The Topeka state journal., 1899-02-06
"a OF THEM.
ProminentAnti-Exp ExpansionistsPetitio
the Senate.


the Senate.
New York, Feb. 6-The following petit
tiOn, signed by "a citizens of the United
States and addressed Ito the senate of
the United States" has been made pub
1ic. The signers are:
Charles Francis Adams. Boston.
Felix Adler.
George S. Boutwell,, ex-secretary of
the treasury.
John C. Carlisle, ex-secretary Of the
treasury.
Andrew Carnegie.
Grover Cleveland.
Theodore L. Cuyler.
Charles H. Eliot, president of Harvard
university.
Samuel Gompers, president OF the
American Federation of Labor.
John P. 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 Burritt Smith, Chicago.
MOorefeld Story, Boston.
William G. Sumner, Yale university.
Rev. Henry VanDyke.
Herman Won Hoist, University of Chi
cago.
William L. Wilson, ex-postmastet
general, now president of Washington
and Lee university, Virginia
IneOuOre D w OOIS6Y, Y ale university,
Henry c. Potter, bishop of New York
''To the Senate of the United States:
The undersigned respectfully sub
nit that the treaty between the United
States and the kingdom of Spain, now
before your honorable body, ought not
to be ratified until provisions shall be
inserted, as part of its text, to the eff
feet that the United States shall not
annex the Philippine islands or Porto
Rico, or permit their inhabitants to be-
come citizens. or compel them to be-
come subjects of the United States
without their free consent and the fur
ther and express authority of congress.
There seems to be no reason to doubt
the entire Willingness of Spain to mod
ify the treaty in these respects or to
suppose that the delay of its ratifica-
tion for this purpose involves the slight
est renewal of hostilities.
I'VE submit that every constitutional
treaty when ratified becomes a part Of
the supreme law of the land (cOnStitu-
tion, article VD. If the United States
accept absolute cession of the Philip
pines and Porto Rico under the treaty,
it will be claimed with a force irresist-
ible that the acceptance will, of itself,
make the territory ceded part of the
United States and to give to their in
habitants (who shall not elect to retain
Spanish citizenship and to their de-
scendants the rights of American citi-
zens.
I'VE submit that the treaty. unless mod
reaching character into both the foreign
and domestic policy of this republic. The
late war was undertaken with dis
tinct assurance that we did not look to-
ward foreign conquest or the acquisition
of territory. 1t was undertaken and thus
we plighted the honor of the American
nation in the cause of humanity and lib
erty, and for other purpose.
LAS result of the war Cuba, Porto
Rico and the many hundred islands near
the coast of Asia known as the Philip
pines have fallen more or less under the
control of this country Spain abandOnS
her sovereignty over all of them. But
ia addition the treaty purposes that, to
the Philippines and Porto Rico. abso-
lutte cession shall be made to and accepted
by the United States. Over the Philip
pines and Porto Rico, therefore, should
the treaty be confirmed, the United States
will acquire precisely the sovereignty
which Spain has enjoyed. The pres
ident has on various occasions indi-
Gated a disposition on the part of the ex-
ecutive to hold the Philippines and Porto
Rico as a part of the United States and.
has been pointed out, that may well be
the effect of the treaty in it's present form.
Such. at any rate, is the intention of most
of those who are now croWding upon US
the plan of expansion