"It can not be argued successfully that because San Juan Island is within the limits of Washington Territory, that, therefore, it can only be subject to its laws. Puget Sound, Admiralty Inlet, and one-half of the Straits of Fuca are within the territorial boundaries, but still many of the criminal laws of the United States extend over them. Neither can the joint possession of the United States and Great Britain effect the question. "The high seas are in the joint possession of all the nations, and yet every nation punishes its own subjects for crimes committed there. Watts is an American citizen, and the victim of his violence was also. "4. I am unable to convince myself that, if one general law of the Territory went to that Island, but what all general laws went there. That they were not and are not permitted to go there is a fact too palpable for argument. The alternative then is presented, either that their exclusion by force has been rightful, or that the military department has been guilty of a gross usurpation. "The latter branch of the alternative ought not to be received without the clearest and most indubitable proof of its correctness. I am not contending for the doctrine that a military order is absolutely conclusive upon the courts, but it is always entitled to respectful consideration and will be presumed lawful until the contrary is shown. Especially, should such be the case when the order emanates from the highest functionary of the military department, and has been long sanctioned, at least by the acquiescence of every other department of government. "To have permitted all the laws of the territorial legislature to have gone to the island would have resulted in the nullification of the convention. It would in fact have given the territorial legislature a veto on the treaty-making power of the government. Could this convention have stood for a day with the extension of the taxing power of this territory over that island? Every one knows that it could not. If the territorial jurisdiction extended there, it had the right to tax the property of the inhabitants thereof for territorial and other legitimate purposes. Taxes are not levied upon citizens, only, but inhabitants, property-holders, residents within the jurisdiction. The rightful exercise of such a power would have been decisive of the controversy, or rather it would have been exclusive of any rightful claim to controversy. Its attempted exercise would have been resisted with all the power of Great Britain. Reverse the circumstances and let British Columbia attempt to extend its taxing power over that island, and our government would resist the insult with all its military power.