Upon any other
construction it would be impossible to account for the insertion of the
last provision in the place where it is found, or to comprehend why, or
for what object, it was associated with the previous provision.

This view of the subject is confirmed by the manner in which the present
Government of the United States dealt with the subject as soon as it
came into existence. It must be borne in mind that the same States that
formed the Confederation also formed and adopted the new Government, to
which so large a portion of their former sovereign powers were
surrendered. It must also be borne in mind that all of these same States
which had then ratified the new Constitution were represented in the
Congress which passed the first law for the government of this
territory; and many of the members of that legislative body had been
deputies from the States under the confederation--had united in adopting
the ordinance of 1787, and assisted in forming the new Government under
which they were then acting, and whose powers they were then exercising.
And it is obvious from the law they passed to carry into effect the
principles and provisions of the ordinance, that they regarded it as the
act of the States done in the exercise of their legitimate powers at the
time. The new Government took the territory as it found it, and in the
condition in which it was transferred, and did not attempt to undo any
thing that that had been done. And, among the earliest laws passed under
the new Government, is one reviving the ordinance of 1787, which had
become inoperative and a nullity upon the adoption of the Constitution.
This law introduces no new form or principles for its government, but
recites, in the preamble, that it is passed in order that this ordinance
may continue to have full effect, and proceeds to make only those rules
and regulations which were needful to adapt it to the new Government,
into whose hands the power had fallen. It appears, therefore, that this
Congress regarded the purposes to which the land in this Territory was
to be applied, and the form of government and principles of
jurisprudence which were to prevail there, while it remained in the
territorial state, as already determined on by the States when they had
full power and right to make the decision; and that the new Government,
having received it in this condition, ought to carry substantially into
effect the plans and principles which had been previousl