The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-25
Favors the Immediate Ratification
Of the Paris Treaty.
That Done, We Are Free to Deal as We
Please With the Philippines.
The United States Government Can
be Trusted to Deal Honestly and
Justly With the Islands and
Their People When Once Given
Into Our Care.

Their People When Once Given
Into Our Care.
q WASHINGTON, Jan. 24-Two nota-
BILE speeches We're delivered in the Sen
ate to-day, one by Lodge of Massachu-
sets, and the other by Clay of Georgia.
While the two Senators differed ma
terially as to the policy of expansion,
upon which they dwelt, both are in
favor of the immediate ratification of
the pending peace treaty. They con-
tend that once the treaty is ratified,
Congress will have full power to deal
with conditions respecting the territory
acquired during the war with Spain,
and not before. Lodge particularly ar
gued for formal declaration of peace,
which could be had only by the ratifi-
cation of the treaty.
When the Senate convened to-day
Gallinger had a resolution passed which
he intimated might show a scandal in
connection with the management of the
Washington Asylum of this city, the
responsibility for which he frankly
placed at the door of Congress. 1t pro-
vided fer an investigation of the asy-
lum by the Committee on District of
Columbia. Gallinger said there were
62S inmates of the institution. In the
workhouse for males there PIG hunks
and 314 inmates. He deemed the stu
alton to be disgrace to Washington,
and calculated to bring reproach upon
Congress.
AS Lodge of Massachusetts, was about
to take the floor to deliver his speech
upon the policy of expansion. his col
league (Hoar) noted the absence of a
quorum. A roll-call developed the
presence of forty-seven Senators.
Lodges position on the Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, and his wellknown
antagonism to the views on the ques-
ton of expansion and ratification of
the peace treaty entertained by his dis
tinguished colleague, Hoar, aroused
unusual interest in his address. He
spoke in part as follows:
Mr. President: In connection with
these resolutions and others which have
been introduced two questions have
been raised, one of constitutional law
and one of public policy. 1t is not my
purpose to enter at any length into
the former discussion. I believe that
the United States has the undoubted
power, which it has frequently exer-
cised. to acquire territory and to hold
and govern it. I am ready to admit, if
necessary, that action in these diree-
tons must be taken for constitutional
purposes, but the constitutionality of
the purposes, when Congress is about
to exercise these or any other powers,
must be determined by Congress itself.
through its majority. / believe that
the power of the United States in any
its of the States themselves is absolute,
with the single exception of the limita-
,tion placed upon such outside posses
'sions by the Thirteenth Amendment
Such, at all events, has been the policy
of the United States and it's course of
action in practice.
i will not enter into any discussion
of the Scott decision, which has been
so admirably dealt with by the Senator
from Ohio. I was brought up to be-
attempted against the Supreme Court
than when. for political reasons, that
decision was forced upon it. I was
also brought up to believe that the ia
NOUS obiter dictum of Chief Justice
fancy was as bad in law as it was in
politics and human doctrine. 1 was not
very old, but that is a belief which
am too old to unlearn now. I am con-
tent to stand on the broad proposition
laid down by Webster in debate in
1S49, that Territories are not part OF
the United States, but belong to the
United States, as England's colonies
belong to England.
Constitutions do not make people;
people make constitutions Our Con-
stitution is great and admirable be-
cause the men who made 1t were So
and the people who ratified it and have
lived under it were and are brave. in
telfigent and lovers of liberty. There
is higher sanction and a surer pro-
lection to life and liberty. to the right
of free speech and trial by jury. to
justice and humanity lin the traditions,
the beliefs. the habits of mind and
the character of the American people
thant-an which can be afforded by any
constitution, no = matter how wisely
drawn
Holding these views as to our con-
stitutional powers, the great question
now before the American people re-
solves itself in my mind to one of pol
icy purely. There is only one question
demanding actual and immediate de-
cision now before Congress and the
people, and that is whether the treaty
with Spain shall be ratified or not I
have heard no opposition to any part
of the treaty except such portion of it
as related to the Philippines, and that,
therefore, is the sole point upon which
/ desire to touch.
"In our war with Spain we con-
ouered the Philippines, or, to put it
more exactly, we destroyed the power
of Spain in those islands, and took
possession of their capital. The treaty
cedes the Philippines to us. 1t IS
wisely and skillfully drawn. 1t COM
mits us to no policy, to no course Of
action whatever, in regard to the Phil
ippines. When the treaty is ratified we
have full power and are free to do with
those islands as we please, and the
opposition to it's ratification may be
summed up in a single sentence, that
the American people and the American
Congress are not to be trusted with
that power and that freedom of action
in regard to the Inhabitants of these
distant islands.
~We must either ratify the treaty or
reject it. for cannot suppose that any