Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
By supposing the first member of the article to require that the
inhabitants and their territory shall be incorporated in the Union,
in the known and recognized political character of a Territory,
these inconsistencies are avoided, and the article reconciled to the
constitution, as understood by the opposers of the bill; the stipulation
also for citizenship “as soon as possible” according to the principles
of the constitution, and the delay meditated by these words, and the
subsequent words “in the mean time,” so utterly inconsistent with the
instantaneous citizenship, which would follow an admission into the Union
as a State, are both fully explained. Being incorporated in the Union as
a Territory, and not as a State, a stipulation for citizenship became
necessary; whereas it would have been unnecessary had the inhabitants
been incorporated as a State, and not as a Territory. And as they were
not to be invested with citizenship by becoming a State, the delay which
would occur between the incorporation of the Territory into the Union and
the arrival of the inhabitants to citizenship according to the principles
of the constitution, under some uniform rule of naturalization, exhibited
an interim which demanded the concluding stipulation, for “protection in
the mean time for liberty, property, and religion.” As a State of the
Union, they would not have needed a stipulation for the safety of their
“liberty, property and religion;” as a Territory, this stipulation would
govern and restrain the undefined power of Congress to make “rules and
regulations for Territories.”
Mr. TRACY.--Mr. President: I shall vote against this bill, and will give
some of the reasons which govern my vote in this case.
It is well known that this bill is introduced to carry into effect
the treaty between the United States and France, which has been lately
ratified. If that treaty be an unconstitutional compact, such a one
as the President and Senate had no rightful authority to make, the
conclusion is easy, that it creates no obligation on any branch or
member of the Government to vote for this bill, or any other, which is
calculated to carry into effect such unconstitutional compact.
The third and seventh articles of the treaty are, in my opinion,
unconstitutional.
The third article is in the following words:
“The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated
into the Union of the United States, and admitted, as soon
as possible, according to the principles of the Federal
Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages,
and immunities of citizens of the United States, and, in the
mean time, they shall be maintained in the free enjoyment of
their liberty, property, and the religion they profess.”
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