308 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. annexed territory, and we grant, for the sake of argument, that he may levy them at discretion. We will assume, for the sake of argument, that duties may be collected on goods brought hither from the new territory. But these actions are abnormal and pro- visional. They rest wholly upon the inaction of Congress. Of course Congress cannot be compelled to organize customs dis- tricts in new territory, and delay may be inevitable as, for example, when land is annexed at a special session of the Senate. Nor is Congress necessarily neglectful in extending tariff laws deliber- ately. But, making allowance for unimportant delays, it will appear that Congress is obliged by the letter and spirit of the Constitution to impose uniform duties within the political limits of the United States. They who would annex the Philippines in the hope that the islands will continue to be commercially separate from the United States prefigure a wilful and persistent neglect of duty on the part of Congress, and in consequence of this neglect the permanent regulation of Philippine customs by the President. Congress would not long permit the President to levy duties at his pleasure within territory subject to its proper jurisdiction. Unless Chief Justice Marshall has erred profoundly, Congress could not adopt a customs policy peculiar to the Philippines, for in Loughborough v. Blake, ■■ he said with regard to the declaration in the Constitution that " all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States," " The District of Colum- bia, or the territory west of the Missouri, is not less within the United States than Maryland or Pennsylvania ; and it is not less necessary, on the principles of our Constitution, that uniformity in the imposition of imposts, duties, and excises, should be observed in the one, than in the other," and again (page 325), "The Con- stitution not only allows, but enjoins the government to extend the ordinary revenue system to this district" (of Columbia). Loughborough v. Blake affirmed the power of Congress to levy a direct tax within the District of Columbia, but the opinion con- tains a masterly declaration of the great principle that all the ter- ritory within the jurisdiction of Congress is commercially one country. Should the courts affirm that all persons owing full allegiance to the United States are citizens thereof, the annexation of the Philip- pines would naturalize collectively all islanders answering to this ^ 5 Wheaton, 317.
