place the power? Not in the judicial branch of Government, for it only
adjudicates and does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he
only executes and cannot make laws. Not in the Commander-in-Chief of
the armies, for he can only hold them under military rule until the
sovereign legislative power of the conqueror shall give them law.

There is fortunately no difficulty in solving the question. There are
two provisions in the Constitution, under one of which the case must
fall. The fourth article says:

"New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union."

In my judgment this is the controlling provision in this case.
Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between two
acknowledged belligerents severed their original compacts, and broke all
the ties that bound them together. The future condition of the conquered
power depends on the will of the conqueror. They must come in as new
States or remain as conquered provinces. Congress--the Senate and House
of Representatives, with the concurrence of the President--is the
only power that can act in the matter. But suppose, as some dreaming
theorists imagine, that these States have never been out of the Union,
but have only destroyed their State governments so as to be incapable of
political action; then the fourth section of the fourth article applies,
which says:

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
republican form of government."

Who is the United States? Not the judiciary; not the President; but the
sovereign power of the people, exercised through their representatives