The policy of nonintervention in the north was endurable even when peace with the Kitan had to be bought by the payment of an annual tribute.

This will carry out the great principle of nonintervention recognized and sanctioned by the organic act, which declares in express language in favor of "nonintervention by Congress with slavery in the States or Territories," leaving "the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."