the organic act itself, which declares that "the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act." If, in view of this act, the Legislative Assembly had the large power to fix the permanent seat of government at any place in its discretion, of course by the same enactment it had the less and the included power to fix it temporarily. Nevertheless, the allegation that the acts of the Legislative Assembly were illegal by reason of this removal of its place of session, was brought forward to justify the first great movement in disregard of law within the Territory. One of the acts of the Legislative Assembly provided for the election of a Delegate to the present Congress, and a Delegate was elected under that law. But, subsequently to this, a portion of the people of the Territory proceeded, without authority of law, to elect another Delegate. Following upon this movement was another and more important one of the same general character. Persons confessedly not constituting the body politic, or all the inhabitants, but merely a party of the inhabitants, and without law, have undertaken to summon a convention for the purpose of transforming the Territory into a State, and have framed a constitution, adopted it, and under it elected a Governor and other officers, and a representative to Congress. purpose of deciding elections or for any other, and the local authorities find themselves unable to repel or withstand it, they will be entitled to, and upon the fact being fully ascertained, they shall most certainly receive, the aid of the General Government. But it is not the duty of the President of the United States to volunteer interposition by force to preserve the purity of elections either in a State or Territory. To do so would be subversive of public freedom. And whether a law be wise or unwise, just or unjust, is not a question for him to judge. If it be constitutional-that is, if it be the law of the land-it is his duty to cause it to be executed, or to sustain the authorities of any State or Territory in executing it in opposition to all insurrectionary movements. Our system affords no justification of revolutionary acts; for the constitutional means of relieving the people of unjust administration and laws, by a change of public agents and by repeal, are ample, and more prompt and effective than illegal violence. These constitutional means must be scrupulously guarded-this great prerogative of popular sovereignty sacredly respected. It is the undoubted right of the peaceable and orderly people of the Territory of Kansas to elect their own legislative body, make their own laws, and regulate their own social institutions, without foreign or domestic molestation. Interference, on the one hand, to procure the abolition or prohibition of slave-labor in the Territory, has produced mischievous interference on the other for its maintenance or introduction. One wrong begets another. Statements entirely unfounded or grossly exaggerated, concerning events within the Territory, are sedulously diffused through remote States to feed the flame of sectional animosity there; and the agitators there exert themselves indefatigably in return to encourage and stimulate strife within the Territory. The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, North and South. But for it the character of the domestic institutions of the future new State would have been a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous States, personal or collectively, to produce among them any political emotion. Climate, soil, production, hopes of rapid advancement, and the pursuit of happiness on the part of settlers themselves, with good wishes but with no interference from without, would have quietly determined the question which is at this time of such disturbing character. In extenuation of these illegal acts, it is alleged that the State of California, Michigan, and others, were self-organized, and as such were admitted into the Union, without a previous enabling act of Congress. It is true that, while in a majority of cases a previous act of Congress has been passed to authorize the Territory to present itself as a State, and that this is deemed the most regular course, yet such an act has not been held to be indispensable, and in some cases the Territory has proceeded without it, and has nevertheless been admitted into the Union as a State. It lies with Congress to authorize beforehand, or to confirm afterward, in its discretion; but in no instance has a State been admitted upon the application of persons acting against authorities duly constituted by act of Congress. In every case it is the people of the Territory, not a party among them, who have the power to form a constitution and ask for admission as a State. No principle of public law, no practice or precedent under the Constitution of the United States, no rule of reason, right, or common sense, confers any such power as that now claimed by a mere party in the Territory. In fact, what has been done is of revolutionary character. It is avowedly so in motive and in aim as respects the local law of the Territory. It will become treasonable insurrection if it reach the length of organized resistance by force to the fundamental or any other federal law, and to the authority of the General Government. In such an event, the path of duty for the Executive is plain. The Constitution requiring him to take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed, if they be opposed in the Territory of Kansas, he may and should place at the disposal of the marshal any public force of No citizen of our country should permit himself the United States which happens to be within to forget that he is a part of its government, and the jurisdiction, to be used as a portion of the entitled to be heard in the determination of its posse comitatus; and, if that do not suffice to policy and its measures; and that, therefore, the maintain order, then he may call forth the militia highest considerations of personal honor and of one or more States for that object, or employ patriotism require him to maintain, by whatever for the same object any part of the land or naval of power or influence he may possess, the integforce of the United States. So also if the ob-rity of the laws of the Republic. struction be to the laws of the Territory, and it be duly presented to him as a case of insurrection, he may employ for its suppression the militia of any State, or the land or naval force of the United States. And if the Territory be invaded by the citizens of other States, whether for the But we are constrained to turn our attention to the circumstances of embarrassment as they now exist. It is the duty of the people of Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resist ance to its laws. Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the States and especially of those contiguous to the Territory, neither by intervention of non-residents in elections, nor by unauthorized military force, to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the Territory. Entertaining these views, it will be my imperative duty to exert the whole power of the Federal Executive to support public order in the Territory; to vindicate its laws, whether Federal or local, against all attempts of organized resistance; and so to protect its people in the establishment tion has not placed on the original States. Indeed, if such a restriction could be imposed on any State, it would instantly cease to be a State within the meaning of the Federal Constitution, and, in consequence of the inequality, would assimilate to the condition of a province or dependency. Hence, equality among all the States of the Union is a fundamental principle in our federative system-a principle embodied in the Constitution, as the basis upon which the American Union rests. of their own institutions, undisturbed by encroach-reignty of a new State, which the Constitument from without, and in the full enjoyment of the rights of self-government assured to them by the Constitution and the organic act of Congress. Although serious and threatening disturbances in the Territory of Kansas, announced to me by the Governor, in December last, were speedily quieted without the effusion of blood, and in a satisfactory manner, there is, I regret to say, reason to apprehend that disorders will continue to occur there, with increasing tendency to violence, until some decisive measures be taken to dispose of the question itself which constitutes the inducement or occasion of internal agitation and of external interference. This, it seems to me, can best be accomplished by providing that, when the inhabitants of Kansas may desire it, and shall be of sufficient numbers to constitute a State, a convention of delegates, duly elected by the qualified voters, shall assemble to frame a Constitution, and thus to prepare, through regular and lawful means, for its admission into the Union as a State. I respectfully recommend the enactment of a law to that effect. I recommend, also, that a special appropriation be made to defray any expense which may become requisite in the execution of the laws or the maintenance of public order in the Territory of Kansas. FRANKLIN PIERCE. March 12th.-In Senate, Mr. Douglas of Illinois, from the Committee on Territories, made the following REPORT: African Slavery existed in all the colonies, under the sanction of the British government, prior to the Declaration of Independence. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, it became the supreme law and bond of union between twelve slaveholding States and one nonslaveholding State. Each State reserved the right to decide the question of Slavery for itself— to continue it as a domestic institution so long as it pleased, and to abolish it when it chose. In pursuance of this reserved right, six of the original slaveholding States have since abolished and prohibited Slavery within their limits respectively, without consulting Congress or their sister States; while the other six have retained and sustained it as a domestic institution, which, in their opinion, had become so firmly engrafted on their social systems, that the relation between the master and slave could not be dissolved with safety to either. In the mean time, eighteen new States have been admitted into the Union, in obedience to the Federal Constitution, on an equal footing with the original States, including, of course, the right of each to decide the question of Slavery for itself. In deciding this question, have abolished and prohibited Slavery, while the it has so happened that nine of these new States other nine have retained and regulated it. That these new States had at the time of their admisFederal Constitution, with the original States, to sion, and still retain, an equal right, under the decide all questions of domestic policy for themselves, including that of African Slavery, ought not to be seriously questioned, and certainly cannot be successfully controverted. The Committee on Territories, to whom was referred so much of the annual message of the President of the United States as relates to territorial affairs, together with his special message of the 24th day of January, 1856, in regard to Kansas Territory, and his message of the 18th of February, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 4th of February, 1856, requesting transcripts of certain papers relative to the affairs of the Territory of Kansas, having given the same that serious and mature deliberation which the importance of the subject demands, beg leave to submit the following re-gated in the Constitution, the question arises, port: Your Committee deem this an appropriate occasion to state briefly, but distinctly, the principles upon which new States may be admitted and Territories organized under the authority of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution (section 3, article 4) provides that "new States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." Section 8, Article 1: "Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof." 10th amendment: "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." A State of the Federal Union is a sovereign power, limited only by the Constitution of the United States. The limitations which that instrument has imposed are few, specific, and uniform-applicable alike to all the States, old and new. There is no authority for putting a restriction upon the sove They are all subject to the same supreme law, which, by the consent of each, constitutes the only limitation upon their sovereign authority. Since we find the right to admit new States enumerated among the powers expressly dele Whence does Congress derive authority to organize temporary governments for the Territories preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original States? Your Committee are not prepared to adopt the reasoning which deduces the power from that other clause of the Constitution, which says: "Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulation respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." The language of this clause is much more appropriate when applied to property than to persons. It would seem to have been employed for the purpose of conferring upon Congress the power of disposing of the public lands and other property belonging to the United States, and to make all needful rules and regulations for that purpose, rather than to govern the people who might purchase those lands from the United States and become residents thereon. The word "territory" was an appropriate expression to designate that large area of public lands of which the United States had become the owner by virtue of the revolution and the cession by the several States. The additional words, " or other directly to some provision of the Constitution conferring the authority in express terms, or as a means necessary and proper to carry into effect some one or more of the powers which are specifically delegated. Is not the organization of a Territory eminently necessary and proper as a means of enabling the people thereof to form and mould their local and domestic institutions, and establish a State government under the authority of the Constitution, preparatory to its admission into the Union? If so, the right of Congress to pass the organic act for the temporary government is clearly included in the provision which authorizes the admission of new States. This power, however, being an incident to an express grant, and resulting from it by necessary implication, as an appropriate means for carrying it into effect, must be exercised in harmony with the nature and objects of the grant from which it is deduced. The organic act of the Territory, deriving its validity from the power of Congress to admit new States, must contain no provision or restriction which would destroy or impair the equality of the proposed State with the original States, or impose any limitation upon its sovereignty which the Constitution has not placed on all the States. So far as the organization of a Territory may be necessary and proper as a means of carrying into effect the provision of the Constitution for the admission of new States, and when exercised with reference only to that end, the power of Congress is clear and explicit; but beyond that point the authority cannot extend, for the reason that all ". 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." In other words, the organic act of the Territory, conforming to the spirit of the grant from which it receives its validity, must leave the people entirely free to form and regulate their domestic institutions and internal concerns in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, to the end that when they attain the requisite population, and establish a State gov. ernment in conformity to the Federal Constitution, they may be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever. property belonging to the United States," clear-stituting temporary governments, must be traced ly show that the term "territory" was used in its ordinary geographical sense to designate the public domain, and not as descriptive of the whole body of the people, constituting a distinct political community, who have no representation in Congress, and consequently no voice in making the laws upon which all their rights and liberties would depend, if it were conceded that Congress had the general and unlimited power to make all "needful rules and regulations concerning" their internal affairs and domestic concerns. It is under this clause of the constitution, and from this alone, that Congress derives authority to provide for the surveys of the public lands, for securing pre-emption rights to actual settlers, for the establishment of land offices in the several States and Territories, for exposing the lands to private and public sale, for issuing patents and confirming titles, and, in short, for making all needful rules and regulations for protecting and disposing of the public domain and other property belonging to the United States. These needful rules and regulations may be embraced, and usually are found, in general laws applicable alike to States and Territories, wherever the United States may be the owner of the lands or other property to be regulated or disposed of. It can make no difference, under this clause of the Constitution, whether the "territory, or other property, belonging to the United States," shall be situated in Ohio or Kansas, in Alabama or Minnesota, in California or Oregon. The power of Congress to make needful rules and regulations is the same in the States and Territories, to the extent that the title is vested in the United States. Inasmuch as the right of legislation in such cases rests exclusively upon the fact of ownership, it is obvious it can extend only to the tracts of land to which the United States possess the title, and must cease in respect to each tract the instant it becomes private property by purchase from the United States. It will scarcely be contended that Congress possesses the power to legislate for the people of those States in which public lands may be located, in respect to their internal affairs and domestic concerns, merely because the United States may be so fortunate as to own a portion of the territory and other property within the limits of those States. Yet it should be borne in mind that this The act of Congress for the organization of the clause of the Constitution confers upon Congress Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, was designthe same power to make needful rules and regu-ed to conform to the spirit and letter of the Fede lations in the States as it does in the Territories, concerning the territory or other property belonging to the United States. In view of these considerations, your Committee are not prepared to affirm that Congress derives authority to institute governments for the people of the Territories, from that clause of the Constitution which confers the right to make needful rules and regulations concerning the territory or other property belonging to the United States; much less can we deduce the power from any supposed necessity, arising outside of the Constitution and not provided for in that instrument. The federal government is one of delegated and limited powers, clothed with no rightful authority which does not result directly and necessarily from the Constitution. Necessity, when experience shall have clearly demonstrated its existence, may furnish satisfactory reasons for enlarging the authority of the federal government, by amendments to the Constitution, in the mode prescribed in the instrument; but cannot afford the slightest excuse for the assumption of powers not delegated, and which, by the tenth amendment, are expressly "reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Hence, before the power can be safely exercised, the right of Congress to organize Territories, by in ral Constitution, by preserving and maintaining the fundamental principle of equality among all the States of the Union, notwithstanding the restriction contained in the 8th section of the act of March 6, 1820, (preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union,) which assumed to deny to the people forever the right to settle the question of Slavery for themselves, provided they should make their homes and organize States north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. Conforming to the cardinal principles of State equality and self-government, in obedience to the Constitution, the Kansas-Nebraska act declared, in the precise language of the Compromise Measures of 1850, that, "when admitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without Slavery, as their constitutions may prescribe at the time of their admission." Again, after declaring the said 8th section of the Missouri act (sometimes called the Missouri Compromise, or Missouri Restriction) inoperative and void as being repugnant to these principles, the purpose of Congress, in passing the act, is declared in these words: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate Slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act was strenuously resisted by all persons who thought it a less evil to deprive the people of new States and Territories of the right of State equality and self-government under the Constitution, than to allow them to decide the Slavery question for themselves, as every State of the Union had done, and must retain the undeniable right to do, so long as the Constitution of the United States shall be maintained as the supreme law of the land. Finding opposition to the principles of the act unavailing in the halls of Congress and under the forms of the Constitution, combinations were immediately entered into in some portions of the Union to control the political destinies, and form and regulate the domestic institutions, of those Territories and future States, through the machinery of emigrant aid societies. In order to give consistency and efficiency to the movement, and surround it with the color of legal authority, an act of incorporation was procured from the legislature of the State of Massachusetts, in which it was provided, in the first section, that twenty persons therein named, and their "associates, successors, and assigns, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the West; and for this purpose they shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties, restrictions, and liabilities set forth in the 38th and 44th chapters of the revised statutes" of Massachusetts. The second section limited the capital stock of the company to five millions of dollars, and authorized the whole to be invested in real and personal estate, with the proviso that "the said corporation shall not hold real estate in this commonwealth (Massachusetts) to an amount exceeding twenty thousand dollars." The third section provided for dividing the capital stock of the corporation into shares of one hundred dollars each, and prescribed the mode, time, and amounts in which assessments might be made on each share. The fourth and last section was in these words: "At all meetings of the stockholders, each stockholder shall be entitled to cast one vote for each share held by him; provided, that no stockholder shall be entitled to cast more than fifty votes on shares held by himself, nor more than fifty votes by proxy." "For these purposes it is recommended. 1st. That the trustees contract immediately with some one of the competing lines of travel for the conveyance of 20,000 persons from Massachusetts to that place in the West which the trustees shall select for their first settlement." * * "It is recommended that the company's agents locate and take up for the company's benefit, the sections of land in which the boarding-houses and mills are located, and no others. And further, whenever the Territory shall be organized as a free State, the trustees shall dispose of all its interests there, replace by the sales the money laid out, declare a dividend to field, and make similar arrangements for the settlethe stockholders, and that they then select a new ment and organization of another free State of this Union." * * * * * * * "With the advantages attained by such a system of effort, the territory selected as the scene of operations would, it is believed, be filled up with free inhabitof New-England origin propose to emigrate under the "There is reason to suppose several thousand men auspices of some such arrangement, this very summer. Of the whole emigration from Europe, amounting to some 400,000 persons, there can be no difficulty in inducing some thirty or forty thousand to take the same direction." * * * chusetts, if she create the new State by her foresight, "Especially will it prove an advantage to Massasupply the necessities of its inhabitants, and open in the outset communications between their homes and her ports and factories." * * * "It determines in the right way the institutions of the unsettled Territories, in less time than the discussion of them has required in Congress." Having thus secured from the State of Massachusetts the color of legal authority to sanction their proceedings, in perversion of the plain provisions of an act of Congress passed in pursuance of the Constitution, the company commenced its operations by receiving subscriptions to its capital stock, and exerting its whole power to harmonize, combine, and direct, in the channel it should mark out, all the elements of opposition The plan adopted was to make it the interest of to the principles of the Kansas and Nebraska act. a large body of men, who sympathized with them in the objects of the corporation, to receive their aid and protection, and, under the auspices of the company, to proceed to Kansas, and acquire be found necessary to enable them to vote at the whatever residence, and do whatever acts, might Although the act of incorporation does not dis- elections, and through the ballot-box, if possible, tinctly declare that the company was formed for to gain control over the legislation of the Territhe purpose of controlling the domestic institutory. This movement is justified by those who tions of the Territory of Kansas, and forcing it into the Union with a prohibition of Slavery in her constitution, regardless of the rights and wishes of the people as guarantied by the Constitution of the United States, and secured by their organic law, yet the whole history of the move ment, the circumstances in which it had its origin, and the professions and avowals of all engaged in it, render it certain and undeniable that such was its object. originated and control the plan, upon the ground that the persons whom they sent to Kansas were free men, who, under the Constitution and laws, had a perfect right to emigrate to Kansas or any other Territory; that the act of emigration was arrived in the Territory as actual settlers, they entirely voluntary on their part; and when they had as good a right as any other citizens to vote at the elections, and participate in the control of the government of the Territory. This would undoubtedly be true in a case of ordinary emigration, such as has filled up our new States and his own account, to improve his condition and Territories, where each individual has gone, on that of his family. But it is a very different thing where a State creates a vast moneyed corporation for the purpose of controlling the domestic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen hundred miles distant, and sends out the emi grants only as a means of accomplishing its paramount political objects. When a powerful corporation, with a capital of five millions of dollars invested in houses and lands, in merchan Territory of this Union be less imperative, under the Federal Constitution, to observe entire neutrality in respect to the domestic institutions of the several States and Territories? Non-interference with the internal concerns of other States is recognized by all civilized countries as a fundamental principle of the laws of nations. for the reason that the peace of the world could not be maintained for a single day without it. How, then, can we hope to preserve peace and fraternal feelings among the different portions of this republic, unless we yield implicit obedience to a principle which has all the sanction of patriotic duty as well as constitutional obligation? dise and mills, in cannon and rifles, in powder | States, can the obligations of each State and and lead-in all the implements of art, agriculture, and war, and employing a corresponding number of men, all under the management and control of non-resident directors and stockholders, who are authorized by their charter to vote by proxy to the extent of fifty votes each, enters a distant and sparsely settled Territory with the fixed purpose of wielding all its power to control the domestic institutions and political destinies of the Territory, it becomes a question of fearful import, how far the operations of the company are compatible with the rights and liberties of the people. Whatever may be the extent or limit of congressional authority over the Territories, it is clear that no individual State has the right to pass any law or authorize any act concerning or affecting the Territories, which it might not enact in reference to any other State. If the people of any State should become so much enamored with their own peculiar institutions as to conceive the philanthropic scheme of forcing so great a blessing on their unwilling neighbors, and with that view should create a mammoth moneyed corporation, for the avowed purpose of sending a sufficient number of their young men into the neighboring State, to remain long enough to acquire the right of voting, with the fixed and paramount object of reversing the settled policy and changing the domestic institutions of such State, would it not be deemed an act of aggression, as offensive and flagrant as if attempted by direct and open violence? It is a well-settled principle of constitutional law, in this country, that while all the States of the Union are united in one, for certain purposes, yet each State, in respect to everything which affects its domestic policy and internal concerns, stands in the relation of a foreign power to every other State. When the emigrants sent out by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, and their affiliated societies, passed through the State of Missouri in large numbers on their way to Kansas, the violence of their language, and the unmis takable indications of their determined hostility to the domestic institutions of that State, created apprehensions that the object of the company was to abolitionize Kansas as a means of prosecuting a relentless warefare upon the institutions of Slavery within the limits of Missouri. These apprehensions increased and spread with the progress of events, until they became the settled convictions of the people of that portion of the State most exposed to the danger by their proximity to the Kansas border. The natural consequence was, that immediate steps were taken by the people of the western counties of Missouri to stimulate, organize, and carry into effect a system of emigration similar to that of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, for the avowed purpose of counteracting the effects, and protecting themselves and their domestic institutions from the consequences of that company's operations. Both Hence, no State has a right to pass any law, or The material difference in the character of the do or authorize any act, with the view to influ- two rival and conflicting movements consists in ence or change the domestic policy of any other the fact that the one had its origin in an aggresState or Territory of the Union, more than it sive, and the other in a defensive policy. The would with reference to France or England, or one was organized in pursuance of the proany other foreign State with which we are at visions and claiming to act under the authority peace. Indeed, every State of this Union is under of a legislative enactment of a distant State, whose higher obligations to observe a friendly forbear-internal prosperity and domestic security did not ance and generous comity towards each other member of the Confederacy, than the laws of nations can impose on foreign States. While foreign States are restrained from all acts of aggression and unkindness only by that spirit of comity which the laws of nations enjoin upon all friendly powers, we have assumed the additional obligation to obey the Constitution, which secures to every State the right to control its own internal affairs. If repugnance to domestic Slavery can justify Massachusetts in incorporating a mam moth company to influence and control that question in any State or Territory of this Union, the same principle of action would authorize France or England to use the same means to accomplish the same end in Brazil or Cuba, or in fifteen States of this Union; while it would license the United States to interfere with serfdom in Russia, or polygamy in Turkey, or any other obnoxious institution in any part of the world. The same principle of action, when sanctioned by our example, would authorize all the kingdoms, and empires, and despotisms in the world, to engage in a common crusade against republicanism in America, as an institution quite as obnoxious to them as domestic Slavery is to any portion of the people of the United States. If our obligations arising under the laws of nations are so imperative as to make it our duty to enact neutrality laws, and to exert the whole power and authority of the executive branch of the government, including the army and navy, to enforce them, in restraining our citizens from interfering with the internal concerns of foreign depend upon the success of the movement |