Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/201

 CH. XXXI.]

§ 1316. next clause of the same article is, "The congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed, as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state." The proviso thus annexed to the power is certainly proper in itself, and was probably rendered necessary by the jealousies and questions concerning the Western territory, which have been already alluded to under the preceding head. It was perhaps suggested by the clause in the ninth article of the confederation, which contained a proviso, "that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States."

§ 1317. The power itself was obviously proper, in order to escape from the constitutional objection already stated to the power of congress over the territory ceded to the United States under the confederation. The clause was not in the original draft of the constitution; but was added by the vote of ten states against one.

§ 1318. As the general government possesses the right to acquire territory, either by conquest, or by treaty, it would seem to follow, as an inevitable consequence, 25