WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854,
506
citizens, or to a barren prairie, a wilderness, or even to· forey thousand wild Indians? Is this the diffusive excellence of non- intervention? I sir, am for non-intervention upon the principles which have heretofore been recognized by this Gover!nment. Hitherto, Territories have been organized-within my recollec- tion Alabama, Missouri, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wis- consin, and Iowa, have been organized-and the principle now proposed was not deemed essential to their well-being; and is there any infirmity in their constitutions or their growth? Sir, has any malign influence attached to them from their simple, economical organization? It may be that the word "economy'' is deemed obsolete in the present condition of our Treasury. Were it otherwise, I am simple enough to confess that the or- ganization of two Territories-when there are not people to constitute an ordinary county in one of the populous States of this Union, and when those who do inhabit the Territories are United States soldiers, who are not entitled to vote at elections in the States or Territories-is not a procedure that can be characterized as economical. If the principle of non-intervention be correct, it is correct where the Territories have been governed by laws of Congress until they are prepared to make application for admission as States. Then they have a right to elect their delegates to convention, for the purpose of framing State con- stitutions, which, if accepted by Congress, invest them with all the sovereign rights of States; and then, for the first time, they have the complete power of self-government. A T'erritory under the tutelage of Congress can form no organic laws, either 1 admitting or excluding slavery. A people without organic laws might alternately enact and repeal all Iaws, and re-eriact them without limitation, as they would have no local constitution. Congress has a supervision over the action of all Territories until they become sovereign States. In the formation of State governments, I can say that they have the exclusive right to determine whether they will come into the Union with or without slavery. There, sir, is the application of the principle of non-intervention, and one that I have always maintained. But gentlemen speak of sovereignty-they say that the people are sovereign, and supreme. Sir, I bow with all deference to that sovereignty; but I do not apply the principle to the Ter- ritories in their unorganized and chrysalis condition. Sovereignty implies the power of organization, and a self-acting, self-moving, and self-sustaining principle; but the Territories have it not.
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