Still further, this Enabling Act declares that “the constitution shall not be repugnant to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.” Need I ask you, What is the first principle of the Declaration of Independence? Is it not, in solemn words, that “all men are created equal,” and that all just government stands on “the consent of the governed”? Does any one deny that these are the words? You know them by heart; your children learn them in their earliest infancy; and whatever is done in the Territory is to be brought to this great ordinance, as to a touchstone. Such is the requirement of the Enabling Act. Therefore, even if you argue that the Enabling Act is authority for this proceeding, then do I reply, that this community has not in any respect brought itself within its terms. It has not complied with its requirements of principle or of proceeding. The proceedings were not according to the Enabling Act; the principles are in defiance of the Enabling Act. Tried by either standard, the whole effort must miserably fail. Mr. Sumner was here interrupted by Mr. Trumbull, who, quoting from the Territorial election law of 1861 a provision requiring voters to be citizens, remarked, that, while he would not be understood as saying that in his opinion a colored person is not a citizen, such was the understanding in Colorado. Mr. Sumner replied:-- The Governor of the Territory, whose message I hold in my hand, does not put upon the statute the interpretation the Senator does.[278] I have great respect for the opinion of my friend, as he knows; but on this matter I submit, that the Governor of the Territory, on the spot, in a formal communication to the Legislature, is a better authority even than my honorable friend. MR. TRUMBULL. Better than the statute?