deration.

If it be assumed that the absence of a prohibition was equivalent to the
admission of the power in the Congress of the Confederation, the
assumption would avail nothing in the Congress under the Constitution,
where power is expressly limited to what had been delegated. More
briefly, it may be stated that the Congress of the Confederation could,
like the Legislature of a State, do what had not been prohibited; but
the Congress of the United States could only do what had been expressly
permitted. It is submitted whether this last position is not conclusive
against the possession of power by the United States Congress to
legislate slavery into or exclude it from Territories belonging to the
United States.

This subject, which had for more than a quarter of a century been one of
angry discussion and sectional strife, was revived, and found occasion
for renewed discussion in the organization of Territorial governments
for Kansas and Nebraska. The Committees on Territories of the two Houses
agreed to report a bill in accordance with that recognized principle,
provided they could first be assured that it would receive favorable
consideration from the President. This agreement was made on Saturday,
and the ensuing Monday was the day (and the only day for two weeks) on
which, according to the order of business established by the rules of
the House of Representatives, the bill could be introduced by the
Committee of that House.

On Sunday morning, the 22d of January, 1854, gentlemen of each Committee
called at my house, and Mr. Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee,
fully explained the proposed bill, and stated their purpose to be,
through my aid, to obtain an interview on that day with the President,
to ascertain whether the bill would meet his approbation. The President
was known to be rigidly opposed to the reception of visits on Sunday for
the discussion of any political subject; but in this case it was urged
as necessary, in order to enable the Committee to make their report the
next day. I went with them to the Executive mansion, and, leaving them
in the reception-room, sought the President in his private apartments,
and explained to him the occasion of the visit. He thereupon met the
gentlemen, patiently listened to the reading of the bill and their
explanations of it, decided that it rested upon sound constitutional
principles, and recognized in it only a return to that rule which had
been infringed by t