Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/200



192 DOROTHY HULL

the territorial legislature which assembled in December, 1858. 1 After deploring the fact that Oregon had not been admitted as a state, he went on to show that the whole territorial system of the United States was unconstitutional. He said :

"It is wrong in principle. There is no provision of the Constitution which confers the right to acquire territory to be retained as territory, and governed by Congress with absolute authority. Nor, by the terms of the federal compact, can the people of the United States who choose to go out and reside upon the vacant territory of the nation be regarded as mere adventurers, without individual political rights, and be made to yield a ready obedience to whatever laws Congress may deem best for their government, and to pay implicit deference to the authority of such officers as may be sent out to rule them. No such power has ever been delegated by the sovereign people of the sovereign states to the government of the United States, and no such principle underlies the government. ... In reference to that clause of the Constitution which gives Con- gress power to dispose of and make all needful rules and reg- ulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States, which is contended for as the source from which Con- gress derives the power to govern the territories, that tribunal (the Supreme Court) has clearly determined that no such power exists therein. ... In my judgment Congress has no constitutional authority to establish governments anywhere upon the public domain or to create and ordain any species of constitution or organic law for the government of any civil community anywhere within the boundary of the United States."

Such ideas enunciated at this critical time could not but arouse distrust. Lane later advised the pople to put the state government into operation without awaiting the consent of Congress, but largely owing to the influence of Bush this sug- gestion was not adopted.

i Statesman, Dec. 4, 1858.