And have
they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence
and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of
slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be
warranted by that power? There is no ambiguous implication, no logical
deduction. The paper speaks to the point; they have the power in clear,
unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it."--3
_Elliott's Debates_, 534.
Edmund Randolph, one of the framers of the Constitution, replied to Mr.
Henry, admitting the general force of the argument, but claiming that,
because of other provisions, it had no application to the _States_ where
slavery _then_ existed; thus conceding that power to exist in Congress
as to all territory belonging to the United States.
Dr. Ramsay, a member of the Convention of South Carolina, in his history
of the United States, vol. 3, pages 36, 37, says: "Under these liberal
principles, Congress, in organizing _colonies_, bound themselves to
impart to their inhabitants all the privileges of coequal States, as
soon as they were capable of enjoying them. In their infancy,
_government was administered for them_ without any expense. As soon as
they should have 60,000 inhabitants, they were authorized to call a
convention, and, by common consent, to form their own constitution.
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