The Constitution of the United States defines the term _State_ as combining the idea of people, territory, and government. Defining the difference between a government in law and a government in fact, Montague Bernard says, in _Neutrality of Great Britain during American Civil War_: “A _de jure_ government is one which, in the opinion of the person using the phrase, ought to possess the powers of sovereignty, though at the time it may be deprived of them. A _de facto_ government is one which is really in possession of them, although the possession may be wrongful or precarious.” In Tharington _v._ Smith, 8 Wallace, 8-11, the Court said: There are several degrees of what is called _de facto_ government. Such a government in its highest degree assumes a character very closely resembling that of a lawful government.... There is another species of _de facto_ government, and it is one which may be perhaps aptly called a government of paramount force. Its distinguishing characteristics are: That its existence is maintained by active military power, within the territories ... etc. In Wheaton’s _Elements of International Law_, the latest edition of the leading authority on the subject, the author maintains that: The recognition of any State by other States, and its admission into the general society of nations, may depend, or may be made to depend, at the will of those other States, upon its internal constitution or form of government, or the choice it may make of its rulers. But whatever be its internal constitution, or form of government, or whoever may be its rulers, or even if it be distracted with anarchy, through a violent contest for the government between different parties among the people, the State still subsists in contemplation of law, until its sovereignty is extinguished by the final dissolution of the social tie, or by some other cause which puts an end to the being of the State. ... The internal sovereignty of a State does not, in any degree, depend upon its recognition by other States. A new State, springing into existence, does not require the recognition of other States to confirm its internal sovereignty. The existence of the State _de facto_ is sufficient, in this respect, to establish its sovereignty _de jure_. It is a State because it exists. Thus the internal sovereignty of the United States of America was complete from the time they declared themselves “free, sovereign and independent States,” on the 4th of July, 1776.... The treaty of peace of 1782 contained a recognition of their independence, not a grant of it. The external sovereignty of any State, on the other hand, may require recognition by other States in order to render it perfect and complete. So long, indeed, as the new State confines its action to its own citizens, and to the limits of its own territory, it may well dispense with such recognition.