WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 363 



The SuY»reme Court has admitted the power of Congress to 

 acquire territory by conquest but has denied such power to the 

 President : *« 



"The genius and character of our institutions are peaceful, and the 

 power to declare war was not conferred upon Congress for the purposes of 

 aggression or aggrandizement, but to enable the general government to vindi- 

 cate by arms, if it should become necessary, its own lights and the rights of 

 its citizens. A war, therefore, declared by Congress, can never be presumed 

 to be waged for the purpose of conquest or the acquisition of territory; nor 

 does the law declaring the war imply an authority to the President to enlarge 

 the limits of the United States by subjugating the enemy's country. The 

 United States, it is true, may extend its boundaries by conquest or treaty, and 

 may demand the cession of territory as the condition of peace, in order to 

 indemnify its citizens for the injuries they have suffered, or to reimburse the 

 government for the expenses of the war. But this can only be done by the 

 treaty-making power or the legislative authority, and is not a part of the 

 power conferred upon the President by the declaration of war." 



We conclude that the courts in applying international law and 

 the President in the exercise of his diplomatic powers may recognize 

 minor acquisitions of territory by operation of international law, 

 and that more considerable bodies of territory may be acquired by 

 treaty or by joint resolution of Congress. 



200. Pozvcr of Congress to Naturalise Aliens and Establish 

 Criteria of Citizenship. 

 The Constitution provides that " all persons born or naturalized 

 in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are 

 citizens of the United States." ** Congress has exclusive power 

 "to establish an uniform rule of naturalization," ^° and it has by 

 implication the power to determine, within the constitutional pro- 

 vision, who are natural born citizens. Thus it has provided that:"^ 



"All children heretofore born or hereafter born out of the limits and 

 jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time 

 of their birth citizens thereof, are declared to be citizens of the United States; 

 but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers never 

 resided in the United States." 



*8 Fleming v. Page, 9 How. 603. 



49 U. S. Constitution, Amendment XIV; U. S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 

 U. S. 649. 



^^ Ibid, Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 4; Chirac v. Chirac, 2 Wheat. 259. 

 ^1 Rev. Stat., sec. 1993; Comp. Stat., 3947- 



