CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



207 



amendment of the character of the one now 

 under consideration. He claimed that, though 

 Congress passed the proposed amendment by 

 the requisite two-thirds, and three-fourths of 

 the Legislatures of the several States adopted 

 it, or, indeed, all the States save one, it would 

 not legally become a part of the national Con- 

 stitution. These are his words : 



But neither three-fourths of the States, nor all the 

 States save one, can abolish slavery in that dissent- 

 ing State, because it lies within the domain reserved 

 entirely to each State for itself, and upon it the other 

 States cannot enter. 



" Is this position defensible ? If I read the 

 Constitution aright and understand the force 

 of language, the section which I have just 

 quoted is to-day free from all limitations and 

 conditions save two, one of which provides that 

 the suffrage of the several States in the Senate 

 shall be equal, and that no State shall lose this 

 equality by any amendment of the Constitution 

 without its consent ; the other relates to taxa- 

 tion. These are the only conditions and limi- 

 tations. 



"In my judgment, Congress may propose, 

 and three-fourths of the States may adopt, any 

 amendment, republican in its character and 

 consistent with the continued existence of the 

 nation, save in the two particulars just named. 



" If they cannot, then is the clause of the 

 Constitution just quoted a dead letter ; the States 

 sovereign, the Government a confederation, and 

 the United States not a nation." 



" Mr. Speaker, there is not a single section or 

 clause in the national Constitution which clothes 

 the political organizations which we call States 

 with any of the attributes of a sovereign power, 

 but, on the other hand, prohibits in positive and 

 unmistakable language any State from doing 

 any act which a sovereign might do without 

 the consent of Congress. 



"The supreme power of the national Govern- 

 ment is rigorously maintained throughout the 

 Constitution, and it is most emphatically or- 

 dained in article six, clause two, of the Consti- 

 tution, as follows : 



This Constitution, and the laws of the United 

 States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; 

 and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under 

 the authority of the United States, shall be the su- 

 preme law of the land ; and the judges in every 

 State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Con- 

 stitution or laws of any State tc the contrary not- 

 withstanding. 



" Section eight, article one, enumerates seven- 

 teen distinct sovereign powers of a national 

 character conferred on Congress by the Consti- 

 tution, and, as if to leave no doubt on the minds 

 of any, this extraordinary enumeration of powers 

 is followed by this sweeping and significant pro- 

 vision : 



To make all laws which shall be necessary and 

 proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 

 powers, and all other powers vested by this Consti- 

 tution in the Government of the United States, or in 

 any department or officer thereof. 



"If I understand this provision correctly, it 



means that the framers of the Constitution in- 

 tended that the national Government should be 

 intrusted with the interpretation of the Consti- 

 tution, not only as to the construction of the 

 powers delegated by it to Congress, but to all 

 departments of the national Government. They 

 never intended that any State, or any number 

 of States, nor the officials of State governments, 

 should be competent in any capacity to judge 

 of the infractions of the national Constitution 

 by any department of the national Government, 

 nor of the propriety of any law passed by Con- 

 gress. Any citizen has the undoubted right to 

 express his opinions, and criticise the action of 

 the general Government or of any department 

 thereof; but neither is a State nor are the offi- 

 cials of a State clothed with any authority to 

 decide as to the constitutionality of any law 

 passed by Congress, nor as to the propriety of 

 any act done by any department of the national 

 Government. 



"It is past comprehension how any man, with 

 the Constitution before him, and the history of 

 the convention which formed that Constitution 

 within his reach, together with the repeated 

 decisions of the Supreme Court against the 

 assumption of the State rights pretensions, can 

 be found at this late day defending the State 

 sovereignty dogmas, and claiming that the na- 

 tional constitution cannot be so amended as to 

 prohibit slavery, even though all the States of 

 the Union save one give it their approval. 



" That provision of the national Constitution 

 which imposes upon Congress the duty of guar- 

 anteeing to the several States of the Union a 

 republican form of government, is one which 

 impresses me as forcibly as any other with the 

 idea of the utter indefensibility of the State 

 sovereignty dogmas, and of the supreme power 

 intended by the framers of the Constitution to 

 be lodged in the national Government." 



Mr. Orth, of Indiana, followed, saying : 



" The bill now under consideration proposes 

 to submit the following amendment of the Con- 

 stitution to the several States for adoption or 

 rejection, according to the terms prescribed by 

 that instrument, and if ratified by the votes of 

 three-fourths of the States will then become a 

 part of our fundamental law : 



ART. XIII., Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary 

 servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof 

 the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 

 within the United States or any place subject to their 

 jurisdiction. 



Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this 

 article by appropriate legislation. 



"The effect of such amendment will be to 

 prohibit slavery in these United States, and be 

 a practical application of that self-evident truth, 

 ' that all men are created equal ; that they are 

 endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- 

 able rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 

 and the pursuit of happiness. 1 



" This bin originated in the Senate during the 

 last session of Congress, in obedience to what 

 was believed to be the general sentiment of the 



