Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/331

311 CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF ANNEXATION. 31I war, which gives the President a roving commission to invade and hold enemy country. In Fleming v. Page,^ the power to make war and the character of belligerent occupation were carefully considered. Chief Justice Taney said : " A war . . . declared by Congress can never be pre- sumed to be waged for the purpose of conquest or the acquisition of territory ; nor does the law declaring the war imply an authority to the President to enlarge the limits of the United States by subju- gating the enemy's country. The United States, it is true, may extend its boundaries by conquest or treaty, and may demand the cession of territory as the condition of peace, in order to indemnify its citizens for the injuries they have suffered, or to reimburse the government for the expenses of the war. But this can be done only by the treaty-making power or the legislative authority, and is not a part of the power conferred upon the President by the declaration of war. His duty and his power are purely military. As commander-in-chief, he is authorized to direct the movements of the naval and military forces placed by law at his command, and to employ them in the manner he may deem most effectual to har- ass and conquer and subdue the enemy. He may invade the hos- tile country and subject it to the sovereignty and authority of the United States. But his conquests do not enlarge the boundaries of this Union, nor extend the operation of our institutions and laws beyond the limits before assigned to them by the legislative power. " It is true that, when Tampico had been captured, and the State of Tamaulipas subjugated, other nations were bound to regard the country, while our possession continued, as the territory of the United States, and to respect it as such. For, by the laws and usages of nations, conquest is a valid title, while the victor main- tains the exclusive possession of the conquered country. The citizens of no other nation, therefore, had a right to enter it with- out the permission of the American authorities, nor to hold inter- course with its inhabitants, nor to trade with them. As regarded all other nations, it was a part of the United States, and belonged to them as exclusively as the territory included in our established boundaries. " But yet it was not a part of this Union. For every nation which acquires territory by treaty or conquest holds it according to its own institutions and laws. And the relation in which the port of ^ 9 Howard, 603, 615.