History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Vol. 2: With Notices of Its Principle FramersCurtis, George Ticknor
History
History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Vol. 2: With Notices of Its Principle Framers
Curtis, George Ticknor
Constitutional history -- United States
"New States may be admitted by the legislature into the Union; but no
new State shall be hereafter formed or erected within the jurisdiction
of any of the present States, without the consent of the legislature
of such State, as well as of the general legislature."
This provision was quite unsatisfactory to the minority. They wished
to have the Constitution assert a distinct power in Congress to erect
new States within, as well as without, the territory claimed by any of
the States, and to admit such new States into the Union; and they also
wished for a saving clause to protect the title of the United States
to vacant lands ceded by the treaty of peace. Luther Martin
accordingly moved a substitute article, embracing these two objects,
but it was rejected.[290] A clause was then added to the article
pending, which declared that no State should be formed by the junction
of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the
States concerned, as well as the consent of Congress. This completed
the substance of what is now the first clause of the third section of
the fourth article of the Constitution.[291]
Mr. Carroll thereupon renewed the effort to introduce a clause saving
the rights of the United States to vacant lands; and after some
modification, he finally submitted it in these words: "Nothing in this
Constitution shall be construed to alter the claims of the United
States, or of the individual States, to the Western territory; but all
such claims shall be examined into, and decided upon, by the Supreme
Court of the United States." Before any vote was taken upon this
proposition, however, Gouverneur Morris moved to postpone it, and
brought forward as a substitute the very provision which now forms the
second clause of the third section of article fourth, which he
presented as follows: "The legislature shall have power to dispose of,
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory
or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this
Constitution contained shall be so construed as to prejudice any
claims, either of the United States or of any particular State." This
provision was adopted, without any other dissenting vote than that of
the State of Maryland.[292]
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