I do not know that it could be proved that,
even in reference to those territories, a principle was enacted at all.
A certain measure, or, if you please, a course of measures, was enacted
in reference to the Territories of New Mexico and Utah; but I do not
know that you can call this enacting a principle. It is certainly
not enacting a principle which is to carry with it a rule for other
Territories lying in other parts of the country, and in a different
legal position. As to the principle of non-intervention on the part
of Congress in the question of slavery, I do not find that, either as
principle or as measure, it was enacted in those territorial bills of
1850. I do not, unless I have greatly misread them, find that there is
anything at all which comes up to that. Every legislative act of those
territorial governments must come before Congress for allowance or
disallowance, and under those bills without repealing them, without
departing from them in the slightest degree, it would be competent for
Congress to-morrow to pass any law on that subject.
How then can it be said that the principle of non-intervention on the
part of Congress in the subject of slavery was enacted and established
by the compromise measures of 1850? But, whether that be so or not, how
can you find, in a simple measure applying in terms to these individual
Territories, and to them alone, a rule which is to govern all other
Territories with a retrospective and with a prospective action? Is
it not a mere begging of the question to say that those compromise
measures, adopted in this specific case, amount to such a general rule?
But, let us try it in a parallel case.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47