Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Attacking the W ilmot P roviso , Senator John C alhoun introduced resolutions on 19 February 1847 to demand that territories be opened to SLAVERY. He stated that as territories were the common property of all states, Congress must organize the west to give equal access to all citizens, including slaveowners who wished to move there with their bondsmen. To force masters moving west to abandon their slaves would violate F ifth A mendment guarantees against taking property without due process . To deny a territory's people the right to adopt slavery violated their right to self-determination; it also exceeded Congress's authority over the public domain , since the Constitution placed no condition for admitting states except that they have republican governments. Calhoun's position defined the South's argument on slavery in the territories until the D avis R esolutions. ... log in or subscribe to read full text