he Senate and the country; and that
is, Would Congress have accepted the cession with any such restraint
upon its constitutional power, either express or understood to be
implied? I think not. Looking back to the state of things then existing,
and especially to what Congress had so recently done, when it accepted
the cession of the Northwestern Territory, I entertain no doubt whatever
that Congress would have refused the cession altogether, if offered with
any condition or understanding that its constitutional authority to
exercise exclusive legislation over the District in all cases whatsoever
should be abridged.

The Senate will observe that I am speaking solely to the point of
plighted faith. Upon other parts of the resolution, and upon many other
things connected with it, I have said nothing. I only resist the
imposition of new obligations, or a new prohibition, not to be found, as
I think, either in the Constitution or any act of Congress. I have said
nothing on the expediency of abolition, immediate or gradual, or the
reasons which ought to weigh with Congress should that question be
proposed. I can, however, well conceive what would, as I think, be a
natural and fair mode of reasoning on such an occasion.

When it is said, for instance, by way of argument, that Congress,
although it have the power, ought not to take a lead in the business of
abolition, considering that the interest which the United States have in
the whole subject is vastly less than that which States have in it, I
can understand the propriety and pertinency of the observation. It is,
as far as it goes, a pertinent and appropriate argument, and I shall
always be ready to give it the full weight belonging to it. When it is
argued that, in a case so vital to the States, the States themselves
should be allowed to maintain their own policy, and that the government
of the United States ought not to do any thing which shall, directly or
indirectly, shake or disturb that policy, this is a line of argument
which I can understand, whatever weight I may be disposed to give to it;
for I have always not only admitted, but insisted, that slavery within
the States is a subject belonging absolutely and exclusively to the
States themselves.

But the present is not an attempt to establish any such course of
reasoning as this. The attempt is to set up a pledge of the public
faith, to do the same office that a constitutional prohibition in terms
would do; that i