rcise the
fullest rights of sovereignty over it." The sovereignty of the enemy is
in such case "suspended," and his laws can "no longer be rightfully
enforced" over the conquered territory "or be obligatory upon the
inhabitants who remain and submit to the conqueror. By the surrender the
inhabitants pass under a temporary allegiance" to the conqueror, and are
"bound by such laws, and such only, as" he may choose to recognize and
impose. "From the nature of the case, no other laws could be obligatory
upon them, for where there is no protection or allegiance or sovereignty
there can be no claim to obedience." These are well-established
principles of the laws of war, as recognized and practiced by civilized
nations, and they have been sanctioned by the highest judicial tribunal
of our own country.

The orders and instructions issued to the officers of our Army and Navy,
applicable to such portions of the Mexican territory as had been or
might be conquered by our arms, were in strict conformity to these
principles. They were, indeed, ameliorations of the rigors of war upon
which we might have insisted. They substituted for the harshness of
military rule something of the mildness of civil government, and were
not only the exercise of no excess of power, but were a relaxation in
favor of the peaceable inhabitants of the conquered territory who had
submitted to our authority, and were alike politic and humane.

It is from the same source of authority that we derive the unquestioned
right, after the war has been declared by Congress, to blockade the
ports and coasts of the enemy, to capture his towns, cities, and
provinces, and to levy contributions upon him for the support of our
Army. Of the same character with these is the right to subject to our
temporary military government the conquered territories of our enemy.
They are all belligerent rights, and their exercise is as essential to
the successful prosecution of a foreign war as the right to fight
battles.

New Mexico and Upper California were among the territories conquered and
occupied by our forces, and such temporary governments were established
over them. They were established by the officers of our Army and Navy in
command, in pursuance of the orders and instructions accompanying my
message to the House of Representatives of December 22, 1846. In their
form and detail, as at first established, they exceeded in some
respects, as was stated in that message, the auth