Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1900)
4 Conservative * TVE1JSTER ON EXPANSION. Tlic 1'oHillonVliirli the Grout Orator Took During the Mexican War. I ain against all accessions of territory to form new states. And this is no mat ter of sentimentality , which I am to pa rade before moss-meetings or before my constituents at home. . . . It is a mat ter of firm , unchangeable purpose. I yield nothing to the force of circum stances that have occurred , or that I can consider as likely to occur. . I resist today and forever , and to the end , any proposition to add any foreign territory , South or West , North or East , to the states of this Union , as they are consti tuted and held together under the con stitution. I do not want the colonists of England on the North ; and as little do T want the population of Mexico on the South. . . . It is said we must take territory for the sake of peace. We must take territory. It is the will of the president. . . . I speak of the pres ident , as of all presidents , without dis respect. I know of no reason why his opinion , and his will , his purpose , de clared to be final , should control us , any more than our purpose , from equally conscientious motives , and under as high responsibilities , should control him. . . . I say , sir , that , according to my conscientious conviction , we are now fixing on the constitution of the United States , and its frame of government , a monstrosity , a disfiguration , an enorm ity. . . . Arbitrary governments may have ter ritories and distant possessions , because arbitrary governments may rule them by different laws and different systems. Russia may rule in the Ukraine , and the provinces of the Caucasus , and Kamt- schatka by different codes , ordinances , or ukases. We can do no such thing. They must be of us , part of us , or else strangers. I think I see a course adopt ed which is likely to turn the constitu tion of the land into a deformed mon ster , into a curse rather , than a blessing ; in fact , a frame of an unequal govern ment , not founded on popular represent ation , not founded on equality , but on the grossest inequality ; and I think that this process will go on , or that there is danger that it will go on , until this Union shall fall to pieces. I resist it , today and always ! Whoever falters or whoever flies , I continue the contest. From Webster's Speech in the Senate , March 28 , 1848. FREE TRADE WITH THE COLONIES. The imagination of man could not have conceived a more bizarre termina tion of the late war , and the acquisition of territory which followed it , than the present controversy in the republican party over the question of free trade with Porto Rico. It should be remarked in the first place that there never was any need of our taking Porto Rico. Its inhabitants were not complaining of oppression. They had never asked our assistance. It is true that they wel comed us when we came. There is hardly an island in the West Indian group , British , Danish , or other , that would not welcome a change. They are all so desperately poor that they want to try something new , and they all feel instinctively that free trade with the United States would be good for them. This was the feeling of the Porto Ricans when President McKinley decided to carry the war to that island. They manifested their joy in such an exuberant way that the only glory gained by General Miles came from his excellent choice of a landing-place. When once on terra firma , he found his pathway was strewn with flowers. We had never been asked to go there , but when we had once come , the inhabit ants threw their arms around us because they believed that free trade with the United States would be one of the re sults of the embrace. A Skeleton. The time has come for sitting down to this marriage feast , and now a skele ton appears and takes the leading place at the banquet. Its name is protection to home industry. It comes to forbid the bans. It says that the tobacco and sugar and tropical fruits of this new possession and of the other islands that we have grabbed shall not come into the United States duty free. Coffe may come in , because coffee is already on the free list and is not grown by us. So the Porto Ricans are advised to grow coffee. But coffee , like confidence , is a plant of slow growth. It takes years to bring a plantation to a productive state , and af ter this is accomplished Porto Rico will have no advantage in our market over Brazil , or Venezuela , or Mexico. The advice given to the inhabitants of our new insular possession , even if followed , would not help them for a long time to come. They might starve to death first. What they want and must have is either free trade with the United States or do nations from our treasury or from priv ate subscriptions until they can adapt themselves to their new conditions. A Change of Air. When the plan of free trade was pro posed last month by the president and the secretary of war , it was so warmly espoused by leading republican newspa pers that it seemed likely to go through congress with a rush. But there has been a change of atmosphere , and this has been manifested nowhere more strikingly than in the columns of the New York Tribune , which has made a complete volte face on this question in side of one week , and which now tells the Porto Ricans that they have not been annexed to this country and will not be , and that "Porto Rico has no concern with the laws of the United States. " The fight has now been trans ferred to the committee on ways and means , with the hope of finding some middle ground between free trade and protection as regards the new posses sions. We do not see any possible chance of compromise. It is evident also that the new reciprocity treaties have been put in jeopardy by the Porto Rican question. The Open Door. Another complication is looming up in the distance , which must have been foreseen by the administration long ago. It is found in our demand for the "open door" in China. The Philippine Islands are in the same situation , legal and constitutional , as Porto Rico. What ever principle applies to one applies to the other. If any rule of law requires that the tariff system of the United States shall be extended over Porto Rico , it applies with equal force to the Philippines. But our tariff system is in absolute conflict with the "open door" policy. It forbids the admission of German , British , and French cotton goods , for example , except at the Ding- ley rates , which cannot be considered an open-door policy. It was reported from Washington the other day that one of the foreign Powers , with which Secre tary Hay has been negotiating , while giving its assent to the "open door"has replied that it would expect the same principle to be applied by the United States to the Philippines. Contradicted. This report was almost immediately contradicted , but , whether it be true or not , we may be quite sure that it will come true very soon. The foreign pow ers that have made lodgment on Chin ese territory will not keep the door open to our trade if we close the Philippines to their trade. Moreover , we have made a treaty with Spain by which we agree to keep the door open to her trade with the Philippines for ten years. How this treaty can be reconciled with the clause of the constitution which says that all duties , imposts , and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States is a nut for the attorney-general to crack. How this treaty can be recon ciled on principles of equity and fairness with differential duties in favor of Spain and against England , Germany , Russia , etc. , is a nut for the secretary of state to crack. The conclusion cannot be avoided that the administration has in volved itself in a tremendous tangle , legal , commercial , and political. Its policy of imperialism , or expansion , has brought it at loggerheads with the pro tectionists and in conflict with the constitution of the United States. It tains also the germs of a quarrel with Eu ropean powers over trade regulations in Eastern Asia , New York Evening Post ,
