for its exercise is
found.

This proceeds from a radical error, which lies at the foundation of
much of this discussion. It is, that the Federal Government may
lawfully do whatever is not directly prohibited by the Constitution.
This would have been a fundamental error, if no amendments to the
Constitution had been made. But the final expression of the will of
the people of the States, in the 10th amendment, is, that the powers
of the Federal Government are limited to the grants of the
Constitution.

Before the cession of Georgia was made, Congress asserted rights, in
respect to a part of her territory, which require a passing notice. In
1798 and 1800, acts for the settlement of limits with Georgia, and to
establish a Government in the Mississippi Territory, were adopted. A
Territorial Government was organized, between the Chattahoochee and
Mississippi rivers. This was within the limits of Georgia. These acts
dismembered Georgia. They established a separate Government upon her
soil, while they rather derisively professed, "that the establishment
of that Government shall in no respects impair the rights of the State
of Georgia, either to the jurisdiction or soil of the Territory." The
Constitution provided that the importation of such persons as any of
the existing States shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by Congress before 1808. By these enactments, a prohibition
was placed upon the importation of slaves into Georgia, although her
Legislature had made none.

This court have repeatedly affirmed the paramount claim of Georgia to
this Territory. They have denied the existence of any title in the
United States. (6 C.R., 87; 12 Wh., 523; 3 How., 212; 13 How., 381.)
Yet these acts were cited in the argument as precedents to show the
power of Congress in the Territories. These statutes were the occasion
of earnest expostulation and bitter remonstrance on the part of the
authorities of the State, and the memory of their injustice and wrong
remained long after the legal settlement of the controversy by the
compact of 1802. A reference to these acts terminates what I have to
say upon the Constitutions of the Territory within the original limits
of the United States. These Constitutions were framed by the
concurrence of the States making the cessions, and Congress, and were
tendered to immigrants who might be attracted to the vacant territory.
The legislative powers of the officers of this Government were li