The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-10

remember-the danger of disunion anc
domestic strife and an indulgence il
the greed and lust of empire. Tht
Greeks stood together against the pow
err of Persia as the American states
stood together against the tyranny OF
England. For us the danger of dis.
union has happily passed by. Oul
Athenians and our Spartans are bounC
and welded together again, each lend
ing to the other the strength of theil
steel and the sharpness of their tenn
pered blade in an indssoluble union
Our danger to-day Is from the lust OF
empire. 1t is little remarkable that
the temptation that besets us now lured
and brought to ruin the Athenian peo-
pie in ancient tines. I hope that we
may be able to resist and avert that
: danger as we resisted and averted the
peril of disunion
Thls is the greatest question, this
question of the power and authority of
our constitution in this matter, [ had
almost said, that had been discussed
among mankind from the beginning of
Tune. Certainly 1t is the greatest ques-
/ tlon ever discussed in this chamber
from the beginning of the government.
| The question is this: Have we the
right, as doubtless we have the physi-
cal power, to enter upon the govern
ment of ten or twelve million subject
people without constitutional restraint ?
OF that question the senator from Con-
nectlcut takes the affirmative. And
upon that question l desire to join is
| sue.
Mr.. President, I am no strict con-
structlon1st. | am no alarmist. I be-
lleVe this country to be a nation, a SOW
I ereign nation. / affirm that every con-
stitutional power, whether it be calles1
power of sovereignty or nationality
neither of which pharses is found in
terms in the constitution-or whether
II be a power expressly declared and
named therein, is limited to the one
supreme and controlling purpose declar-
ed as that for which the constitution
itself was framed: In order to form
more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility provide for
the common defense, promote the gen
eral welfare and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and to our posteri-
ty." But when the senator from Con-
necticut undertakes to declare that we
may do such things, not for the perfect
union, the common defense, the general
welfare of the people of the United
States, or the securing of liberty to our
selves ard our children, but for any
fancied or real obligation to take care
of distant peoples beyond our bounda-
ries, not people of the United States,
then |
him he can find nothing either in the
text of the constitution, or the exposi-
ton of the fathers, or the judgments of
the courts from that day to this, to
warrant or support his doctrine.
The senator then reviewed in detail
the constitutional argument of Senator
Platt, after which he said:
The constitutional argument for slav-
cry was ten times as strong as the ar
guments of the senator from Connec-
ticut. The slave master said he owned
men for their good. The senator from
Connecticut proposes to own nations
for their good. But the slave property
had come down to the slave owner from
his fathers.
To the constitutional doctrine of the
senator from Connecticut l desire to op-
pose mine. 1t is the doctrine on which
/ have acted and on which the party
to which l belong has acted during the
whole of my public life. The United
States are a nation composed of forty
five states-in the language of a great
statesman and chief justice, IAN indie
structible union of indestructible
states" To the people who compose
that union belongs sovereignty in amp
lest measure. That sovereignty they
may exercise to such an extent and
through such agencies as may seem to
them good. Or they may refuse to
commit any part of it to any agency
whatever. Or they may determine that
it shall never be used for purposes
which they think unfit.
They have not deposited all sover-
eighty anywhere, and have authorized
no agent of theirs to exercise in their
behalf all sovereignty, unlimited, I'M
checked and uncontrolled.
Part of this sovereignty Is vested in
and belongs to the nation as unit |
and may be exercised by national
agencies exclusively. Part of this SOW
soveriegns, the people have not delegat-
ed to the government of the United |
States as a unit, and have prohibited |
it to the states. That part is reserved |
to the people by the express terms of |
the constitution, because they do not |
think fit that 1t shall be exercised at |
all.
The power to conquer alien peoples |
and hold them in subjugation is no. |
where implied as necessary for the ac-
of the purposes declared |
by the constitution. 1t is clearly shown
to be one that ought not to be exercised
by anybody-one that the trainers of |
the constitution thought ought not to |
be exercised by anybody-O. Because
t is immoral and wicked in ITSELF (2) |
Because it is expressly denied in the
Declaration of independence, the great
est interpreter and expounder of the
meaning of the constitution, which owes
is origin to the same generation and
argely to the same men. CD 1t is af-
irmed that it is immoral and unfit to
De exercised by anybody-in numerous
instances by contemporary state consti-
.utions and the contemporary writers
md authorities on public law, who ex-
pressed the opinion of the American
people in that generation who adopted
he constitution as well as of the men
Who framed it.
Now, Mr.. President there are sena-