With Such A Clause In The Constitution As That,
It Is Hardly Too Much To Say That No Free-Soil Slate Will Consent To
Constitutional Action.
Were it expunged from the Constitution, no
slave State would consent to live under it.
It is a point as to
which the advocates of slavery and the enemies of slavery cannot be
brought to act in union. But on this head I have already said what
little I have to say.
New States may be admitted by Congress, but the bounds of no old
State shall be altered without the consent of such State. Congress
shall have power to rule and dispose of the Territories and property
of the United States. The United States guarantee every State a
republican form of government; but the Constitution does not define
that form of government. An ordinary citizen of the United States,
if asked, would probably say that it included that description of
franchise which I have called universal suffrage. Such, however,
was not the meaning of those who framed the Constitution. The
ordinary citizen would probably also say that it excluded the use of
a king, though he would, I imagine, be able to give no good reason
for saying so. I take a republican government to be that in which
the care of the people is in the hands of the people. They may use
an elected president, a hereditary king, or a chief magistrate
called by any other name. But the magistrate, whatever be his name,
must be the servant of the people and not their lord.
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