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Show 216 THE MISSOURI QUESTION. But, let gentlemen beware! Assume tho Mississippi as the boundary. Say, that to tho smilin cr Canaan beyond its waters no slave shall approach, and you givo a new character to its inhabitants, totally distinct from that which shall belong to the people thronging on the cast of yonr limits. You implt1nt diversity of pm· nit~, hostility of feeling, envy, hatred, and bitter reproaches, which "Shall grow to clubs and naked swords, To murder and to death." If yon remain inexorable ; if you persist in refusing the humble, the decent, the reasonable prayer of Missouri, is there no danger that her re islancc will rise in proportion to your oppression? Sir, the firebrand, which is even now cast into your society, will require blood-ay, and tho blood of freemen-for its quenching. Your Union shall tremble, as under the force of an earthquake! While you incautiously pull down a constitutional barrier, you make way for the dark, and tumultuous, and overwhelming waters of desolation! If yon "sow the wind, must you not reap the whirlwind ?" February 25. Mr. Scott, of Missouri, said : The powers given to Congress by the Constitution were few, express, limited, positive, and denueu; the majority of them were to be found in the eighth sec tion of that instrument and con- . ' s1sted in the authority to levy taxes, borrow money, and regulate commerce; establish a uniform system of bankruptcy; to regulate the coin, punish counterfeiting, establish post-offices and post-roads, constitute courts, declare war, raise armies, maintain a navy, call forth the mililia, organize and regulate them; to have exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, and their forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and to make all laws which shoulu be necessary and proper to carry into eLfect the enumerated powers. Mr. S. could not discover that the 11uthority to impose restric-rriiE MISSOUHI QUESrl'lON. 217 tions on States cou1cl be derive<l from any latitul1e of construction growing out of thiH section. But. the powers of Co11gress were not only enumerated and expres ·ed in the Constitution; the tenth section was equally explicit in declaring of what attributes of sovereignty the States shoulcl be deprived; no Stn.tc was to enter into any treaty of alliance, grant letters of marque ancl reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, mako anything hut gold and silver a tender, pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, impair contracts, or grant titles of nobility; nor, without consent of Congress, lay impoRts or dntics on imports or exports, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops .or ships of war in time of peace, or make any agreement w1th any forei gn power, or even with a sister State, or cngngr. in war, unless actually invaded. 'rhe States, then, were divested by tho Constitution of no portion of sovereignty but those actually named and vol~ untarily surrendered; all other powers, and the resillue of sovereignty, were inherent m, and expressly reserved to, the States and the people. * * * * * * * * The second clause of the third section of the fourth nrticle provided that "Congress shall havo power to di spose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of tho United States." The whole context of this article showed that it was as property, and not otherwise, that Congress were to make rules and regulations. Certainly tho uoldest o.dvocato for restriction would not con tend that Congress had nny property in the persons of the citizens of Missonri, because tl~ey were circumstantil1lly connected with a territory over which they had a limited control. Snrely gentlemen woulu not undertnke to advnnce the doctrine tbn.t Congress had nny properly in the couflrmed lands of inc1i vidun.ls, or in tho lanu~ purchasod of the governn1ct1t tuHl patcnlcu tu the put·· |