively adapted to the territory thus acquired and
ceded and makes alusion to future acquisi-
tions by war or purchase and certainly strict con
structionists cannot extend il further. Congress
could make all needful rules and regulations ne
cessary and proper for the management and sale
of the territory thus ceded within national limits
not owned by any State, and it has done in con-
formity with the spirit Of the constitution and in
tention of the respective cessions. If it de-
signed to extend to future conquests purchases
the intention would have been disclosed The power
to egislate over territory acquired outside of our
then limits must be sought elsewhere, and cannot be
found in the clause quoted But if it found there
would authorize the act in question attempt
ed to be construed. This law, instead of being a
"necdtui rule and regulation is inconsistent with
private rights, depriving persons of property owned
and held under the laws of sovereign States. It is
not dictated by any imperative necessity. The pro-
hibtion Of slavery north of the Ohio and asserting
it at the SOUTH rested upon the necessity of con
forming to the conditions, express implied, under
which the territory was acquired. But there was
no forfeiture Of property under the ordinance app-
cable to territory north of the Ohio. Washington,
Madison, Rutledge, Pinckney, and probably large
portion of those who framed the constitution,
shareholders 1t cannot be pretended that under the
words s.needfu rules and regulations" they designed
to clothe Congress with the power TO exclude them
from going with all their property to amy new terri
tory we might acquire. Such conclusion would
convict them of want of foresight which has never
been attributed to them.
Proper police laws, such as exclude from the Indian
country fire-water,' and those which punish crime
are 1needfn regulations; while those laws which for
felt the property of the settler which recognised
and protected by the laws Of his State, cannot be
needful and are therefore not constitutional. If this
part of the constitution extends all territories we
may acquire then the whole instrument must attach,
far as applicable. In that case, the clause OF the
fifth amendment which provides that no person shall
be deprived of life, liberty property without due
process of law will apply and defeat its operation
because it deprives men of their property north OF
thirty six thirty without any process of law.
The alleged object of the compromise line was to
promote the interest of the slave How an act
which virtually forces his to sell, instead OF
protecting him. to favor his interest is tapparent
and is nowhere shown to be needful. The conshtu-
tion was made to protect property, and not to de-
stroy it. There is no word in it which authorizes
Congress to pass laws to restrain persons from going
freely to every part of every State and Territory and
taking with them their wives, children, money goods
chattels, and property Of every kind Nor is that
body clothed with authority to define what is meant
by property If Congress can exclude slaves from
the Territories, the power will enable them to
exclude women and children, and whatever they
choose The constitution, if it extends to new ac-
questions, must go as shield and protection, and
not as destroyer. Its restraints, and among them
the tenth amendment, g the powers not delegated
to the United States by the constitution nor prohib
tied by it to the States are reserved to the States
spectvely and to the people must go with it, The
power to prohibit people from going to newly
qured territory with any and all kinds Of property
not f0und IN H. pucH power Wouiu leHu W uc-
feat tho very purposes for which territory is ac-
quired-the object being to sell the lands, fill the
country with inhabitants and facilitate the admission
of new States.
AS to the Louisiana purchase there are obligations,
resting in treaty equally binding with the conditions
in the cessons from North Carolina and Georgia.
That territory had belonged to Spain and England
and was ceded to us by France Its early settlements
were mostly French Instead Of the north part of it
being a wilderness, as alleged, there were scttle-
ments at New Madrid ST. Genevieve st. Louis,
and as far north Dubuque, where lead mines were
worked at an early day. For more than fifty years
land commissions and courts have been necessarily
engaged in questions involving Spanish titles in that
territory many of which have been finally determined
in the Supreme Court. The inhabitants there owned
and held slaves under the laws then in force. The
third article of the treaty provides for the admission
of the territory State soon as possible, with
all the rights, advantages and immuntes of citizens
of the United States and in the time, they shall
be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of
their liberty property, and the religion which they
profess TO hold that the parties to this treaty
meant that it should be limited to the identical men
then owning property and no others, would be
equivalent to saying that the old settlers should be