Stephen Johnson Field

“ The right of the state to subject the railroad property to taxation exists as before the cession. The invalidity of the tax levied not being asserted on any other ground than the supposed exclusive jurisdiction of the United States over the reservation, notwithstanding the saving clause, the judgment of the court below must be affirmed. ”

“ Purchase with such consent was the only mode then thought of for the acquisition by the general government of title to lands in the states. Since the adoption of the constitution this view has not generally prevailed. Such consent has not always been obtained, nor supposed necessary, for the purchase by the general government of lands within the states. If any doubt has ever existed as to its power thus to acquire lands within the states, it has not had sufficient strength to create any effective dissent from the general opinion. ”

“ And so when questions arose as to the north-eastern boundary, in Maine, between Great Britain and the United States, and negotiations were in progress for a treaty to settle the boundary, it was deemed necessary on the part of our government to secure the co-operation and concurrence of Maine, so far as such settlement might involve a cession of her sovereignty and jurisdiction as well as title to territory claimed by her, and of Massachusetts, so far as it might involve a cession of title to lands held by her. ”

“ The land constituting the reservation was part of the territory acquired in 1803 by cession from France, and, until the formation of the state of Kansas, and her admission into the Union, the United States possessed the rights of a proprietor, and had political dominion and sovereignty over it. ”

“ In March, 1841, the house of representatives of Massachusetts requested of the justices of the supreme judicial court of that state their opinion whether persons residing on lands in that state purchased by or ceded to the United States for navy-yards, arsenals, dock-yards, forts, light-houses, hospitals, and armories, were entitled to the benefits of the state common schools for their children in the towns where such lands were located ”

“ The attorney general replied that the act admitting Kansas as a state into the Union had the effect to withdraw from federal jurisdiction all the territory within the boundaries of the new state, excepting only that of the Indians having treaties with the United States, which provided that without their consent such territory should not be subject to state jurisdiction, and the reservation was not within this exception ”

“ The necessity of supreme legislative authority over the seat of government was forcibly impressed upon the members of the constitutional convention by occurrences which took place near the close of the revolutionary war. ”

“ No offenses committed within that territory are committed against the laws of this commonwealth, nor can such offenses by punishable by the courts of the commonwealth, unless the congress of the United States should give to the said courts jurisdiction thereof.' In Mitchell v. ”