American Eloquence, Volume 2: Studies In American Political History (1896)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 2: Studies In American Political History (1896)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
Having annexed these new and extraordinary conditions to the act for the
admission of Louisiana into the Union, Congress may, if they shall deem
it expedient, annex the like conditions to the act for the admission of
Missouri; and, moreover, as in the case of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
provide by an article for that purpose, that slavery shall not exist
within the same.
Admitting this construction of the Constitution, it is alleged that the
power by which Congress excluded slavery from the States north-west of
the river Ohio, is suspended in respect to the States that may be formed
in the province of Louisiana. The article of the treaty referred to
declares: "That the inhabitants of the territory shall be incorporated
in 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 rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of
the United States; and in the meantime, they shall be maintained and
protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the
religion which they profess."
Although there is want of precision in the article, its scope and
meaning can not be misunderstood. It constitutes a stipulation by which
the United States engage that the inhabitants of Louisiana should be
formed into a State or States, and as soon as the provisions of the
Constitution permit, that they should be admitted as new States into the
Union on the footing of the other States; and before such admission, and
during their territorial government, that they should be maintained and
protected by Congress in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and
religion. The first clause of this stipulation will be executed by the
admission of Missouri as a new State into the Union, as such admission
will impart to the inhabitants of Missouri "all the rights, advantages,
and immunities" which citizens of the United States derive from the
Constitution thereof; these rights may be denominated Federal rights,
are uniform throughout the Union, and are common to all its citizens:
but the rights derived from the Constitution and laws of the States,
which may be denominated State rights, in many particulars differ
from each other. Thus, while the Federal rights of the citizens
of Massachusetts and Virginia are the same, their State rights are
dissimilar and different, slavery being forbidden in one, and permitted
in the other State. This difference arises out of the Constitutions
and laws of the two States, in the same manner as the difference in the
rights of the citizens of these States to vote for representatives
in Congress arises out of the State laws and Constitution. In
Massachusetts, every person of lawful age, and possessing property
of any sort, of the value of two hundred dollars, may vote for
representatives to Congress. In Virginia, no person can vote for
representatives to Congress, unless he be a freeholder. As the admission
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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