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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1850
122
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but, I believe, had I possessed it, I could not have been more fortunate in the expression of the very view which I entertained. Mr. Calhoun's resolution of the l 9th February, 1847, was here read, as follows: "Resolved, That it is a fundamental principle in our political creed, that a people, in forming a constitution, have the uncon- ditional right to form and adopt the government which they may think best calculated to secure their liberty, prosperity, and happiness; and in conformity thereto no other condition is im- posed by the Federal Constitution on a State, in order to be , admitted into this Union, except that its constitution shall be 'republican,' and that the imposition of any other by Congress would not only be in violation of the Constitution, but in direct conflict with the principle on which our political system rests." Sir, this is the old Missouri line policy, and that which should be adhered to with reference to the Territories which have been recently acquired. We have examples of the adoption of this policy in various instances; as, for example, in the admission of Texas into this Confederacy of States, I have always believed, Mr. President, that Congress does not possess the power to interfere with the subject of slavery, and I further believe that, so far as any expectation or hope of compromise is involved in this matter, the only method for the attainment of that object is for the North to abstain from all encroachments upon southern rights. The surrender of fugitive slaves is guaranteed by the Constitution, and I can conceive no serious cause of difficulty that can grow out of that question, if the constitutional provision is regarded. Let the North abstain from all encroachments upon southern rights in relation to the Territories and the-District of Columbia; then I believe that all serious ground of complaint, upon the part of the South, will be removed. I maintain that when the Territories are erected into States by their own action, that, in the formation of their constitutions, under which they ask admission, the people of the Territories have the right to give their own form to their own institutions, and in their own way. Let these grounds be assumed-and they are grounds, which it seems to me, the North and South can take without the sacrifice of any principle-then no collision can occur, and all complaint will cease. It will be a reconciliation, an adjustment of all the causes of difference which now agitate the Union. And I trust that these views may prevail. We do not ask the North
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