The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-09-09
A DEMOCRATIC OPINION
onthe Philippines--senato Lindsay's
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Address to the Bar Association.
New York journal of Commerce; The
speech Of Senator Lindsay left little
room for antagonlsm to the policy of
the government so far as It's oonstitu-
tionalIty and legality go. AS Demo-
cratic senator from Democratic state
| he was under no political bias favor
able to the administration. AS a law
yer with high reputation to sustain
addressing the American Bar Assocla-
ton. he had every motive for care that
his legal argument should be invulner-
able.
In the first case that came before 1t
involving the right of the United States
to extend its Jurisdiction, the supreme
court declared that "the government
possesses the power of acquiring terri
tory either by conquest or by treaty"
Since that time the thing has been done
so often that It is difficult to say now
whether the objection that 1t is doing
something unprecedented in the Philip
pines is due to mental deficiency or to
moral Obliquity.. The right to make
peace involves the right to fix its terms,
and that Congress has the right to
make the surrender of sovereignty one
Of the conditions is implied in Its own
independence and has been repeatedly
affirmed by national action.
But Congress will not legislate over
acquired territory without restriction.
The supreme court has declared that
It is the sovereign owner Of the terri
tories, and has supreme authority over
them and their Inhabitants, but 1t is
Subject to such restrictions as are eX-
pressed in the constitution or are nee
essarily implied in Its terms.
The personal and civil rights Of the in
hnbitants Of the territories are secured
to them Us to other citizens by the
principles OF constitutional liberty
! which restrain all agencies Of govern
ment, state and national" Prior to
the purchase Of Alaska II was provld-
ed in treaties of acquisition that the
| inhabitants should, in the discretion OF
| Congress. be admitted TO statehood.
But in the Alaska purchase there was
no such stipulation; 1t indicated n
| change of national policy; ut was the
virtual assertion OF constitutional pow
| err in the general government to acquire
+, foreign territory not necessary for coal
| ing stations, the correction Of boundar-
| les or similar uses with no design or
expectation OF organizing 1t into states
for admission into the union" But
even In the case Of Louisiana, II the
construction OF states from 1t were any
motive at all. It was very subordinate
motive in its acquisition.
| AS to the consent of the governed the
senator referred to Louisiana, Florida,
| New Mexico and California, and said:
| Orderly government, faithfully admin
| lstered in the interests of the governed
superinduces consent. New Mexico and
Arizona have been governed as territor-
les more than fifty years. Congress has
governed the District of Columbia more
than hundred years, yet the Declar-
alton OF Independence is neither dead
nor sleeping" The Fillpinos have not
| governed themselves for $50 years: at
cannot be that their right to govern
| ment to which they give their consent
is more sacred than was the like right
TO the people Of the seeding states"
The policy Of expansion is. Of course.
a different thing. The right to acquire
territory is not an obligation to do so,
but circumstances create obligations:
II would be against our traditions and
policy to admit Philippine states; at
does not follow, however, that we are
to shrink from the full and faithful dis
charge of the new duty which we find
ourselves under to the civilized world.
and more especially to the distant ISL
ands OF the eastern seas" The reason
for the occupation OF the Islands lies In
the relations We are bound to sustain
in the future to the rest OF the world,
the civilized and progressive nations
on the other. Although the admi1ls-
traitor appears on the surface to be lit
tie concerned in what is going on in
China, we are not sure but our occupa-
tion Of the Philippines has already had
some influence upon the attitude OF
other powers.