The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-10

rha rights of citiZens not in transit !
ton state, although it was III d lit tt1
tract not to exceed ten miles square tlie
trainers used a very different ana
much more dignified language; IHen
comes the phraseOlogy. apt anu nuns
for dealing with manhood and WIN
human rights, the language Ill WHICH
lawmaking is provided tor'
Congress shall have power TO exercise
exclusive legislation in all cases Whdtso-
ever over such district
Not to exceed 10 miles square
as may, by cession of particular states.
and the acceptance of congress, become
the seat of the government OF the united
States, and to exercise like authority over
all places purchased by the consent OF the
Legislature of the state in which the same
shall be, for the erection of forts, mag
azines, arsenals, dockyards and other
needful buildings.
This is the only exclusive legislation
granted in that instrument, except as
an incident to ownership of land.
WHY DID THEY LIMIT THAT TO
TEN MILES SQUARE?
Now, Mr. President, the senator from
Connecticut, who is trying to get some
answer to the objection to his claim
| that we have the constitutional power,
/ either according to the letter or the
spirit of the constitution, to govern at
cur will and for our own fancied ad-
vantage, a foreign nation or states or
peoples of ten or twelve millions, where
we are to own no territory as property,
where no constitutional purpose is to
be promoted or accomplished, without
| their consent, against their remOn-
STRANGE, power either to be implied
| from right to do what we think fit
with the land we own, undertakes to
say that we violate the principles of
constitutional liberty and public law
to which we appeal, and the principles
of the declaration of independence
which we invoke as interpreters of the
| constitution. by saying: "Oh, you gov
ern the people of the District of Column
bia against their Will"
Well, Mr.. President, if it were true
that our fathers, in dealing with ten
miles square, had inadvertently or
inconsstently neglected the great doc
trines and safeguards of human liber-
ty, l think We should govern ourselves
in our public conduct by the grand gem
! eral rule and not by the little narrow,
contracted exception
But there is no exception. The Dis
trict of Columbia, from the necessities
of the case, must be within the control
of the national government, whose seat
| is here. You cannot have with safety
mob, if there be one disposed to break
| the windows of this capitol--a popula-
ton who in times of turbulence or of
civil war or of great and bitter political
strife, are under another authority than
| that Of the congress itself. Suppose
! at the outbreak of the civil war, Vir-
ginia and Maryland had possessed their
q infi 4l,s
ritory?
We do not, even as it is, allow the
windows of our legislative chambers to
look out on the open air. The mob
| must be controlled, If it is to be con-
troiled at all, by the central authority
But there is practically no violation of
principle. These people were ceded to
the United States in the beginning with
their own free consent and by
the consent of the states to
which they belonged. Most of the
population of this district are here tenn
porarlly, for the purposes of govern
ment, having residences, voting places
political powers and political duties
elsewhere in their states This district
is occupied, in general, by population
of non-residents. The United States
Is the great property owner and the
officials of the United States are the
great and chief proportion of the pop
ulation; and the poulation is not suffl-
eient either to make a nation or a
germ Of a nation, 1t is therefore idle
to cite this as an exception to the gem
eral proposition that is laid down or as
an argument for its overthrow.
Inc senator from Connecticut cites
the acquisition of Alaska as a violation
or the doctrines Of the declaration of
! independence, and as affording a, pre-
cedent for what he defends-the orga-
nization of a, despotism over 10000
900.
Mr.. President, the acquisition of
Alaska was defended by Charles Sum
ner, intrepid advocate and MARTYR of
liberty, to whom the declaration Of in
dependence was as another gospel. The
diHerence bstweeh his purposes and
those of the men who defend this new
po1cy is apparent. The closing sem
tenoe of his great speech on the cessior
OF Russian America, made in executive
session and made public by order
Of the Senate, covering ITO pages
IN his collected works, sets forth the
beneht which IFS acquisition by the
united STAGES VIII confer upon Alaska.
But your best work and most important
endowment Will be the republican gov
eminent which. looking to a long f1,fiHra
you VIII organize, with schools free 10 ali
and with equal laws, before which every
citizen will stand erect in the conscious
ness OF manhood. Here will be a motive
power without which coal itself is insu-
mclent. Here will be a source of wealth
more ineNhaustible than any fisheries Re-
STOW such a government and you will give
w wi,s as peLter man al you can receive
cholcest fur, or most beautiful ivory.
The representative of Connoc+iout il,
the convention that
stltuuon, afterward predecessors of
the senator in the Senate. made their
report to the governor when they went
nome. This is what they say:
Some additional powers are vasted j.,
congress, which was a princinai ohia ~
mat the states had in view IN apnoin}ino
tHe convention. Those powers eXfend onifS
20 matters respecting the common intat
fined. "'0 specially de-
NOW. Mr.. President, these things were
not SAID by our fathers: they yC5rA NOT
oeneVeo by our fathers to he a doc
URINE applicable only to their paculiar
~ our peculiar, and special aircum
stallces; They We're not for a single
generalities They were hIazima' ,,h Ing
ultles; They were eternal veritjcs Tbn,,
were like the Golden Rule and The Ten
Io4liiiliianaments and the moral law or
father they We're the Golden Rule and
ne tne len commandments and the moral
law translated for the government of
cilelr states. Do you suppose it ever
U ,ieC,.ta TO our fathers that these
1Ishts We're to be departed from AMI
alIlpleo under foot whenever anv
oUui IL, OF any people or any power
OF any congress should deceive itsalf
ara pegulle itself by the .oecious nre-
tense that it thought the thing if was
u eis Was for the benefit of The VIC
I'm sun less did it ever occur TO them
tnat their descendants would depart
rom them and trample them under
loot, mat they might get A little cheap