Source: https://lonang.com/library/reference/story-commentaries-us-constitution/sto-331/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:40:57+00:00

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§ 1319. No one has ever doubted the authority of congress to erect territorial governments within the territory of the United States, under the general language of the clause, “to make all needful rules and regulations.” Indeed, with the ordinance of 1787 in the very view of the framers, as well as of the people of the states, it is impossible to doubt, that such a power was deemed indispensable to the purposes of the cessions made by the states. So that, notwithstanding the generality of the objection, (already examined,) that congress has no power to erect corporations, and that in the convention the power was refused; we see, that the very power is an incident to that of regulating the territory of the United States; that is, it is an appropriate means of carrying the power into effect.5 What shall be the form of government established in the territories depends exclusively upon the discretion of congress. Having a right to erect a territorial government, they may confer on it such powers, legislative, judicial, and executive, as they may deem best. They may confer upon it general legislative powers, subject only to the laws and constitution of the United States. If the power to create courts is given to the territorial legislature, those courts are to be deemed strictly territorial; and in no just sense constitutional courts, in which the judicial power conferred by the constitution can be deposited. They are incapable of receiving it. They are legislative courts, created in virtue of the general right of sovereignty in the government, or in virtue of that clause, which enables congress to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory of the United States.6 The power is not confined to the territory of the United States; but extends to “other property belonging to the United States;” so that it may be applied to the due regulation of all other personal and real property rightfully belonging to the United States. And so it has been constantly understood, and acted upon.
1. The Federalist, No. 43; ante, ch. 30.
2. Journal of Convention, p. 228, 310, 312, 365.
3. American Insurance Company v. Canter, 1 Peters’s Sup. R. 511, 542. 543; Id. 517, Mr. Justice Johnson’s Opinion.
4. American Insurance Company v. Canter, 1 Peters’s Sup. R. 511, 542, 543.
5. See ante, § 1260, 1261; 4 Jefferson’s Corresp. 523, 525; Hamilton on the Bank of U. S., 1 Hamilton’s Works, 121, 127 to 131; Id. 135, 147, 151; Id. 124, 115 Act of Congress, 7th Aug. 1789, ch. 8.
6. American Insurance Company v. Canter, 1 Peters’s Sup. R. 511, 546.
7. 1 Tuck. Black. Comm. App. 284.
8. 1 Kent’s Comm. Lect. 12, p. 242, 243, Id. Lect. 17, p. 359.
9. Rawle on Const. ch. 27, p. 237; 1 Kent’s Comm. Lect. 12, p. 243; Id. Lect. 17, p. 359, 360.
10. Rawle on Const. ch. 27, p. 240; The People v. Godfrey, 17 Johns. R. 225; Commonwealth v. Young, 1 Hall’s Journal of Jurisp. 47. — Sergeant on Const. ch. 31, [ch. 33.] — Whether the general doctrine in the case of Commonwealth, v. Young, (1 Hall’s Journal 47,) can be maintained, in its application to that case, is quite a different question.
11. Among the extraordinary opinions of Mr. Jefferson, in regard to government in general, and especially to the government of the United States, none strikes. the calm observer with more force, than the cool and calculating manner, in which lie surveys the probable occurrence of domestic rebellions. “I am,” he says, “not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors, indeed, more at their ease, at the expense of the people. The late rebellion in Massachusetts (in 1787) has given more alarm, than I think it should have done. Calculate, that one rebellion in thirteen states, in the course of eleven years, is but one for each state, in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one. Nor will any degree of power in the hands of government prevent insurrections.” Letter to Mr. Madison, in 1787, 2 Jefferson’s Corresp. 276. Is it not surprising, that any statesman should have overlooked the horrible evils, and immense expenses, which are attendant upon every rebellion? The loss of life, the summary exercise of military power, the desolations of the country, and the inordinate expenditures, to which every rebellion must give rise? Is not the great object of every good government to preserve, and perpetuate domestic peace, and the security of property, and the reasonable enjoyment of private rights, and personal liberty? If a state is to be torn into factions, and civil wars, every eleven years, is not the whole Union to become a common sufferer? How, and when are such wars to terminate? Are the insurgents to meet victory or defeat? Has not history established the melancholy truth, that constant wars lead to military dictatorship, and despotism, and are inconsistent with the free spirit of republican governments? If the tranquillity of the Union is to be disturbed every eleventh year by a civil war, what repose can there be for the citizens, in their ordinary pursuits? Will they not soon become tired of a republican government, which invites to such eternal contests, ending in blood, and murder, and rapine? One cannot but feel far more sympathy with the opinion of Mr. Jefferson, in the same letter, in which he expounds the great political maxim, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people.” 9 Jefferson’s Corresp. 276.
12. United States v. Barker, 12 Wheat. R. 559.
13. See, among other cases, United States v. Kirkpatrick, 9 Wheat. R. 720; Furrar v. United States, 5 Peters’s R. 373; Smith v. United States, 5 Peters’s R. 294: United States v. Tingey, 5 Peters’s R. 115; United States v. Buford, 3 Peters’s R. 12, 30.

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