dges at
the December term, 1865, every one of these States is put on the same
footing of legality with all the other States of the Union. Virginia
and North Carolina, being a part of the fourth circuit, are allotted to
the Chief Justice. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Florida constitute the fifth circuit, and are allotted to the late Mr.
Justice Wayne. Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas are allotted to the sixth
judicial circuit, as to which there is a vacancy on the bench.

The Chief Justice, in the exercise of his circuit duties, has recently
held a circuit court in the State of North Carolina. If North Carolina
is not a State of this Union, the Chief Justice had no authority to hold
a court there, and every order, judgment, and decree rendered by him in
that court were _coram non judice_ and void.

Another ground on which these reconstruction acts are attempted to be
sustained is this: That these ten States are conquered territory; that
the constitutional relation in which they stood as States toward the
Federal Government prior to the rebellion has given place to a new
relation; that their territory is a conquered country and their citizens
a conquered people, and that in this new relation Congress can govern
them by military power.

A title by conquest stands on clear ground; it is a new title acquired
by war; it applies only to territory; for goods or movable things
regularly captured in war are called "booty," or, if taken by individual
soldiers, "plunder."

There is not a foot of the land in any one of these ten States which
the United States holds by conquest, save only such land as did not
belong to either of these States or to any individual owner. I mean such
lands as did belong to the pretended government called the Confederate
States. These lands we may claim to hold by conquest. As to all other
land or territory, whether belonging to the States or to individuals,
the Federal Government has now no more title or right to it than
it had before the rebellion. Our own forts, arsenals, navy-yards,
custom-houses, and other Federal property situate in those States we
now hold, not by the title of conquest, but by our old title, acquired
by purchase or condemnation for public use, with compensation to
former owners. We have not conquered these places, but have simply
"repossessed" them.

If we require more sites for forts, custom-houses, or other public use,
we must acquire the title to them