delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," therefore also the same act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, and entitled "An act in addition to the act entitled An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States;" as also the act passed by them on the 27th day of June, 1798, entitled "An act to punish frauds committed on the Bank of the United States," (and all other their acts which assume to create, define, or punish crimes other than those enumerated in the Constitution), are altogether void and of no force, and that the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and of right appertains solely and exclusively, to the respective States, each within its own territory.

3. Resolved, That it is true, as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people;" and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States or to the people; that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed; and thus also they guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious principles and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed on the general demand of its citizens, had already protected them from all human restraint or interference; and that, in addition to this general principle and express declaration, another and more special provision has been made by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, insomuch that whatever violates either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others; and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals. That therefore the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the 14th of July, 1798, entitled "An act in addition to the act entitled An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States," which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force.

that "no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law," and that another having provided, "that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a public trial by an impartial jury, to be informed as to the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have assistance of counsel for his defense," the same act undertaking to authorize the President to remove a person out of the United States who is under the protection of the law, on his own suspicion, without jury, without public trial, without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defense, without counsel, is contrary to these provisions also of the Constitution, is therefore not law, but utterly void and of no force.

That transferring the power of judging any person who is under the protection of the laws, from the courts to the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same act concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which provides, that "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the courts, the judges of which shall hold their office during good behavior," and that the said act is void for that reason also; and it is further to be noted that this transfer of judiciary power is to that magistrate of the General Government who already possesses all the executive, and a qualified negative on all the legislative powers.

7. Resolved, That the construction applied by the General Government (as is evident by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, excises; to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or any department thereof, goes to the destruction of all the limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution: That words meant by that instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of the limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part so to be taken as to destroy the whole residue of the instrument: That the proceedings of the General Government under color of those articles, will be a fit and necessary subject for revisal and correction at a time of greater tranquillity, while those specified in the preceding resolutions call for immediate redress.

8. Resolved, That the preceding resolutions be transmitted to the senators and representatives in Congress from this commonwealth, who are enjoined to present the same to their respective Houses, and to use their best endeavors to procure at the next session of Congress a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts.

the several States, to assure them that this commonwealth considers union for special national purposes, and particularly for those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness, and prosperity of all the States-that, faithful to that compact, according to the plain intent and meaning in which it was un derstood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation; that it does also believe, that to take from the States all the powers of self-government, and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of these States; and that, therefore, this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no man or body of men on earth; that if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them; that the General Government may place any act they think proper on the list of crimes and punish it themselves, whether enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as cognisable by them; that they may transfer its cognizance to the President or any other person, who may himself be the accuser, counsel, judge, and jury, whose suspicions may be the evidence, his order the sen

6. Resolved, That the imprisonment of a person under the protection of the laws of this commonwealth on his failure to obey the simple order of the President to depart out of the United States, as is undertaken by the said act, entitled, "An act concerning aliens," is contrary to the Constitution, one amendment in which has provided,

record of the transaction; that a very numerous and valuable description of the inhabitants of these States, being by this precedent reduced as outlaws to the absolute dominion of one man and the barriers of the Constitution thus swept from us all, and no rampart now remains against the passions and the power of a majority of Congress, to protect from a like exportation or other grievous punishment the minority of the same body, the legis

"The Territories belong to the United States as one people, one nation, and are to be disposed of for the common benefit of all, according to the principles of the Constitution. Each State, as a member of the Confederacy, has a right to a voice in forming the rules and regulations for the government of the Territories; but the different sections-North, South, East and Westhave no such right. It is no violation of Southern rights to prohibit Slavery."-Cong. Globe, Appendix, vol. 22, | part 1, page 869.

HE ADVOCATES THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT." On the same day, and in the same speech, Mr. Douglas said:

"I have already had occasion to remark, that at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, there were twelve (slave States), and six of them have since abolished slavery. This fact shows that the cause of freedom has steadily and firmly advanced, while slavery has receded in the same ratio. We all look forward with confidence to the time when Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and probably North Carolina and Tennessee, will adopt one gradual system of eman cipation, under the operation of which those States must, in process of time, become free."

And again, on the same page, speaking of a proposition to amend the Constitution, so as to preserve an "equilibrium " in point of numbers between free and slave States, he says:

"Then, sir, the proposition of the Senator from South Carolina is entirely impracticable. It is also inadmissible, if practicable. It would revolutionize the fundamental principle of the Government. It would destroy the great principle of popular equality, which must necessarily form the basis of all free institutions. It would be a retrograde movement in an age of progress, that would

astonish the world.”—Cong. Globe, Appendix, vol. 22, part 1, page 371.

CONGRESS

MAY RIGHTFULLY EXCLUDE SLAVES
FROM THE TERRITORIES.

On the 13th of March, 1850, in the speech already quoted from, Mr. Douglas said:

"But you say that we propose to prohibit by law your emigrating to the Territories with your property. We propose no such thing. We recognize your right, in common with our own, to emigrate to the Territories with your property, and there to hold and enjoy it in subordination to the laws you may find in force in the country. These laws, in some respects, differ from our own, as the laws of the various States of this Union vary on some points from the laws of each other. Some species of property are excluded by law in most of the States as well as Territories, as being unwise, immoral, or contrary to the principles of sound public policy. For instance, the banker is prohibited from emigrating to Minnesota, Oregon or California with his bank. The bank may be property by the laws of New York, but ceases to be so when taken into a State or Territory where banking is prohibited by the local law. So, ardent spirits, whisky, brandy, and all the intoxicating drinks, are recognized and considered as property in most of the States, if not all of them; but no citizen, whether from the North or South, or use it at his pleasure, in all the Territories, because it is prohibited by the local law-in Oregon, by the statutes of the Territory, and in the Indian country by the Acts of Congress. Nor can a man go there and take and hold

can take this species of property with him, and hold, sell,

his slave, for the same reason. These laws, and many others involving similar principles, are directed against no section, and impair the rights of no State of the Union. They are laws against the introduction, sale and use of specific kinds of property, whether brought from the North or the South, or from foreign countries."-Cong. Globe, Appendix, vol. 22, part 1, page 371.

And again:

"But, sir, I do not hold the doctrine that to exclude any species of property by law from any Territory, is a violation of any right to property. Do you not exclude banks from most of the Territories? Do you not exclude whisky from being introduced into large portions of the territory of the United States? Do you not exclude gaming-tables, which are property, recognized as such in the States where they are tolerated? And has any one contended that the exclusion of gambling-tables, and the exclusion of ardent spirits, was a violation of any constitutional privilege or right? And yet it is the case

in a large portion of the territory of the United States; but there is no outcry against that, because it is the prohibition of a specific kind of property, and not a prohibition against any section of the Union. Why, sir, our laws now prevent a tavern-keeper from going into some of the territories of the United States and taking a bar with him, and using and selling spirits there. The law also prohibits certain other descriptions of business from being carried on in the Territories. I am not, therefore. prepared to say that, under the Constitution, we have jot the power to pass laws excluding Negro Slavery from the Territories. It involves the same principles." and 1116, vol. 21, Cong. Globe, 1849-50. Speech of Senator Douglas, June 3d, 1850, pages 11 15,

On the same day, and in the same speech, Mr. Douglas referred to the Wilmot Proviso resolutions, passed by the Illinois Legislature, thus:

"My hands are tied upon one isolated point." "A SENATOR-Can you not break loose?" "MR. DOUGLAS-I have no desire to break loose. My opinions are my own, and I express them freely. My votes belong to those that sent me here, and to whom I am responsible. I have never differed with my constituency during seven years' service in Congress, except upon one solitary question. And even on that, I have no Constitutional difficulties, and have previously twice given the same vote, under peculiar circumstances; which is now required at my hands. I have no desire, therefore, to break loose from the instruction."-Cong. Globe, Appendix, vol. 22, part 1, page 373.

SLAVERY IN NEW MEXICO.

In the Senate, on the 12th day of February, 1850, on the subject of Slavery in the Territory of New Mexico, Mr. Douglas said,

"If the question is controverted here, I am ready to enter into the discussion of that question at any time, upon a reasonable notice, and to show that, by the constituted authority and constitutional authority of Mexico, Slavery, was prohibited in Mexico at the time of the

acquisition, and that prohibition was acquired by us with the soil, and that when we acquired the territory, we acquired it with that attached to it-that covenant running with the soil-and that must continue, unless removed by competent authority. And because there was a prohibition thus attached to the soil, I have always thought it was an unwise, unnecessary, and unjustifiable course on the part of the people of the free States, to require Congress to put another prohibition on the top of that one. It has been the strongest argument that I have ever urged against the prohibition of Slavery in the Territories, that it was not necessary for the accomplishment of their object."-Cong. Globe, vol. 22, part 1, page 343.

SLAVERY A MERE QUESTION OF DOLLARS AND

CENTS.

Shortly after the Illinois election of 1858, Mr. Douglas made a southern tour, stopping at St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans, and addressing the people at those places on political topics. He spoke at Memphis, on the 29th of November, and the following is an extract from his speech as reported phonographically in the Memphis Avalanche:

"Whenever a Territory has a climate, soil and productions, making it the interest of the inhabitants to encourage slave property, they will pass a slave code and give it encouragement. Whenever the climate, soil and productions preclude the possibility of slavery being profitable, they will not permit it. You come right back to the principle of dollars and cents. I do not care where the immigration in the southern country comes from; if old Joshua R. Giddings should raise a colony in Ohio and settle down in Louisiana, he would be the strongest advocate of Slavery in the whole South; he would find, when he got there, his opinion of Slavery would be very much modified; he would find on those sugar plantations that it was not a question between the white man and the negro but between the negro and the crocodile. He would say that between the negro and the crocodile he took the side of the negro; but between the negro and the white man, he would go for the white man."

States have delegated to it certain enumerated powers, and forbidden it to exercise others. It has no power over the person or property of a citizen but what the citizens of the United States have granted. And no laws or usages of other nations, or reasoning of statesmen or jurists upon the relations of master and slave, can enlarge the powers of the Government, or take from the citizens the rights they have reserved. And if the Constitution recognizes the right of property of the master in a slave, and makes no distinction between that description of property and other property owned by a citizen, no tribunal, acting under the authority of the United States, whether it be legislative, executive, or judicial, has a right to draw such a distinction, or deny to it the benefit of the provisions and guaranties which have been provided for the protection of private property against the encroachments of the Government.

"Now, as we have already said in an earlier part of this opinion, upon a different point, the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. The right of traffic in it, like an ordinary article of merchandise and property, was guaranteed to the citizens of the United States in every State that might desire it, for twenty years. And the Government in express terms is pledged to protect it in all future time, if the slave escapes from its owner. This is done in plain words, too plain to be misunderstood. And no word can be found in the Constitution which gives Congress a greater power over slave property, or which entitles property of that kind to less protection than property of any other description. The only power conferred is the power, coupled with the duty, of guarding and protecting the owner in his rights."

death.

"SEC. 25.-The Emancipation of Slaves within this Territory is totally prohibited."

PEONAGE, OR WHITE SERfdom. In January, 1859, the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico passed an act amendatory of the law relative to contracts between masters and servants," from which we extract the following:

"SEC. 1. When any servant shall run away from the service of his master. he shall be considered as a fugitive from justice, and in such case it shall be the duty of all officers of the Territory, judicial or ministerial, on being informed that such persons are within the limits of their jurisdiction, to ascertain whether such persons are runaway servants or not, and if they ascertain that they are, said officers shall immediately arrest them and put them to work at public labor, or hire them out to any person, so that they may be employed, with security, until their masters shall be informed thereof, in order that they may demand them, and to whom they shall immediately be delivered.

"SEC. 2. Every person of this Territory, either a contracted servant according to the law of contracts, or engaged on trips, or as shepherds, shall be compelled to serve for the time stipulated for in the contract; and any servant so contracted who shall fail to serve by abandoning his master or property placed under his care, shall be held responsible for all costs and damages which through his neglect may result to the owner.

SEC. 4. No Court of this Territory shall have juris

diction nor shall take cognizance of any cause for the correction that masters may give their servants for

neglect of their duties as servants, for they are conshould correct their neglect and faults; for as soldiers sidered as domestic servants to their masters, and they are punished by their chiefs, without the intervention of the civil authority, by reason of the salary they enjoy, an equal right should be granted those persons who pay their money to be served in the protection of their property: Provided, That such correction shall not be inflicted in a cruel manner with clubs or stripes."

On the 10th of May, 1860, Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, from the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, reported

A bill to disapprove and declare null and void all Territorial acts or parts of acts, heretofore passed by the Legislative Assembly of New Mexico, which establish, protect, or legalize involuntary servitude, or Slavery, within said Territory, except as a punishment for crime, upon due conviction.

This bill passed the House the same day by the following vote:

YEAS.-Messrs. Charles F. Adams, Aldrich, Alley, Ashley. Babbitt, Beale, Bingham, Blair, Blake, Brayton, Buffington, Burlingame, Burnham, Butterfield, Campbell, Carey, Case, Clark B. Cochrane, Colfax, Conkling, Covode, Dawes, Delano, Duell, Dunn, Edgerton, Edwards, Eliot, Ely, Farnsworth, Fenton, Ferry, Foster, Frank, French, Gooch, Grow, Gurley, Hale, Helmick, Hoard, Humphrey, Hutchins, Irvine, Junkin, Francis W. Kellogg, William Kellogg, Kenyon, Kilgore, Killinger, DeWitt C. Leach, Lee, Longnecker, Loomis, Lovejoy, Marston, McKean, McKnight, McPherson, Moorhead, Morse, Nixon, Olin, Palmer, Perry, Pettit, Porter, Potter, Rice, Christopher Robinson, Royce, Scranton, Sedgwick, Sherman, Somes, Spinner, Stanton, Stevens, William Stewart, Stratton, Tappan, Tompkins,__Train, Trimble, Vandever, Verree, Wade, Waldron, Walton, Cadwalader C. Washburn, Elihu B. Washburne, Israel Washburn, Wells, Wilson, Windom, Wood, and Woodruff.

All Republicans, 97.

NAYS.-Messrs. Green Adams, ADRAIN, Allen, Thomas L. Anderson, William C. Anderson, Ashmore, Avery, Barksdale, Barr, Barrett, Bocock, Bonham, Boyce, Branch, Bristow, Burch, Burnett, John B. Clark, Clopton, Cobb, John Cochrane, Cooper, Cox, James Craig, Crawford, Curry, H. Winter Davis, JOHN G. DAVIS, De Jarnette, Etheridge, Florence, Garnett, Gartrell, John T Harris, HASKIN, Hawkins, Holman, Houston, Howard, Hughes, Jackson, Jenkins, Jones, Keitt, Kunkel, Lamar, Landrum, Larrabee, James M. Leach, Leake, Logan, Love, Charles D. Martin, McQueen, Miles, Millson, Mont gomery, Sydenham Moore, Isaac N. Morris, Niblack, Pendleton, Peyton, Phelps, Pryor, Pugh, Reagan, Rey. nolds, RIGGS, James C. Robinson, Ruffin, SCHWARTZ, Scott, Simms, Singleton, William Smith, Stallworth, Stevenson, Stout, Taylor, Thayer, Thomas, Underwood, Vallangdigham, Vance, Webster, Whiteley, Winslow, Woodson, and Wright-89.

Democrats, in roman, 74; Americans, in italics, 8; Anti-Lecompton Democrats, in SMALL CAPS, 5; Independent (Reynolds, in roman), 1; Republicans (Thayer, in roman), 1. Total, 89. This bill failed to pass the Senate.