person or property of a citizen of the United States, while it remains a territory, and until it shall
be admitted as one of the States of the Union.

There is certainly no power given by the Constitution to the Federal Government to
establish or maintain Colonies bordering on the United States or at a distance, to be ruled and
governed at its own pleasure; nor to enlarge its territorial limits in any way, except by the
admission of new States. That power is plainly given; and if a new State is admitted it needs no
further legislation by Congress, because the Constitution itself defines the relative rights and
powers and duties of the State, and the citizens of the State, and the Federal Government. But no
power is given to acquire a Territory to be held and governed permanently in that character.

And indeed the power exercised by Congress to acquire territory and establish a
government there, according to its own unlimited discretion, was viewed with great jealousy by
the leading statesmen of the day. And in the Federalist, No. 38, written by Mr. Madison, he
speaks of the acquisition of the Northwestern Territory by the confederated States, by the cession
from Virginia and the establishment of a government there, as an exercise of power not
warranted by the Articles of Confederation, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. And he
urges the adoption of the Constitution as a security and safeguard against such an exercise of
power.

We do not mean, however, to question the power of Congress in this respect. The power
to expand the territory of the United States by the admission of new States is plainly given; and
in the construction of this power by all the departments of the government, it has been held to
authorize 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. It is acquired to become a State, and
not to be held as a colony and governed by Congress with absolute authority; and as the propriety
of admitting a new State is committed to the sound discretion of Congress, the power to acquire
territory for that purpose, to be held by the United States until it is in a suitable condition to
become a state upon an equal footing with the other States, must rest upon the same discretion. It
is a question for the Political Department of the government, and not the judicial; and whatever
the Political Department of the government shall recognize as within the limits of the United
States, the Judicial Department is also bound to recognize, and to administer in it the laws of the
United States, so far as they apply, and to maintain in the territory the authority and rights of the
government; and also the personal rights and rights of property of individual citizens, as secured
by the Constitution. All we mean to say on this point is, that, as there is no express regulation in
the Constitution defining the power which the general government may exercise over the person
or property of a citizen in a territory thus acquired, the court must necessarily look to the
provisions and principles of the Constitution, and its distribution of powers, for the rules and
principles by which its decision must be governed.

Taking this rule to guide us, it may be safely assumed that citizens of the United States
who migrate to a territory belonging to the people of the United States, cannot be ruled as mere
colonists, dependent upon the will of the general government, and to be governed by any laws it

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