8378. TERRITORY, Alienation of.—
The power to alienate the unpeopled territories
of any State, is not among the enumerated
powers given by the Constitution to the
General Government, and if we may go out
of that instrument, and accommodate to exigencies
which may arise by alienating the unpeopled
territory of a State, we may accommodate
ourselves a little more by alienating
that which is peopled, and still a little more
by selling the people themselves. A shade
or two more in the degree of exigency is all
that will be requisite, and of that degree we
shall ourselves be the judges. However, May
it not be hoped that these questions are forever
laid to rest by the * * * amendment
* * * to the Constitution, declaring expressly
that “the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution are reserved
to the States respectively”? And if
the General Government has no power to
alienate the territory of a State, it is too irresistible
an argument to deny ourselves the
use of it on the present occasion. [476]
—
To Alexander Hamilton.
Ford ed., v, 443.
(1792)
