I admit that the United States
may acquire eminent domain. I admit that the United States may have
sovereignty over territory; otherwise the sovereign jurisdiction which
we obtained by conquest or treaty would not pass to us. I deny that
their agent, the Federal Government, under the existing Constitution,
can have eminent domain; I deny that it can have sovereignty. I consider
it as the mere agent of the States--an agent of limited power; and that
it can do nothing save that which the Constitution empowers it to
perform; and that, though the treaty or the deed of cession may direct
or control, it can not enlarge or expand the powers of the Congress;
that it is not sovereign in any essential particular. It has functions
to perform, and those functions I propose now to consider.
The power of Congress over the Territories--a subject not well defined
in the Constitution of the United States--has been drawn from various
sources by different advocates of that power. One has found it in the
grant of power to dispose of the Territory and other public property.
That is to say, because the agent was authorized to sell a particular
thing, or to dispose of it by grant or barter, therefore he has
sovereign power over that and all else which the principal, constituting
him an agent, may hereafter acquire! The property, besides the land,
consisted of forts, of ships, of armaments, and other things which had
belonged to the States in their separate capacity, and were turned over
to the Government of the Confederation, and transferred to the
Government of the United States, and of this, together with the land so
transferred, the Federal Government had the power to dispose; and of
territory thereafter acquired, of arms thereafter made or purchased, of
forts thereafter constructed, or custom-houses, or docks, or lights, or
buoys; of all these, of course, it had power to dispose.
Pages:
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916