."

In 1802, Georgia ceded her western territory to the United States,
with the provision that the ordinance of 1787 should in all its parts
extend to the territory ceded, "that article only excepted which
forbids slavery." Congress had no more power to legislate slavery
_out_ from the North Carolina and Georgia cessions, than it had power
to legislate slavery in, north of the Ohio. No power existed in
Congress to legislate at all, affecting slavery, in either case. The
inhabitants, as respected this description of property, stood
protected whilst they were governed by Congress, in like manner that
they were protected before the cession was made, and when they were,
respectively, parts of North Carolina and Georgia.

And how does the power of Congress stand west of the Mississippi
river? The country there was acquired from France, by treaty, in 1803.
It declares, that the First Consul, in the name of the French
Republic, doth hereby cede to the United States, in full sovereignty,
the colony or province of Louisiana, with all the rights and
appurtenances of the said territory. And, by article third, that "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 enjoyment of all
the rights, advantages, and immunities, of citizens of the United
States; and, in the mean time, they shall be maintained and protected
in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion
which they profess."

Louisiana was a province where slavery was not only lawful, but where
property in slaves was the most valuable of all personal property. The
province was ceded as a unit, with an equal right pertaining to all
its inhabitants, in every part thereof, to own slaves. It was, to a
great extent, a vacant country, having in it few civilized
inhabitants. No one portion of the colony, of a proper size for a
State of the Union had a sufficient number of inhabitants to claim
admission into the Union. To enable the United States to fulfil the
treaty, additional population was indispensable, and obviously desired
with anxiety by both sides, so that the whole country should, as soon
as possible, become States of the Union. And for this contemplated
future population, the treaty as expressly provided as it did for the
inhabitants residing in the province when the treaty was made. All
these were to be pr