The pretension that in the Territories Slavery may be “voted up” or “voted down,” as the few people there see fit, is a novelty, and its partisans, besides a general oblivion of great principles, most strangely forget the power of Congress “to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States,” limited only by temporary exception in favor of “the migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit” until 1808. These express words, solemnly accepted as part of the Constitution, attest the power of Congress to prevent “the migration” of slaves into the Territories. The migration or importation of slaves into any State existing at the adoption of the Constitution was tolerated until 1808; but from that date the power of Congress became plenary to prohibit their “importation” from abroad or “migration” among existing States, while from the beginning this power was plenary to prevent their “migration” into the Territories. And as early as 1804 Congress exercised this power, by providing that no slave should be introduced into the Territory of Orleans, except by a citizen of the United States removing thither for actual settlement, and at the time _bonâ fide_ owner of such slave; and every slave imported or brought into the Territory, contrary to this provision, is declared free.[138] In this unquestioned exercise of a beneficent power, at a time when the authors of the Constitution were still on the stage, and the temporary exception in favor of existing States was in force, we have a precedent of unanswerable authority, establishing the power of Congress to exclude Slavery from the Territories, even if it be assumed, that, under the Constitution, this five-headed Barbarism can find place anywhere within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Nation. * * * * *