These sales had been made without protest from any one, and the title conferred at each transfer was undisputed, the sovereignty of the purchasing power undeniable.
Confronting these facts, and realizing the difficulty they presented, Mr.Benjamin was reduced to desperate straits for argument.

"Without entering into the details of the negotiation," he said, "the archives of our State Department show the fact to be that although the domain, the public lands and other property of France in the ceded province, were conveyed by absolute title to the United States, the sovereignty was not conveyed _otherwise than in trust_." This peculiar statement of a sovereignty that was "conveyed in trust" Mr.Benjamin attempted to sustain by quoting the clause in the treaty which gave the right of the people of Louisiana to be incorporated into the Union "on terms of equality with the other States." From this he argued that the sovereignty of the _Territory_ of Louisiana held in trust by the Federal Government, and conveyed to the _State_ of Louisiana on her admission to the Union, was necessarily greater than the National sovereignty.

Indeed, Mr.
Benjamin recognized no "Nation" in the United States and no real sovereignty in the General Government which was but the agent of the sovereign States.

It properly and logically followed, according to Mr.Benjamin, that the "sovereignty held in trust," might, when conferred, be immediately and rightfully employed to destroy the life of the trustee.

The United States might or might not admit Louisiana to the Union, for the General Government was sole judge as to time and expediency--but when once admitted, the power of the State was greater than the power of the Government which permitted the State to come into existence.