ole sovereignty, and the same
power to cede, on any terms she saw proper, that the King of England
had to grant the Virginia colonial charter of 1609, or to grant the
charter of Pennsylvania to William Penn. The thirteen States, through
their representatives and deputed ministers in the old Congress, had
the same right to govern that Virginia had before the cession.
(Baldwin's Constitutional Views, 90.) And the sixth article of the
Constitution adopted all engagements entered into by the Congress of
the Confederation, as valid against the United States; and that the
laws, made in pursuance of the new Constitution, to carry out this
engagement, should be the supreme law of the land, and the judges
bound thereby. To give the compact, and the ordinance, which was part
of it, full effect under the new Government, the act of August 7th,
1789, was passed, which declares, "Whereas, in order that the
ordinance of the United States in Congress assembled, for the
government of the Territory northwest of the river Ohio, may have full
effect, it is requisite that certain provisions should be made, so as
to adapt the same to the present Constitution of the United States."
It is then provided that the Governor and other officers should be
appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate; and be
subject to removal, &c., in like manner that they were by the old
Congress, whose functions had ceased.

By the powers to govern, given by the Constitution, those amendments
to the ordinance could be made, but Congress guardedly abstained from
touching the compact of Virginia, further than to adapt it to the new
Constitution.

It is due to myself to say, that it is asking much of a judge, who
has for nearly twenty years been exercising jurisdiction, from the
western Missouri line to the Rocky Mountains, and, on this
understanding of the Constitution, inflicting the extreme penalty of
death for crimes committed where the direct legislation of Congress
was the only rule, to agree that he had been all the while acting in
mistake, and as an usurper.

More than sixty years have passed away since Congress has exercised
power to govern the Territories, by its legislation directly, or by
Territorial charters, subject to repeal at all times, and it is now
too late to call that power into question, if this court could
disregard its own decisions; which it cannot do, as I think. It was
held in the case of Cross _v._ Harrison, (16 How., 193-