Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/314

294 294 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. the Constitution of the United States declares that * Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.'"^ And he said in a later opinion: "In the meantime Florida continues to be a Territory of the United States, governed by virtue of that clause in the Constitution which empowers Con- gress ' to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.' " " Perhaps the power of governing a territory belonging to the United States which has not by becoming a State acquired the means of self-government may result necessarily from the fact that it is not within the jurisdiction of any particular State, and is within the power and jurisdiction of the United States. The right to govern may be the inevitable consequence of the right to acquire territory." ^ In Chief Justice Taney's opinion the power to " make all need- ful rules," etc., refers solely to land ceded by the States and the general power to govern territory " stands firmly " on the right to acquire it,^ and this perhaps is the better because the simpler ground. But, to* quote Chief Justice Marshall again, " Whatever may be the source from which the power is derived, the possession of it is unquestioned."'* And it should be added that the scope of the power must be the same, whichever its source. The States of the Union are under the jurisdiction of two legislatures, — Congress and the State legislature each has its appropriate sphere of authority. The Territories are under the exclusive control of Congress, whose position is defined in the following opinions of the Supreme Court : " By the Constitution, as is now well settled, the United States, having rightfully acquired the- Territories, and being the only government which can impose laws upon them, have the entire dominion and sovereignty, national and municipal, federal and state, over all the Territories, so long as they remain in a territorial condition."^ "Congress may not only abrogate laws of the territorial legislatures, but it may itself legislate directly for the local government. It may make a void 1 Serb V. Pilot, 6 Cranch, 332, 336. 2 American Ins. Co. v. Canter, i Peters, 511, 542. ' Scott V. Sandford, 19 Howard, 393, 432-444. 6 Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. i, 48.
 * American Ins. Co. v. Canter, i Peters, 511, 544.