[9] The judicial power of the Territory remained as provided for in the 4th section, in judges appointed for four years, and without the right of jury trial in civil cases. The legislative power was vested in a Governor and council appointed by the President, and their acts subject to the approval or disapproval of Congress. The following is the section:
Sec. 4. The legislative powers shall be vested in the Governor, and in thirteen of the most fit and discreet persons of the Territory, to be called the Legislative Council, who shall be appointed annually by the President of the United States from among those holding real estate therein, and who shall have resided one year at least in the said Territory, and hold no office of profit under the Territory or the United States. The Governor, by and with advice and consent of the said Legislative Council, or of a majority of them, shall have power to alter, modify, or repeal the laws which may be in force at the commencement of this act. Their legislative powers shall also extend to all the rightful subjects of legislation; but no law shall be valid which is inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, or which shall lay any person under restraint, burden, or disability, on account of his religious opinions, professions, or worship; in all which he shall be free to maintain his own, and not burdened for those of another. The Governor shall publish throughout the said Territory all the laws which shall be made, and shall from time to time report the same to the President of the United States, to be laid before Congress; which, if disapproved of by Congress, shall thenceforth be of no force.
[10] The yeas and nays were so nearly the same on every question that one set will answer for the whole.
[11] Of the 21 who voted against this bill, almost the whole were from the non-slaveholding States.
[12] The object of this bill was, not to increase the amount of duty, but to increase the list of specific duties by transferring ad valorems to it as a means of diminishing frauds and the expenses of collection.
[13] This was the whole ceremony. No eulogium was pronounced, nor any adjournment moved, and in the House of Representatives the event was not noticed. And this was the custom at that early time.
[14] This was the commencement of Mr. Gaillard’s long Senatorial service, terminated only by death, and during which, from vacancies and absences in the Vice Presidential office, he was almost continually President pro tempore of the Senate.
[15] This was after the duel of Col. Burr with General Hamilton, which event probably influenced the negative vote.
[16] A more beautiful or more patriotic address was never delivered. How little could the hearers have supposed that, in three years, the author would be on trial for High Treason.
[17] The interference of the Internal Revenue officers with the politics of the country, was one of the reasons for preferring the system of Custom House Duties to direct taxes; it may be a question whether the concentration of the revenue officers in the Custom Houses, and the vast number which the ad valorem system admits of, may not have given to that evil a more dangerous form.