th,
from the East and the West. They were all companions in arms and
fellow-citizens of the same common country, engaged in the same common
cause. When prosecuting that war they were brethren and friends, and
shared alike with each other common toils, dangers, and sufferings. Now,
when their work is ended, when peace is restored, and they return again
to their homes, put off the habiliments of war, take their places in
society, and resume their pursuits in civil life, surely a spirit of
harmony and concession and of equal regard for the rights of all and of
all sections of the Union ought to prevail in providing governments for
the acquired territories--the fruits of their common service. The whole
people of the United States, and of every State, contributed to defray
the expenses of that war, and it would not be just for any one section
to exclude another from all participation in the acquired territory.
This would not be in consonance with the just system of government which
the framers of the Constitution adopted.

The question is believed to be rather abstract than practical, whether
slavery ever can or would exist in any portion of the acquired territory
even if it were left to the option of the slaveholding States
themselves. From the nature of the climate and productions in much the
larger portion of it it is certain it could never exist, and in the
remainder the probabilities are it would not. But however this may be,
the question, involving, as it does, a principle of equality of rights
of the separate and several States as equal copartners in the
Confederacy, should not be disregarded.

In organizing governments over these territories no duty imposed on
Congress by the Constitution requires that they should legislate on the
subject of slavery, while their power to do so is not only seriously
questioned, but denied by many of the soundest expounders of that
instrument. Whether Congress shall legislate or not, the people of
the acquired territories, when assembled in convention to form State
constitutions, will possess the sole and exclusive power to determine
for themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their
limits. If Congress shall abstain from interfering with the question,
the people of these territories will be left free to adjust it as they
may think proper when they apply for admission as States into the Union.
No enactment of Congress could restrain the people of any of the
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