Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-07-20
GROSVENOR'S CHARGE
STATES THAT REPUBLICAN
PLATFORM WAS JUGGLED.
Ouigg Made Changes In Text-Admin's-
tr,tion Dared Not Defend Its Porto
Rican Record-The Crime of 1873
on u Smaller Scare.


loudly charges on the authority of
Senator Foraker that one Of the i'm
portant planks of the Republican ma
tional platform was surreptitiously
omitted by the Subcommittee on reso-
buttons. This ex-Congressman Quigg
of New York, member of the COM
mittee, emphatically denies with the
assertion that the omission was made
Intentionally and deliberately, after
full consideration. There is no doubt
that this is the correct version of the
matter and that the Ohio blunder-buss
as usual has gone off half-cocked.
The sonorous resolution in dispute
reads as follows:
I'VE reassert the principle which
was the watchword of the Republican
party in it's first great battle, of which
Abraham Lincoln was the il1ustrious
champion and on which he was elected
President, that Congress has full legis-
lative power over territory belonging
to the United States, subject only to
the fundamental safeguards of liberty,
justice and personal rights"
This ringing sentiment" says eros
venor, was agreed upon "by President
Mckinley himself and afterward by
the subcommittee, but it was "driv-
eled out by driveler from New York"
(meaning Mr.. Quigg) who had charge
of the work of platform revision. The
explanation of Mr.. Quigg is that the
above declaration was omitted because
the committee considered that mas
much as the question is now before
the United States Supreme court lit
was neither advisable nor necessary to
run the risk of getting our platform
court" Thus it appears that the ma
jority of the committee were too wary
to commit themselves and the platform
to the monstrous doctrine that Con-
gress has legislative power over the
territories as subject provinces outside
of the Constitution, and in legislating
for these possessions is subject only to
what may be vaguely considered by
changing majorities as fundamental
safeguards" etc.
But while Mr.. Quigg's frank declar-
alton explains the views of himself and
doubtless of other members of the
Platform Committee, it does not give
all the reasons for eliminating this
adopted the country would have inter-
preted it as an indirect attempt to in
dorse the indefensible blunder of the
Porto Rico act, with its unconstitu-
tional tariff, its carpetbag government
and all. This was to be avoided by all
means. Worse than this, the resolu-
ton, had it been embodied in the
platform, would have been rightly
construed by the nation as not merely
indorsing the iniquitous Porto Rico
act, but as foreshadowing the policy
of the Republican party. toward the
Philippine Islands and all other outly-
ing territories of the United States.
Thus would the Porto Rico act, with
its arbitrary denials of the plainest
rights of government, have become
the concrete expressions of the Repub
lican ideals of what constitutes the
fundamental safeguards of liberty,
justice and personal rights" In es-
Gaping from such a dilemma as was
involved in this resolution the plat
form makers prudently refrained from
mention of Porto Rico, and contented
themselves with an equivocal declara-
ton in regard to the Philippines,
which may be construed as meaning
anything from the permanent military
occupation Of the islands as depend
ent colonies to complete self-govern-
ment under a protectorate of the
United States.
Yet, although Mr.. Quigg explains the
reason why the Platform Committee
rejected the above Foraker resolution,
we have the authority Of Congressman
Grosvenor that President Mckinley
wanted the resolution adopted. Natur-
ally enough, Senator Foraker sought
in the resolution an indirect but no
less unequivocal Endorsement of the
Porto Rico monstrosity Of unconstitu-
tional legislation of which he is the
parent. At the same time, President
Mckinley has betrayed how DESTROYS
he is that Congress and his admins
tration shall be relieved Of all irk-
some restraints of the Constitution in
governing the territories according to
their notions of "the fundamental safe
guards of liberty, justice and personal
rights" Heaven help the inhabitants
Of those territories as Wen as the free
institutions of this land If the govern
ment should be guided by the notions
of a vacillating executive as to what
constitutes plain duty" and by ma
jority in Congress whose highest ideal
of liberal and constitutional govern
ment is expressed in the Porto Rico
ct!-Philadelphia Record.