Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/313

CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF ANNEXATION. 293 authorizes " the acquisition of territory not fit for admission at the time, but to be admitted as soon as its population and situation would entitle it to admission." ^ And Justice Gray said : " Upon the acquisition of a Territory by the United States, whether by cession from one of the States, or by treaty with a foreign country, or by discovery and settlement, the same title and dominion passed to the United States, for the benefit of the whole people and in trust for the several States to be ultimately created out of the Territory." ^ All the land ceded to the United States by the States was transferred upon the understanding that it should be formed into States eventually. The Third Article of the Treaty of 1803, by which France ceded Louisiana, recites that " The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States, and admitted as sopn as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States. . . ." This article was construed by Chief Justice Marshall to mean " that Louisiana shall be admitted into the Union as soon as possible upon an equal footing with the othei' States ; " ^ and a like meaning is to be placed upon the Treaty of 1819, by which Spain ceded Florida, and the Treaties of 1848 and 1853, by which Mexico ceded California and New Mexico. Thus, with the excep- tion of Texas, which was annexed by force of the joint resolution admitting it as a State, the vast domain gained by the United States down to 1853 was acquired in trust for States to be subsequently admitted. The promise of statehood was not expressed in annexing Alaska and Hawaii, and the bearing of this departure from custom upon a pending project of annexation will be noted later. in. There is some difference of opinion as to the precise source of the power of the United States to govern territory outside the limits of States. Chief Justice Marshall said : " The power of gov- erning and legislating for territory is the inevitable consequence of the right to hold territory. Could this proposition be contested. 1 Scott V. Sandford, 19 Howard, 393, 447. ^ Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. i, 57. • New Orleans v. De Armas, 9 Peters, 224, 235.