'Cbc Conservative *
mid even savage races in a remote part
of the world is , however , by no means
the worst feature of the Quixotic adven
ture iipon which we are asked to enter.
The constitution of the United states
also provides that "all duties , imposts
and excises shall be uniform throughout
the United Slates" . If these islands , un
der whatever form of administration ,
como under the civil authority of the
United states , thereupon our tariff and
revenue laws , ipso facto , apply to them.
It is beyond the power of congress to
exempt any territory of the United
States from the operation of this plain
constitutional provision. It follows that
unless we greatly' modify our tariff , our
mere assumption of civil jurisdiction
over those islands will impose upon
the antiquated colonial system of taxa
tion from which we revolted in 1776 , and
to ivsscue them from which we have just
broken the peace of the world. Thus
grossly to discriminate in favor of our
own manufacturers will not only impose
intolerable burdens upon the islanders ,
but certainly lead us directly into
trouble with other commercial nations ,
whose merchants should have the right
to trade with these people upon the
same terms as our own.
This , however , is not all that this
dangerous policy involves. We have
seen that the inhabitants of our pro
posed acquisitions will at once become
citizens of the United States , and have
all the immunities of citizenship in
every part of our country. It is reporter !
that from one-fourth to one-third of the
present inhabitants of Luzon are China
men. The other elements of its popu
lation are even less desirable as citizens.
We have now for some years , for reas
ons some of which are generally re
garded sufficient , prohibited further
Chinese immigration. If the Chinamen
of the Philippines and their other inhab
itants become citizens by reason of their
acquisition by us , we can no longer le
gally prohibit them from coming here.
If this were all , we might at least limit
the possible invasion to those who are
the present inhabitants of the islands
and to their descendants. It is , how
ever , one thing to protect our present
territory from the immigration
of the yellow peoples of thr *
East. It would be quite another for us
to arbitrarily take possession of a great
archipelago in that region and exclude
from it the peoples of its own neighbor
hood. Indeed , those who really desire
the annexation of the Philippines , pro
fess a great desire to make these
islands a gateway through which we
may secure the Chinese trade. If it is
to bo a gateway at all , the gate will
swing both ways , and through it will
come to us as our fellow-citizens of the
republic untold numbers of men who
are and must long remain wholly unfit
for self-government.
Those who hold that fatalism in the
form of "duty determines destiny" , and
that destiny itself is an affair of the
heart rather than of the head , lightly re
ply to all this that they have proposed
no such annexation as will make these
islands subject to the constitution and
general laws of the United States.
They assume , without shadow of author
ity , that congress may deal with such
acquisitions free from all constitutional
restraints. This seems to bo the view
at Washington. It is oven reported that
the president will recommend to con
gress the appointment of a commission
to recommend a plan of insular taxa
tion , both local and general. No com
mission is needed to point out the con
stitutional requirement that "all duties ,
imposts and excises shall bo uniform
throughout the United States" .
The cool assumption that congress
may itself acquire and hold new terri
tory conditioned that it shall not bo
subject to the constitution and general
laws of the United States , is the most
dangerous development of the expan
sion craze through which wo are
passing. It means in plain language
that there are those among us
who , for the moment at least , are
prepared to discredit and oven abandon
representative government. Thus far it
has been our greatest glory that ours is
a government of laws , not a govern
ment of men. Presidents and con
gresses have exercised only delegated
powers. They have ruled as the ser
vants and with the consent and cooperation
ation of the people. It is now proposed
that in addition to their duties as pub
lic servants they shall take on other du
ties or an entirely ainerent cnaracter ;
that they shall exercise a self-assumed ,
arbitrary and imcontrolled authority over
distant and subject peoples. If this
extraordinary program can bo carried
out , we shall see the president and con
gress daily exercising from Washington
both delegated and self-assumed powers.
At one moment they will act as the
duly authorized servants of a free people
ple , and the next as despotic rulers of
subject races. Their authority over
us will remain at least in name expressly
delegated. Their authority over their
remote subjects will remain self-as
sumed and unrestrained.
It is a law of physics that two bodies
cannot occupy the same space at the
same time. Abraham Lincoln but de
clared the application of this law to the
realm of politics when ho declared that
"this government cannot endure perma
nently half slave and half free. " Under
his great leadership his prediction that
the Union would cease to be divided
was gloriously fulfilled. The question
for our generation is whether we shall
voluntarily again divide it ; whether wo
shall permit to bo set up at the seat of
government despotic power to compete
with representative authority for final
supremacy.
We may well inquire , as bearing on
what shall be the line of demarcation
between the constitutional authority of
congress and the arbitrary power which
it may assume , by what warrant has the
present congress levied enormous taxes ,
borrowed immense sums of money and
called some two hundred and fifty thous
and men from productive occupations
and subjected them to the phj'sical dan
ger and moral contamination of the
camp ? Such warrant must bo sought
in the self-assumed power of congress ,
as it nowhere expressly appears in the
constitution , The purpose of that in
strument was "to form a more perfect
( not a less perfect ) union , to establish
justice , insure domestic tranquillity , pro
vide for the common defense , promote
the general welfare , and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity. " There is nothing hero which
contemplates the government of subject
races or control of territory which is not
within the Union. The constitution
confers upon congress "power to lay and
collect taxes , duties , imposts and ex
cises , to pay the debts and provide for
the common defense. " It further pro
vides for a militia "to execute the laws
of the Union , suppress insurrections and
ropell invasions. " Wo shall look in
vain in these provisions of our funda
mental law for authority to wage ag
gressive war for the acquisition of terri
tory. The truth is that this now var
iety of territorial expansion calls for an
unconstitutional expansion of the pow
ers of congress.
We may , however , dismiss the fantas
tic assumption that congress may ac
quire and govern territory which shall
not bo subject to the constitution and
general laws of the United States.
The supreme court has said : "It can
not bo admitted that the king of Spain
could , by treaty or otherwise , impart to
the United States any of his royal pre
rogatives ; and much less can it bo ad
mitted that they have capacity lo re
ceive or power to exercise them. Eveiy
nation acquiring territory , by treaty or
otherwise , must hold it subject to the
constitution and laws of its own govern
ment. *
Wo may rest assured that all islands
to which our civil authority shall be ex
tended will become subject to our con
stitution and general laws ; that their
inhabitants will become citizens of the
United States and of the several states
in which they may choose to reside ;
that as such citizens they will come aud
go at will throughout the entire coun
try ; that their government by congress
must bo subject to the fundamental
limitations in favor of personal rights
which are formulated in the constitu
tion aud its amendments ; that by our
high tariffs we shall continue to grind
their people into the dust as Spain has
done before us ; and that our dream of
imperialism will saddle upon us awful
burdens and finally lead us wo know
* Pollard vs. Hagan , How. U12.