Note 294 — Chapter XI

It is not my purpose to enter into the argument on this question. I have recently had occasion professionally to maintain that the territorial clause is applicable to all territorial cessions made to the United States, whether by States of the Union or by foreign States, and that it clothes the government with a full legislative power over such territories and their inhabitants, which is subject only to the particular restrictions enumerated in the Constitution. Perhaps it is needless for me to add that I entertain this opinion. But it is rejected by others, and, in the present state of judicial interpretation of this part of the Constitution, by the supreme tribunal, it is not easy to determine what will finally become the settled construction.