ing out how shadowy the distinction between the condition of
the servile African and that to which the white freeman of my State
would be reduced, if it, indeed, be true that they are bound to this
government by ties that cannot be legitimately dissevered without
the consent of that very majority which wields its powers for their
oppression. I simply deny the fact on which the argument is
founded. I deny that the province of Louisiana, or the people of
Louisiana, were ever conveyed to the United States for a price as
property that could be bought or sold at will. Without entering
into the details of the negotiation, the archives of our State
Department show the fact to be, that although the domain, the public
lands, and other property of France in the ceded province, were
conveyed by absolute title to the United States, the sovereignty was
not conveyed otherwise than in trust.

A hundredfold, sir, has the Government of the United States been
reimbursed by the sales of public property, of public lands, for the
price of the acquisition; but not with the fidelity of the honest
trustee has it discharged the obligations as regards the
sovereignty.

I have said that the government assumed to act as trustee or
guardian of the people of the ceded province, and covenanted to
transfer to them the sovereignty thus held in trust for their use
and benefit, as soon as they were capable of exercising it. What is
the express language of the treaty?

"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the
Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible,
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the
enjoyments of all rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of
the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and
protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the
religion which they profess."

And, sir, as if to mark the true nature of the cession in a manner
too significant to admit of misconstruction, the treaty stipulates
no price; and the sole consideration for the conveyance, as stated
on its face, is the desire to afford a strong proof of the
friendship of France for the United States. By the terms of a
separate convention stipulating the payment of a sum of money, the
precaution is again observed of stating that the payment is to be
made, not as a consideration or a price or a condition precedent of
the cession, but it is carefully distinguished