The age-herald., 1900-05-08

tees to protect them nor any voice in the government. This is foreign absolutism, the worst form of tyranny.
 Extend of Constitution
 If. the constitution does not extend to Porto Rico and our new acquisitions of territory, congress has the untrammeled, absolute power to establish subject govern ment or make laws for such territories; it has the power to establish dependent monarches or satrapies, state religions and even slavery. The argument of one of the senators referred to that the last clause of the thirteenth amendment pre- vents the establishment there of slavery is obviously lame and impotent, for if the constitution does not extend to those parts of the domain of the United States, nor limit congress in its power of legislation over them, by what process will this sin gle clause of an amendment of that mstru- ment detach itself from the skin of the parchment and alone fasten itself upon these new territories? If it be considered that this clause of the thirteenth amend ment ex propria yigore extends to these new territories, or limits the powers of congress respecting them, every clause of that instrument for the like reason is equally potent. They say that a clause in the constitution does not extend to a ter rltOfy, put does limit the power Ol cOn- gress in exchanging for that territory, Is a distinction too fine to be possible.
 The national government of the United States is one of very limited power. In respect to its own people, in its entire do- main, and generally except in respect to it's power to deal with foreign nations and con- cerning matters expressly committed to it by the constitution, it's powers are much less than those possessed by other gov No one will dispute this. The national government of the United States was created and its powers and jurisde- tion granted and limited by the federal It's powers can only be in- creased by amendment of that instrument.
 Power to Acquire Territory
 The power of the general government to acquire additional territory rests upon its power to make war, which may result in conquest, and it's like power to make treaties, which may bring terri tory by cessation, the power to govern such acquisitions territories resulting from the power to admit new states and to make all needfuI rules and regulations re- specting the territory or other property to the United States.
 The novel doctrine that the power of congress to govern territory ceded to gov ernment by and through the terms of the treaty of cession, and that the general government can accept powers thus grant, ed by a foreign sovereign in disregard to the constitution, until congress, mayhap in the future, shall by its enactment see fit to extend the constitution over the er- ritory, is contrary to the holding of the supreme court of the United States to the effect that the general government is one of the enumerated, and claims and exer- else no power not granted to it, the consti- tuition, either expressly or by necessary implication.
 It is clear that the general government cannot extend over territory where the constitution, from which it's every power is derived, does not extend. The constitu- tion must be in force over territory bee fore respecting it. No foreign sovereign can invest the general government with any legislative power. ss
 Numerous Decisions Cited
 Numerous decisions are cited in support of his opinion, and he continues:
 ''It must be held by the cession of Spain to the United States of Porto Rico that island became a part of the dominion of the United States as much so as is Arizona or Minnesota, and that the constitution of the United States expropria vigore at once extended over that island; and that fi4is ex- tension of the constitution gave to con- gress, whose every power must come from that instrument, the authority to legislate in response to that island as part ok the United States territory. It follows that all the provisions of the constitution in re-s spect to personal and property rights, in-, cIuding the right to trial by jury in crinii- nal prosecution, became at once, when the cession was completed. a part of the su- preme law of the land. The character of an offense and the nature of its punishment would be determined by the law in force wherein the act was committed, and laws of that character remain in force after the cession is unchanged"
 The decision states that military law be- ing the sole authority the acts of military court were entirely legal and the petition for n writ of ba beaS oorpttc xyaq denied