Speech of Hon. Benjamin Stanton, of Ohio, in the House of representatives, April 23, 1856, on the power of congress to exclude slavery from the territories.

6
ties? The vote upon its adoption was unanimous, fill efct, it is requisite that certain provisions sloluld hb
every State voting for it, and every member, ex- a e t ad tle snae to tle ereselt Conslituion.
cept Mr. Yates,'of New York; but the vote of the The law then requires the President and SenState was cast in its favor by Mr. Smith and Mr. ate to make certain appointments, and to exerHaring. cise certain powers conferred by the Ordinance
From this review of the action of the Congress on the Congress of the Confederation.
of the Confederation, it is perfectly clear that Here is a practical construction of the constithere never was a time, when Congress was full, tutional power of Congress over Slavery and the
and all the States represented, that Slavery would Territories, by the framers of the Constitution
not have been excluded from the Territories by themselves, from which there is no escape, exthe action of that body. The absence of a single cept upon one of two grounds; either that they
member from New Jersey defeated Mr. Jefferson's did not understand the workmanship of their
proposition in 1784. own hands, or that they disregarded their obliSo stood the matter at the adoption of the Con- gations to the Constitution and to the country.
stitution, and at the organization of the present There was no hesitation or doubt about the
Government. Slavery was excluded, not only exercise of this power; no man ever dreamed of
by positive law, but by solemn compact, from calling it in question. On the 2d day of April,
every foot of territory over which the Govern- 1790, the State of North Carolina ceded to the
menthadtheslightestcolor of jurisdiction or con- United States the L'sovereignty and territory" of
trol. George Washington, who had been Presi- what now constitutes the State of Tennessee.
dent of the Convention which framed the Consti- The deed of cession provides that the Territory
tution, wasPresident of the United States; Thomas shall be governed in the manner prescribed by
Jefferson was Secretary of State; Alexander Ham- the Ordinance of 1 8'7, for the government of the
ilton, Secretary of the Treasury; and Edmund Northwest Territory, except that " no regulations
Randolph, Attorney General; and, therefore, made or to be made by Congress shall tend to
were ex officio constitutional advisers of the Presi- emancipate slaves."
dent. On the 26th of May, 1790, Congress passed an
The First Congress (previous to the adoption act extending the Ordinance of 1787 (except the
of the Constitution by Rhode Island and North sixth section) over this Territory. And no one
Carolina)'contained twenty-two Senators and can doubt but the Ordinance would have carried
fifty-eight Representatives, making eighty in all. with it the right to prohibit Slavery, if it had not
The Federal Convention, which framed the Con- been expressly excluded. In fact, the parties so
stitution, had fifty-four members. Seventeen of understood it, and hence the exception.
these were members of the First Congress. These, This shows again the extent and character of
with General Washington, General Hamilton, the sovereignty which this Congress supposed it
and Edmund Randolph, made twenty of the fifty- was authorized to exercise over the Territories.
four members of the Convention, whose official The only subject of debate or controversy upon
stations made it their duty to pass upon the con- the act accepting the cession was, whether the
stitutionality of the legislation of that Congress. exception should be allowed or tolerated at all?
And they were not obscure or inconsiderable A portion of the members insisted upon having
men. Besides the President and his Cabinet, this exception stricken out, but a majority decithere were in the Senate such men as John ded otherwise.
Langdon of New Hampshire, Caleb Strong of On the 25th of April, 1796, a petition was preMassachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, sented to the Hoouse, from the Governor of the
Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Northwestern Territory, " asking permission to
New York, and Pierce Butler of South Carolina; import slaves into that Territory from other
and in the House such men as Elbridge Gerry of States, so' as not to increase their numaber." The
Massachusetts, James Madison of Virginia, Daniel petition was referred to a select committee, of
Carroll of Maryland, Roger Sherman of Connecti- which Mr. Colt of Connecticut was chairman,
cut, George Clymer and Thomas Fitzsimmons of with MiTr. Bailey of New York, Mr. Hindman of
Pennsylvania, and Abraham Baldwin of Georgia. Maryland, IMr. Jackson of Virginia, and Mr. BenIn short, the master spirits, the leading and in- ton of South Carolina. On the 12th of May,
fluential men who controlled the Federal Con- 1796, the committee reported adversely to the
vention, were sent to the First Congress. prayer of the petition; which was laid on the
The people undoubtedly suplosed that the table without a division. Here was not only the
men who made the governmental machine would question of the power of Congress over Slavery
know better how to gear it up, and start it, than in the Territories directly presented, but the right
anybody else. And what did they do.? of the people to regulate it for themselves, and
On the 16th of July, 1789, Mr. Fitzsimmons, the expediency of permitting them to control
of Pennsylvania, reported a bill " to provide for that question. They presented the specious
the government of the Territory northwest of the reason that, as they only desired permission to
river Ohio; which passed both Houses' with- import slaves from other States, it would not inout a division, and was approved by the Presi- crease Slavery in the aggregate, and therefore
dent, August 7, 1789. It contained the follow- could do no harm. They had not the face to
ing preamble: claim it as a constitutional right, or that it would
reas it order tt the Ordince of te Uied promote the welfare of the people of the Terri"VWhereas in order tlhat the Ordinance of the United
Stales ii Congress assembl)ed, for the g'overnment ot tie tory'
Territory northwest of the river Ohio, may conati7nue to have On the 18th of April, 1798, Congress passed a