We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which
the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest
degree by questions of deep and vital importance; but when the
people proclaimed their will the tempest at once subsided and all
was calm.
The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by
the Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our
own country could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a
spectacle of the capacity of man for self-government.
What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this
simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the
settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories.
Congress is neither "to legislate slavery into any Territory or
State nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
States."
As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when
the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it "shall be
received into the Union with or without slavery, as their
constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."
A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time
when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for
themselves.
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