, 1860-03-02

lature, and by o system Of unfrcndly lcgis-
lation or unequal taxation, undertake to
keep the people of the North out Of that
| Territory We would not submit to it at
all we would say at once they have no
right to pass such laws; and | believe any
honest court, such one as would be sent
to that Territory, would decide such enact
ments invalid, as violating that principle
of equality of States upon which this gov
ernment must rest The principle Of equali
ty of States must be maintained. Their
equal rights in the Territories is so clear to
my mind, that cannot imagine how any
gentleman can gainsay it. The Territory is
the common property of all the States, and
| am sure that the Northern people would
not submit to any such system Of taxation,
or any such legislation, in Territory, ns
would exclude them. The Northern De-
mocracy are just and, while they would
not submit to that course of policy on the
part of the South, they would not attempt
to exclude the South by q system TO which
they would not submit themselves.
Mr.. PUGH-I desire 10 correct the Sena-
tor from Oregon. am certainly surprised,
after the gr 1t pains l undertook to ex-
press my opinions, to hear the Senator reit-
crate the assertion Of the Senator from
California, that | had declared my opinion
that it was proper, or just, or right, or
even competent, for Territorial Legisla-
ture, by mere indirect fraud, or unequal
taxation, or restrictions on the right of suf-
frage, or anything of that sort, to prevent
emigration, or to give the people who emf
CRATE from one section Of the country an
advantage over those who emigrate from
another. | explained what | thought on
that point. While my friend from Oregon
probably did not hear me, think it extra
ordinary, after l corrected the Senator
from California twice or thrice, that it
should be reiterated / do not believe in
any of these doctrines of unfriondly legisla-
tiOn, as you expounded it; never did. If
the people of the Southern States are en-
titled, under the Constitution, or otherwise,
to this right; show me the right, and am
opposed to all attempts to evade the ques-
tion.
Mr.. LANE understood the Senator
from Ohio, in response 10 the Senator from
Mississippi, to say that the right was with
the people Of a Territory to establish OF
prohibit slavery.
Mr.. PUGH-Yes, sir.
Mr.. LANE-And to regulate their own
domestic policy in their own way, in all re-
spects 7
Mr.. PuGH-I think they have a right to
do precisely what the Territorial Legisla-
ture of Oregon did, and what was after
wards affirmed by act Of Congress; they
excluded slavery there.
Mr. LANE-Well, Mr.. Pesident, desire
TO soy that l do not believe the people Of a
Territory have right to exclude or cstab-
lish or abolish slavery No such right is
conferred on them by the Constitution. Il
recognize the principle of the equality of
the States-their equal rights in the Ter
rtories Any man has right to go from
any State Of the Union into the common
Territories of this Government and take
with him what is recognized as property
in the State from whence he goes, and to
bold it in the Territory while the Terrific
rial condition remains ; and when the peo-
pie Of the Territory come to form State
government, they have right to say
whether the State shall bo slaveholdng or
non-slaveholding; and as they decide, it is
the duty Of Congress to admit them. But
l hold that the people Of Territory have
not right TO prohibit slavery, and ! would
not agree tina, they have the right to estab-
lish it bee use the Territory is the COM
mon property of all the States of this
Union, and every man, as l said before,
has right TO go there, and take with him
his property, and enjoy that property while
the Territorial condition exists; aud if the
Legislature Of Territory shall undertake,
| by legislation, to bar the interests or the
rights Of any portion Of the Union, be-
live any honest court will decide such leg
islaton to be null and void, because it is in
conflict with the Constitution of the United
States. know my friend will say that
| from that court there is no appeal to the
Supreme Court of the United States With
the decision Of the Supreme Court the De-
mocracy Of the North will be willing to
rest.
Mr.. PUGH-Did l understand the Sena-
tor to say that a Territorial Legislature
had no right to establish slavery any more
than to prohibit it! l heard him imper-
fectly at this distance, and | want to know
if that is his proposition.
Mr.. LANE-My proposition is that Con-
gress has no power over the question Of
slavery; that they cannot, under the Con
stitution, establish it in Territory or pro-
hibit it; and that a Legislative Assembly
in Territory, deriving its powers from
Congress, cannot do what Congress itself
cannot do.
Mr. PuGH-Then you hold that Terri
torial Legislature has no power to establish
slavery ?
Mr. LANE-No power to establish it, and
no power to prohibit it but that slave
property goes there like all other property,
on an equal footing with other property /;
and while the Territory is in Territorial
condition, it has that protection which the
Constitution extends to it, and which an
honest court would give it, and the COM