Another point on the Washington act: If it was intended to be modeled
after the Utah and New Mexico acts, as Judge Douglas insists, why was it
not inserted in it, as in them, that Washington was to come in with or
without slavery as she may choose at the adoption of her constitution? It
has no such provision in it; and I defy the ingenuity of man to give a
reason for the omission, other than that it was not intended to follow
the Utah and New Mexico laws in regard to the question of slavery.
The Washington act not only differs vitally from the Utah and New Mexico
acts, but the Nebraska act differs vitally from both. By the latter act
the people are left "perfectly free" to regulate their own domestic
concerns, etc.; but in all the former, all their laws are to be submitted
to Congress, and if disapproved are to be null. The Washington act goes
even further; it absolutely prohibits the territorial Legislature, by
very strong and guarded language, from establishing banks or borrowing
money on the faith of the Territory. Is this the sacred right of
self-government we hear vaunted so much? No, sir; the Nebraska Bill finds
no model in the acts of '50 or the Washington act.
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