CONSTITUTION OF THE TERRITORIES.

COMPLICATED as the whole governmental system of the United States is through the anomalous and often antagonistic rights granted by the Constitution to the States and to the Supreme power, there is a still further element of disturbance added by the question of the Territories. The whole slavery struggle has been so intimately mixed up with this Territorial question; and the whole future development of the Union will depend so much on its solution, that this brief exposé of the American Constitution would be incomplete unless I tried to make this question of the Territories intelligible to the reader.

Even before the Constitution was formed, the Territorial difficulty had already made its appearance. When the original colonies were formed, the interior of North America was almost a terra incognita; and by their original charters, many of the States claimed that their territory extended to the Far West, and was, in fact, bounded only by the Pacific Ocean. Virginia and North Carolina in particular, laid claim to almost

boundless possessions towards the West.

Probably,

as a matter of sentiment, the States which had no such claims to establish, would have cared very little at that time to whom belonged the nominal authority over remote and unknown forest lands; but even as early as 1780, the ownership of the frontier districts had become a source of wealth. Virginia especially had sold grants of her Western territory to emigrants, and carried the proceeds to her own exchequer. The States which had no unknown territory to sell, contended, with some reason, that the profits derived from these Western territories, which had been rescued from the British dominion by the common efforts of the thirteen States, ought to be devoted to their common use. Indeed, several of the States refused to subscribe the Articles of Confederation till some arrangement was made as to the limits of the undefined territories. Maryland was especially prominent in her opposition to the claims of Virginia. In the instructions given by her Assembly to the delegates appointed to the Congress of the United States in 1778, she put forward strongly the evils that would ensue from admitting the right of Virginia to dispose of her undefined lands.

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Virginia," it is stated, "by selling on the most mode

rate terms a small proportion of the land in question, "would draw into her treasury vast sums of money, "and in proportion to the sums arising from such "sales would be enabled to lessen her taxes. Lands

comparatively cheap, and taxes comparatively low, "with the lands and taxes of an adjacent State, would

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quickly drain the State thus disadvantageously cir"cumstanced of its most useful inhabitants. Its wealth "and its consequence, in the scale of the Confederated "States, would sink of course. A claim so injurious to "more than one-half, if not to the whole of the United "States, ought to be supported by the clearest evi"dence of right." The report then proceeds to inform the delegates that they will betray their trust if they accede to the Confederation without having this question previously decided on an equitable footing, and adds a prophecy, which reads strangely now in these days of Secession, "Although the pressure of immediate "calamities, the dread of their continuance from the appearance of disunion, and some other peculiar cir"cumstances, may have induced some States to accede "to the present Confederation, contrary to their own "interests and judgments, it requires no great share "of foresight to predict that, when these causes cease "to operate, the States which have thus acceded to the "Confederation, will consider it no longer, binding and “will eagerly embrace the first occasion of asserting "their just rights, and securing their independence."

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Happily for the Union a spirit of conciliation prevailed, and in order to induce the outstanding States to enter the Confederation, New York, Virginia, and North Carolina, consented to have their respective

territories defined, and to cede all lands lying beyond their western frontiers to the United States. In 1787, shortly previous to the adoption of the Constitution, the famous Ordinance was passed for the government of the Territories north-west of the Ohio River. By this, which has always been considered as a part of the Constitution, an arrangement was made, whose terms, broadly speaking, were as follows:- In the first instance, the Territory was to be governed by authorities appointed by and responsible to Congress, whose power, as far as the territory was concerned, was absolute. As soon as the territorial district numbered five thousand free male inhabitants, these inhabitants were to have the right of electing an Assembly. Every elector, however, was to possess fifty acres of freehold land, and every representative two hundred. The Legislative Council was to be elected by the legislature, on the plan that two members were to be elected to fill every vacancy, and of these two nominees, Congress was to choose one. The Governor was still to be appointed by Congress; and he was to have a veto on all laws passed by the Council and Legislature. All legislation too, by the Territorial Assembly, was subject to certain limitations. The equal division of property amongst the heirs of intestates, freedom of religion, trial by jury, writ of habeas corpus, and equal representation, were rights guaranteed by Congress to the territories, and all legislation of the Territorial Government incon

sistent with these rights was ipso facto null and void. By an amendment of Jefferson's, slavery was also expressly prohibited in the North-West Territory; and therefore it was not in the power of the local government, so long as the district remained a territory, to establish it by law.

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Whenever any of these territorial districts had a free white population of 60,000 males, it was to have the right of claiming admission into the Confederacy "on an equal footing with the original States in all respects "whatever." It was to be at liberty also "to form a "permanent constitution and State government, pro"vided the constitution and government so formed shall "be republican and in conformity to the principles contained" (in the ordinance).*

This ordinance was not incorporated into the Constitution of the United States. The wording of the Constitution simply gives power to Congress to dispose of, and make all needful laws for the regulation of, the United States' territory; and also gives power to Congress to admit new States into the Union. Practically, the new States have been admitted in accordance with the general principles laid down in the ordinance; but the great questions still remain unsettled, whether a Territory which contains the due number of inhabitants, and accedes to the above conditions, has a right to

* "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States north-west of the River Ohio."