White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1859-05-26
IWHOLE NUMBER, IO2.
A Curious EistoricaI Fact.

We are informed by Judge Law, that.
In searching among the early archives of
the Territory of Indiana, that soon after
the acquisition of Louisiana, the Governor
and Judges of Indiana, who then COM
posed the Legislative council. and were
clothed with all the Legislative powers
Of the Territory, were, by special act
OF Congress, authorized and directed to
frame q code Of laws for the then newly
acquired Territory of Louisiana and, in
obedience to this anomalous act of Con-
greSs, the Legislative Council Of the Ter
ritory Of Indiana went to work and drew
up, passed, and the Governor approved,
a code of laws for the large and distant
Territory Of Louisiana, extending from
the confines Of Minnesota to the Gulf;
and in those laws was embraced one Of
the most stringent slave codes that has
ever been enacted--perhaps the very code.
or the basis of the code now in force in
Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. A
copy of these laws, adopted by the Judges
and approved by VIM. Henry Harrison.
Governor of the Territory Of Indiana,
and dated in 1902 or 1903, will be fur
nished the State Historical Society.
1t will i'll become the citizens of Indi-
ana to reproach Louisiana and Mississippi
with slave code, which our own Judges
framed and imposed upon them. What
views Of Congressional power aud Terri
torial rights could have existed in that
day, when Congress, by an act, assumed
the power not only to legislate for Ter
ritory, but to delegate that power to q
legislative body distant and strange to
that over which the laws were to operate?
Could there be more absolute and ex-
elusive authority assumed by an unlimit-
ed despotism This was out-Lecomp-
tonizing the utmost stretches Of Lecomp-
tonism. What notions of popular SOW
ereignty could the sage. philosopher, and
apostle Of Democracy, Thomas Jefferson.
have had, when he put his signature of
approval to the act Of Congress confer
ring such duty and authority upon the
legislative council of Indiana? How
widely does modern constitutional theo-
ries differ from the views and conceptions
ofthe early patriots-simple-minded men,
who did not-according TO the lights Of
recent expounders-eomprehend the full
scope and operations of the institutions
they had framed and set in motion.
If Congress, in Jefferson's day, had
authority to delegate the power to make
a slave code in Louisiana, could it not
now authorize Louisiana or Texas, to
frame code for slavery, in Arazona or
New Mexico? If such power be claim
ed by the hot spurs of the South, what
can old Jeffersonian Democrats reply to
it can they say that Jefferson had no
Just comprehensions of the Federal Leg
islative power, or the rights of the terri
tories There are many ofthese stubborn
facts encountered in our history by which
the opponents of the old Wing doctrine
Of unlimited Congressional Legislative
power over Territories, are Aoored and
sometimes overwhelmed. We believe
that Congress has power granted to it,
fully and clearly by the Constitution, to
legislate for the Territories, but it is in
if not dangerous, to exercise it:
Popular sovereignty offers the only mode
avoiding the danger and trouble, and the
principle is right and Democratic in it
Ind. Journal: