and the militia, can stop short at the subject of slavery;--seeing all this, General Cass denies both inference and premises, _and places the general government in the relation of a foreign power to the territories which it owns_, and of which it possesses the acknowledged sovereignty. He reminds one of the man who denied the existence of future punishment, and, when pressed with arguments drawn from the deserts of men, and from the justice of God, he suddenly arrested his antagonist by denying the existence of a God! When some immensely long speech made in the British House of Commons, was spoken of before Sheridan as being _luminous_, he expressed both a negative and an affirmative opinion respecting it, in a single word, by replying that it was _vo_-luminous. General Cass, in a speech that fills more than nineteen columns in the Washington _Union_, has reviewed the decisions of all the judges of the Supreme Court who have ever expressed any opinion on the subject of congressional power over territorial legislation; he has commented upon the views of all the jurists who have written upon it, and of most of the speakers in both Houses of Congress who have discussed it; he has surveyed the course of administration of all the Presidents we have ever had; and has come to the clear conclusion that all of them,--judges, jurists, legislators, and presidents,--have systematically violated the constitution of the United States, or commended its violation, on every practicable occasion for the last sixty years. Omitting the hundred ways in which the absurdity of this conclusion can be exposed, let me subject it to one practical test. We have acquired territory from Mexico. General Cass voted to ratify the treaty of cession. Measures have been instituted for the formation of three separate governments in this Territory,--those of California, Deseret, [Utah,] and New Mexico. The boundaries marked out by California and Deseret overlay each other to the amount of thousands of square miles. If they have the exclusive right of self-government, as General Cass declares, and Congress none, then they must settle this question of boundary themselves. They may declare war against each other, make alliances with foreign powers, equip armies, build fleets; while Congress can do nothing within their limits but--sell land.