The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-01
GEN. WALLACE'S VIEWS.

y
has stood for national honor. Ee has
been aroused over the usurpations o.
power by the administration until he
has felt impelled to speak out brave
" and strongly against McKinley's
ambitious schemes. In q recent com
munication in New York paper he
said:
THE education of the people lately
SO generously undertaken by the ma
ioritv of Republican Senators III
Washington is benefiting me. The
month during which their school was
to last is not half out: yet | am able
to see what is the matter with them.
1t is that President Mckinley wants 10
convert the Philippines and Puerto
Rico into colonies. and govern them
personally, and, though they know rs
well as the President that there IS no
grant OF power in the Constitution 10
establish colonial system, they are
determined to help him to his wish.
This obliquity of vision, obsequ1ous-
ness. or whatever it may be called, Is
strange: and ] confess not being far
enough advanced in the course OF IN
struction submitted TO me, in common
with the people generally, 10 decide
whether it is due to the patronage
which the President always sllilfully
keeps in sight and smell of Congress
sional visitors, or to the taeSar1an
meat they are in the habit OF eating
at their o'clock dinners.
"Still, as it seems to me, fast opening
nv ewes under the able tuition, the
thing strangest of the whole Puerto
Rican affair is that no Senator. Demo
crat or Republican, has made sign
suggestive of preparation Tor the eN-
mansions in delivery waiting at the
door. They know there is party
booming the annexation OF CUBA; they
know the Administration is negotlat-
ING with Denmark for the purchase
of st. Thomas and st. CroiN islands
inst east of Puerto Rico, for which
there is willingness to give S5,ooo'-
600: they know it is in serious pro-
posal to annex Nicaragua and Costa
Rica. the argument being that those
revolutionary worthless are IN some
WAY essential to the canal, when Sec
rotary Hay would have us build Tor
the accommodation of the world,
meaning Great Britain; they know
that ever since General Grants day
Santo Domingo, and they ought 10
know. if they do not. that the eXpan-
sion fever is in the blood of the pres
ent Executive, making it reasonably
sure that there will be no stop in the
business until. if only to round out
and increase the splendor of the Am
erican colonial system, now in Incl
piencv. the whole of the West Indies
are ours Where we cannot conquer
we can buy. Yet. withal, they seem
incapable of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
of even formulating civil govern
ment for Puerto Rico. Military gov
eminent is so simple. so easy. so eco
nomical of their lordly labor, so agree
able to the President! If there is
doubt of their authority to erect colo
MES, why not take time to settle It.:
If there is a doubt that the ConStitu-
ton. by process of self-eXtension, COW
ers new domain the instant OF the per-
lection of our title, why not enact
something which shall have at least
the merit of certainty in that most
serious particular? A lapse of law is
intolerable to good government.
LET me hope the public will not
smile at my disposition to lend the
very honorable, but eccentric, Sena-
tors hand to help them out of the
hole they are in. They are going far
aside to educate me. They are making
speeches to that end; indeed, if we
may believe Mr.. Fairbanks, they have
decided to give me and the other sim
ple-minded folk of the country Il
month of speeches. Can dislnterest-
edness go further? And shall / not
show them some gratitude? Were one
of their seats mine, ] would offer the
following:
ARTICLE XVI.
Section /. The United States shall
not in any manner acquire. hold,
maintain, provide for or exercise jur-
isdiction or sovereignty over any is
land territory or country now foreign
except with the consent of the people
of the United States first had.
''Sec. .. In cases of territorial ex-
pansion hereafter proposed the will
Of the people of the United States. re-
quired by the foregoing section. shall
BE determinable at elections. to be
provided by Congress. and in every in
stance the President shall proclaim
the result; whereupOn, if there be
majority for the proposition, the Con-
stitution shall, from the dav OF the
proclamation, extend to the island, ter
1itory or country admitted, and to its
inhabitants"
Undoubtedly the Senators will un-
derstand the amendment. Along with
their other superiorities, they have an
intuition of such highwrought micro
scopic power as to magnify effects and
subject them to perfect knowledge
and appreciation at sight.
"The amendment is, of course. but a
suggestion for general consideration.
and to show our noble educators how
we are progressing; at the same time.
it is commended especially to Repub-
lcans and Republican conventions.
The masses of the party are innocent
Of imperialism, and it is not their in
tention to establish a colonial play
thing for the present Executive or for
Executives to come: none the less.
they have shortly to answer both
those charges"
We give much of our space today to
Communications from friends Eadvoa1t-