Year: 1860

in the Territories on a common platform


having brought with them that species o


property best adapted. in their own opin


ion, to promote their welfare. From nat


ural causes the slavery question will il


each case soon settle itself; and before tn,


Territory. is prepared for admission as


State into the Union this decision, one wa,


or the other, will have been foregon'


conclusion. Meanwhile the settlement o


the new Territory will proceed withou


serious interruption, and its progress ant


prosperity will not be endangered or re


tarded by violent political struggles.


When in the progress of events the il


habitants of any Territory shall have reacl


ed the number required to form State


they will then proceed. in regular man


ner, and in the exercise of the rights o.


popular sovereignty, to form constitu


ton preparatory to admission into the


Union. After this has been done, to EN-.


ploy the language ofthe Kansas and Ne.


braska act, they "shall be received into


the Union with or without slavery, as
their constitution may prescribe at the
time of their admission" This sound
principle has happily been recognized, in
some form or other, by an almost unan.
imous vote of both houses of the last
Congress.


All lawful means at my command have
been employed, and shall continue to be
employed, to execute the laws against the
African slave trade After a most care
full and rigorous examination of our coasts
and thorough investigation of the sub
jcct, we have not been able to discover
that any slaves have been imported into
the United States except the cargo by the
Wanderer, numbering between three and
four hundred. Those engaged in this un
lawful enterprise have been vigorously
prosecuted; but not with as much success
as their crimes have deserved. Anumber
of them are still under prosecution.


Our history proves that the fathers of
the republic, in advance of all other ma
tions, condemned the African slave trade.
1t was, notwithstanding, deemed expedi-
ent by the trainers of the constitution to
deprive Congress ofthe power to prohibit
''the migration or importation of such
persons as any of the States now existing
shall think proper to admit, ""prior to
the year one thousand eight hundred and
eight


1t will be seen that this restriction on
the power of Congress was confined to
such States only as might think proper
to admit the importation of slaves. 1t
did not extend to other States, or to the
trade carried on abroad. Accordingly,
we find that so early as the 22d March,
1874, Congress passed an act imposing
severe penalties and punishments upon
citizens and risidents of the United States
who should engage in this trade between
foreign nations. The provisions of this
act were extended and enforced by the
act of 10th May, 1900.


Again: the States themselves had a
clear right to waive the constitutional
privilege intended for their benefit and to
prohibit, by their own laws, this trade at
any time they thought proper to, previous
to 1908. Several of them exercised this
right before that period, and among them
some containing the greatest number of
slaves. This gave to Congress the i'm
mediate power to act in regard to all such
States, because they themselves had re-
moved the constitutional barrier. Con-
gress accordingly passed an act on 28th
of February, 1903, ''to prevent the i'm
portation of certain persons into certain
States, where, by the laws thereof, their
admission is prohibited" In this man
ner the importation of African slaves in
to the United States was, to great ex-
tent. prohibited some years in advance of
1903.


As the year 1903 approached, Congress de-
termined not to suffer this trade to exist even for
single day after they had the power to abolish it.
On the ID March, 1907, they passed an act to
take effect ifom and alter the first day of January,
/ lS0S," prohibiting the importation of African
Slaves into the United States. This was followed
by subsequent acts of similar character to which
l need not specially refer. Such was the prin-
ciples and such the practice of ancestors more
than fifty years ago in regard to the African slave
trade.


1t did not occur to the revered patriots who had
been delegates to the convention, and afterwards
become members of Congress, that in passing
these laws they had violated the constitution which
they had framedwith somuch care anddeliberation.
They supposed that to prohibit Congress, in ex
press terms, from exercising specified power be-
fore an appointed day. necessarily involved the
right to exercise the power after that day had
arrived.


If this were not the case, the trainers of the
Constitution had expended much labor in vain.-
Had they imagined that Congress would possess no
power to prohibit the slave trade either before af
ter 1906, they would not have taken so much to
protect the States against the exercise OF this
power before the period. Nay, more, they would
not have attached such vast importance to this
provision as TO have excluded it from the posi-
Diity of future repeal or amendment to which
other portions of the Constitution were exposed
1t would, then, have been wholly unnecessary to
engraft on the fifth article of the constitution,
the mode of its own future amend
ments, the provision, "that no amendment which
may be made prior to the year 1903 shall in any
manner affect" the provision in the constitution
securing to the States the right to admit the i'm
portion of African slaves previous to that period.


According to the adverse construction the clause
ITSELF on which so much care and discussion had
been employed by the members of the convention,
was an absolute nullity from the beginning and all
that has since been done under it mere usurpation.


1t was well and wise to confer this power upon
Congress, because had it been left to the states its
efficient exercise would have been impossible. In
that event any one state could have effectually
continued the trade not only for itself but for all
the other slave states, though never so much a.
brought within the limits of any one state, cannot
llv ho excIuded from another state xvbere