Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/189

* TERRITORIES. 149 TERRITORIES. gating a total area of about 902,030 square miles. Tlu'y may be elassitied as ( 1 ) oiyanizeil Terri- tories; (2) unorganized Territories; (3) the Federal District; and (4) the insular possessions. In the first class belong Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. To the second belong the Indian Territory and Ala>ka. The organized Territories and Hawaii among the insular possessions have popularly elected local legislatures of two chamliers chosen for a term of two years by a sutl'rage determined by local law. This legisla- tive power extends to all rightful subjects not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, but any law passed is subject to the veto of Congress. The executive power is vested in Governors appointed for a term of four years by the President of the United States with the consent of the Senate. In the organized Territories there is a series of courts of which the higher ones are held by judges appointed for a term of four years by the President. These courts are not, however, a part of the Federal judiciary. The other important olficers of the Territory are likewise appointed by the Presi- dejit and are paid from the Treasury of the United States. The Governors and judges of the Supreme Court receive $3000 a year. The Ter- ritories are not regularly represented in Con- gress, hut are allowed to send a delegate, who is given a seat in the House of Representatives with a right to take part in the deliates, but not to vote. For the government of Alaska, the Imlian Territory, the District of Columbia, Porto Eieo, the Samoan Islands, and the Philippine Islands, see these titles. By the United States Constitution the Xational Congress is given power "to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." From the beginning this clause was construed as giving the powers incident to jurisdiction as well as to ownership, and even before the adop- tion of the Constitution the Northwest Terri- tory was regularly organized by the old Confed- eration Congress, which for this purpose passed the famous Ordinance of 17S7. (See Northwest Territory.) This ordinance served as the model for nuich of the subsequent legislation in. the same field, though there were a number of im- portant variations. Thus, in the organization of the Territories of Tennessee and Mississippi the clause of the Ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slav- ery was omitted. Of the present States of the United States all, except the original thirteen and Vermont, Maine, Kentucky, West Virginia, Texas, and California, have passed through the Territo- rial stage. Vermont, Kentucky, Maine, and West A^irginia were each formed out of territory which belonged to one of the original thirteen States, and Texas and California were regularl_y admitted to Statehood without ever having been organized as Territories. The size of many of the Terri- tories, however, differed widely from the size of the States which bear the same names, and there Tias been a radical changing of boimdaries. Thus the Territory of 7Iississippi originally included Alabama: the Territory of Indiana as organized in isn4 contained nil of the Northwest Territory except Ohio: the Territory of Illinois as organ- ized in ISO!) included the land now constituting the States of Illinois and Wisconsin, and part of Upper Michigan; the Territory of Michigan after 1834 included all of the territory north of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and be- tween Lakes Erie and Huron and the Missouri River; the Territory of Oregon as organized in 1848 covered all the territory of the United States north of latitude 42° N., and west of the Rocky Jlountains: and the Territory of Nebraska as organized in 1854 contained land now in Mon- tana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Colorado. In connection with the slavery controversy the extent of the power of Congress over the Terri- tories and the District of Columbia early became the suliject of debate. Those who favored the restriction of slavery by constitutional means, in- cluding members of the Free-Soil and Republican parties (qq.v.), made the question of Congres- sional prohibition of slavery in the Territories a constant and in some cases a paramount po- litical issue, while the pro-slavery partisans, recognizing that a Territory free from slavery would develop into a State free from slavery and thus disarrange the balance between the free and slave States in the national Senate, fought with great vigor and tenacity all proposed meas- ures which had in view slavery proliibition in the national domain. As early as 1820 petitions were presented for abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. By the Missouri Compromise (q.v. ) of 1820 it "was provided that Territories south of the line of latitude 30° 30' N. might have slavery, wiiile those north of that line should not. The question again came up in 18.50. when, as one of the compromise measures, Utah and New Me.xico were organized without reference to slavery (see Compromise of 1850), and in 1854 the so-called principle of popular or squatter sovereignty was estalilished by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (q.v.), which had for its basis the riglit of each Territory to determine for itself whether or not the institution of slavery should olitain within its limits. (See Popular Sovereignty.) In 1859. in the Dred Scott Case, the Su]ireme Court of the United States decided in an obiter (Ucliiin that the power of Congress over the Territories was limited by the obliga- tion placed upon Congress to protect private rights in property, that slaves were property, and that, therefore. Congress could not consti- tutionnlly ]u-event slaves from being carried into any of the Territories. In 1803, however, slav- ery was abolished and slaves were emancipated in all national territory held or to be acquired. The Territorial stage is one of preparation for the Commonwealth status. The Constitution empowers Congress to erect the Territories into States and admit them into the Union whenever it sees fit. Usually when the Territory has a population equal to that of the Congressional district the inhabitants memorialize Congress to pass an 'enaliling act' empowering them to form a constitution, and prescribing the conditions to be fulfilled. In a number of instances, however, the inhabitants without asking for an enablijig act have adopted a constitution and then applied for admission to the Union. As the language of the Constitution is not mandatory, but per- missive, the question has arisen as to whether Congress in admitting new States may impose such conditions as it chooses, especially if such conditions were not imposed upon the original States. This w-as the main question in the con- troversy over the Missouri Compromise (q.v.).