Remarks on Popular Sovereignty As Maintained and Denied Respectively by Judge Douglas, and AttorneyGeneral Black Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Remarks on Popular Sovereignty: As Maintained and Denied Respectively by Judge Douglas, and Attorney-General Black

And guarantees which have been provided for the protection of private property against the encroachments of the gov and, after referring to the fugitive clause as expressly affirming the right Of property in a slave, the Chief Justice thus concludes: And no word can be found in the Constitution which gives congress greater power over slave property, OR which entitles property OF that kind TO less protection than property OF any other description. All, therefore, that the Court has decided, is that slaves are property, as much so as any thing else that may be owned by man, and that such property is entitled to the same - not to less or greater - constitutional guarantees as any other description of property. This being Obviously the doctrine of the Court, it necessarily follows, that whatever a constitutional government can do in regard to any other kind Of property, it can do in regard to this. If any other kind may be excluded, this may be excluded; if any other kind may be more, or less, or not at all protected by legislation, the same is true as to this. If any other, after its legal introduction, can be, upon public grounds, excluded or abolished, it is also the case as to this. It is but sameness, identity of title and protection, which the Court maintains, not inferior or paramount - that all stand on the same footing, liable alike to the same restrictions and limitations, and entitled to the same guarantees. What is there in this species of property to exempt it from territo rial legislative power? What is there, to make it the peen liar and single duty of such a power to legislate for its admission or protection? If it be but property, and, as such, only embraced by constitutional guarantees, it must Share the condition of all other property, and therefore be subject to the legislative power. If this is not true, the ter ritorial State would be almost without laws,-be one of nature. The peace and prosperity of the people depend upon laws defining and regulating property. Without such a power, property itself Would be in a great degree out of the pale of protection. But if the power exists, it must depend upon those who possess it, how they will, in any particular.

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