The San Francisco call., 1898-12-27
EXPANSION AND THE CONSTITUTION.


 THE Examiner of yesterday contained signed
 editorial in favor of expansion, the black lines
 and raised letters of which stretched across page These eccentrical splurges of young man who seems to have lost whatever brains he pos sessed nothing but solidfed noise. Of course every American of ordinary intelligence and reading knows that neither Thomas Jefferson nor any other great American statesman ever wrote or uttered a word that could be even projected into the federation of the extension of institutions Asatic terri tory Asiatic populations outside of this conti- nent and immediately adjacent islands MT. Jefferson was quite conscious that the &C., quiston of Louisiana, including the indis- pensable outlet of the Mississippi, not warranted by the constitution and averse was he to departure from the fundamental law that he sug gested an amendment to that exceptional Though Texas was most desirable part of this con- tnent and in every respect eligible statehood, its annexation by joint resolution has been condemned by all our great constitutional expounders who re- membered how the English Revolution originated in John Hampdens refusal to pay small illegal tax, and that independence resulted from resistance preamble. When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States the cesson was on con ditions, having the legal force of solemn compact, that should be held under and not without the con
 
 Declaration of Independence should be inviolably maintained, and that should be carved into States on the exact footing of the original thirteen.
 These conditions were subsequently, inserted in every ratified treaty under which territory incor porated into the Union In Abraham Lncon's first Inaugural Address he dwelt the proposition that all members of Congress swear their support the whole constitution" In July 1861, Congress declared that the object of the Civil War was to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution of the United States" February 1o, 1862, President Lin coin recommended the reading of Washington's Fare well Address at all places throughout the Union Under concurrent resolutions passed by Congress about the same date, extracts from that Address read at every military post and the head of every regiment and corps of the army. These extracts de- cared the mmutabity of the constitution except as it might be amended in conformity with its own terms July IS, 1863, Mr. Lincoln again declared the preservation of the constitution to be the central point in the mighty conflict then raging On De cember 5, 1865, President Johnson in his Annual Message said "The constitution is the work of the people of the United States, and it should be as in destructible the people" No President has deiv- cred message which was not based on the necessity of keeping strictly within the express and implied powers granted by the people to the Federal Gov ernmen and in all the official business of the nation and of the various States and in the decisions of the courts from Justices of the Peace up to the Supreme Court of the United States the limitations of the con stitution observed and enforced day by day. In fact without the constitutions, State and Federal the United States would cease to exist
 Every naturalized citizen of the United States is compelled to swear that The will support the consti- uon. The general form of oath to be taken by per in the civil military or naval service is to sup port and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,' and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Fifty six articles Of the Revised Statutes of the United States provisions common to all of the Terri tories" Fourteen articles applicable to "all per sons in every State and Territory secure to them ab soute equality of rights which are specifically enum- erated, and expressly abolish peonage and all con tract service of that character. These laws were framed in pursuance of and under the constitution
 It IS this constitution absolutely binding expressly and inferentially upon every citizen of the United States, which, in the interest of dishonest and reasonable spectators, 1t is deliberately proposed to violate in the acquisition and government of the Phil ippines It is this constitution, framed interpreted and applied for more than century and constituting the Government itself against which the young man of the Examiner lifts his puny arm, and to escape from which he prints alsehoods and fake suggestions in relation to Thomas Jefferson. It Is this constitu- ton that General Merritt declares we have "out- grown" It is this constitution that Julian Hawthorne derides when he asserts It is time to cut loose from the apron-strings of Jefferson, Washington and the rest of that giant conclave" Hearst has called men like Hoar "old grannies." We now learn that the Fathers of the Republic aprons, to which their masculine successors can no longer be tied.
 It would that these reasonable utterances are in themselves convincing evidences of the liberaity +l,o Fortunately they do not represent the people, who, as Mir Cleveland has observed, are ultimately gov erned by their sober second thought" The time has not yet arrived for the ranspantaton of Caesasm to American soil. The American Eagle will not four ish in the torrid region of the Philippines The American flag will only be permanently hoisted where the constitution blazes through its stars and traitors writhe under its stripes.
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 There is to be new Grand Jury, and it ought to devote itself to patient study of some of the juries