"What is the true doctrine on this subject? I had supposed that there could be no disagreement as to the true principles connected with the rights and powers of the people in forming a State Constitution; but since I have heard the speech of the senator from Georgia, I do not know what principle he agrees to. I say that in no disrespect; but I thought he was particularly wild, shooting _extra flammantia mænia mundi_, on those high points of doctrine which he, in some parts of his speech, thought proper to enunciate. Does any person here deny the proposition, that the people of a territory, in the formation of a State Constitution, are to that extent--_quoad hoc_--sovereign and uncontrollable, though still owing obedience to the provisional government of the territory? Will any senator contend that the territorial legislature can either give to the people any power over that subject which they did not possess before, or withhold from them any which they did possess? The territorial legislature cannot dictate any one provision of the constitution which the people think proper to form. Who is prepared to contend that Congress can do anything more in this respect than a territorial legislature? It is usual for the territorial legislature, when the people desire to apply for admission into the Union, in the absence of an enabling act of Congress, to pass a law providing for the assembling of a convention to form a State Constitution. But that is a mere usage, resorted to when Congress has not thought proper to pass what is called an enabling act. What is an enabling act? Nothing more than to signify to the people of a territory, that if they shall think proper to meet in convention and form a State Constitution, in compliance with certain forms therein prescribed, to insure a fair expression of the people's will, Congress is prepared to admit them into the Union as a State. "But such an act gives no more power to the people over the subject of a constitution than an act of a territorial legislature. But, suppose the people, either under an act of the territorial legislature or of Congress, meet in convention, by delegates chosen by the people, and form a constitution, what then? Has it any vitality as a constitution? Does it transform the territory into a State? Has it any binding force or effect, either upon individuals or upon the community? Nobody pretends that it has any such force. It is only after the acceptance of the constitution, and the admission of the territory into the Union as a State, that there is any vigor or validity in a constitution so formed. Before that time, it is worth no more than the parchment on which its provisions are written, so far as any legal or constitutional validity is concerned.