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the doctrines established in that entire case, which have never, so far as we are informed, been, heretofore, controverted in any quarter. In that case, the court show the origin and nature of this right of discovery. They prove that it was a principle settled by common consent among the powers of Europe; for the quiet adjustment of their own claims on this western world; and so far as Great Britain was concerned, to whose claims alone we have succeeded, they prove that the principles growing out of this right extended thus far & no further, to wit: 1. That the discoverers acquired at once the ultimate domain to the lands, and the immediate right, exclusive of all other European powers, to extinguish the Indian title. 2. That the Indian title to the present possession and use of the land remained in them, until it should be extinguished by treaty, or conquest, and, consequently, that mere discovery was not, of itself, any such conquest of extinguishment. 3. That though the Indian sovereignty was to some extent impaired by the discovery, yet that the general right of self government still remained in them, on the territory admitted to be theirs, so long as they thought proper to retain it. And finally that the Indian title could only be extinguished by and for the use of the Sovereign, to whom the right of discovery belonged: And, consequently, could not be purchased by individuals for their own use; which last point was the single point in the case of Johnson & McIntosh, and, consequently, decided the case against the purchasers. Out author seizes upon the position of the Supreme Court in this case, that, "the United States maintain, as all others have maintained, that discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of occupancy either by purchase of conquest, and gave, also, a right to such a degree of sovereignty as the circumstances of the people could allow them to exercise": and having quoted this passage, the Executive writer pronounces authoritatively, "what that degree of Sovreignty is, must be determined