Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/413

393 GOVERNMENT OF ISLAND TERRITORY. 393 THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS INCIDENT TO THE ACQUISITION AND GOVERNMENT BY THE UNITED STATES OF ISLAND TERRITORY. ONE of the most important questions with which the Conven- tion that framed the Constitution of the United States had to deal was that as to the disposition and government of the Western lands, with which the new nation was to be endowed. The Congress of the Confederation had undertaken to determine it for all time in 1784 and again in 1787, but by what authority? Let us turn to the "Federalist" for an answer. Madison there an- swers very plainly and very truly that they had none. After saying that the cessions of territory then made and which might reasonably be expected, would place a mine of vast wealth in the hands of the new government, he proceeds thus: — "We may calculate, therefore, that a rich and fertile country, of an area equal to the inhabited extent of the United States, will soon become a national stock. Congress having assumed the administration of this stock, they have begun to render it productive. Congress have under- taken to do more: they have proceeded to form new States; to erect temporary governments; to appoint oflScers for them; and to prescribe the conditions on which . such States shall be admitted into the confed- eracy. All this has been done ; and done without the least color of con- stitutional authority." ^ In the discussions of the constitutional convention there was a decided difference of opinion as to the measure of local self- government to which the settlers on this frontier ground ought to be held entitled. Some favored the policy of the Confederation by which certain fundamental principles were laid down as Articles of compact between the old. States and the new territory. Some were for admitting no new States on a footing of equality with the original thirteen. The men of Vermont and of "Franklin" were a rough and turbulent set. There were many who thought they needed to be held in check by a strong government. . The result was the adoption of a clause drafted with the diplo- matic skill which was possessed in so rare a degree by Gouvemeur Morris. He meant it, he tells us in two striking letters to which
 * Federalist, No. 38.