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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow XIX. - Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States

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School of Thought: Abolition of Slavery
Subject Area: Political Theory

XIX. - Lysander Spooner, Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States [1860]

Edition used:

Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States (Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860).

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XIX.

Finally, even if it were admitted that congress has power under the constitution to govern countries outside of the United States, under the name of “territories,” still the law of property, as established by the constitution within the United States, would necessarily be the law of those territories; for the constitution would be as much the supreme law of the territories as it is of the United States. If, therefore, the constitution makes a man property within the United States, it would necessarily make him property in the territories. If, on the other hand, the constitution makes every man free within the United States, it would necessarily make every man free in the territories.