The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-06
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP
WILL HAVE TO BE GRANTED TO THE
ISLAND INHABITANTS.
Senate Urged to Delay Ratification
Until Treaty Terms Can BE Ma
tcriRlIy Modified.

! NEW YORK, Feb 5.--The following petit
ton. signed by twenty-four citizens Of the
United States and addressed to ''the Senate
| of the United States" was made public to-
night. The signers are
| CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS Boston.
FELIX ADLER.
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, .ex-secretarv of
the treasury.
JOHN @. CARLISLE, ex-secretary of the
treasury
ANDREW CARNEGIE
GROVER CLEVELAND, ex-President Of
the United States.
THEODORE l. CUYLER,
CHARLES II. ELIOT, president Of Har-
ward University.
SAMUEL GOMPERS, president of the
American Federation of Labor
JOHN B. HENDERSON, ex-United States
senator from Missouri
| WILLIAM B. HORNBLOWER.
! W. b. PALMER, president of the Rio
Grande Western Railway
| WHEELER H. PECKHAM
SHERMAN S. ROGERS, Buffalo
| CARL SCHURz, ex-secretary of the IN
terror.
| EDWARD M. SHEPARD.
EDWIN BURRITT SMITH, Chicago
| MOORFIELD STORY, Boston.
| WILLIAM G.. SUMNER, Yale University.
! REV. HENRY VANDYKE.
HERMAN Won Hoist, University Of
! Chicago.
| WILLIAM L. WILSON, ex-postmaster
| general, now president of Washington and
/ Lee University, Virginia.
THEODORE S. WOOLSEY, Yale Uni
versity.
| ,,afN
ITO the Senate of the United States. The
undersigned respectfully submit that the
| treaty between the United States and the
| kingdom of Spain. now before your honora-
BILE body, ought not to be ratified until pro-
vision shall be inserted, as part of its text.
to the effect that the United States shall
not annex the Philippine islands or Porto
! Rico, or permit their inhabitants to become
| citizens, or compel them to become subject
of the United States without their free con-
| sent and the further and express authority
| of Congress. There seems to be no reason
to doubt the entire willingness Of Spain to
modify the treaty in these respects, or to
| suppose that the delay Of It's ratification for
this purpose involves the slightest renewal
Of hostilities.
I'VE submit that every constitutional
treaty, when ratified. becomes part Of the
iGOnSlltutIOn.
Article g. If the United States accent abb
| solute cession of the Philippines and Porto
Rico under the treaty, it will be claimed,
with a force Irresistible that the acceptance
will, of itself, make the territory ceded a
part of the United States and give to their
inhabitants (who shall not elect to retain
Spanish citizenship and to their descendants
the rights of American citizens.
We submit that the treaty unless modi-
fed will introduce changes of far
| reaching character into both tho foreign and
domestic polity of this Republic The late
was undertaken with our distinct as
surance that we did not look toward foreign
| conquest or the acquisition of territory. Ii
was undertaken, and to this we plightea the
honor of the American Nation, in the cause
of humanity and liberty, and for no other
purpose.
'As a result of the war Cuba Porto Rico
and the many hundred islands near the coast
of Asia, known as the Philippines. have
fallen more or less under the control of this
country Spain abandons her sovereignty
over all of them. But in addition the treaty
purposes that, as to the Philippines and
Porto Rico, an absolute cession shall be
made to and accepted by the United States.
over the Philippines and Porto Rico, there
United States will acquire precisely the SOW
ereignty which Spain has enjoyed. The
President has on various occasions indicated
a disposition on the part Of the executive
to hold the Philippines and Porto Rico as a
part of the United States and as has been
pointed out that my well be the effect OF
the treaty in its present form. Such at any
rate. is the intention of most OF those who
are now crowding upon us the plan Of 'ex-
pansion.'
THE public sentiment Of our country is
not ready to endure the concession of Amer
lean citizenship to the Filipinos and Porto
Ricans. But the effort will, for the time at
least. no doubt be TO hold their islands
under revenue. tariff. navigation and other
laws very different from those I'm the United
States. The Philippines and Porto Rico
would al least al the outset be separate de-
pendencies under an extraterritorial and
extraconstitutional sovereignty. not pro-
vided for in the Constitution OF the United
States and grossly Inconsistent with it's en-
tire spirit and intent That this sovereignty
In the case of the Philippines is extrater-
ritorial IS the more apparent from the fact
that the Constitution was established for the
United States of America and rot for the
United States OF America and Asia? That
the transfer proposed is a transfer OF SOW
ereignty Is obvious from the fact that the
consent Of the people of the Philippines and
Porto Rico is ignored in their transfer from
Spain to the United States and Is hereafter
to be considered only as far as the United
states shall see fit to give 1t considera-
ton.
I'VE further submit. that in the history
OF our Nation there IS no precedent Tor an