The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-10

clSed at all.
! The powers not delegated to the
United States by the constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are re-
served to the states, respectively, or to
the people-amendment, article 10.
The sovereignty which can be eXer-
cised by the nation as a unit is only
/ that which is necessary for accomplish
| ing the purposes of the constitution,
and must be either expressly granted
| therein or necessary or convenient, in
| the judgment of congress, to accom-
plish the purposes expressly declared
| therein.
All other sovereignty is reserved to
the states or to the people.
The power to conquer alien peoples
and hold them in subjugation is no.
where expressly granted.
The power to conquer alien peoples
and hold them in subjugation is no.
where implied as necessary for the ac-
| complishment 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
l. Because it is immoral and wicked
in itself.
2. Because it is expressly denied in
the Declaration of Independence, the
| great interpreter and expounder of the
meaning of the constitution, which owes
| its origin to the same generation, and
| largely to the same men.
| 3. 1t is affirmed that it is immoral
and unfit to be exercised by anybody
in numerous instances by contempor-
airy state constitutions, and the contem-
| porary writers and authorities on pub
lie law, who expressed the opinion OF
| the American people in that generation
who adopted the constitution as well as
Of the men who framed it.
The power to hold property is implied
whether that property be land or chat
tells. 1t exists because
| l. 1t is essential to the accomplish
ment of the purposes of the constitu-
lion. That is undoubtedly as true OF
theright to acquire and hold property
in land as other property.
| 2. The power also is clearly affirmed
by the letter of the constitution where
it declares, article ", section 8:
The congress shall have power to dis
pose of and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory or
| other property belonging to the United
States; and nothing in this constitution
shall be so construed as to prejudice any
olaims-of the United States or of any
particular state.
This power to dispose of the territory
or other property belonging to the I'm
| tied States, and to make all needful
rules and regulations respecting it, and
the power implied from that provision
to acquire and hold territory or other
property, like other constitutional
powers, is a power to be exercised only
for constitutional purposes.
| 1t is like the power to acquire and dis
pose of ships or cannon or public build
ings or drove of pack mules or a
| library, to be exercised in accomplish
ment of the purposes of the constitu-
ton and not to be exercised where it
is not reasonably necessary or convent
ent for the accomplishment of those
| purposes, We have no more right to
acquire land or hold 1t, or to dispose of
it for an unconstitutional purpose than
we have a right to fit out a feet or to
| buy a park of artillery for an uncon-
| stitutional purpose.
| Among the constitutional purposes for
| which congress may acquire and hold
territory and other property are the
building Of forts, and the establish
ment of post offices and subtreasuries
| and custom houses. In all these cases
it is accomplishing a clearly constitu-
tional purpose.
One of the constitutional purposes is
| the enlargement of the country by the
| admission of new states, and therefore
| CbtiE1 COS lHdJ lawfully ACQUIRE, uOIO
and dispose of territory with refence
to the accomplishment of that great
| constitutional purpose, among others,
1t may also acquire adjoining or out
| lying territory, dispose of it, make rules
and regulations for it for the purposes
| of national security and defense, as in
the case of Hawaii, although it may not
be expected that the territory so ac-
CURED, held and disposed of shall ever
come into the union as a. state.
| Now the disposing of and the making
rules and regulations for territory &C
quired for either of these purposes ne
cessanily involves the making laws for
the government of the inhabitants-for-
| ever, if the territory is not to come in
as a state, or during the growing and
transition period if and until it shall
come in as a state.
| But, Mr.. President, it is to be OBJ
| served, and it should not be forgotten
that all this is a constitutional pro-
vision which looks chiefly at the Land
and territory as mere property. And it
applies, so far as it's terms, and its
general spirit and purpose are con-
| eerned, equally to public lands within
a state as to those which are without it.
| And there is no other provision in the
constitution for making rules and reg
ulatfons for the territory of the United
States or its other properly, in the case
| Where the public lands are in Alabama
or Florida or Iowa, than where they are
in Alaska or Arizona or wherever the
public lands are outside any state iuris-
| diction.
The trainers of the constitution were
not thinking mainly and chiefly, when
| they enacted that clause, of lawrnak-
ing, of the government of men, of the
| rights of citizenship. They were think
| ing of public property; and although
| the lawmaking, the rights of men, cit
| izenship have to be recognized from
| the necessity of the case, where the
| public property is a large tract of land
Mt for human settlement, yet the Ian
| guage they used and the thought in
their minds treated the element of
} property as the principal, and the ele-
, ment of citizenship as something only
| temporary and passing, only to last I'M
| til the property, territory and inhab
itants can be given over to freedom I'M
der the jurisdiction of a state, to be adj
mitted as an equal member of our no
| lItical partnership. And two things
about this clause are quite significant
One is that it is not contained in tha
article which gives congress general
| legislative powers, but is sandwiched
| in between the section providing for
| the admission of new states
and the section providing for
guaranteeing to every state a repub-
mean FORM OF government, showing that
they were not thinking of comforting 4
| general legislative power over the in
| habitants, and were only thinking. So far
as the inhabitants of a territory We're con
cerned, Of the transition or expectant
| period while they were awaiting admis-
sion TO statehood And, Mr.. President
you are now proposing to acquire
OF own property in the Philippines with