300 BURR— THE TREATY-MAKING POWER [April 20, 



determined constitutional law that acquisition of territory may be 

 secured by act of Congress as well as by treaty. And in the case 

 of Hawaii z'S. Mankichi"' the method adopted in the acquisition of 

 Hawaii received express recognition and implied sanction by the 

 Supreme Court. "The Treaty," said Mr. Justice Harlan, "was not 

 formally ratified, but its object was accomplished by the passage of 

 the Joint Resolution of July 7, 1898."" 



The right of the treaty-making power to cede territory of the 

 United States- has been the subject of academic discussion, and in a 

 few instances of judicial dicta. In Fort Leavenworth R. R. Co. z's. 

 Lowe,'^'' Mr. Justice Field, delivering the opinion of the Court, 

 said as follows : 



" The jurisdiction of the United States extends over all the territory 

 within the States, and, therefore, their authority must be obtained, as well as 

 that of the State within which the teritory is situated, before any cession of 

 sovereignty or political jurisdiction can be made to a foreign country. And 

 so when questions arose as to the northeastern 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 point at issue in the case was whether the legislature of the 

 State might cede its jurisdiction to the United States, and the opin- 

 ion of the Court is to the effect that the right to cede to the general 

 government was governed by wholly different considerations from 

 the right to cede, if any existed, to a foreign nation. In Geofroy 

 vs. Riggs,^^ the Court took occasion to remark : 



" The treaty-making power, as expressed in the Constitution, is in terms 

 unlimited except by those restraints which are found in that instrument 

 against the action of the government or of its departments, and those arising 

 from the nature of the government itself and of that of the States. It would 

 not be contended that it extends so far as to authorize what the Constitution 

 forbids, or a change in the character of the government or in that of one of 

 the States, or a cession of any portion of the territory of the latter, without 

 its consent."'*' 



" 190 U. S., 107 (1903). ^''iM U- S., pp. 540-1. 



'^190 U. S., p. 228. "133 U. S., 258 (1890). 



^"114 U. S., 525 (1885). *'I33 U. S., p. 267. 



