Speech of Mr. J. A. Woodward of S.C., on the relations between the United States and their territorial districts Page: 4 of 16
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4
being here under the scowls of angry partisans, glared upon by fierce and hun
gry ambition, with its horse-leach cry of "give, give," its Anaconda maw,
that nothing can over-glut, I should find myself in the midst of smiling face=
and sympathetic hearts, the object of hearty gratitude for the present, and pos-
sibly not without hopes of more substantial reward for the future.
But, Mr. Chairman, I shall proceed to the argument. And my intention is
to present a fair and ingenuous argument. I shall wound no gentleman's feel-
ings intentionally, but shall leave every one wholly without excuse for not fol-
lowing an example of frank and liberal discussion.
"The people of the territories have exclusive right to manage their own in-
ternal affairs-to govern themselves." This is one of the propositions to be
met. Sir, their runs throughout this phrase more lurking sophistry than was
ever couched in the same number of words, while on its front it presents about
as available an ad captandum as a politician could find convenient to make use
of for any electioneering emergency whatever.
In the first place, occupants found upon a public domain, external to some
sovereignty owning it, can in no proper sense be called " a people;" if we are
to have any regard for political science as taught from Kant backwards through
the whole train of public writers. Except we mean to repudiate all such politi-
cal science as was recognised and acted on by our forefathers, and assume to or-
dain new doctrines and ideas according as the exigency of party may require, no
one can be war-ranted in calling such inhabitants as I have described "a people."
I have no time allowed me to argue this question. I shall take it for granted
that gentlemen who step forth to argue such questions know something-at
least, that when the occasion indicates the necessity of doing so, they will look
into the books and learn something. How many individuals buying tracts of
land in the public domain would constitute a people ? How close together
should they reside to constitute them one people ? How far apart to make them
two peoples ? How many peoples might they erect themselves into within a
given circumference-say two hundred miles square-and each group declare
itself absolutely independent of the others ?
In the second place, the word territory is a term of geography, used by the
framers of the Constitution in that sense, as synonimous with public lands, or
public domain. The word will be found in the Constitution in the singular
number, not as descriptive of any defined and limited region of country, coin-
cident with a sphere of political jurisdiction, but as applicable to all the public
lands every where in all their detached parts and fractions. But in the lan-
guage of the day, it is used as a political term indicative of a certain form and
condition of society, with established jurisdictional limits, within which, by con-
structive ownership and eminent domain, the people there have the right to
make and enforce law. In short, sir, according to the argument of certain gen-
tlemen, territory means a State, a commonwealth. When our forefathers made
reference to any portion of territory marked out for settlement and political or-
ganization, the word "district" was invariably made use of-the same word that
is applied to the seat of the Federal Government-a term by-the-by that would
never have been applied to a community, supposed to possess the power of
self regulation.
In theo third place: This people, it is said, have a right to manage their own
"internal affairs"-to govern themselves. Now, sir, it is here assumed that
all affairs internal to their supposed limits are their affairs. No one has any
rights there but themselves. True, we, the people of the United States, are the
owners of 99 acres in a hundred of all the lands there, and these inhabitants
could have emigrated thither only by our permission and under our laws, and have
f '.
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Woodward, J. A. Speech of Mr. J. A. Woodward of S.C., on the relations between the United States and their territorial districts, pamphlet, 1848; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth497992/m1/4/?q=%22slav%22: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Schreiner University.