Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-18
a NEW DEPARTURE
IN NATIONAL POLITICS
Special to the Register.


The letter of acceptance of President
Mckinley marks a new departure in
politics Heretofore a candidate nom
mated for the Presidency confined him
self exclusively TO a statement OF his
own position upon matters of party
politics and statecrafL President Nc
Kinley has departed from this plan and
has introduced the debating plan of
writing a letter of acceptance He re-
views the arguments advanced against
him and then enters what the lawyers
term plea of confession and avoid
ance." He states that there is no such
thing intended by any one as imperial
ism and proceeds to prove this state
ment by ten thousand words of histor-
ical record concerning his own action
in relation to Porto Rico and the Phil
ippines. He says that he sent a COM
mission not authorized by Congress and
for which there was no appropriation
and which had no legal governing au-
thority in order to govern the Philip
pines He told the commission to Of
fer the Philippines the protection OF
certain clauses of the United States
Constitution. He selected the parts of
the Constitution which should be en-
forced in the Philippine Islands and
the parts which should not He then
instructed the commissioners to gov
ern the Philippines in accordance with
the plan which he himself had select
without the authority of Congress or
, any other body This is what Presi-
dent Mckinley says in his letter of a.
ceptance that he did. He fails TO show
any authority for thus revising and
striking out parts of the Constitution
of the United States. There is not now
a colony in the world where the Soy
ereign has the right or even tries to
exercise such a right OF selecting for
the subjects the portions of any consti-
tuition to apply to such subjects. After
denying that ne intends any imperial
ism he produces as argument the fact
that he performed the most imperial
istic act that has been done by any CIV
ilized sovereign within the past CEN
fury. He goes further and says that he
by treaty with a subject authorized that
subject to govern a portion OF the
Philippine Islands and for that pur-
pose repealed the 18th amendment OF
the Constitution of the United States
| and permitted slavery in the Sulu arch
ipelago This repeal of the Constitu-
ton was not in the opinion OF Pres
ident Mckinley imperialisric. His his
tory of the transaction in the Philip
pine Islands presents his position very
fully. His position is that the United
States Constitution should be applied
wherever the President of the United
States desires to have it applied and
that the President has the right to edit
it, revise it. change it, adopt it or
abolish it as he may see fit. Having
asserted this right, he still assures us
that he is not imperiaistic. This. in
one sense. is true. There is not an
empire on earth where a written con-
stitution prevails where the emperor
has any such authority as IS claimed
by President Mckinley. 1t is, there
fore. not so much imperialistic as 1t
is despotic.
President Mckinley has discovered
at various times that Congress has not
provided a sufficient number OF eXecu-
tive officers. He has supplied this de-
ficiency without warrant OF law, has
| fixed the salaries of these Illegal eXecu-
! tiyes, and has paid those salaries when
| there were no appropriations authoriZ-
| ing their payment. He has farmed out
| the Job of President to sundry and va
| rious commissions. These commissions
| were purely of an executive character
| and were totally unauthorized by any
| law. They have cost the government
| five times as much salary as the Presi-
| dent of the United States has received
| during the four years OF President Nc
| KinIey's term. The statute provides
| fifty thousand dollars year as the sal
| airy of the executive and provides also
| the number of assistants he shall have
| in the executive department. He has
| provided this government with by
dria-headed executive at salaries or
over one hundred and fifty thousand
| dollars a year. This he does not deem
| to be imperialistlc Again, he is right
| No emperor has the power to at viii
| create commissions of executive char
acter and pay them out Of the govern
! ment treasury. It is worse than imper-
! ialistic, 1t is despotie.
If President Mckinley is honest in
his statement that he nor anyone else
! fayors imperialism, the facts which he
gives as to the record Of his admins
| tration leave no room for doubt that II
he does not favor Imperialism, he is
seeking despotism.
He gives III mis- IeIter VI dCCSpCdHCc
several apologies for his past miscon-
duct, but neglects to couple with those
apologies any promise to do better in
| tho future.
Naturally those men who seek to oV-
ercome the present Republican form OF
government VIII not acknowledge that
| fact and no one will openly avow him
self in favor OF an empire. The record
of the acts of the present administra-
| ton shows conclusiyely that the repub-
| lie is being rapidly undermined and
that If the powers of the executive, as
| claimed By President Mckinley, are
| not restricted to the bounds OF the con-
! stitution. the republic can last but
few years longer This Is the reason
that in the present campaign the phil
| osophers, educators and thinking men
| CT the country who were opposed TO
| Bryan in 1896 are this year heartily in
| favor Of his election. Judge Brewer. OF
| the United States supreme court, al
though not politician has made this
| subject the theme for his lectures be-
fore young lawyers. Writers and thin
! kers on political economy are every
where trying to arouse the men Of the
| country TO a realization OF impending
! danger. Wise capitalists who look fur