Whether Congress shall legislate or not, the people of
the acquired territories, when assembled in convention to form State
constitutions, will possess the sole and exclusive power to determine
for themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their
limits. If Congress shall abstain from interfering with the question,
the people of these territories will be left free to adjust it as they
may think proper when they apply for admission as States into the Union.
No enactment of Congress could restrain the people of any of the
sovereign States of the Union, old or new, North or South, slaveholding
or nonslaveholding, from determining the character of their own domestic
institutions as they may deem wise and proper. Any and all the States
possess this right, and Congress can not deprive them of it. The people
of Georgia might if they chose so alter their constitution as to abolish
slavery within its limits, and the people of Vermont might so alter
their constitution as to admit slavery within its limits. Both States
would possess the right, though, as all know, it is not probable that
either would exert it.
Pages:
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681