Part 256

The following is the section containing these prohibitions and penalties:

“SEC. 10. It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to import or bring into the said Territory, from any port or place without the limits of the United States, or cause or procure to be so imported or brought, or knowingly to aid or assist in importing or bringing any slave or slaves. And every person so offending, and being thereof convicted before any court within said Territory, having competent jurisdiction, shall forfeit and pay for each and every slave so imported or brought, the sum of three hundred dollars; one moiety for the use of the United States, and the other moiety for the use of the person or persons who shall sue for the same; and every slave so imported or brought, shall thereupon become entitled to and receive his or her freedom. It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to import or bring into the said Territory, from any port or place within the limits of the United States, or to cause or procure to be so imported or brought, or knowingly to aid or assist in so importing or bringing any slave or slaves, which shall have been imported since the first day of May, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, into any port or place within the limits of the United States, or which may hereafter be so imported from any port or place without the limits of the United States; and every person so offending and being thereof convicted before any court within said Territory, having competent jurisdiction, shall forfeit and pay for each and every slave so imported or brought from without the United States, the sum of three hundred dollars, one moiety for the use of the United States, and the other moiety for the use of the person or persons who shall sue for the same; and no slave or slaves shall directly or indirectly be introduced into said Territory, except by a citizen of the United States removing into said Territory for actual settlement, and being at the time of such removal bona fide owner of such slave or slaves; and every slave imported or brought into the said Territory, contrary to the provisions of this act, shall thereupon be entitled to, and receive his or her freedom.”

This section applied to Lower Louisiana, called the Territory of Orleans. No provision on the subject of slavery was made in the act for the government of Upper Louisiana, afterwards called the Territory of Missouri. And thus, by legislating fully on the subject in one Territory, and not at all in the other, Congress asserted its right to do as it pleased with slavery in such places, uncontrolled by any power but its own will.

At the time of passing the second bankrupt act in 1841--that is to say, after the lapse of forty years--it was shown that there was still property of bankrupts in the hands of assignees, the estate being so administered as to pay expenses, yielding nothing to the creditors, and leaving nothing to the debtors.

There are three grades of Territorial government, all based upon the idea of pupillage in the Territory, and of sovereignty and guardianship in the Federal Government. The first grade, as in the case of mere children, allowed the inhabitants no voice in their own government: a Governor and Judges, appointed by the Federal Government, adopted laws from the codes of the States, and executed them. The second grade, as in the case of children advancing towards the years of discretion, (to whom a father allows some latitude of will,) admitted the inhabitants to some share in their government, by giving them a Council composed of their own citizens, (but appointed by the President,) to act with the Judges in adopting the laws. The third grade, as in the case of children arrived at the years of discretion, but not yet of full age, allowed them a Territorial Legislature, consisting of a House of Representatives, elected by themselves, a Council appointed by the President, and liberty to originate and enact laws; but all their acts as in those of the two other grades, subject to the approbation of Congress. From this grade the Territory, on attaining the population which would give a right to one Representative in Congress, would pass into the class of States, on an equal footing in all respects with the other States, and entitled of right to all the benefits of the federal constitution. Before this transition, the Territories had no rights under the constitution. They were governed independently of the constitution, and contrary to it. They had no benefits from it, except such as Congress, in its discretion, chose to extend to them. They were governed as property: the soil, as a sovereign owner would govern his property; the inhabitants, as a father would take care of his children, looking to their ultimate equality with himself, and preparing them to enjoy that equality as soon as prepared for it. It was this graduated form of Territorial government, in its three regular degrees, to which Mr. Macon was so much attached. It was devised by the “Old Congress,” as he called it--the Congress of the confederation--and received its features from the organizing mind of Mr. Jefferson when he was a member of that Congress in 1784. Neither under the Articles of the Confederation, nor under the Federal Constitution, had the Territories had any rights: they were governed as property according to the will of Congress, uncontrolled by any authority, except the limitations and conditions expressed in the deeds of cession from the States, or in the treaties with foreign powers by which they were ceded. All this is abundantly evident in all the legislation of Congress upon the subject, and in none more so than in the government of Lower Louisiana.

The judicial power of the Territory remained as provided for in the 4th section, in judges appointed for four years, and without the right of jury trial in civil cases. The legislative power was vested in a Governor and council appointed by the President, and their acts subject to the approval or disapproval of Congress. The following is the section:

SEC. 4. The legislative powers shall be vested in the Governor, and in thirteen of the most fit and discreet persons of the Territory, to be called the Legislative Council, who shall be appointed annually by the President of the United States from among those holding real estate therein, and who shall have resided one year at least in the said Territory, and hold no office of profit under the Territory or the United States. The Governor, by and with advice and consent of the said Legislative Council, or of a majority of them, shall have power to alter, modify, or repeal the laws which may be in force at the commencement of this act. Their legislative powers shall also extend to all the rightful subjects of legislation; but no law shall be valid which is inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, or which shall lay any person under restraint, burden, or disability, on account of his religious opinions, professions, or worship; in all which he shall be free to maintain his own, and not burdened for those of another. The Governor shall publish throughout the said Territory all the laws which shall be made, and shall from time to time report the same to the President of the United States, to be laid before Congress; which, if disapproved of by Congress, shall thenceforth be of no force.

The yeas and nays were so nearly the same on every question that one set will answer for the whole.

Of the 21 who voted against this bill, almost the whole were from the non-slaveholding States.

The object of this bill was, not to increase the amount of duty, but to increase the list of specific duties by transferring ad valorems to it as a means of diminishing frauds and the expenses of collection.

This was the whole ceremony. No eulogium was pronounced, nor any adjournment moved, and in the House of Representatives the event was not noticed. And this was the custom at that early time.

This was the commencement of Mr. GAILLARD’s long Senatorial service, terminated only by death, and during which, from vacancies and absences in the Vice Presidential office, he was almost continually President pro tempore of the Senate.

This was after the duel of Col. Burr with General Hamilton, which event probably influenced the negative vote.

A more beautiful or more patriotic address was never delivered. How little could the hearers have supposed that, in three years, the author would be on trial for High Treason.

The interference of the Internal Revenue officers with the politics of the country, was one of the reasons for preferring the system of Custom House Duties to direct taxes; it may be a question whether the concentration of the revenue officers in the Custom Houses, and the vast number which the ad valorem system admits of, may not have given to that evil a more dangerous form.

Roads, rivers, canals--their construction or improvement so long the vexed question of Federal power, have been superseded as national questions by the progress of science, and the force of individual enterprise. Railroads have put an end to that question, and with it, all the old maxims of preparing for war in time. They are the largest, cheapest, and most effective preparation for war, that the world ever saw, being the realization of the whole art of war; to wit: The concentration in the shortest time of the greatest number of troops. By these roads the United States would throw millions of citizen soldiers, if needed, on any one point in a very few days.

We understand, that in correspondence with the Parliamentary practice of England, no chair was, previously to the introduction of Mr. Chase, assigned him; but that an informal intimation was made to him, that, on his requesting it, it would be allowed.

During these proceedings, neither the managers nor the House of Representatives were present.

The argumentative parts of the answer are omitted as being reproduced in the pleadings.

Mr. Jefferson.

These words, used by Mr. Randolph as a quotation,--they were quoted from Lord Chatham,--afterwards (during the Mexican war) were repeated as original in the American Senate.

On the 7th February following, Mr. Granger addressed the annexed explanatory letter to the Speaker:--

WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 7, 1805.

SIR,--My sole object in addressing to Congress my letter of the first of the present month was to gain an opportunity of refuting the charges and insinuations which had been made against me. The little reflection I could give the subject induced me to believe that it was proper, in a respectful manner, to repel the charges publicly, and in the place where they were made. Nor did it occur to me that the right of an officer to defend his character depended upon the office he happened to hold.

If, however, I erred in this, I presume it cannot be wrong, in defence of my reputation, to address you in your private character as a gentleman. I will own that I am desirous of retaining your friendship and confidence. I will own that I am not indifferent to public opinion, and that I seek the confidence and esteem of my fellow-citizens by the even tenor of a well-spent life, and a regular discharge of all the social duties--not by lessening the esteem and confidence to which others are entitled.

Various charges have been made against me for the interest I have in the Georgia grants--for my being an agent of the New England Company, and for my conduct as such agent. As these charges have not yet appeared in print, I cannot give that specific answer which may hereafter become necessary, and for which I pledge myself to the public, in case such necessity should exist.

I now take the liberty of stating how I became interested in the claims, how the agency was accepted, and what has been my conduct as agent.

First, as to my interest.