Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/684

 which are specifically delegated. Is not the organization of a territory eminently necessary and proper as a means of enabling the people thereof to form and mould their local and domestic institutions, and establish a state government under the authority of the constitution, preparatory to its admission into the Union? If so, the right of congress to pass the organic act for the temporary government is clearly included in the provision which authorizes the. admission of new states. This power, however, being an incident to an express grant, and resulting from it by necessary implication, as an appropriate means for carrying it into effect, must be exercised in harmony with the nature and objects of the grant from which it is deduced. The organic act of the territory, deriving its validity from the power of congress to admit new states, must contain no provision or restriction which would destroy or impair the equality of the proposed state with the original states, or impose any limitation upon its sovereignty which the constitution has not placed on all the states. So far as the organization of a territory may be necessary and proper as a means of carrying into effect the provision of the constitution for the admission of new states, and when exercised with reference only to that end, the power of congress is clear and explicit; but beyond that point the authority cannot extend, for the reason that all "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." In other words, the organic act of the territory, conforming to the spirit of the grant from which it receives its validity, must leave the people entirely free to form and regulate their domestic institutions and internal concerns in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States, to the end that when they attain the requisite population, and establish a state government in conformity to the federal constitution, they may be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatsoever.

The act of congress for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was designed to conform to the spirit and letter of the federal constitution, by preserving and maintaining the fundamental principles of equality among all the states of the Union, notwithstanding the restriction contained in the 8th section of the act of March 6, 1820, (preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union,) which assumed to deny to the people forever the right to settle the question of slavery for themselves, provided they should make their homes and organize states north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. Conforming to the cardinal principles of state equality and self-government, in obedience to the constitution, the Kansas-Nebraska act declared, in the precise language of the compromise measures of 1850, that, "when admitted as a state, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." Again, after declaring the 8th section of the Missouri act (sometimes called the Missouri compromise, or Missouri restriction) inoperative and void, as being repugnant to these principles, the purpose of congress, in passing this act, is declared in these words: "It