Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/199

 CH. XXX.] of the two former acquisitions, though formerly much questioned, is now considered settled beyond any practical doubt.

§ 1315. At the time, when the preliminary measures were taken for the admission of the state of Missouri into the Union, an attempt was made to include a restriction, prohibiting the introduction of slavery into that state, as a condition of the admission. On that occasion the question was largely discussed, whether congress possessed a constitutional authority to impose such a restriction, upon the ground, that the prescribing of such a condition is inconsistent with the sovereignty of the state to be admitted, and its equality with the other states. The final result of the vote, which authorized the erection of that state, seems to establish the rightful authority of congress to impose such a restriction, although it was not then applied. In the act passed for this purpose, there is an express clause, that in all the territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36° 30' N. Lat., not included within the limits of the state of Missouri, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby for ever prohibited. An objection of a similar character was taken to the compact between Virginia and Kentucky upon the ground, that it was a restriction upon state sovereignty. But the Supreme Court had no