observe, first, that the territory
contemplated by the Constitution belongs to each State in its separate
character and not to the United States in their aggregate character.
Bach State holds territory according to its original charter, except in
cases where cessions have been made to the United States by individual
States. The United States had none when the Constitution was adopted
which had not been thus ceded to them and which they held on the
conditions on which such cession had been made. Within the individual
States it is believed that they held not a single acre; but if they did
it was as citizens held it, merely as private property. The territory
acquired by cession lying without the individual States rests on a
different principle, and is provided for by a separate and distinct part
of the Constitution. It is the territory within the individual States to
which the Constitution in its great principles applies, and it applies
to such territory as the territory of a State and not as that of the
United States. The next circumstance to be attended to is that the
people composing this Union are the people of the several States, and
not of the United States in the full sense of a consolidated government.
The militia are the militia of the several States; lands are held under
the laws of the States; descents, contracts, and all the concerns of
private property, the administration of justice, and the whole criminal
code, except in the cases of breaches of the laws of the United States
made under and in conformity with the powers vested in Congress and of
the laws of nations, are regulated by State laws. This enumeration shows
the great extent of the powers of the State governments. The territory
and the people form the basis on which all governments are founded.
The militia constitutes their effective force. The regulation and
protection of property and of personal liberty are also among the
highest attributes of sovereignty. This, without other evidence, is
sufficient to show that the great office of the Constitution of the
United States is to unite the States together under a Government
endowed with powers adequate to the purposes of its institution,
relating, directly or indirectly, to foreign concerns, to the discharge
of which a National Government thus formed alone could be competent.

This view of the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States over the
territory within their respective limits, except in cases