pears to have been committed. And the error of a Circuit Court in its jurisdiction stands on the same ground, and is to be treated in the same manner as any other error upon which its judgment is founded.
7. The decision, therefore, that the judgment of the Circuit Court upon the plea in abatement is erroneous, is no reason why the alleged error apparent in the exception should not also be examined, and the judgment reversed on that ground also, if it discloses a want of jurisdiction in the Circuit Court.
8. It is often the duty of this court, after having decided that a particular decision of the Circuit Court was erroneous, to examine into other alleged errors, and to correct them if they are found to exist. And this has been uniformly done by this court, when the questions are in any degree connected with the controversy, and the silence of the court might create doubts which would lead to further and useless litigation.
III.
1. The facts upon which the plaintiff relies, did not give him his freedom, and make him a citizen of Missouri.
2. The clause in the Constitution authorizing congress to make all needful rules and regulations for the government of the territory and other property of the United States, applies only to territory within the chartered limits of some one of the states when they were colonies of Great Britain, and which was surrendered by the British government to the old confederation of the states in the treaty of peace. It does not apply to territory acquired by the present federal government, by treaty or conquest, from a foreign nation.
The case of the American and Ocean Insurance Companies v. Canter (1 Peters, 511) referred to and examined, showing that the decision in this case is not in conflict with that opinion, and that the court did not, in the case referred to, decide upon the construction of the clause of the constitution above mentioned, because the case before them did not make it necessary to decide the question.
3. The United States, under the present constitution, cannot acquire territory to be held as a colony, to be governed at its will and pleasure. But it may acquire terrritory, which, at the time, has not a population that fits it to become a state, and may govern it as a territory until it has a population which, in the judgment of Congress, entitles it to be admitted as a state of the Union.
4. During the time it remains a territory, Congress may legislate over it within the scope of its constitutional powers in relation to citizens of the United States—and may establish a territorial government—and the form of this local government must be regulated by the discretion of Congress—but with powers not exceeding those which Congress itself, by the constitution, is authorized to exercise over citizens of the United States, in respect to their rights of persons or rights of property.
IV.
1. The territory thus acquired, is acquired by the citizens of the United States for their common and equal benefit, through their agent and trustee, the fede-
