The Elk Mountain pilot., 1901-06-11
The Supreme Court Decision.

| OF our new pOSSeSSlOHS dDSOluIely, anu
| puts an end to all doubt as to the
| power of Congress to deal with them
as it sees fit
| The important case-that which in
volved directly the legality of the
Porto Rican tariff-was the Downes
| case; and the decision IN this case up
holds as strongly as words can be
made to do it the contention of the gov
ernment that Congress has the power
to deal in any way it may see fit with
acquired possessions. On this point
Justice Brown said:
1.-THE practical Interpretation put by
Congress upon the constitution has
been long continued and uniform to
the effect that the constitution is ap-
plicable to territories acquired by pur-
chase or conquest only when and SO
far as Congress shall so direct Not
withstanding its duty to guarantee to
every state in this union Republican
form of government Congress did not
hesitate in the original organization of
the territory and it's subdivisions of
Wisconsin, and still more recently in
the case of Alaska, to establish a form
of government bearing n much greater
analogy to a British crown policy than
u republican state of America, and to
vest the legislative power in a gov
ernor and council, or governor and
judges to be appointed by the Presi-
dent.
I'VE are also of the opinion that
power to acquire territory by treaty
implies not only the power to govern
such territory, but to prescribe upon
what terms the United States will re-
ceive its inhabitants and what their
status shall be in what Chief Justice
Marshall termed the American en-
pire.'"
Justice White, in his concurring
opinion, put the opinion of the court
even more strongly, if possible. He
said:
1T is then as l think, indubitably
settled by the principles of the law of
nations, by the nature of the govern
ment created under the constitution by
the express and implied powers con-
ferred upon that government by the
constitution, by the mode in which
those powers have been executed from
the beginning, and by an unbroken line
of decisions of this court, first an
nounced by Marshall and followed and
lucidly expounded by Taney, that the
treaty-making power cannot incorpor-
ate territory into the United States
without the expressed and implied as
sent of Congress, that it may assert
| in n treaty conditions against imme-
| diate incorporation. 1t must follow,
therefore, that where treaty contains
no conditions for incorporation, and,
above all, where 1t not only has no
such conditions but expressly provides
to the contrary, Incorporation does not
arise until in the wisdom of Congress
it is deemed that the acquired terri
tory has reached that state where 1t
is proper it should enter into and
form n part of the American family"
Justice Gray, who also delivered n
bIl3Ilpu III llllS case,
clinched the matter as follows:
'The civil government of the United
States cannot extend Immediately.
and of its own force. over territory ac-
quired by war. Such territory must
necessarily, in the first instance. be
governed by the military power under
the control of the President as com.
mander-in-chief. Civil government
cannot take effect as soon as posses
sion Is acquired under military author
ity or ey1n as soon as that possession
is confirmed by treaty. 1t can be put
in operation only by the action of the
appropriate political department of
the government at such time and in
such degree as that department may
determine. There must of necessity
be n transition period.
80 long as Congress has not incor-
porated tie territory into the United
States, neither military occupation nor
cession by treaty makes the conquered
territory domestic territory in the
sense of revenue laws. But those laws
concerning foreign countries remain
applicable to the conquered territory
until changed by Congress. Such was
the unanimous opinion of this court,
as declared by Chief Justice Taney in
Felming VS.. Page page, 8 How.
IF Congress is not ready to con
struct complete government of the
conquered territory it may establish
temporary government which is not
constitution.