American Eloquence, Volume II | Page 8

which could neither decrease nor stand still. It was intolerable by
the laws of its being; and it could be got rid of only by allowing a
peaceable secession, or by abolishing it through war. The material
prosperity which has followed the adoption of the latter alternative,
apart from the moral aspects of the case, is enough to show that the
South has gained more than all that slavery lost.
[Illustration: Rufus King]

RUFUS KING,
OF NEW YORK. (BORN 1755, DIED 1827.)
ON THE MISSOURI BILL--UNITED STATES SENATE,
FEBRUARY 11 AND 14, 1820.

The Constitution declares "that Congress shall have power to dispose of,
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
other property of the United States." Under this power Congress have
passed laws for the survey and sale of the public lands; for the division
of the same into separate territories; and have ordained for each of them
a constitution, a plan of temporary government, whereby the civil and
political rights of the inhabitants are regulated, and the rights of
conscience and other natural rights are protected.
The power to make all needful regulations, includes the power to
determine what regulations are needful; and if a regulation prohibiting
slavery within any territory of the United States be, as it has been,
deemed needful, Congress possess the power to make the same, and,
moreover, to pass all laws necessary to carry this power into execution.
The territory of Missouri is a portion of Louisiana, which was
purchased of France, and belongs to the United States in full dominion;
in the language of the Constitution, Missouri is their territory or
property, and is subject like other territories of the United States, to the
regulations and temporary government, which has been, or shall be
prescribed by Congress. The clause of the Constitution which grants
this power to Congress, is so comprehensive and unambiguous, and its
purpose so manifest, that commentary will not render the power, or the
object of its establishment, more explicit or plain.
The Constitution further provides that "new States may be admitted by
Congress into this Union." As this power is conferred without
limitation, the time, terms, and circumstances of the admission of new
States, are referred to the discretion of Congress; which may admit new
States, but are not obliged to do so--of right no new State can demand
admission into the Union, unless such demand be founded upon some
previous engagement of the United States.
When admitted by Congress into the Union, whether by compact or
otherwise, the new State becomes entitled to the enjoyment of the same
rights, and bound to perform the like duties as the other States; and its
citizens will be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in
the several States.
The citizens of each State possess rights, and owe duties that are
peculiar to, and arise out of the Constitution and laws of the several
States. These rights and duties differ from each other in the different

States, and among these differences none is so remarkable or important
as that which proceeds from the Constitution and laws of the several
States respecting slavery; the same being permitted in some States and
forbidden in others.
The question respecting slavery in the old thirteen States had been
decided and settled before the adoption of the Constitution, which
grants no power to Congress to interfere with, or to change what had
been so previously settled. The slave States, therefore, are free to
continue or to abolish slavery. Since the year 1808 Congress have
possessed power to prohibit and have prohibited the further migration
or importation of slaves into any of the old thirteen States, and at all
times, under the Constitution, have had power to prohibit such
migration or importation into any of the new States or territories of the
United States. The Constitution contains no express provision
respecting slavery in a new State that may be admitted into the Union;
every regulation upon this subject belongs to the power whose consent
is necessary to the formation and admission of new States into the
Union. Congress may, therefore, make it a condition of the admission
of a new State, that slavery shall be forever prohibited within the same.
We may, with the more confidence, pronounce this to be the true
construction of the Constitution, as it has been so amply confirmed by
the past decisions of Congress.
Although the articles of confederation were drawn up and approved by
the old Congress, in the year 1777, and soon afterwards were ratified
by some of the States, their complete ratification did not take place
until the year 1781. The States which possessed small and already
settled territory, withheld their ratification, in order to obtain from the
large States a cession to the