Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-24
International BimetaIlism.
MIR. VEST ON HAWAII.
ODpOsed to Annexation, but FavOrs
the Pending Bill.

In the Senate yesterday afternoon MT.
Vest addressed his associates on the Ha-
waiian government bill He had been in
tenseiy opposed, ne said, to the annexation
of Hawaii, but that was nav dead issue.
II shall vote for the bill, said me- II
is above and beyond constitutional obJec-
ton and does not raise any of the issues
that are raised in relation to Porto RICO
and the Philippines He thought the
thanks of the people were due to the SEN
ators who had prepared the measure.
There was no provision in it changing the
tariff and none that implied that Hawaii
was not a part of the United states
Referring to the Philippines, Mr. Vest
said: THE proposition that the United
States can hold territory as a colonial pos
session and its people as vassais Is the
most preposterous and dangerous that mas
ever been advanced IN the course VI lily
public life ,-,
Mr.. Vest discussed at length the acqufsi-
ton by the United States of foreign terri
tory and strongly defended the decision III
the bred Scott case.
Mr.. Vests application of the bred Scott
case was that the Supreme Court was
unanimous in declaring in that decision
that the Constitution covered s the t Mar
shall that the term United States meant
the "e,npire of the United States Estates,
territories and all other possessions
In making request for the insertion in his
remarks Of certain decisions he had not
read. Mr. Vest said: In all of these de-
cisions, and l challenge successful contra
dictton the Supreme Court gave the people
of the territories and of the District of Co
lumbia all the rights, privileges ana I'M
munities given to the people Of the states
When was it ever heard, he inquired, that
it was necessary for Congress to pass an
act to extend the constitution over DC
quired territory?
This new doctrine said he, is utterly
abhorrent. 1t violates every principle OF a
republican government. 1t goes even far-
Their than England has gone with her col
onies. Is Porto Rico a part of the United
authority to impose duties upon imports
from that country? And why IS 1T proposed
to place an export duty upon It's products
when the Constitution of the Uvited states
expressly inhibited such tax?"
Mr. Foraker (Ohio) replied briefly to Mr.
Vests remarkable argument 1t was too
late to enter into an extended discussion OF
the bred Scott decision, upon which Mr..
Vest largely had based his argument. He
thought the bred Scott decision had been
discussed quite adequately in the last Con-
eress He asserted that the author of the
Declaration of Independence entertained no
such views as those advanced by Mr.. Vest.
and he sketched the kind of government
THOMAS Jefferson himself was engaged in
setting up He drew a distinction between
territory belonging to the United States and
territory which was part OF the United
States.
nroner1 for which the Constitution is the
organic law, and there is the territory out
side Of the United States. which belongs to
the United States, but is not a part of the
United States"
The Senate at $40 pm. adjourned until
today. g