37. The war power is possessed by Congress exclusively,[88] for the limitation of the States as to declaring war can be construed only as an exclusive delegation of this power to the United States. The exercise of this power is a sovereign act and may consist in a formal declaration of war, or a formal recognition or declaration of a state of war. War existing by such regulation, the President, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States, is bound by his oath faithfully to execute his office—which is to execute the laws of the United States. It is for the President to determine how to execute his office; that is a political, not a judicial question. “He must determine what degree of force the crisis demands.” He must decide the character of the opposing forces, whether they are belligerents, or of some other character. He may close ports or declare a blockade of the enemy. He possesses the whole executive power of the United States. Ratification of his acts though _ex post facto_ are constitutional,—fundamentally because sovereignty having vested the executive office in a President, and he having performed its duties to the best of his ability, refusal to consider his acts as constitutional would be repudiation by sovereignty of an act which had been done by its authority.[89] 38. The word “State” in the Constitution refers to a State of the Union.[90] For while the Constitution was made, “ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves,”[91] it was made for the people of the United States in States. Thus it follows that over a domain not constituting a State, that is, over a domain consisting of a ceded district, or a territory, or an outlying possession, Congress has sole jurisdiction. Only the United States and the several States possess sovereignty. No State, or a member of the Union, has jurisdiction over the district and there is no other American government than Congress to exercise it. “Territory” like property by common law must have an owner; if it is self-owned and self-governed, it is sovereign; otherwise it is a subject or possession of sovereignty. It follows, as to American constitutional law, that subdivisions of States are wholly within State jurisdiction: Congress having no jurisdiction over counties or cities other than as, in a general way over matters, Congressional legislation affects counties and cities as parts of States throughout the United States.[92] And unless a State has ceded its jurisdiction over a district within its borders, it has full authority to levy taxes, to execute its inspection and other police laws and regulations within that district. Thus Kansas ceded the Ft. Leavenworth Military Reservation to the United States in 1875, but the deed of cession granted no more than use of the land as a military post; the State, therefore, could levy and collect taxes