As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it “shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.”

A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves.

This is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance.  Besides, it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled.  To their decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be, though it has ever been my individual opinion that under the Nebraska-Kansas act the appropriate period will be when the number of actual residents in the Territory shall justify the formation of a constitution with a view to its admission as a State into the Union.  But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the Government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote.  This sacred right of each individual must be preserved.  That being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all foreign interference to decide their own destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.

The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the principle of popular sovereignty—­a principle as ancient as free government itself—­everything of a practical nature has been decided.  No other question remains for adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the respective States themselves wherein it exists.  May we not, then, hope that the long agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that the geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, will speedily become extinct?  Most happy will it be for the country when the public mind shall be diverted from this question to others of more pressing and practical importance.  Throughout the whole progress of this agitation, which has scarcely known any intermission for more than twenty years, whilst it has been productive of no positive good to any human being it has been the prolific source of great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole country.  It has alienated and estranged the people of the sister States from each other, and has even seriously endangered the very existence of the Union.  Nor has the danger yet entirely ceased.  Under our system there is a remedy for all mere political evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people.  Time is a great corrective.  Political subjects which but a few years ago excited and exasperated