xercise no power over his person or property, beyond
what that instrument confers, nor lawfully deny any right which it has
reserved.

A reference to a few of the provisions of the Constitution will
illustrate this proposition.

For example, no one, we presume, will contend that Congress can make
any law in a Territory respecting the establishment of religion, or
the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of
the press, or the right of the people of the Territory peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of
grievances.

Nor can Congress deny to the people the right to keep and bear arms,
nor the right to trial by jury, nor compel any one to be a witness
against himself in a criminal proceeding.

These powers, and others, in relation to rights of person, which it is
not necessary here to enumerate, are, in express and positive terms,
denied to the General Government; and the rights of private property
have been guarded with equal care. Thus the rights of property are
united with the rights of person, and placed on the same ground by the
fifth amendment to the Constitution, which provides that no person
shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property, without due process
of law. And an act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United
States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or
brought his property into a particular Territory of the United States,
and who had committed no offence against the laws, could hardly be
dignified with the name of due process of law.

So, too, it will hardly be contended that Congress could by law
quarter a soldier in a house in a Territory without the consent of the
owner, in time of peace; nor in time of war, but in a manner
prescribed by law. Nor could they by law forfeit the property of a
citizen in a Territory who was convicted of treason, for a longer
period than the life of the person convicted; nor take private
property for public use without just compensation.

The powers over person and property of which we speak are not only not
granted to Congress, but are in express terms denied, and they are
forbidden to exercise them. And this prohibition is not confined to
the States, but the words are general, and extend to the whole
territory over which the Constitution gives it power to legislate,
including those portions of it remaining under Territorial Government,
as well as that covered by States. It is