Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-09

have the constitutional power either ac-
cording to the letter the spirit of the
constitution, to govern at our will and for
our own fancied advantage a foreign ma
ton or states or peoples of ten or twelve
millions, where We are to own no territory
as property, where no constitutional pur-
pose is to be promoted or accomplished,
without their consent against their remon-
STRANGE, power either to be implied from
a right to do what we think fit with the
land we own, undertakes to say that we
violate the principles of constitutional lib
erty and public law to which we appeal.
and the principles of the Declaration of In
dependence which we invoke as Interpreters
of the Constitution, by saying: Oh you
govern the people of the District of Column
bia against their will
Well, Mr.. President if il We're true that
our fathers, in dealing with ten miles
square, had inadvertently or inconsistency
neglected the great doctrines and safe
guards of human liberty, think we should
govern ourselves in our public conduct by
the grand general rule and not by the little.
narrow, contracted exception.
But there is no exception The District
VI oo1umbla, from the necessities of the
case must be within the control of the ma
lonal government, whose seat is here
Appeals to His Associates
Mr.. Hoar continued:
Now, Mr.. President, there are senators
here yet hesitating as to what their action
may be in the future, who will tell you that
they loathe and hate this doctrine that we
may buy nations at wholesale: that We NAV
acquire imperial powers imperial regions
by conquest; that we may make vassal
states ana subject peoples without constitu-
fonal restraint, ard against their will. and
without any restraint but our own discre-
ton.
Now, l appeal TO those gentlemen when
ever and wherever they may be called to
act to answer to themselves as the one
great proposition, the greatest question
that has ever been or ever will be nut to
them in their lives, the question NOT of q
year or OF a Congress, not of a generation
not a century. but question pertaining,
rather to the great period of a national life
might almost say to the great eternity of
national life, Whether-even if that action
be permitted or not by the letter of the
Constitutional be not repugnant to its
form and spirit. Will they commit them
sei I.t IN pflnclple and in doctrine to such a
policy, and then say that they will consider
hereafter the question of how they will act
under it?
Quoting the President
"A year ago last December the President
OF the United States sent message to
Congress. In that message he said:
L speak not of forci5le annexation. be-
cause that is not to be thought of, and I'M
der our code of morality that would De
criminal aggression
President Mckinley, when he spoke. was
not thinking ever Of honor or of power in
spring and alluring as are honor and
power. He placed himself and placed the
American people on the stern, enduring and
perpetual rock of righteousness; that forci-
Bile annexation is not to be thought of I'M
der our code of morality; that would be
criminal aggression.
who shall haul him down? Who shall
haul down the code? Who shall haul down
the President?
THE Declaration of Independence de-
clares that whenever any form of govern
ment becomes destructive of the ends
therein stated it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government. laying its foundation on such
principles, and organizing its powers in
such form as to them shall seem most like
ly to effect their safety and happiness. Rut
the senator from Connecticut thinks We