New-York tribune., 1900-03-14
ANDREW JACKSON. IMPERATOR.

ening to grind the poor Puerto Ricans under
the heel of tyranny and establish despotism
untempered by the bill of rights, it must give
| the Democrats true followers of Jefferson and
Jackson great comfort to look back and see
how the country has survived similar dangers
from tyrants exercising imperial sway. When
they are inclined to grow faint at the thought
of the Congress of the United States having
power over people in Puerto Rico or the Philip
pines not limited by the Constitution, and begin
to .remble lest these bloodthrSty despots,
neighbors elected to Congress from their own
homes, should get taste for arbitrary rule
and deprive poor islanders Of life, liberty
and happiness 1t must calm them to life again
to remember how that Democratic idol Andrew
Jackson that hero Of popular rights and strict
construction of the Constitution, showed thas
| this Government could survive colonial satraps
In the year 1921 John Randolph of Roanoke
after consultation with President Monroe drew
a bill concerning the government of Florida
which became a law. 1t ordered that all mill
"tary civil and judicial powers exercised by
Officers of the existing (Spanish) govern
"ment of the same territories EAST and West
"Florida) shall be vested in such person
land persons and shall be exercised in such
manner as the President of the United
States shall direct" and it extended just two
laws of the United States to the Floridas
one for the collection Of revenue and one con-
cerning the Importation of negroes. Both were
extended mere matter Of convenience, as
otherwise the Floridas would continue as they
had been under Spanish rule, depot for the
smuggling of goods and negroes over the hardly
protected Georgia frontier. The first Governor
under this law Andrew Jackson. His COM
mission from President Monroe read: Il do ap-
point him to exercise all the powers and au-
"thorities heretofore exercised by the Governor
"and Captain General and Intendant of Cuba
"and by the Governor Of East and West Florida
within the said provinces, respectively The
only reservation named was on the power TO
levy taxes and make land grants. Captain
General Jackson went to Pensacola, and soon
proclamations appeared by Andrew Jackson
Governor of the Provinces Of the Floridas, ex-
'ercsing all the powers and authorities here
"tofore exercised by the Governor and Captain
General and Intendant of Cuba" etc.
The new Captan-General and Intendant lived
up to his arbitrary power, and imprisoned right
and left persons who did not obey him, and he
paid no heed to protests or legal exceptions
After time he locked up some Spaniards be-
cause they did not on demand surrender some
papers to him. 1t happened that President
Monroe had also appointed a Judge for the
Western District of Florida. At this point
Judge Fromentln Issued a writ of habeas
corpus, that most sacred guarantee of the Con-
stitution which says: 1.-The privilege of the writ
''of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless
when, in cases of rebellion or invasion. the
public safety may require it, But Captain
General Jackson, the civil-nOt military-Goy-
ernor under act of Congress establishing civil
government suspended the writ and asked
Judge Fromentin if he would dare to issue one
to the Captain-General of Cuba. The Judge
thought he would not, but would to the Presi-
dent of the United States. Jackson insisted
that the territory as the act for its govern
ment provided, ruled quite independently
of the Constitution of the United States and
just as it had been under the Spanish Govern
ment This and other arbitrary acts of the
Governor were taken before Congress and the
Executive on complaints. Both houses sus
tanned Jackson as we'll the President and
Cabinet, which included John Quincy Adams,
William H. Crawford, William Writ, Smith
Thompson, for twenty years Justice of the
United States Supreme Court, and John G. Cal
houn who had not at that time invented for the
protection of slavery his theory of the extension
of the Constitution ex proprio vigore to the
territories.
The authorities at Washington explained that
the jurisdiction of the district judge extended
only to the execution of the two acts Of Con
gress specifically extended to the Floridas, and
that otherwise the Governor, with the powers of
Captain-General was supreme. and neither the
writ of habeas corpus any other constitu-
tional guarantees checked his sway. Benton
says that this incident has IAN interest beyond
curiosity, as illustrating the manner in which a
territory may be governed, under a govern
'ment given it by Congress, and very incompat-
"ibly with our Constitution which was in vain
'invOked by the astonished and enraged COM
''plainants." He also declares
The study of the legislation OF Congress in CIV
ing first the Spanish and then own (systenl)
for the territorial government of Florida and the
doings and decisions under 1t, furnish the
highest illustration OF Congressional power over
territories and the nullity of their rights under
the Constitution which the wit of man could
have devised.
1t Thomas III. Benton who said this If
President Mckinley had said it instead what
visions of empire and bleeding liberty would
have been conjured up TO frighten people. If
some civil Governor in Puerto Rico should pro-
claim himself the successor of the Spanish Gov
ernor and possessed of his arbitrary powers
how learned Congressman and editors from
Georgia and Virginia and Massachusetts and
New-York and South Carolina, who proclaim
themselves followers of such fathers as Craw-
ford and Writ and Adams and Thompson and
Calhoun. would grow eloquent and denuncia-
tory,
But, really, when they come to think of it
apart from the necessity of making party capi-
tai and deluding sentimental people, don't they
find it trife silly to talk about the new and
unheard of idea that the Constitution does not
of itself extend TO territories, and to profess
horror of the Imperator Mckinley and to
despair of the Republic in the name of Jackson