They say that some believed that a Mexican law
prohibiting slavery was in force there, while others claimed that the
Mexican law became inoperative at the moment of acquisition, and that
slave-holders could take their slaves into the Territory and hold
them there under the provisions of the Constitution. The Territorial
Compromise acts, as the committee tell us, steered clear of these
questions. They simply provided that the States organized out of these
Territories might come in with or without slavery, as they should elect,
but did not affect the question whether slaves could or could not be
introduced before the organization of State governments. That question
was left entirely to judicial decision.
Well, sir, what did the committee propose to do with the Nebraska
Territory? In respect to that, as in respect to the Mexican Territory,
differences of opinion exist in relation to the introduction of slaves.
There are Southern gentlemen who contend that notwithstanding the
Missouri prohibition, they can take their slaves into the territory
covered by it, and hold them there by virtue of the Constitution. On the
other hand the great majority of the American people, North and South,
believe the Missouri prohibition to be constitutional and effectual.
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