Ownership, Authority, and Self-Determination

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Thinking About Authority

Conquest gives a title that the courts of the conqueror cannot deny, whatever the private or speculative opinions of individuals may be, respecting the original justice of the claim which has been successfully asserted. The British government, which was then our government, and whose rights have passed to the United States, asserted a title to all lands occupied by Indians. . . . These claims have been maintained as far west as the river Mississippi, by the sword.

—Chief Justice John Marshall, 1823

Most of us are familiar with the methods by which the United States acquired its current territory from American Indian nations, and the ways in which it forced these nations to submit to its political authority even on the lands they were allowed to retain. Do these historical processes call into question the authority of the United States in the present day? If not, why not? Most other states have similar histories of fraud and violence, even if the details vary—are their claims to authority also called into question?

What justifies the authority of states over particular populations and territories, and what should happen when this authority is challenged in the present day? These are the central questions of this book.

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