Thus the question stands. The Enabling Act has not been complied with in any respect, whether of form or substance. In form it has been openly disregarded; in substance it has been insulted. The failure in form may be pardoned; the failure in substance must be fatal, unless in some way corrected by Congress.
Nobody doubts that Congress, in providing for the formation of a State constitution, may affix conditions. This has been done from the beginning of our history. Search the Enabling Acts, and you will find these conditions. They are in your statute-book, constant witnesses to the power of Congress, unquestioned and unquestionable.
Thus, for instance, the Enabling Act for Nebraska requires three things of the new State as conditions precedent.
_First._ That Slavery shall be forever prohibited.
_Secondly._ That no inhabitant shall be molested in person or property on account of religious worship.
_Thirdly._ That the unappropriated public lands shall remain at the sole disposition of the United States, without being subject to local taxation, and that land of non-residents shall never be taxed higher than that of residents.
Read the Act, and you will find these conditions. Does any Senator doubt their validity? Impossible.
But this is not all. In addition to these three conditions are three others, which in order, if not in importance, stand even before these. They are contained in words already quoted, but strangely forgotten in this debate:--
“That the constitution, when formed, shall be republican, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.”
Consider this clause: you will find it contains three conditions, each of vital force.
_First._ The constitution must be “republican.” It does not say “in form” merely, but “republican”: of course “republican” in substance and reality.
_Secondly._ The constitution must be “not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.” But surely any constitution which contains a discrimination of rights on account of color must be “repugnant” to the Constitution of the United States, which contains no such discrimination. The text of the National Constitution is blameless; but the text of this new constitution is offensive. Hence its repugnancy.