THE USE BOOK. 269 



United States has no general power to take lands within the 

 boundaries of a State by the exercise of the right of eminent 

 domain was expressly denied in the subsequent decision in Cole 

 v. United States (91 U. S., 367), and in Gibson v. Chouteau (13 

 Wall., 92, 99) the court said : ''As legislation of a State can only 

 apply to persons and things over which the State has jurisdic- 

 tion, the United States are also necessarily excluded from the 

 operation of such statutes. With respect to the public domain, 

 the Constitution vests in Congress the power of disposition and 

 of making all needful rules and regulations. That power is 

 subject to no limitations. Congress has the absolute right to 

 prescribe the times, the conditions, and the mode of transfer- 

 ring this property or any part of it, and to designate the per- 

 sons to whom the transfer shall be made. No State legislation 

 <-;in interfere with this right or embarrass its exercise." In 

 ramfield v. United States (167 U. S., 519, 525) the court said: 

 " The General Government doubtless has a power over its own 

 property analogous to the police power of the several States, 

 and the extent to which it may go in the exercise of such power 

 is measured by the exigencies of the particular case. * * * 

 While we do not undertake to say that Congress has the un- 

 limited power to legislate against nuisances within a State 

 which it would have within a Territory, we do not think the ad- 

 mission of a Territory as a State deprives it of the power of 

 legislating for the protection of the public lands, though it may 

 thereby involve the exercise of what is ordinarily known as the 

 police power, so long as such power is directed solely to its own 

 protection. A different rule would place the public domain of 

 the United States completely at the mercy of State legislation." 

 In the light of these decisions, it is clear that the State of 

 Montana had no dominion over the public lands lying within its 

 borders, and no power to enact legislation directly or indirectly 

 affecting the same. It could not give to the people of that 

 Stale the right to pasture cattle upon the public domain, or in. 

 any way to use the same. Its own laws in regard to fencing 

 and pasturing cattle at large must be held to apply only to 

 land subject to its own dominion. No one within the State can 

 claim any right in the public land by virtue of such a statute. 

 The United States have the unlimited right to control the occu- 

 pation of the public lands, and no obligation to fence these 

 lands or to join with others in fencing them for the purpose 

 of protecting its rights can be imposed on it by a State. The 

 rights given by the State statutes to the subjects of the State 

 extend only to the lands of the State. They end at the borders 

 of the Government lands. At that border the laws of the United 



