Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/322

302 302 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. The right of Congress to govern the Territories is formally op- posed to the principle that governments " receive their just powers from the consent of the governed," but it is justified by reasons like those by which, as we have seen, Marshall justified taxation without representation. Although Congress cannot surrender its suprem- acy, it usually concedes as large a measure of home rule to the Territories as is expedient. In the language of Chief Justice Chase, the United States have been organized has ever been that of leav- ing to the inhabitants all the power of self-government consistent with the supremacy and supervision of national authority and with certain fundamental principles established by Congress." ^ Alaska is an exception to the rule because of its meagre population. In- deed, many years elapsed before Congress found it advisable to constitute it a " civil and judicial district." Upon reviewing the opinions of the Supreme Court, it is con- fidently aflfirmed that the political control of all territory of the United States outside of the States is vested absolutely in Con- gress, which may prescribe any form of government and grant or withhold political privileges to the people at discretion. But it is affirmed with equal confidence, because upon the same authority, that these Americans possess the same personal and property rights that the people of the States enjoy. In the language of the Supreme Court : " The personal and civil rights of the inhabitants of the Territories are secured to them, as to other citizens, by the principles of constitutional liberty which restrain all the agencies of government, State and National ; their political rights are fran- chises which they hold as privileges in the legislative discretion of the Congress of the United States."^ Bearing in mind the distinction between political privileges and personal rights, we may comprehend the effective meaning of two comments made by distinguished jurists upon the constitutional provision empowering Congress " to dispose of and make all need- ful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States." Chancellor Kent said : " It would seem, from these various congressional regulations of the territories belonging to the United States [Territorial Regulation Acts] that Congress have supreme power in the government of them, depend- 1 Clinton v. Englebrecht, 13 Wall. 434, 441. 2 Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U. S. 15, 44.
 * ' The theory upon which the various governments for portions of