United States territories

“ Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Porto Rico, Alaska, Indian Territory, Samoa, and Guam, and all official communications or reports relating to territorial matters from and to all executive officers of the United States stationed in such territories and territorial possessions, shall be transmitted through the Secretary of the Interior in such manner and under such regulations as he may prescribe. ”

“ The Minister of the United States appears, by his letter, to be well aware that Great Britain has always considered the liberty formerly enjoyed by the United States, of fishing within British limits, and using British territories, as derived from the third article of the Treaty of 1783, and from that alone; and that the claim of an independent state to occupy and use, at its discretion, any portion of the territory of another, without compensation or corresponding indulgence, cannot rest on any other foundation than conventional stipulation. ”

“ The jurisdiction of courts martial extend only over offenses committed by persons enlisted in the military or the naval service of the country.
WHY AND HOW TERRITORIES ARE ORGANIZED. The organization of territories in the United States is for two purposes: to provide good government while population is sparse, and to encourage their development into self-governing commonwealths, and their incorporation into the federal system as rapidly as possible. ”

“ Congress, representing the proprietors of the territorial domain and charged especially with power to dispose of territory belonging to the United States, has for a long course of years, beginning with the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, exercised the power to construct roads within the Territories, and there are so many and obvious distinctions between this exercise of power and that of making roads within the States that the former has never been considered subject to such objections as apply to the latter ”

“ The people who have settled those Territories are intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession of these new States will add strength to the Nation. It is due to the settlers in the Territories who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land laws to make homes upon the public domain that their titles should be speedily adjusted and their honest entries confirmed by patent. ”

“ Rhode-Island, Delaware, New-Jersey, and Maryland insisted upon some provision for establishing the western boundaries of the states; and for the recognition of the unsettled western territory, as the property of the Union. ”

“ Much was said and written, at the time, concerning the policy of adding the vast regions of Louisiana, to the already immense and but half-tenanted territories of the United States. ”

“ No other public man has ever had so much to do with the organizing of Territories and the admitting of States into the Union; probably no other man ever so completely mastered all the details of such legislation. He reported the bills by which Utah, New Mexico, Washington, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, and Minnesota became Territories, and those by which Texas, Iowa, Florida, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Minnesota became States. ”

“ I have no doubt but we can obtain territory either by conquest or compact, and hold it, even all Louisiana and a thousand times more if you please, without violating the Constitution. We can hold territory; but to admit the inhabitants into the Union, to make citizens of them, and States, by treaty, we cannot constitutionally do; and no subsequent act of legislation, or even ordinary amendment to our Constitution, can legalize such measures. ”

“ The United States, under the present Constitution, cannot acquire territory to be held as a colony, to be governed at its will and pleasure. But it may acquire and may govern it as a Territory until it has a population which, in the judgment of Congress, entitles it to be admitted as a State of the Union. ”

“ It is said, rather, that the order actually was designed to affect only the White River Valley lands-lands which are some nine miles south of the 'first standard parallel north.' That interpretation of the intent of the framers of the order would make the northern boundary of the Executive Order land coterminous with the northern boundary of the true treaty reservation. ”

“ Until then every separate portion of the United States' land is called territory and is governed, during the period of its development and minority, more immediately by the Federal Administration which appoints a governor and other officials, and furnishes troops to defend the inhabitants against the Indians or other enemies whatever they may be, of whom the population of the Territory may complain. ”

“ There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five States; and the boundaries 199 of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: The western State, in the said territory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Wabash Rivers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada ”

“ When an application by a Territory for Statehood is made, it is considered by Congress, and, if approved, the inhabitants of the Territory are authorized to form for themselves out of such Territory a State government, and thus prepare themselves for admission into the Union. ”

“ We are however, not only at liberty, but under a duty, to take account also of the quality and disposition of the people, and we have in one or two instances done so. The written constitution prescribes no rule for these cases. The question whether the United States shall hold conquered territory, or territory acquired by cession, without the consent of the people to be affected, is quite apart from the question whether, having acquired and incorporated such territory, we can govern it otherwise than under the limitations of the constitution. ”