TERRITORY. A part of a country sepa rated from the rest and subject to a particu lar jurisdiction.
A portion of the country subject to and belonging to the United States which is not within the boundary of any state or the Dis trict of Columbia.
The constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 3, provides that the congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States ; and nothing in this constitution shall be con strued so as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any state.
The United States has supreme sovereignty over a territory, and congress has full and complete legislative authority over its people and government ; Church of Jesus Christ of L. D. S. v. U. S., 136 U. S. 1, 10 Sup. Ct. 792, 34 L. Ed. 478.
Congress possesses the power to erect ter ritorial governments within the territory of the United States : the power of congress over such territory is exclusive and univer sal, and their legislation is subject to no con trol, unless in the case of ceded territory, as far as it may be affected by stipulations in the cessions or by the ordinance of 1787, under which any part of it has been settled ; Story, Const. § 1322; Rawle, Const. 237; 1 Kent 243, 359; 1 Pet. (U. S.) 511, 7 L. Ed. 242. Congress has plenary legislative power over the territories of the United States, and upon the admission of a territory into the Union, may, if, it so desires, effect a collec tive naturalization of its foreign-born in habitants as citizens of the United States ; Boyd v. Nebraska, 143 U. S. 135, 12 Sup. Ct. 375, 36 L. Ed. 103.
The admission of a territory as a state is accomplished by means of what is generally known as an enabling act, which prescribes the terms and conditions upon which the new state is to be admitted.
A territory is the fountain from which rights ordinarily flow, though Congress might intervene ; but the rights that exist are not created by congress or the constitution, except to the extent of certain limitations of power.
The District of Columbia is different, because there the body of private rights is created and controlled by congress, and not by a leg islature of the district ; Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U. S. 349, 27 Sup. Ct. 526, 51 L. Ed. 834, where this doctrine was applied. to Hawaii. A territory is sovereign, not in the full sense of juridicial theory, but because in actual administration it may originate and change at will the law of contract and prop erty, and it is therefore exempt from suit; id.
In determining rights and liabilities, local legislation under authority of congress pre viously granted is treated as emanating from the local legislature and not from congress ; Honolulu R. T. & L. Co. v. Wilder, 211 U. S. 137, 29 Sup. Ct. 44, 53 L. Ed. 121; Kawan anakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U. S. 349, 27 Sup. Ct. 526, 51 L. Ed. 834.
A territorial legislature has plenary power in matters of procedure and practice and may prescribe the method of selecting grand and petty jurors and their qualifications in the territorial courts; Ex parte Moran, 144 Fed. 594, 75 C. C. A. 396.
Laws enacted by the legislatures of the ter ritories are not laws of the United States; Ex parte Moran, 144 Fed. 594, 75 C. C. A. 396.
In passing the enabling act for the admis sion of Oklahoma, June 16, 1906, congress preserved the authority of the federal gov ernment over the Indians, their lands and property which it had prior to that act; Tiger v. Inv. Co., 221 U. S. 286, 31 Sup. Ct. 578, 55 L. Ed. 738.
When the Louisiana territory was purchas ed in 1803, Jefferson believed that he had (in his own words) "done an act beyond the constitution"; but the treaty was ratified. When the question of the validity of the ces sion of Florida arose, Marshall, C. J., said: "The constitution confers absolutely on the government of the Union the powers of mak lug war and of making treaties; consequent ly that government possesses the power of ac quiring territory, either by conquest or by treaty ;" American Ins. Co. v. Canter, 1 Pet. (U. S.) 511, 542, 7 L. Ed. 242.