congress to make Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, or Mississippi free state.

Congress should not only confine their action within their constitutional powers, but they should pay some heed to the opinions and prejudices of the people of the several states, with a view to promote harmony, as much as possible, between the states, and among the people of all sections of the Union. A temporary, or mere sectional majority, should not force upon the country measures that are violently opposed by the great mass of the people in large portions of the United States; much less should they adopt extreme measures, which the public sentiment of the nation will not maintain.

After the acquisition of California, New Mexico, and Utah, it was utterly impossible for congress to agree upon a plan to govern those countries, on account of the differences of opinion and the discussions between the north and the south, as to the prohibition ar the introduction of slavery into them. Hence congress was unable to agree upon territorial bills for them in 1848 or 1849, and not until the non-intervention doctrine embodied in Mr. Clay's compromise, was finally adopted, in September, 1850. Instead of settling the slavery question in congress for the territories, that compromise left it to the people of each territory to quarrel it out among themselves, and to settle it in their respective territorial legislatures. That was the only practicable mode of obviating the difficulties and dissensions then existing in our country; and it worked well for several years, and until after the repeal of the Missouri compromise, in 1854. The principal difficulties in Kansas grew out of an outside struggle between the people of the free and the slave states-on one side to make it a free state, and on the other to make it a slave state. As to all the other territories, the non-intervention doctrines have worked well, and they contributed largely to give peace to the nation.

SEC. 27. THE COMPROMISES OF CONGRESS, AND OF THE CONSTITU

TIONAL CONVENTION WHICH FORMED THE CONSTITUTION OF THR UNITED STATES.

The first congress of the thirteen colonies, then called the continental congress, met at Philadelphia, April 5th, 1774; and the second one met at the same place, May 10th, 1775. From that

time until the present, congress has assembled annually, and some times twice in one year. Prior to the adoption of the articles of confederation, in March, 1781, there was no constitution, treaty or compact, which united the colonies or states. The union was in 8 measure spontaneous and voluntary, springing from a common danger and the necessity of uniting their strength to protect themselves from a common enemy. (See ante. p. 19.) Congress had, for more than six years, no power over the states or the people, and no political power whatever. They had simply a moral and advisory power; but the advisory power was obeyed by the states and the people, and was carried into effect as implicitly, for years, without any articles of compact, as it was after the adoption of the articles of confederation.

Congress then acted by resolutions, not by formal statutes; but it was necessary to adopt some rule, to determine when a resolution was passed, and to settle the relative power of the states in congress. The large states claimed, with great reason, that they were entitled to more power in congress than the small states of Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland. But the latter claimed that they were all equal, and that after the declaration of independence, they were all sovereign and independent states, with entire equality of rights, and they insisted on equality of power in congress. The claim of equal powers in congress was finally yielded to by the largest and most populous states, as a matter of necessity, in order to form and cement a union between all the states. It was finally assented to as a matter of expediency, and not as a matter of justice. It was settled that each state should be represented in congress by two or more delegates or members, and that each state should have but one vote, to be determined and cast by a majority of its delegates.

1st. Equality of power of the States, under the Confederation.

The question of the relative powers in congress of the several states, was a great and fundamental question of political power, far-reaching in its influence; and there were great difficulties in settling it, owing to the rivalship and jealousies between the states. Its settlement may properly be regarded as the first great compromise pon which the American Union was based.

That principle of equality in congress between states, equal in power and sovereignty, on all local and municipal questions and matters within their respective limits, established by compromise, without which the Union could never have been formed, was carried into the articles of confederation, and embodied in the fifth article thereof. (See ante. p. 22.)

2d. The cession of the public lands and territories to the United States.

The second difficulty which arose between the states was in relation to the public lands and western territories. Some of the states claimed jurisdiction over large districts of unsettled country in the west, and their claims were conflicting; while some of the states claimed no western lands. The latter insisted that the unsettled districts of the west, and the title to the land therein, should be ceded by the states to congress, to form a common fund, to aid, first, in prosecuting the war, and secondly, in paying the national debt contracted during the war. Maryland refused to ratify or confirm the articles of confederation on that account. After sev eral years' discussion and controversy in congress and in the state legislatures upon that subject, the state of New York finally ceded to congress, in 1781, all her public lands and claims of jurisdiction and territory west of her present limits; and thereupon the state of Maryland acceded to and ratified the articles of confederation as heretofore stated. (See ante. p. 120.) The states of Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina, severally made similar cessions some years afterwards. North Carolina made a cession in 1790, and Georgia, in 1802. In those cessions, each state retained a certain portion of her claims. Virginia retained Kentucky and a large reserve of lands in Ohio; New York retained the present western part of the state, then a wilderness; Massachusetts retained the present state of Maine, and Connecticut reserved and had ceded to her, the soil, but not the jurisdiction, to a large district of country in north-eastern Ohio-comprising nearly an eighth part of the state.

All those concessions and grants to congress, were made after years of dissension and controversy upon the subject. They were made as a matter of expediency and compromise, to conciliate the states that had no public lands, and to produce harmony and

union between the states. They may be very properly regarded as the second great compromise upon which the American Union was based; and without which the constitution and present form of government never could have been established.

3d. The ordinance of congress of July 13th, 1787.

The next great difficulty which arose between the states was in relation to the government of the newly ceded territories. The fifth article of the ordinance, reported by Mr. Jefferson, in 1784, (see ante. p. 122), was objected to by most of the southern states, including a majority of the delegates from Virginia, and was struck out. As it passed, it was not satisfactory to the northern states. Three years afterwards, the ordinance of 1787, was finally agreed upon, applying and limiting the prohibition of slavery to the territory north-west of the Ohio river, and not to any territory south of that river, which might be thereafter acquired from North Carolina, Georgia, or any foreign country. With that limitation of the prohibition, the ordinance of 1787 was assented to by Virginia, and by a majority of the states, and became a law; and Virginia revised, ratified, and confirmed it, in Sept., 1788. [See ante. p. 133.]

The adoption of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio river, leaving the territories that might be thereafter acquired south of that river, to be settled by slaveholders with their slaves, and to become slave states, may be regarded as the third great compromise of congress, and the first one upon the question of slavery. The acceptance, by congress of the cessions of territory by North Carolina and Georgia, upon the conditions in relation to slavery, heretofore stated, was, in effect, carrying out the compromise principles acted upon in the adoption of the ordinance of 1787.

4th. The adjustment of political power and the basis of power in the several States, and in the federal government.

When the convention which formed the constitution of the United States, met in 1787, the first difficulty which presented itself was the question of the relative power in the government, first of the large and populous and the small states, and, secondly, of the states having large numbers of slaves, and those having but

few-there being slavery, at that time, in all the states except Massachusetts. The small states claimed that they were independent sovereignties, except so far as they had granted a portion of their sovereign powers to the congress of the confederation. They claimed equal rights and powers with the large states, and as they then enjoyed, under the articles of confederation, the same powers as the large states, they insisted on a continuation of the same equality of power, in the new government about to be established This seemed to the large states greatly unjust and unequal, to give the small populations of Delaware and Rhode Island, for all future time, the same representation and power as were given to ten, or twenty, or thirty times as many inhabitants in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts. It was insisted that equality of power was necessary to enable the small states to protect their rights from the encroachments of the large ones, and from the oppressions of majorities in congress by the combination and concert of action of the members from a few large states, if the states should be represented according to population. The delegates from the southern states claimed that their slaves were persons as well as property, and that as persons, they should be represented the same as free inhabitants. On the contrary, the delegates from Massachusetts, and the northern states, insisted that slaves being held and controlled as property, and having no personal rights, should not be represented in congress at all, and that the people of the southern states should not have any additional representation in congress on account of their slave property.

Here we see there were many clashing interests and jealousies between the people of the several states, as to their relative powers in the new governinent about to be established--which constitute the corner-stones and a portion of the foundation of the national government-all of which must be agreed upon, before the first step could be taken towards settling the form of the government,, or arranging the details of the constitution. The Union was intended to be perpetual, and the government was designed to be for all future time. How it would operate could not be foreseen; the future was uncertain; each party was apprehensive of difficulties and dangers in the future, and very tenacious of what they deemed their rights and just powers in the government. Hence the dif