Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/409

389 THE STATUS OF OUR NEW TERRITORIES, 389 word "admission" may have been tliought objectionable, that word having become associated with the practice of admitting as States territory akeady within the sovereignty of the United States. The acquisition of Texas was peculiar also in another respect, namely, that it was the acquisition of an independent State with her own consent. In this respect, the case of Hawaii is similar to that of Texas; and this may account for the fact that Hawaii was acquired by the process (so called) of annexation.^ But, however this may be, the mode in which Hawaii was acquired does not at all affect her status when acquired, nor make it different from that of the Spanish islands which have been acquired by conquest and by treaty with Spain. What has been the practice of Congress in respect to those branches of legislation which the Constitution ^ requires to be uni- form throughout the United States, and does such practice indicate that Congress has held itself bound by the Constitution to make such legislation uniform throughout all territory within the sover- eignty of the United States? First, the undoubted fact that there has been hitherto no want of uniformity in the taxes, duties, im- posts, and excises laid and collected by Congress, nor in the rules of naturalization, or the laws on the subject of bankruptcies^ estab- lished by Congress, proves nothing; for there has not hitherto been the slightest reason why legislation upon each of these subjects should not be uniform throughout all the territory over which it extended; nor have there been even two opinions upon the ques- tion. Secondly, the earliest legislation respecting duties upon imports and tonnage ^ was limited in its operation to the States. This, however, may not have involved any constitutional question, as it did not follow that there was to be "free trade" between the territories and foreign countries, but rather that foreign goods could not enter the territories at all, for want of any ports of entry.* ' Another point of similarity between Texas and Hawaii is, that both were acquired by joint resolution. The resolution of March i, 1845, by which Texas was acquired (5 Stats. 797) is entitled, "Joint Resolution for annexing Texas to the United States;" but neither the verb "annex," nor the noun "annexation," occurs in the resolution itself. The resolution of July 7, 1898, by which Hawaii was acquired, is entitled, "Joint Reso- lution to provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States;" and the resolution itself declares "that the said Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies be, and they are hereby annexed as a part of the territory of the United States, and are subject to the sovereign dominion thereof." ' ^ Acts of July 31, 1789, ch. 5 (i Stats. 29), and Aug. 4, 1790, ch. 57 (i Stats. 145).
 * Art. I, sec. 8, subsects. i and 4.
 * There was, however, early legislation imposing excise duties, and this was also