Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-28

by opponents of a colonial system, DR..
McMaster said the principles there stat
ed had never been literally incorporated
into the governmental system of the
United States or.of any state. jefferson,
who drafted the Declaration, negotiated
the purchase of Louisiana, and Federal
lists of that day urged the sam objec-
lions in force t~oday-that we would be
compelled to admit to citizenship on
equal terms the %creoles, the Spanish,
the French, the negroes and all other
persons %inhabiting this large territory.
1t was their claim that the MISSISSIPPI
pi was the natural boundary of the
United States, and later that Providence
had erected the Rocky mountains as a
proper boundary of our Union. He
quoted from Daniel Webster that the
constitution could not be stretched to
cover a territory. It related only to
states. A territory was simply owned
by the United States as a man would
own a horse. He showed also that from
the beginning of our acquisition Of ter
ritory the president had been the su.
preme authority, appointing a governor
and council. and that territories were
admitted as states not as a matter of
right, but of expedienoy.
Mr.. Shearman said he was more con-
cerned about what would be the result
of our acquiring distant territories than
in what had already been absorbed.
What kind of government would these
territories be likely to get at the hands
of such representatives as we now have
and are likely to have in the future?
He was not one to desecrate fundamental
law, but there is II provision in the
constitution which prevents the devel-
opment of statesmen in the United
States-that provision which says that
a representative must reside within the
limits of the district which he repre-
sents. This provision has driven out Of
public life some of the brightest men
who have ever been sent to congress,
for it had become the accepted idea that
a representative must shape his views
in accord with those of his district.
Whenever he should change his views,
he would be retired to private life, and
unless he changed his residence his pub
lie career would be ended.
Former Senator George +. Edmunds
said in part: "Our sons and daughters
cannot live in the tropics. Look at the
case of Great Britain and her hundreds
Of years of Indian mastery. Everybody
knows that there has never been an
English settlement within the tropics
but civilians that 60 there, nine out of
ten, die before they are 60 years old, and
the loss of he battalions that 60 there
is greater than that of our sons and
brothers who went to Santiago and
Camp Alger or whatever the name of it
was"
Referring to the Philippines, Mr.. Ed.
munds said: "We now have from these
islands all the commodities they pro-
duce on the same terms that other ma
tons do. Suppose we take them and
adopt the British colonial policy and
make them a close colony and allow no
one to trade with them except ourselves.
How soon would the other nations meet
us by saying, I'VE will treat you the
same in our colonies?' and then the bal
ance Of commercial gain would bank
rupt the United States in ten years.
1--WE told Spain and told the world
by a solemn declaration Of our congress
when we began this war against Spain
that we rejected the idea Of territorial
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Was that a lie, a
sham, a false pretense? And we stand up
In the face of the world and say, Yes;
we have been lying. New York
Herald.