| Show UTAH THE ORDINANCE AND THE constitution THERE ia 14 one recommendation in that part park of the presidents message concerning concerning utah about which little has been said sald the president after recommending a government for utah composed of a and judges or commissioners appointed by the president adds or a government analogous to the provisional I 1 government established e d for the territory northwest of the ohio by the ordinance of 1787 at we do not refer to this now because we attach any importance to td it 1 t as a probable measure of public policy polley or as likely to receive any seri beri ous attention from congress but for the purpose pose of explaining it that it may mayhe be clearly understood by our readers rs many of whom are ie perhaps not familiar with the subject to to which it relates the territory northwest of the ohio was at the time ilme ot althe the passage of bf the ordinance very veny ve ry sparsely settled although of vast extents extent all its POP population combined did not reach a sufficient number to justify organization into a commonwealth and therefore it was ordained by congress th that at until hat that section should have five thousand free male inhabitants it should be under the direction ofa of a governor and three judges who should adopt and publish in the tho district such laws of the original states criminal and civil as might be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district and report them to congress from time to time this was declared to be merely for the purposes of temporary government and these laws when approved by congress were only to be in force in the th edlar ediAr district 10 t until the org niza tion of a general assembly therein elected by the citizens and when the peopled I legislature e isla isia became organized its mei mel members abers were to have authority uth brity to alter those laws lawn as tirey sho should uld think fit previous drevlou to the organization n of a general Ag assembly the governor was to all the inh ind magistrates estrates and other civil officers onn off leers in each erch erih county or township to be the commander in chief of the militia etc oneff one his qualifications albus was wag that he would should reside in the fal district is triet and have a freehold estate therein in one thousand acres of land while in the exercise of his office 12 each of the ibe judges were re required to have a freehold estate in five hundred acres of land in the district the right of trial by jury of habeas corpus cor cof pus and common law jurisprudence were guaranteed to the people but as soon as the district contained five thousand free male inhabitants they were to have authority to elect a local legislature in the proportion of one to hundred citizens the number of members to be increased as the population increased until twenty five members should be elected after which the legislature was itself to regulate the number of its members it was waa also ordained and agreed that as soon as cof consistent isis with the general interest not less than three nor more than five states should be formed in the district and whenever either of these states should have sixty thousand free inhabitants it was ordained and agreed that such state should be admitted by its ita delegates into the congress of the united states on alle alie an equal quai footing with the original states in jn all respects whatever the only proviso to this agreement was that the constitution ution and government of those states should be republican and consistent with the principles r i of the ordinance and if pi in n accordance with the general interest those states might be admitted into the union before their population reached the specified number this agreement was made so it was declared to fix and establish the fun fuu da mental principles of civil and religious legious liberty whereon these republics si their laws and constitutions are erected as the basis of all laws constitutions and governments ern ments in the said territory it will be perceived that this temporary po ary government was only adapted to a district in the most primitive political condition it was considered entirely unfit fora for a community in which were five thousand male in inhabitants habitan ts further the erdl ordinance nance guaranteed the establishment and admission into the union of free states as soon as the population reached readied sixty thousand and announced that this was necessary for the extension to the inhabitants of that district of the very fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty on which the original states were foun founded dedi this ordinance be it observed was enacted before the adoption of the constitution of the united states being signed july 13 1787 while the Constitution awas was not adopted in convention until sept 17 of the same year and then had bad to be ratified by the several states the latter instrument limited and defined the powers of congress and of the president and secured the liberties of the respective states and it is 13 1 3 worthy of note that the organized form of government provided for the uple mple people in the territory northwest of the oh ohio io and out of which the territorial rit orial system has sprung was not called a territory but a state previous to its admission into the union and it was evidently the intention of the founders of our institutions that incipient states were to be secured ina republican form of government that their governors and judges were to be chosen from their own people to be residents and owners of real real estate in the district and that the word territory as used in section II 11 HI I 1 of the constitution related not to an organized local government nor to people not organized but to in land tid rid the absolute property of the united tates states which individuals vi either personally or as a political body cannot rightfully be considered the adoption of the term territory for that imperfect formoe form of government called in the ordinance a state lias has led to confusion of ideas in relation to the territory or landed property of the government this view is evidently correct from a careful consideration of the section it provides for the tho admission of new states into the union and then ther 1 specifies that congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territory or other property belonging to td the united states and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the united states or of any I 1 lir iun ir state what claims could either of the states have on a body of people outside of its limits what right has congress to 11 dispose of 1 I free fred citizens yet out of this simple clause has been evolved the extraordinary theory that tha t congress can do a as 9 it pleases politically with the people as well as the land on which they settle outside of an organized state to ignore and violate the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty on which the original states were based by the establishment of arbitrary rules and regulations b by y forcing upon the people officers having no interests in common with them and against the peoples choice and expressed desires and while taxing them for revenue by depriving them of any real representation their delegate having no vote in congress and they having no vote for the national executive that this was not intended by the framers of the constitution is further evident from the seventeenth clause of section VIII which gives congress power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over a district ten miles square and other places ceded by the states or purchased ly their consent over the district of columbia congress has bris exclusive legislative power but does this extend extended to td organized incipient states whose people are citizens equally with the residents of states having full political powers this specified extension of exclusive legislative power gwei is in legal effect also its limit and the exercise of arbitrary authority over the thu the basis of ofa a strained irrational and anti republic can interpretation of a constitutional provision was one of the first steps of f the national government towards toward that centralization and autocratic domination mi nation which disciples of true democratic mo cratie cratic doctrine yiew view with alarm and which is gradually transforming our national system into a veritable oligarchy returning to the presidential recommendation it will be perceived that if the principles prine princ ples pies which prompted the establishment of the temporary government in the district northwest of the tile ohio are applied to utah territory the latter is entitled to t admission into tile the union on an equal footing with other states and that the only condition to be imposed on onus us is that our constitution i ution and government shall be republic republican au in form also that pending eur our admission into the union as a state our governor judo judges and other officials shall be bona fide residents of the territory owners of real estate therein and thus iden ti nied fied with the people whose interests they are appointed to and that the inhabitants of the territory shall shail always be entitled to the benefits of the writs of habeas corpus and of the trial by jury and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common law the idea of applying to an organized territorial government with laws and institutions of thirty years establishment and with a population of about the make shift forms of it a temporary government proclaimed on its face as only suitable for an inchoate com with less than five thousand male inhabitants is a little too ridiculous di and impracticable for even a congressman anxious for continuance in office and spurred up to anti cM mormon ormon action by forty parson power to entertain with any intention of serious endorsement the power to make all the laws and appoint all the officers to execute and adm administer iniste r them in a territory as large and rich as utah and with such vast and varied opportunities for spoliation I 1 lation and plunder and the exercise exercise of personal religious and party malevolence as it oe de very enticing to the minds which jumped at the conclusion that it would bea be a fi nine fine nothing thing to suggest to the president but is too outrageous project a project for even the most radical of ultra tr Ite republican publican congressmen tor to treat as a measure for legislation or even ven as a subject for serious debate |
