Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-07-19
NUMBER 2Sl.

lions, or granting auy other banking pow
erS or privileges, shall be passed by the
legislative Assembly; nor shall the eStab-
llshment of any branch or agency of any
such corporation, derived from other au-
thorlty, be allowed in said Territory; nor
shall said Legislative Assembly authorize
the issue of any obligation, scrip or evil
dence of debt, by said Territory in any
mode or manner whatever, except certili-
Gates for services to said Territory: and
all such laws or any law or laws incou-
sistent with the provisions of this act,
shall be utterly null aud void; and all
taxes shall be equal and uniform, and no
distinction shall be made i'll the assess
ments between different kinds of property,
but the assessments shall be according to
the value thereof"
The fourteenth section forever prohibits
slavery in the Territory by extending the
ordinance of seventeen hundred and eigh-
ty-sc"cn over them, and giving the citizens
''all and singular its rights, privileges and
advantages" and subjccting thOm to all
its conditions, restrictions and prohibi-
tions.'
On the ninth of September, 1850, Con-
grcss passed "an act to establish a Terri
torinl Government for Utah." See ninth
volume, page 453 1t contains the follow
ing repeal clause: Gall the laws passed
by the Legislative Assembly and Governor
shall be submitted to the Congress of the
United States, and if disapproved shall be
null and of no effect" The other provis-
ions correspond with the COMPROMISE
measures of 1850. Other statutes might
be quoted, but surely enough has been
done. Thus we see an unbroken series of
statutes, through space of sixty-two
years, commencing with the first life of
the Constitution, all with one uniform
voice asserting the same principle, and ap-
proved by the long line Of our Presidents
from Washington to James X. Polk, and
MllArd Ell%HEs onsis WiRSllGg sXsde BY South
same principle to those immense acquisi-
tions, by running the Missouri Compro-
mise line through to the Pacific; and no
thing prevented the settlement of the
question on that foundation, except that
the propngAudists had wrested the national
power of peace and war out of the hands
of Congress, by organizing fllibustering
expeditions to spread slavery all south of
US, by means of arson and robbery, rape
and murder. The ordinance of 1881 was
i'll fact founded on the same principle.
1t contained kind of silent tacit under
stnnding, that freedom should have all the
territory north of the Ohio River, and
slavery all south, including Mississippi,
Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. And
the principle was productive of universal
peace, harmany and good will. And what
may seem astonishing to some people no
man and no party ever manifested the
slightest scrnple, doubt or hesitation
about the constitutional power OF Con
gress on the subject.
All branches of the National Govern
ment fell into the same error, if error it
was. In the American and Ocean InSur-
ance Company against Cnnter, Chief JUS
ticc Marshall says that, ain legislnting for
them," (the United States Territories
"Congress exercises the combined powers
of the general and of q State govern
ment." See first Peters, page 545. I we'll
know that Judge Tancy asserts, with all
the strength of his lungs, that when Mar
shall decided that point, lie was wander
ing away from his subject, delivering
obitcr dictums, and speaking without
thought or reflection. With all due defer
encc to Judge Tancv. it must be said that
neither his assertions nor his reasonings
make the slightest impression on the minds
of men, whose education and mode of life
make them familiar with the subject. We
cannot enter into Sthe discussion now,
that task shall be fully performed in a
future number of these essays. For the
present suffice it to say, that the decs-
ion Of the Court required Judge Marshall
to say just what he did. IF he meant ex-
actly what his words import, he was CIV
ing an exhibition of that colossal intellect
which raised him so much aboEc the law
yers of his day and generation. If he did
not mean what his words literally import,
he was talking like a driveler. Congress
had been doing just what he said, had
been exercising in the Territories the COM
bincd powers of the general and OF a
State government for fory years before
able words, and on the subject of
slavery as freely as on any other
Judge Johnson, another member of the
Supreme Court, decided this same case in
the Circuit Court. If the language of
Judge Marshall can be explained, or ar
gnOd, or caviicd away, that of Judge
johnson cannot. He says in the broadcast,
81 see nothing in which the power acqui-
red over the ceded territory can vary from
the power acquired under the law of na-
tions, by any other government over ac-
quired or ccded territory" See First Pc
tiers, page 5l7. Both Judges are speaking
of the Territory of Florida. Strange that
both Judges should by inadvcrtcnce or ac-
cident have fallen into the self-same err
ror. If Marshall did not believe in tho
complete and entire sovereignty of the
nation in the National Territories, why did
he not correct the error of Johnson, or at
least demonstrate against his heresy2 But
go far rom doing so Judge Marshall is
so careless and inadvertent, it appears, as
to use language which admits of no other
possible construction than that of Judge
johnson Both these distinguished Judg-
cs shall be heard more at length in some
future number.
One thing is certain. If the Dred Scott
decision is correct, the cntire nation fell
into mistake about its organic laws,
which passed unqucstioncd from the in
fancy of the Constitution until that in
strnment was sixtY-two Yenrs old And