But if Congress shall
now reverse the decision by which the Missouri compromise was effected,
and shall propose to extend the restriction over the whole territory,
south as well as north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30', it will cease to be
a compromise, and must be regarded as an original question.
If Congress, instead of observing the course of noninterference, leaving
the adoption of their own domestic institutions to the people who may
inhabit these territories, or if, instead of extending the Missouri
compromise line to the Pacific, shall prefer to submit the legal and
constitutional questions which may arise to the decision of the judicial
tribunals, as was proposed in a bill which passed the Senate at your
last session, an adjustment may be effected in this mode. If the whole
subject be referred to the judiciary, all parts of the Union should
cheerfully acquiesce in the final decision of the tribunal created by
the Constitution for the settlement of all questions which may arise
under the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States.
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