But it is denied that Congress is under any obligation to confer a republican form of government upon a territory whose inhabitants are unfit for it, or to adopt any form of government devised with reference to preparing it for ultimate admission to the Union as a State.
Reid argues that Congress is not obligated to provide a republican form of government to territories deemed unfit.
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It seems to me, then, idle to thresh over old straw when the grain is not only winnowed, but gone to the mill.
The danger commences with the first extra-continental State.
But proofs were not wanting of the spirit in which, to the very last, the conflict against the Government had been waged.
Let those who invoke the Supreme Law of the land learn and bow to it.