"I will quote to you from the Constitution--if I had the Constitution here I would read it to you--it is to the effect 'that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.' No matter, therefore, whether the people live in the states or territories, they possess constitutional privileges alike. The most that is said in regard to Territories and the authority of the President or Congress is, that 'The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory _or other property_ of the United States,' that is speaking of it as land; and some of the most prominent statesmen of the United States have so construed it. It is property as land--territory as land they have a right to interfere with, not territory as regards people. I published this in _The Mormon_ long ago, and said the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. [1] By and by the United States judges gave the same decision. I gave mine, however, before they gave theirs. It is a true principle--they have not the authority. If they have it at all, it is in the people ceding it to them, and not what they possess by the Constitution of the United States. * * * So far as right is concerned, then, they have no right to appoint officers for this or any other Territory; and I will defy any man to prove that there is any such right in the Constitution. "I conversed with a judge Black who was coming up to Nebraska Territory on a steam boat--an intelligent man, a Democrat, of course. When talking about these principles to him, which he acceded to, I said: 'Judge, what are you doing here?' 'I am here,' said he, 'according to the usage that has obtained; but if the people do not want me, all they have to do is to express it, and I will go away again.' I wish we had only half such decent men as that sent here.