The reference made by the slaveholders to the Missouri compromise, and their alleged willingness to apply that compromise to the conquered territories, utterly stultified their argument against the constitutionality of the Proviso.
If Congress had a right to exclude Slavery from territory purchased of France, and conquered from Mexico, north of 36° 30, they had surely an equal right to exclude it from every part of New Mexico and California. By the Constitution, Congress is constituted the Legislature of the territories, and of course possesses the same power over slavery in them, that a State legislature does within its own jurisdiction.
The bill appropriating three milhons of dollars was, after a severe struggle, carried in the House of Represent- atives, with the Proviso, by 115 to 106. In the Senate, the Proviso was stricken out 31 to 21. The whole in- fluence of the Government, and all the appliances of party discipline, were now put in requisition to induce the House to concur with the Senate, and the Proviso was finally rejected, 102 to 9*7, It will be observed that the total vote on the adoption of the Proviso was 221, and on