- 3 Kent's Com., 308 ; 1 Chalm. Annals., 676 ; 4 Jeff. Corres., 468 ; Worcester v. Georgia, 4 Peters. Rep., 515.
' But see Sir James Macintosh, on the Progress of Ethical Phi- losophy, p. 49.
COLONIES PAET OF THE EMPIRE. 67 to. And it is impossible that it should have been ;
for at the time when the leading grants were re- spectively made, there had not been any conquest or cession from the natives, of the territory compre- hended in those grants.
The Indi*ans were considered as a people not having any regulur laws, or any organized government, but as mere wandering tribes.' They were never reduced into actual obedience as dependant communities ; and no scheme of general legislation over them was ever attempted. For many purposes, they were treated as independent communities, at liberty to govern themselves, so they did not interfere with the paramount rights of the European discoverers.^ The public charters proclaimed that the colonies were established with a view to enlarge the boundaries of the empire. They became, then, part of the State, equally with its ancient possessions;' and the "colon- ists, continuing as much subjects in the new settle- ments, where they had freely planted themselves with the consent of the Crown, as they had been in the old, carried with them their birth-right, the laws of their country; because the customs of a free people are a part of their liberty." And the jurisprudence ' Vattel, b. 1, c. 18, ss. 208-9; Zen/s Com., 312. ' Wheat. R., 590; 1 Grahame' s Hist, of America, 44; 3 Kert^s Com., 311 ; Worcester t. State of Georgia, 6 Peters. Sup., C. R., 515. See 1 Story on Con., pp. 101-106, where the subject is fully examined.
' Vattel, b. 1, c. 18, s. 209; 1 Chalm. Annals., 676; 8 Wheat. R., 595; Grotins, b. 1, c. 9, s. 10.