formed, dependent for her admission into the Union on the consent of New York. For this reason, the words "hereafter formed" were inserted in the article under consideration, and the word "jurisdiction" was substituted for "limits." 1 Thus modified, the article stood as follows: "New States may be admitted by the legislature into the Union; but no new State shall be hereafter formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any of the present States, without the consent of the legislature of such State, as well as of the general legislature." This provision was quite unsatisfactory to the minority. They wished to have the Constitution assert a distinct power in Congress to erect new States within, as well as without, the territory claimed by any of the States, and to admit such new States into the Union; and they also wished for a saving clause to protect the title of the United States to vacant lands ceded by the treaty of peace. Luther Martin accordingly moved a substitute article, embracing these two objects, but it was rejected.2 was then added to the article pending, which declared that no State should be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the States concerned, as well as the consent of Congress. This completed the substance of what is now the first clause of the third section of the fourth article of the Constitution.3 1 Elliot, V. 495. 2 Ibid. 496. New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, ay. A clause 3 When the Constitution was finally revised, the word "hereafter" was left out of the first clause Mr. Carroll thereupon renewed the effort to introduce a clause saving the rights of the United States to vacant lands; and after some modification, he finally submitted it in these words: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to alter the claims of the United States, or of the individual States, to the Western territory; but all such claims shall be examined into, and decided upon, by the Supreme Court of the United States." Before any vote was taken upon this proposition, however, Gouverneur Morris moved to postpone it, and brought forward as a substitute the very provision which now forms the second clause of the third section of article fourth, which he presented as follows: "The legislature shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution contained shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims, either of the United States or of any particular State." This provision was adopted, without any other dissenting vote than that of the State of Maryland.' The purpose of this provision, as it existed at the time in the minds of the framers of the Constitution, must be gathered from the whole course of their proceedings with respect to it, and from the surrounding facts, which exhibit what was then, and what of the third section of article fourth, apparently because the phraseology of the clause was sufficient, without it, to save the case of Vermont, which was regarded as not being within the "jurisdiction," although was afterwards likely to become, the situation of the United States in reference to the acquisition of territory and the admission of new States. There were, then, at the time when this provision was made, four classes of cases in the contemplation of the Convention. The first consisted of the Northwestern Territorry, in which the title to the soil and the political jurisdiction were already vested in the United States. The second embraced the case of Vermont, which was then exercising an independent jurisdiction adversely to the State of New York, and the case of Kentucky, then a district under the jurisdiction of Virginia; in both of which the United States neither claimed nor sought to acquire either the title to the vacant lands or the rights of political sovereignty, but which would both require to be received as new and separate States, the former without the consent of New York, the latter with the consent of Virginia. The third class comprehended the cessions which the United States in Congress were then endeavoring to obtain from the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and in which were afterwards established the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.1 These cessions, as it then appeared, 1 The cession by South Carolina of all its "right, title, interest, jurisdiction, and claim" to the "territory or tract of country" lying, within certain northern and southern limits, between the western boundary of that State and the river Mississippi, was in fact made and accepted in Congress, August 9-10, 1787, twenty days before the territorial clause was finally settled in the Convention, which took place August 30. (Journals of the Old Congress, XII. 129-139. Madison, Elliot, V. 494-497.) On the 20th of October of the same year, the Congress passed a resolution urging the States of North Carolina might or might not all be made. If made, the title of the United States to the unoccupied lands would be complete, resting both upon the cessions and upon the treaty of peace with England; and the political jurisdiction over the existing settlements, as well as over the whole territory, would be transferred with the cessions, subject to any conditions which the ceding States might annex to their grants. If the cessions should not be made, the claims of the United States to the unoccupied lands would stand upon the treaty of peace, and would require to be saved by some clause in the Constitution which should signify that they were not surrendered; while the claims of the respective States would require to be protected in like manner. The reader will now be prepared to understand the following explanation of the third section of the fourth article of the Constitution. First, with reference to the Northwestern Territory, the soil and jurisdiction of which was already completely vested in the United States, it was necessary that the Constitution should confer upon Congress power to exercise the political jurisdiction of the United States, power to dispose of the soil, and power to admit new States that might be formed there into the Union. Secondly, with reference to such cases as that of Vermont, it was necessary that there should be a and Georgia to cede their Western claims. This request was not complied with until after the Constitution had gone into operation. The cession of North Carolina was made February 25, 1790; that of Georgia, April 24, 1802. power to admit new States into the Union without requiring the assent of any other State, when such new States were not formed within the actual jurisdiction of any other State. Thirdly, with reference to such cases as that of Kentucky, which would be formed within the actual jurisdiction of another State, it was necessary that the power to admit should be qualified by the condition of the consent of that State. Fourthly, with reference to such cessions as were expected to be made by North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, it was necessary to provide the power of political government, the power to admit into the Union, and the power to dispose of the soil, if the cessions should be made; and at the same time to save the claims of the United States and of the respective States as they then stood, if the cessions anticipated should not be made. None of these cases, however, were specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but general provisions were made, which were adapted to meet the several aspects of these cases. From the generality of these provisions, it is held by some that the clause which relates to "the territory or other property of the United States," was intended to be applied to all cessions of territory that might ever be made to the United States, as well as to those which had been made, or which were then specially anticipated; while others give to the clause a much narrower application.1 1 It is not my purpose to enter into the argument on this question. I have recently had occasion pro fessionally to maintain that the territorial clause is applicable to all territorial cessions made to the United |