Political Quotes

Horace Mann: “Is there any express power in the constitution authorizing Congress to say to all the citizens of the United States, “If…”

On the record
Is there any express power in the constitution authorizing Congress to say to all the citizens of the United States, “If you wish to buy ungranted land in the territories, you must come to us, for no one else can sell, or shall sell”?
Said by
Horace Mann
Free Soil · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Mann challenges the constitutional authority of Congress in regulating land purchases in territories.

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