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Show 284 OPINIONS OF MADISON, JE!l'l~'EllSON, ETC. practice, is somewhat of to l eg i ~ Jative discretion. to be-a du ct iJe 11alure, and ]eaves much The question to be decided seems " 1. Whether o. terrilo'rial restriclion be an assumption of i !legitimate power; or, 11 2. A mi .u~e of legitimate power; and if the latter only, wh 'ther the lllJllry threaten ed to the nation from n 11 ... • . . .-cqur- {', cence 111 il10 rmsnse, or from a fru stration of it, be the greater. 11 On the first roint, there is crrtainly room for diiTcrc 11 cc of opinion; though for my. elf, I must own that I have alwnys ]caned to the belief that tlte 'rcslridion was not within llze true scope of the Constitution. I11 reply to a letter from ~1r. Monroe, on the :Misso uri question he said : 11 'fhe question to l>e decided seem to be- 11 1. Whether a te?''rito'ra l restriction be nn assumption of illegitimate power ; or, 11 2 A misuse of legitimate power; and if il1o latter on! whether .the injnr! threatened to the nation from an acqn~~ cscence m the rmsuse, or from n fru stration of it, be the greater. 11 On the first point, there is certainly room for differenco of opinion; thongh, for myself, I must own that I have nlways leaned in the belief that the restriction was not within the true scope of the Constitution. 11 On the alternative presented by the second point, there can be no room, with tho cool and candid, for blame in those acqnie cing in a conciliatory course, the demand for which was deemed nrgent, and the course itself deemed not irreconcilable with the Constitution. 11 'rllis is the ha. ty view I ha·vc taken of the snhject. I am aware thnt I may be snspected of being influenced by the habit of a gnarded construction of constitutional power~; and I have ccrtaillly felt all the inOuepce that co uld justly OPINIONS OJ!' MADISON, JEI•'F.IJ:RSON, ETC. 285 fiow from a convicLion, t.bat an uncontrolled dispersion of the slaves now within the Unitetl ta.tes, was not only best for the nat ion, out most favorable for the ~laves also, both as to their prospects of emaucipation, and as to their conuition in the Ill an time." As to th r ra: on of the pas:age of the Ordinance of 1187, under the old Conf ·dcrn.t ion, .Mr. Mad is on says :- "I hnvo olJserv •(1, as yet, in none of tho view.' taken of the Ordin a,Jlrc of ] 7 7, interdi cting slavery northwest of the ri ver Ohio, an allusion to the circumstance that when it passed, Congre:s had no authority to prohibit the im portation of slaves from au road ; that all the Stales had, and some were in the full exercise of, the right to import them; and, conscqnently, that there was no mode in which Congress could check the evi 1, but the incl irect one of narrowing the space open for the reception of slaves. "Uatl a fecleral authori ty then ex isted to prohibi t, directly an<l totally, the importutiou from ab road, can it l>e doubted LhaL it would have been excrte(l, nnd that n. regulation having merely the effect of preventing the interior di position of : laves actually in the Unit ·d States, and creating a distinction among the States in Lhe degree of ill ·ir sovereignty, would not have been aclopt ·d, or perhaps thought of ?"-Mr. Ma(1ison to Mr. Monroe, February lOLh, 1820. Rough draur;ht, or notes, of P'resident Jl!on r·oe's intended Veto Jlff'~."ia(JC' , r·rject'inr; the JJ1i~so w·i JJ·i ll, 1j it harZ pas ed Conr;r<'SS with ce1·tain reslri<:t /on s, fo und in his handwriting, among his papers in po.-."e. ·s1:on of S. L . Gouverneur, E sq. Having fully consid rec1 the hill entitled, &c., and eli approved of it, I now ret n rn it to the -- in which it ori~ ginated, with my objections to lhc same. That the Constitntion, in providing that new States may |
