nance of 1787, which was older than the Constitution, and which contained certain articles of compact forever unalterable unless by the common consent of the original states and the people of the territory. The ordinance in terms provided that, after passing through a probationary period of national control, this territory was ultimately to be organized into states. No express power was given by the Constitution to the federal government to acquire new territory, but the power has been held by the Supreme Court to be implied. As Chief - Justice Marshall put it: "The Constitution confers absolutely upon the government of the Union the powers of making war and of making treaties; consequently that government possesses the power of acquiring territory, either by conquest or by treaty."' This view is in thorough accord with the principles of our constitutional system, and does not require an argument, sometimes advanced, that territory may be acquired under an inherent power of sovereignty-an argument which ignores the fundamental principle of the Constitution that the federal government possesses only enumerated powers." As to the status of territory acquired by the United States, the Constitution is not specific, but there are two clauses bearing on the subject: (1) "The Congress shall have power to dispose of and 1 Am. Insurance Co. vs. Canter, 7 Peters, 511. make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States"; (2) "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." These clauses have been upheld and expounded in numerous judicial decisions. The first territory annexed by the new government was Louisiana, purchased from France in 1803. President Jefferson, as is well known, would have preferred a constitutional amendment authorizing the annexation, but his constitutional scruples were finally sacrificed to the demands of expediency. The question as to the political status of the inhabitants was, however, settled in the treaty: "The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they profess." 1 The question as to the time when the Constitution and laws of the United States should be made to apply to the new territory was left to the discretion of Congress. By act of October 31, 1803, the government of the territory was temporarily vested 1U. S. Treaties and Conventions, 332; cf. Channing, Jeffersonian System (Am. Nation, XII.), chap. vi. in the president in these words: "Until the expiration of the present session of Congress, unless provision for the temporary government of the said territories be sooner made by Congress, all the military, civil, and judicial powers, exercised by the officers of the existing government of the same, shall be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of Louisiana in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and religion." 1 President Jefferson interpreted this to mean that the local laws of the province as they then existed should continue in force until modified by Congress. Accordingly, Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury, wrote to the newly appointed governor of the territory the day the above act was passed, saying: "It is understood that the existing duties on imports and exports, which by the Spanish laws are now levied within the province, will continue until Congress shall have otherwise provided." February 24, 1804, Congress passed an act extending to Louisiana the laws of the United States regulating duties on imports and tonnage; and on March 26 another act was passed organizing a territorial government and extending to the inhabitants specifically certain provisions of the U. S. Statutes at Large (Peters ed.), II., 245. Magoon, Law of Civil Government under Military Occupation, bill of rights, which act, by the well-known rules of interpretation, withheld the provisions not specifically enumerated.' These facts seem to warrant the statement that the view taken at this time was that the Constitution did not extend ex proprio vigore to newly annexed territory. When Florida was annexed, Andrew Jackson as governor, John Quincy Adams as secretary of state, and James Monroe as president, as well as Congress, all acted on the same principle-namely, that the Constitution and laws of the United States did not extend to newly acquired territory without express action by Congress. Substantially the same course of action was followed as to the Mexican cession of 1848, the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, and the Alaska purchase of 1867: in each of these cases the treaty of cession provided specifically that the inhabitants should at the proper time be admitted to the full rights of citizens of the United States, so that the withholding of portions of the Constitution and laws of the United States was not intended to be of long duration. The treaty negotiated by President Harrison for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1893, later withdrawn from the Senate by President Cleve 1U. S. Statutes at Large (Peters ed.), II., 283. For documents in the controversy between General Jackson and Judge Fromentin, see Magoon, Law of Civil Government under Military Occupation, 137. 'Cross vs. Harrison, 16 Howard, 164; cf. Garrison, Westward Extension (Am. Nation, XVII.), chap. xix. land,' likewise provided that these islands should become an integral part of the United States and that within one year Congress should extend to them the customs and navigation laws of the United States. In the mean time the existing commercial relations with the United States and with foreign countries were continued. The annexations of 1898-1899, however, presented new problems, which called for new solutions. Such was the case with the Hawaiian Islands, the annexation of which, while a natural consummation of American policy, was hastened by the war with Spain. In June, 1897, President McKinley negotiated and submitted to the Senate a treaty providing for the annexation of this group of islands, under which they were to be "incorporated into the United States as an integral part thereof"; but, until legislation should be enacted extending the United States customs laws to the islands, the existing customs relations with the United States and other countries were to remain unchanged. This treaty was opposed in the Senate on grounds both of principle and of policy, so that in March, 1898, the advocates of annexation gave up all hope of securing a two-thirds majority for a treaty, and determined to gain their end by a joint resolution. The new measure passed the 1 Dewey, National Problems (Am. Nation, XXIV.), chap. xiii. ? Senate Com. on For. Rels., Compilation of Reports, VII., 281. Ibid., 283. |