Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-10-13

We are indebted to Durbin Ward, ESQ.,,
Delegate from Ohio to the Charleston and
Baltimore Conventions, for a copy of his
speech upon "the constitutional Power Of the
General Government, and the People in the
Federal Territories printed by the Daily
.BnqSirr steam press, in this city. The
speech is well constructed, in good taste and
temper, and is pleasant reading, making, for
the effort of a party man, tolerably close
approximation to just conclusions.
Mr.. Ward presents the Government of the
United States as one whose powers spring
from the people of the States by express
delegation and enumeration. He finds no
granted authority in the Constitution for
the requirement Of foreign territory, and,
therefore, concludes that the practice into
which we have fallen of taking in other
lands is an innovation growing out of the
necessities Of the casa single exception to
On otherwise universal adherence on the
part Of the Government to the Constitu-
ton.
In this we suspect Mr.. Ward is mistaken
There is large class of subjects upon
which the Constitution, if not totally silent,
sfUrds no rule of action. There is, in fact,
On important province OF our Government
in which power is neither granted nor its
exercise restrained by the provisions of or
gsnic law, and which is simply conducted
according to the discretion of those in whose
hands it is placed. We will explain:
In the framing of our national compact,
the idea that would naturally be uppermost
in the minds of its authors, and which OBJ
viously was so, was to provide for the erec-
ton of the States into compact and durable
nation, capable to enforce and perpetuate
peace between its individual parts, and Sc
cure the welfare and happiness of the people.
Tranquility and efficiency within, and not
the aspect which the whole would present to
parties without, was the governing motive
of their action, and it was against invasions
of the rights of States and the freedom of
citizens that their efforts were directed. In
respect to foreign matters and the intercourse
With other nations, there was evidently a
willingness to leave the Union to mold its
character and establish its policy as circum-
stances should require, in accordance with
the recognized canons of the common law of
the civilized world; and in its foreign de-
partment, from which little adverse to liberty
was feared there was no attempt to bring
the Government, then in process of con-
struction, within prescribed rules either by
grants or limitations of authority.
Now, although the contiguity of the part
~f al,
territorial acquisitions to our own, may keep
the fact partly out of sight, it is nevertheless
easily seen that the act of acquiring ter
ritory outside the national limits is one that
falls within the province of foreign affairs.
1t belongs to that class of cases which the
trainers Of the Constitution wisely and si-
lently left TO the discretion of the Govern
menr that should De erected uuuer its an
thority. In order to make this plain, it is
only necessary to refer to any instance in
which territory has been acquired by the
United States. The purchase of Louisiana
for example, was transaction in which the
subject-matter was foreign, the party of
whom the purchase was made foreign, and
the department of our Government through
which the matter was negotiated was that
to which is entrusted the management of
foreign affairs and the same was the case
with all our other acquisitions.
Taking this view of the subject, the act of
sdding other lands to the national domain
ceases to appear contrary to the spirit of the
Constitution, or to stand as a solitary excep-
tion amid an otherwise universal adherence
to that instrument. On the contrary, by
means Of this classification we are able to
find the rule under which Government ac-
quires-where'it begins and where it should
cease to operate; and from thence can hope
to obtain just notion of the power of the
Government over the territory after it has
been acquired.
With the acquisition arrives a new era:
the e2tra-national function has exhausted its
force, and the International begins. Con-
stitutionAl law takes the place Of admins
tratiVe discretion; and we are only to look
into the national compact, and apply the Or
binary rules of construction to what we
discover, to determine with absolute pre-
cision the extent of the power of Congress
over the Territories;
''The Congress shall have power to dis
pose of and make all needful rules and regu-
lations respecting the territory or other
property belonging to the United States"
New States may be admitted By the Con-
gress into this Union
Once subject to ownership and surrounded
by the national boundaries, the territory is
simply land, which Congress may dispose of,
or concerning which, as concerning other
property, it may make all needful rules and
regulations, 1t may admit it, in the form
of new States, self-erected, into the Federal
Union, and then its power to govern the
people under the Constitution begins.
"When the General Government ACQUIRES
territory" says Mr. Ward, 'that Govern
ment and such citizens of the States as settle
in the Territory, have the whole jas impsri
therein. The citizen, by settlement ceases
TO be a citizen of the State from which he
came, and becomes a citizen Of his new dom
icil, and not Of his old. Thus, the General
Government and the citizen, each having
entered the Territory, the next inquiry re-
lates to their respective rights" Without
stopping to inquire whether citizens Of States
alone are citizens Of Territories, we agree
with Mr.. Ward that the residents of the land