GOVERNMENT OF ISLAND TERRITORY. 405 which is subjected to civil government, by virtue of the Con- stitution itself.' If the laws of Congress as to the Territories are laws of the United States and subject in all respects to the Constitution of the United States, how can we justify the long established practice of investing the Territorial legislatures with general legislative power? Here, again, we may turn to Chief Justice Marshall for an answer. The "needful rules and regulations clause," he said in McCulloch against Maryland,^ authorizes the organization of a territorial government which constitutes a corporate body. Pre- cisely as a State may incorporate a city, with its city council, the United States may incorporate a Territory with a territorial council or a legislature. The statutes of such a body will not be laws of the United States, but laws of that part of it lying within the cor- porate limits, so far as Congress may have left the field open for their adoption. They are hke the laws of our chartered colonies before the Revolution. Assuming, then, that the Constitution is the supreme law wher- ever the flag of the Union floats over its soil, are there any of its provisions which are hkely to embarrass us in dealing with our new possessions ? That they are islands and not part of the mainland of North America is, of itself, an immaterial circumstance, so far as the right to acquire them is concerned. Islands that fringe a conti- nent are part of it. Puerto Rico and Cuba are American islands.' Hawaii is in a position to command our coast, and Hes nearer to us than the outer Aleutian Island, the acquisition of which has been confirmed by general acquiescence during thirty years. For temporary commercial purposes, indeed, we have the warrant of the Supreme Court for saying that the President, with the author- ity of Congress, can acquire any island, however remote, and make it, while retained, a part of the United States.* If there is any difficulty in our accepting the cession of the Philippines, it is not that they are islands, but that they are not appurtenant to the American continent.
- See Reynolds v. United States, 98 U. S. 145, 154, 162 ; Thompson v. Utah, 170
U. S. 343, 346; In re Sah Quah, 31 Fed. Rep. 329, 330.
- 4 Wheaton, 316.
- See a discussion of the Historic Policy of the United States as to Annexation in
the Report of the American Historical Association for 1893, page 379.
- Jones V. United States, 137 U. S. 202, 212, 221.
