"
Although there is want of precision in the article, its scope and
meaning can not be misunderstood. It constitutes a stipulation by which
the United States engage that the inhabitants of Louisiana should be
formed into a State or States, and as soon as the provisions of the
Constitution permit, that they should be admitted as new States into the
Union on the footing of the other States; and before such admission, and
during their territorial government, that they should be maintained and
protected by Congress in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and
religion. The first clause of this stipulation will be executed by the
admission of Missouri as a new State into the Union, as such admission
will impart to the inhabitants of Missouri "all the rights, advantages,
and immunities" which citizens of the United States derive from the
Constitution thereof; these rights may be denominated Federal rights,
are uniform throughout the Union, and are common to all its citizens:
but the rights derived from the Constitution and laws of the States,
which may be denominated State rights, in many particulars differ
from each other.
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