sidering this part of the controversy, two questions arise: 1. Was
he, together with his family, free in Missouri by reason of the stay in
the territory of the United States hereinbefore mentioned? And, 2. If
they were not, is Scott himself free by reason of his removal to Rock
Island, in the State of Illinois, as stated in the above admissions?

We proceed to examine the first question.

The act of Congress, upon which the plaintiff relies, declares that
slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime,
shall be forever prohibited in all that part of the territory ceded by
France, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six
degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and not included within the
limits of Missouri. And the difficulty which meets us at the threshold
of this part of the inquiry is, whether Congress was authorized to pass
this law under any of the powers granted to it by the Constitution; for
if the authority is not given by that instrument, it is the duty of this
court to declare it void and inoperative, and incapable of conferring
freedom upon any one who is held as a slave under the laws of any one of
the States.

The counsel for the plaintiff has laid much stress upon that article in
the Constitution which confers on Congress the power "to dispose of and
make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other
property belonging to the United States;" but, in the judgment of the
court, that provision has no bearing on the present controversy, and the
power there given, whatever it may be, is confined, and was intended to
be confined, to the territory which at that time belonged to, or was
claimed by, the United States, and was within their boundaries as
settled by the treaty with Great Britain, and can have no influence upon
a territory afterward acquired from a foreign Government. It was a
special provision for a known and particular territory, and to meet a
present emergency, and nothing more.

A brief summary of the history of the times, as well as the careful and
measured terms in which the article is framed, will show the correctness
of this proposition.

It will be remembered that, from the commencement of the Revolutionary
war, serious difficulties existed between the States, in relation to the
disposition of large and unsettled territories which were included in
the chartered limits of some of the States. And some of the other
States, and more