James Madison

“ Much of the constitutional controversy which has prevailed has turned, as often happens, on the different ideas attached to the language employed, and would have been obviated by previous definitions of its terms. That the people of the United States formed the Constitution, will be denied or affirmed according to the sense in which the expression is understood. ”

“ If the authority to admit new States be sufficiently conveyed by the text of the Constitution, there would seem to be not more difficulty in the principle of the case than in that of naturalizing an alien, at least where the territory of the admitted State made a part of the original domain. ”

“ In the case of an acquired territory, with its inhabitants, as in that of Louisiana, the questions belonging to it are questions of construction, turning on the constitutional authority to acquire, and to admit when acquired. ”