That is the announcement of the
fifth resolution.
* * * * *
These are the general views which I entertain of our right of protection
and the duty of the Government. They are those which are entertained by
the constituency I have the honor to represent, whose delegation has
recently announced those principles at Charleston. I honor them, and I
approve their conduct. I think their bearing was worthy of the
mother-State which sent them there; and I doubt not she will receive
them with joy and gratitude. They have asserted and vindicated her
equality of right. By that asserted equality of right I doubt not she
will stand. For weal or for woe, for prosperity or adversity, for the
preservation of the great blessings which we enjoy, or the trial of a
new and separate condition, I trust Mississippi never will surrender the
smallest atom of the sovereignty, independence, and equality, to which
she was born, to avoid any danger or any sacrifice to which she may
hereby be exposed.
The sixth resolution of the series declares at what time a State may
form a Constitution and decide upon her domestic institutions. I deny
this right to the territorial condition, because the Territory belongs
in common to the States. Every citizen of the United States, as a joint
owner of that Territory, has a right to go into it with any property
which he may possess. These territorial inhabitants require municipal
law, police, and government.
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