"It will be noted that the language is that Congress shall exercise exclusive power, not absolute. The limitations upon the power of Congress, express and implied, fully apply. Congress has the power, subject to these limitations, to exercise all legislation proper to the District of Columbia. States legislate under their reserved powers exclusively within the States; but the territories ceded under this clause to the United States are subject to the exclusive legislation of Congress. It is further to be noted, that while Congress may acquire this territory for governmental purposes and the like, it has no power to exercise exclusive legislation until such territory is acquired as a matter of title to land, and is ceded by the States in which it lies as to all jurisdiction.1"

"Congress may buy property, or condemn it under the fifth amendment of the Constitution, and when acquired for federal use it is exempt from State taxation. But Congress cannot have exclusive jurisdiction for legislation except by cession from the State where the land lies.2 In the case referred to in 135 US Reports, the government had built a fort within the Territory of Kansas, and held it as being part of that Territory, subject to its control. After the admission of Kansas into the Union, the question arose whether Congress had jurisdiction to legislate within the limits of this fort. The Supreme Court decided that upon the admission of Kansas the jurisdiction to legislate passed to the State, and that Congress had never acquired the right to legislate except by the consent of the new State as to this fort so established by Congress prior to its admission."

1 People v. Godfrey, 17 Johns 225; Fort Levenworth R.R.
Co. v. Lowe, 114 US 528, 538.

2 Cherokee Nation v Southern Kansas Ry. Co. 135 US 641.