The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-17
THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY.
The relations of the Federal Govern
ment to the territory of Louisiana,
latter its purchase, indicate the ideas
of the Fathers in the matter of terri
torfaI government. The acquisition of
that vast domain forced the Federal
government to adopt some plan which
would be acceptable to the people of the
States, and also wisely rule the people
of the territory.
The act of Oct. 81, 1903, provided that
"aH the military civil and judicial
powers, exercised by the officers Of the
existing government of the same, shall
be invested in such person and persons,
and shall be exercised in such manner
as the President of the United States
shall direct This language was gen
orally used in the Joint Resolution an
nexing Hawaii.
To the people of those times it was
a novel proposition, and met with
serious opposition. To them, it seemed
to invest too much power in the hands
of the President
Senator Thos. H. Benton in his his
tory of this period, written forty years
later, said of it:
1T was a startling bill, continuing
the existing Spanish Government, put
ting the President in the place of the
King of Spain, putting all of the ter
ritorial officers in the place of the
Kings officers, and placing the ap-
pointment of all these officers in the |
President alone, without reference to |
the Senate. Nothing could be more in |
compatible with our Constitution than
such government, a mere emanation /
of Spanish despotism, in which all |
powers, civil and military, legislative,
executive and judicial, were in the In
tendant-General"
This law was, however, only the first
step in creating government for the
territory. AS the Constitution had fail
ed to provide the method for such
government, the Executive and Con-
gress followed the simplest and most
obvious plan for ultimately creating it.
In 1904 an Act was passed providing
for a territorial governor, secretary and
three judges appointed by the Presi-
dent, and a Legislative council of thir-
teen resident freeholders, appointed in
The same manner.
The laws of the Federal Union were
also established in the territory.
In 1905 Congress established a rep ]
'esentative territorial government con- !
'isting of a governor, judges and other
officers, and a Legislature elected by I
he freehOlders, and a council of five, /
selected from a list of ten persons
by the President. The gov
,rnor had the right of absolute veto.
The local legislation of the territory
vas confirmed where it did not con-
iict with the Constitution.
For six years the territory remained
n this state of probation, or under
benevolent despotism,"' as some call
ID it, until the population reached the :
lumber of 10000 whites. 1t was then
admitted as a State.
The substantial changes made in the
spanish laws which had governed the
erritOry, merely removed the Spanish
Methods of administration, which were
epugnant to American ideas. But the
Civil law, not accepted by the Anglo
saxon States, was permitted to stand.
A period of nearly a hundred years ;
las passed, and Congress finds no bet
er way OF lnauguraung government
n Hawaii than by following its own
legislation regarding the first territory
t ACQUIRED