they would not be lacking; but every step of the progress of our troops has been marked by a humanity which has surprised even the misguided insurgents. The truest kindness to them will be a swift and effective defeat of their present leader. The hour of victory will be the hour of clemency and reconstruction.

"No effort will be spared to build up the waste places desolated by war and by long years of misgovernment. We shall not wait for the end of strife to begin the beneficent work. We shall continue, as we have begun, to open the schools and the churches, to set the courts in operation, to foster industry and trade and agriculture, and in every way in our power to make these people whom Providence has brought within our jurisdiction feel that it is their liberty and not our power, their welfare and not our gain, we are seeking to enhance. Our flag has never waved over any community but in blessing. I believe the Filipinos will soon recognize the fact that it has not lost its gift of benediction in its world-wide journey to their shores."

Senator Spooner of Wisconsin introduced a bill for the government of the Philippines. It is still before Congress. It is as follows:

"Be it enacted, etc., That when all insurrection against the sovereignty and authority of the United States in the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, shall have been completely suppressed by the military and naval forces of the United States, all military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct by maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion." To show how closely the bill conforms to the first legislation of the kind in the administration of Thomas Jefferson, the second section of an act approved October 31, 1803, to enable the President to take possession of Louisiana, is reproduced:

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the expiration of the present session of Congress, unless provision for the temporary government of said territories be sooner made by Congress, all the military, civil and judicial powers exercised by the officers of the existing government of the same shall be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States

shall direct for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of Louisiana in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."

The Philippine policy of President McKinley is the policy adopted toward new and unknown territory by Thomas Jefferson when President. Until Congress is prepared to define the political status of the inhabitants of the Philippines, the President must govern. He is now exercising the only authority he has to govern by the military power vested in him by the Constitution. The Spooner bill when passed will give him a civil power in the Philippines. And it will probably be many years before the exact form of government for all the islands and provinces in the Philippines is defined by Congress, because this must be done after full knowledge as to the capability of the natives for government is in the possession of Congress. The people of the United States are not ready to admit these islands as territories with the hope of statehood before them. That is a question for the future. It required nearly a hundred years to bring all the Louisiana territory into the Union, and it will be no injustice to the Filipinos if they are kept out of the Union for that long or longer.

Democrats and Republicans clothed with responsibility as senators and representatives are considering this question, not in bitter partisanship, but as a great problem before the American people, which calls for the highest order of constructive legislation. Senator McLaurin of South Carolina, a Democrat whose loyalty to his party has never been questioned, discussed this question fairly and freely in the Senate and said:

"What is the actual situation there to-day? In the Philippines, acquired in the same way and as rightfully subject to the sovereignty of the United States as Porto Rico and Cuba, some portion of the people have refused to recognize this sovereignty. It is not the Philippine nation who have set up the standard of rebellion and defy the authority of the United States. We are opposed by a part of the tribe of the Tagalos, who inhabit less than one-half of the island of Luzon. There are hundreds of other islands, whose people speak more than sixty different languages, who are ready to accept American sovereignty. I have no doubt that men of property and intelligence are anxious for us to protect them and their industries. Yet, in the face of these facts, it is stated and reiterated upon this floor that the peoples of the archipelago are in rebellion, contending for liberty and independence.

It is also contended that the United States is the aggressor and responsible for this war.

"I deny that proposition. It is inconsistent with our record as a nation. Who can believe that the United States, with her traditions, her history, and her achievements, would seek in shame and dishonor to oppress any people and sacrifice the lives of her citizens in such an unholy cause? Those who thus attempt to besmirch her fair name proclaim to the world that we are living and practicing a lie in our republican institutions. I do not propose to attempt an analysis of all the conflicting facts compiled in reports, correspondence, and military orders. I am content to say that I do not believe that Admiral Dewey, with his cool head and love of fair dealing, would have counte nanced any effort on the part of our military commanders, or even of the President, to embroil us in a conflict with the Tagalos. On the contrary, I believe that he and the other officers exhausted all means of negotiation to avert a conflict.

"I do not believe the war was provoked or premeditated by the representatives of the United States, but was the consummation of a plan of the wily Aguinaldo to bully the United States into an arrangement to satisfy his personal ambition. The firing of a gun on the picket line and the killing of a Tagalo was a fortuitous incident. It was no justification for a rebellion, but was seized upon as a pretext to give a sembalance of right in fomenting an insurrection. Without the firing of the gun, some other incident would have been the subterfuge. But it is contended that the United States made promises of self-government. As to that I have no doubt that these islands will be given the best government they have ever had and the largest measure of self-government of which they are capable.

"I do not believe that it was ever the intention of the President or anyone with authority to speak for the United States to commit us to any definite action in dealing with these people with reference to their future government. No one was invested with such authority, for under the treaty with Spain, and under our Constitution, Congress alone has the power to fix the civil and political status of the inhabitants of acquired territory. Before the treaty of peace was ratified, and before Congress had the opportunity to declare its purpose, there was open rebellion against the authority of the United States. It is true that the authority of the President was supreme until there was legislation,

but in the exercise of his power all he could rightfully do was to be guided by the treaty with Spain, and to hold the islands and assert the sovereignty of the United States over them.

*

"I am a Democrat, loyal to the party and its principles; but I am not an automatom, nor a slave to be moved by the party lash. I am trying to represent what I believe is best for my people and my section, and am content to let the future speak for itself. The Constitution, as the handiwork of the fathers, has my love and reverence; but, Mr. President, there is something higher than the letter of the law. Whenever in our past history the Constitution has come into conflict with the national sense of right and duty, it has given way.

"Like the Sabbath, the Constitution was made for man, not man for the Constitution. The creature cannot be greater than the creator, and when as a nation we rise higher in moral purpose and greatness than the Constitution it has been changed, and changed more often by construction than amendment. The progress and the growth of our nation can have, and shall have, no constitutional restrictions which prevent its fullest development.

I

"Under a destiny unforeseen and uncontrolled by us, the power and institutions of the United States have been planted in the East. believe that if we do our duty, it means not only the elevation and uplifting of the peoples of that far-off land, but that it will add to the power and glory of our free institutions and the commercial supremacy of the nation.”

The President has sent another commission to the Philippines, of which Judge W. H. Taft of Ohio is the President. This commission is engaged in studying the conditions, customs and laws in the islands with a view to preparing a new code, and will make recommendations to the President and Congress. When the Spooner bill becomes a law a civil government will be established in the Philippines similar to that established in Louisiana by President Thomas Jefferson.

CHAPTER XI.

PORTO RICO-RELATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES

The Island of Porto Rico belongs to the United States, but it is not an integral part of the United States. This has been declared by the Treaty of Paris, by Congress and by the Federal courts. The Treaty of Peace with Spain by which the island was ceded to the United States provides that "the civil rights and political status of the inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by Congress." In this particular the treaty with Spain is different from other treaties by which territory has been ceded to the United States. In all other treaties the political status and civil rights of the people in the territory ceded, as citizens, etc., of the United States was defined in the treaty which was binding on Congress. Louisiana, in 1803 and Florida in 1809, were purchased, New Mexico and California by conquest and purchase, Alaska by purchase, Texas by annexation and some other territory by cession from the original States. In all these cases the territory became at once on approval of the treaty, by reason of its terms, a part of the United States and the people were clothed with the rights of citizens. By the ratification of the treaty with Spain the people of Porto Rico did not become citizens but remained native inhabitants with their political status and civil rights to be determined by Congress. Congress after much deliberation and one of the most elaborate discussions in recent years, passed a bill creating a civil government for Porto Rico in which the inhabitants are designated as "citizens of Porto Rico," not as citizens of the United States. This distinction was deliberately made for the purpose of asserting the sovereign authority of Congress over the territory, and denying the old Calhoun doctrine that the Constitution by its own force extended over all territory as soon as acquired, giving all the rights of citizenship to the inhabitants of the territory as soon as it was ceded to the United States.

The Republican party in its first National Convention in 1856 denounced this doctrine of John C. Calhoun and asserted the same right which Congress has exercised in legislating for Porto Rico. One of the planks in that first Republican platform adopted at Philadelphia fortyfour years ago was as follows: