by John Marshall

“ Independent of the restriction imposed upon the territorial legislature, by which they were disabled from giving admiralty and maritime jurisdiction to the inferior Courts of Florida, the Constitution of the United States would have been violated by such legislation. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land; and, if without a prohibition in the territorial law, the legislative authority of Florida could not 'coin money' or 'issue bills of credit,' the establishing of a Court with admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, would be equally repugnant to the Constitution ”

“ Congress can constitute new Courts within the states, and confer portions of admiralty jurisdiction upon them. It can confer that jurisdiction upon the superior or inferior Courts of the territory, or it can authirize the territorial legislature to do it. And this, whether the Constitution is or is not in force in Florida.
The power of Congress over the territory is the same in the one case as in the other. The Constitution authorizes Congress to provide for the government of the territories. It has all the power over them, that Congress and the legislature of a state, have over a state. ”

“ The right to govern, may be the inevitable consequence of the right to acquire territory. Whichever may be the source, whence the power is derived, the possession of it is unquestioned. In execution of it, Congress, in 1822, passed 'an Act for the establishment of a territorial government in Florida;' and, on the 3d of March 1823, passed another Act to amend the Act of 1822. Under this Act, the territorial legislature enacted the law now under consideration. ”