power at that time, and under those circum-
stances, would open the door fur the exercise
of powers which would in time entirely ob-
literate the powers of the State government.
And I recognize this as the first step, the first
movement to overpower the State of Mary-
land, and to reduce her to the lowest position
in this Government. In speaking of the ex-
ercise of the power at that time, Mr. Pinck-
ney said:
''It was but the other day that we were
forbidden, properly forbidden, I am sure. for
the prohibition came from you, Mr. Presi-
dent, to assume that there existed any inten-
tion to impose a prospective restraint upon
the domestic legislation of the State of Mis-
souri."
Now, I say that this article of the bill of
rights does indicate the following it up with
that line of policy that has been latterly ad-
vocated by men in high places in this coun-
try; and that the exercise of that power in
time to come will lead to the utter overthrow
of the powers of the State governments. He
Bays:
"We were forbidden * * * to assume
that there existed any intention to impose a
prospective restraint upon the domestic legis-
lation of the State of Missouri—a restraint to
act upon it contemporaneously with its origin
as a State, and to continue adhesion to it
through all the stages of its political exist-
ence. We are now, however, permitted to
know that it is determined by a sort of polit-
ical surgery to amputate one of the limbs of
its local sovereignty, and thus mangled and
disparaged, and thus only, to receive it into
the bosom of the Constitution. It is now
announced that, while Maine is to be ushered
into the Union with every possible demon-
stration of studious reverence on our part,
and on hers with colors flying, and all the
other graceful accompaniments of honorable
triumph, this ill-conditioned upstart of the
West, this obscure foundling of a wilderness
that was but yesterday the hunting ground
of the savage, is to find her way into the
American family as she can with an humil-
iating badge of remediless inferiority patched
upon her garments, with that mark of recent,
qualified manumission upon her, or rather
with a brand upon her forehead to tell the
story of her territorial vassalage, and to per-
petuate the memory of her evil propensities.
It is now avowed that while the robust dis-
trict of Maine is to be seated by the side of
her truly respectable parent, co-ordinate in
authority and honor, and is to be dandled
into that power and dignity of which she
does not stand in need, but which undoubt-
edly she deserves, the more infantile and fee-
ble Missouri is to be repelled with harshness,
and forbidden to come at all, unless with the
iron collar of servitude about her neck, in-
stead of the civic crown of republican free-
dom upon her brow, and is to be doomed |
forever to leading strings unless she will ex-
change those leading strings for shackles.
" I am told that you have the power to es-
tablish this odious and revolting distinction,
and I am referred for the proofs of that power
to various parts of the Constitution, but
principally to that part of it which authorizes
the admission of new States into the Union.
I am myself of opinion that it is in that part
only that the advocates for this restriction
can, with any hope of success, apply for a li-
cense to impose it; and that the efforts which
brave been made to find it in other portions
of that instrument are too desperate to require
to be encountered. I shall, however,
examine those other portions before I have
done, lest it should be supposed by those
who have relied upon them, that what I omit
to answer I believe to be unanswerable.
"The clause of the Constitution which re-
lates to the admission of new States is in
these words: 'The Congress may admit new
States into this Union,' &c.; and the advo-
cates for restriction maintain that the use of
the word ' may ' imparts discretion to admit
or to reject; and that in this discretion is
wrapped up another—that of prescribing the
terms and conditions of admission in case
yon are willing to admit . Cujus est dare ejus
est disponere. I will not for the present en-
quire whether this involved discretion to dic-
tate the terms of admission belongs to you or
not. It is fit that I should first look. to the
nature and extent of it.
"I think I may assume that if such a pow-
er be anything but nominal, it is much more
than adequate to the present object; that it
is a power of vast expansion, to which hu-
man sagacity can assign no reasonable limits;
that it is a capacious reservoir of authority,
from which you may take in all time to come,
as occasion may serve, the means of oppres-
sion as well as benefaction. I know that it
professes at this moment to be the chosen in-
strument of protecting mercy, and would win
upon us by its benignant smiles; but I know,
too, it can frown and play the tyrant, if it be
so disposed; notwithstanding the softness
which it now assumes, and the care with
which it conceals its giant proportions be-
neath the deceitful drapery of sentiment,
when it next appears before you it may show
itself with a sterner countenance and in more
awful dimensions. It is, to speak the truth,
sir, a power of colossal size—if, indeed, it be
not an abuse of language to call it by the
gentle name of a power. Sir, it is a wilder-
ness of powers, of which fancy in her hap-
piest mood is unable to perceive the far-dis-
tant and shadowy boundary. Armed with
such a power, with religion in one hand and
philanthropy in the other, and followed by a
goodly train of public and private virtues,
you may achieve more conquests over sov-
ereignties not your own than falls to the
common lot of even uncommon ambition. |
