The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-01-10
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
DEMOCRACY CANNOT RULE OVER
VASSAL STATES.
TO .ATTEMPT IT IS TO IkWTE RUIN
The Question of Constitutional Power the GRAY
est this Country has Ever Known. The
Threat of Pure, UnIm.
tied Despotism.

Washington, Jan. 9.-This proved to
be an interesting day in the Senate, the
principal subject under discussion being
the constitutional right of the United
States to carry into effect the policy Of
expansion.
The leading speaker was Mr.. Hoar,
tRep. Mass.l who delivered speech
in support of the resolution introduced
By Mr.. Vest (Dem.,s MOI, declaring it
to be in opposition to the Constitution
for this country to acquire foreign ter
ritory to be governed permanently as
colonies.
Although Mr. Hoar occupied the time
of the Senate for more than two hours,
he was accorded the unusual compli-
ment of close and undivided attention
by his colleagues on the floor, and a large
audience in the galleries. He confined
himself closely to his manuscript, but
his address was delivered with all the
fire, earnestness and animation of the
orator that he is. His speech was in
answer to that recently delivered by Mr..
platt, (Rep. Conn.,, and had been most
carefully prepared.
policy Of the United States entering upon
an expansion of its territory, except in a
general and indirect manner Mr.. Hoar
entered upon a discussion of the consti-
tutional phases Of the question involved
in the resolution under consideration.
1T is not my purpose" he said ''to
discuss the general considerations whicl.
affect any acquisition of sovereignty by
the American people over the Philippine
Islands, which has been or may he pro-
posed. / am speaking to-day only of the
theory of constitutional Interpretation
propounded by the Senator from Con-
necticut, (AIr. Plato. If ut any time
hereafter the Senator shall seek to put
his theories into practice by reducing
to subiection a distant people. dwelling
in the tropics, aliens in blood, most of
them Moslem in faith, unable to speak
or comprehend our language, or to rcai
| or to write any language, to whom the
traditions and the doctrines of civil lib
erty are unknown, it will be time to
| point out what terrible results and pen
alties this departure from our consritu-
tional principles will bring upon us.
Mr.. Hoar eaid that our fathers who
! framed the Constitution were the wlscs;
| builders OF States the wo.l1 has yct
seen. They had studied ancient history
| and had learned that while there is Ill
| tie else that a Democracy canno- ac
| complish, it cannot rule over yasSal
| States or subject peoples without bring
| ing the elements of death into its own
| constitution. Our fathers, he said learn
| ed two lessons from the history OF
| Greece-the danger of disunion and do
nestle strife and an indulgcnlc. ID the
| greed and lust of empire; ana he hoped
we might avert the latter Danger as We
| had averted he former.
II hope not to weary rha SrnatA by
reiteration," said Mr.. Hour, CONCLUDING
| the preface, but this is the greatest
question, this question of The power and
| authority of our Constitution Ill this
matter, | had almost said, tina, had
| been discussed among mankind from lie
| beginning of time Certainly it Is fhe
greatest question ever discussed in this
| Chamber from the beginning Of tht
| Government"
Mr.. Hoar believed ne said, this
| country to be nation-a sovereign ma
| ton. He believed Congress possessed
| all the powers necessary to accomplish
| the great objects the trainers of the
| Constitution intended should be accom-
plished. But he denied that it possessed
| the astonishing" and ''eXtravagant'
| powers under the Constitution which the
| Senator from Connecticut sMr. Plato at
| tributed to it.
/ Mr. Hoar affirmed that every constitu
tional power is limited to the one su
preme and controlling purpose declared
in the Constitution itself:
In order to form more perfec
| union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common de
fense, promote the general welfare, ant
secure the blessings of liberty to our
selves and to our posterity."
when the Senator from Connecticut
undertakes to declare" said Mr.. Hoar
that we may do such things, not for the
perfect union. the common defense, the
| general welfare of the people of Uniteo
States, or the securing of liberty to our
selves and our children, but for any
fancied or real obligation to take care
of distant peoples beyond our boundaries
not people of the United States, then
| deny his proposition and tell him he car
| find nothing in either the text of the
! Constitution or the exposition of the
fathers. or the judgments of courts from
that dav to this. TO warrant or support
| his doctrine.
/ I'VE have heard of limited mOnarchies
| constitutional monarchies despotisn
| femnered hy assassination; but the logic
of the Senator from Connecticut makes
n pure, unlimited, untempered despotism
without any relief from assassns.'
Mr.. Hoar maintained that the propo