Territorial Sovereignty. States only; and if its framers had intended to extend it to the Territories they certainly would have made an express provision to that effect. The States are referred to in the Constitution no less than thirty times, while the word "territory" occurs therein but once; and there, as already indicated, it means land only. According to the pre amble of the Constitution, it was ordained and established " for the United States of America," and not for any other portion of the habitable globe; and it cannot be made to extend to any other country except by the consent of its inhabitants or by a war of conquest. It is binding upon the several States only, because the thirteen original ones gave their consent to it when they ratified it, and the others did so when they voluntarily entered the Union in pursuance of acts of Congress passed for that purpose, — the fundamental principle of our Government being that it rests upon the consent of the governed, having only such powers as they have conferred upon it; and while they had the right to delegate to it unlimited power to legislate for themselves they had no right to, and did not, delegate to it the power to legislate for others. The writer, therefore, thinks that he has clearly established the proposition that the Federal Government has no rightful authority over the people of the Territories. In support of the writer's contention that the Constitution cannot be enforced beyond the boundaries of the United States except by conquest or by the consent of the people sought to be brought under it, he will refer to a speech delivered by Daniel Webster in the Senate on Feb. 24, 1849. That body having under consideration the annual civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, and Mr. Walker of Wisconsin having introduced an amendment thereto to extend the Consti tution to the Territories, Mr. Webster op posed this amendment in a speech of great power, in the course of which he said : — "The Constitution is extended over the
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United States and over nothing else, and can be extended over nothing else. It cannot be extended over anything except over the old States and the new States that shall come in hereafter, when they do come in." (Ap pendix to the Congressional Globe, Second Session of the Thirtieth Congress, page According to Mr. Webster, therefore, the Constitution does not and cannot be made to extend to the Territories; and as Con gress has no power to legislate for any other persons that those over whom it does extend, it necessarily cannot rightly do so for the peo ple who reside outside of the boundaries of the United States. The act of the Senator from Wisconsin in offering this amendment was a virtual admission on his part that the Constitution of itself has no force outside of the Union, or otherwise his motion to amend the bill in this manner would have been en tirely unnecessary. Mr. Webster having clearly demonstrated the impossibility of ex tending the Constitution to the Territories, Mr. Walker's amendment was finally re jected. This action on the part of the Senate was a legislative declaration that the Constitution is binding upon the States alone, and can have no force beyond their limits. That the views above expressed by the writer are not original with him must be evident to all who are familiar with the de bates in Congress on this question and with articles thereon which have appeared in certain newspapers and leading monthly publications. He will therefore refer to the opinions of two eminent statesmen, both of whom have been candidates for the Presi dency of the United States. On March 14, 1850, the Senate having under considera tion Senator Bell's compromise resolutions the Hon. Lewis Cass of Michigan delivered a speech thereon, in the course of which he said : — "There are two positions I have always maintained with reference to this subject — first, that Congress, under the Constitution,
