The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-22

A number of presidents, supported 10y
judicial decisions, for holding annexed ter
riturics in Il position of dependence, unaf.
fected by the Constitution or general Fed
eral statutes, were adduced by Mr.. CHARLES
A. GARDINER in the address delivered be-
fore the New York State Bar Association,
to which we have formerly referred. Some
Of these presidents are 50 apt that they
deserve careful attention at this time, when
we hear 50 much vague and alarmist talk
about the constitutional problems with
which we may be confronted through the
acquisition of the Philippines.
We recalled the other day a statement
made in 1903 by G~oUvERNEuR NORRIS,
who wrote the third section OF the fourth
article OF the Constitution. Il always
thought he said, that when We should
acquire Canada and Louisiana 1t would be
proper to govern them as provinces and
allow them no voice in our councils" 1t
! was in just that way that we treated
Louisiana for some years after we had
bought IL. Orleans Territory, the south
ern part of the Louisiana purchase, existed
from 1903 to 1911. 1t had a Governor,
exercising the functions OF the old Spanish
lntendant, and a number OF Judges admin
is%tering the old Spanish code, every one
OF which officials was appointed by the
President. Federal statutes were operative
there only in criminal cases. and the town
of New Orleans had a separate port Law.
or the district thus governed NICHOLSON
OF Delaware said: 1T Is in the nature
OF a colony, whose may be regu-
lated without reference to the Union" The
measure providing for the administration
of the Orleans Territory was described
by BENTON as "a startling bill, c%ontinu-
ing the existing Spanish Government, put
ting the President in the place of the
King Of Spain, putting all the territorial
officers in the place Of the Kings officers.
and placing the appointment of all these
officers in the President alone" Mr..
GARDINER shows, however, that the validity
ofthe Orleans Government was repeatedly
upheld by the Supreme Court q How,
344; 3 How, $50; 10 Wall, 43p. A better
pattern for the form OF government to he
applied Professionally to Porto Rico and the
Philippines could scarcely be found.
The feature Of difference in the present
situation is that the Orleans Territory.
after being governed in the way mentioned
for eight years, had to be admitted to the
Union as II State, because our treaty with
France bound us SO to do, whereas We are
placed under no such obligation by our
pending treaty with Spain.
We acquired Florida in 1919, and the act
OF Congress, passed two years later, gave
the Presidents appointee, ANDREW JACK
son, all the autocratic overs ever granted
to the Captain-General OF u Spanish colony.
The validity OF that act was repeatedly sus-
tained by the United States Supreme Court.
We add that, 50 far was the absolute govern
ment thus created from receiving the con-
sent Of the governed, that twenty-one years
elapsed before the resistance OF the Sem
inoles was overcome, and Florida did not
become a State until twenty-six years after
we purchased 1t. During the intervening
period the authority asserted over the ter
ritory by Congress was, as BENTON pointed
out at the time, entirely untrammelled by
the Constitution.
We possess at this hour two tracts OF
land, which, htving no organized local
Government clothed with the law-making
power. but being ruled directly by Con-
gress, may appropriately be termed de-
Tendencies or colonies We refer, of course,
w 1891 "i w EhluShu. liz
latter country was coded to us, just as Porto
Rico and the Philippines have been coded, |
without any treaty covenants relating to
future requirement OF Statehood. For
thirty-two years its inhabitants nave been
permitted to exercise a few executive and |
judicial, but absolutely no Legislative func-
tions. Congress-" said Judge DAWSON
90 Fed. r., 205l, "could confer upon
Alaska such powers, judicial and executive,
as they deemed most suitable to the inhabi-
tants. 1t was unquestionably, he added,
within the constitutional power of Congress
to withhold from the inhabitants of Alaska
the power to legislate and make laws"
Nobody denies that the inhabitants Of
Orleans Territory and Of the Floridas were
better off under the absolute authority OF
the agents appointed by the President than
they had ever been before. Nor will any
reasonable man deny that the establish
ment OF Il similar state of things in the
Philippines will be an immense improve
ment on the Spanish regime.