But for the rest, what did it all come to?
Lincoln contended that Congress had the power to forbid slavery in the
territories; Douglas worked up from a position, which scarcely denied
the power, but rather shrank from its use, to the position that
sovereignty abode in the people of the territory; and that as Congress
has no express grant of power to legislate upon slavery as to a
territory, the territorial sovereignty had the only power to do so. He
attacked Lincoln's position that a territory is a creature of Congress
as a property, to be clothed with powers or denied powers; and
particularly with powers not possessed by Congress itself. This doctrine
led to imperialism. Douglas held that Congress had the power to organize
territories under the clause providing for the admission of new states;
but when they were organized they assumed an organic sovereignty out of
an inchoate sovereignty, and had the right to legislate as they chose to
the same extent as a state. It was the old fight between implied powers
and strict construction.
What in the Constitution forbade slaves from being taken into the
territories? Not a thing. Moreover the territories were the commons of
all the states, won by their common valor and blood. Could not a liquor
dealer from Chicago take his stock to Kansas? Assuredly.
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