"But, upon principle, the people of a territory, without any act of the territorial legislature, without an enabling act of Congress, can hold public meetings and elect delegates to meet in convention for the purpose of forming a constitution; and when formed, it has all the essential attributes of a valid constitution, as one formed in any other way. Many senators contend that it is the inalienable and indefeasible right of the people of a State at all times to change their constitution in any manner they think proper. This doctrine I do not admit, in regard to the people of a State; but, in reference to the formation of a constitution by the people of a territory, there can be no question as to the soundness of this doctrine. They can form a constitution by delegates voluntarily chosen and sent to a convention, but what is it worth when it is formed? Nothing at all, until Congress shall accept it and admit the territory into the Union as a State under that constitution. It is worth no more in that case than in the case of a constitution formed under a territorial act or an act of Congress; but it is worth just as much." Upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the effects which followed the act, he remarked: "Four years ago, when it was proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise--to adopt the principle of non-intervention, and concede to the people of the territories the right to settle the question of slavery in their own way--it was said by the advocates of the measure, that, as soon as the principles of it came to be understood, all agitation and discussion upon the subject of slavery in the territories would be localized--excluded from Congress--and the country would be left in undisturbed repose. So boldly and confidently were these views maintained, that the whole southern delegation in Congress, Whigs and Democrats, with seven or eight exceptions, together with many Democrats from the free States, came into the support of the measure. How were these bold predictions verified? In less than one month of the time during which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was pending in Congress, nearly the whole North was in a flame of resentment and opposition. Old men, of high character and great influence, who had for twenty years opposed the policy and designs of the Abolition faction in the North, suddenly became its allies and coadjutors. Thousands of the best citizens at the North, who had exerted all their energies to repress all opposition to the execution of the Fugitive Slave law of 1850, became suddenly converts to Free-Soilism. The religious feelings of whole communities became frenzied. The pulpit was converted into an engine of anti-slavery propagandism, and hundreds of thousands of sober-minded and conservative people at