Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/594

"The people of New Mexico will also, it is believed, at no very distant period, present themselves for admission into the Union. Preparatory to the admission of California and New Moxico, the people of each will have instituted for themselves a republican form of government, laying its foundation in such principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

"By awaiting their action, all causes of uneasiness may be avoided, and confidence and kind feeling preserved. With a view of maintaining the harmony and tranquility so dear to all, we should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions in' the public mind; and I repeat the solemn warning of the first and most illustrious of my predecessors, against furnishing any ground for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations."

On the 4th of January, 1850, General Sam Houston, of Texas, submitted the following proposition to the senate:

"Whereas, The congress of the United States, possessing only a delegated authority, have no power over the subject of negro slavery within the limits of the United States, either to prohibit or to interfere with it in the states, territories, or district, where, by municipal law, it now exists, or to establish it in any state or territory where it does not exist; but as an assurance and guarantee to promote harmony, quiet apprehension, and remove sectional prejudice, which by possibility might impair or weaken love and devotion to the Union in any part of the country, it is hereby "Resolved, That, as the people in territories have the same inherent rights of selfgovernment as the people in the states, if, in the exercise of such inherent rights, the people in the newly-acquired territories, by the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California and New Mexico, south of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, shall establish negro slavery in the formation of their state governments, it shall be deemed no objection to their admission as a state or states into the Union, in accordance with the constitution of the United States."

In answer to a resolution of inquiry, General Taylor sent a message to the house stating that he had urged the formation of state governments in California and New Mexico, and adds:

"In advising an early application by the people of these territories for admission as states, I was actuated principally by an earnest desire to afford to the wisdom and patriotism of congress the opportunity of avoiding occasions of bitter and angry discussions among the people of the United States.

"Under the constitution, every state has the right to establish, and, from time to time, alter its municipal laws and domestic institutions, independently of every other state and of the general government, subject only to the prohibitions and guarantees expressly set forth in the constitution of the United States. The subjects thus left exclusively to the respective states, were not designed or expected to become topics of national agitation. Still as, under the constitution, congress has power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territories of the United States, every new acquisition of territory has led to discussions on the question whether the system of involuntary