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396 396 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. were uneasy and dissatisfied. Expedition was necessary. If in the presence of such conditions all political parties were in agreement as to the main doctrine to be applied, the precedent, as a record of legislative construction on a point of constitutional law is of all the more importance. The Act of Congress of Oct. 31, 1803, passed by large majorities in each house, to meet the case, was a brief one. It gave the Presi- dent carte blanche. He was authorized to take possession and occupy, using such force as might be necessary to maintain the authority of the United States, and calling out not exceeding 8o,cco of the State militia, if he thought proper. Then followed this plenary grant of general authority: "That, until the expiration of the present session of congress, unless provision for the temporary government of the- said territories be sooner made by congress, all the military, civil, and judicial powers exercised by the officers of the existing government of the same shall be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct, for maintaining and protect- ing the inhabitants of Louisiana in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and reUgion." Jefferson immediately despatched commissioners to New Orleans to receive the surrender of possession, and mvested one of them, Governor Claiborne, of the Territory of Mississippi, with aU the powers theretofore exercised over the Louisiana territory by the Governor General and Intendant under the authority of Spain. This made him a temporary king, and constituted the system of government imder which Louisiana remained until October of the following year. The Governor General, under the laws and usages of Spain, had almost royal authority. He promulgated ordinances which had the force of a statute. He appointed and removed at pleasure commandants over each local subdivision of territory.^ He presided over the highest court. The Intendant, however, was a coimter- poise. He was chief of the departments of Finance and Com- merce. He acted as a Comptroller General, on whose warrant only could payments be made from the treasury.^ He was also Judge of the courts of admiralty and exchequer. Both these offices Jefferson put in the hands of one man. ' Public Documents, 8th Congress. An account of Louisiana, being an Abstract of Documents in the Ofi&ces of the Department of State, and of the Treasury, Nov. 1803, 39> 40. * IbU., 33, 41.