The absolute power of Congress to determine the political or governmental rights in annexed territories constitutionally attaches from the moment that they become subject to the sovereignty of the United States. Until Congress exercises this right, however, and provides them with governments and laws, they remain under the control of the federal executive. This duty devolves upon the President as a result from his general obligation to see that the authority and peace of the United States are everywhere maintained throughout its territorial limits. Thus, after the treaty of peace with Spain in 1899, Porto Rico remained under the control of the President until by the act of April 12, 1900, known as the "Foraker Act," Congress provided a government for that island. So also it was by an exercise of the same authority that the President, after the same treaty of cession, appointed commissions for the government of the Philippine Islands.

On March 2, 1901, Congress enacted12 that "All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the Philippine Islands . . . shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested, in such person or persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct for the establishment of civil government and for the maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their title had existed for a long series of years prior to the war with the United States. The fact that there were insurrections against her, or that uncivilized tribes may have defied her will, did not affect the validity of her title. • She granted the islands to the United States, and the grantee in accepting them took nothing less than the whole grant. If those in insurrection against Spain continued in insurrection against the United States, the legal title and possession of the latter remained unaffected. We do not understand that it is claimed that in carrying on the pending hostilities the government is seeking to subjugate the people of a foreign country, but on the contrary, that it is preserving order and suppressing insurrection in the territory of the United States. It follows that the possession of the United States is adequate possession under legal title, and this cannot be asserted for one purpose and denied for another. We dismiss the suggested distinction as untenable."

12 This was as an amendment to the act making appropriation for the support of the army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902.

By the Act of July 1, 1902, entitled " an act temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," Congress not only approved and ratified the previous acts of the Philippine Commission, but went on to define the general lines of action that body should take, especially with regard to the introduction of local self-government as fast as circumstances should warrant.

The constitutional source of the power of the United States to establish and maintain governments over territories not annexed to itself but in the possession of its military forces is derived both from the expressed power given it to declare and wage war, and from the fact of its exclusive authority in all that relates to international affairs, which fact, as we have seen, properly implies the right, in the absence of express prohibitions, to exercise all the powers possessed by sovereign States generally.

From, this same source was derived the power of the United States to administer Cuba, and to establish consular courts in oriental countries.13

13 See chapter XXXV (The Constitutional Extent Of The Treaty-Making Power. 210. Treaty-Making Power Granted Without Express Limitations).