Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-07-12
Foreign and Yet Not Foreign.
CFrom the Springfield Republican,

Against Judge Lochren's opinion al
to the constitutional powers of Con
gress over the new territory of the
United States, comes that of Judge
William X. Townsend, sitting in the
United States district court for South
ern New York. The latter holds views
quite the reverse of those expressed
by the United States circuit judge a
St. Paul in the habeas corpus case O.
the Porto Rican, Ortiz.
The case before Judge Townsend re-
lated to
AN ASSESSMENT OF DUTIES
on Importation of tobacco from Porte
Rico after the treaty of Paris had
been ratified and an exchange of rat
ifcations had taken place. The i'm
porters, John Goetz & Co., appealed
the matter to the board of general
appraisers, which decided against the
importers, who thereupon took the
case to the United States court, con,
tending that Porto Rico had become a
part of the United States and within
the tariff laws of the nation. Judge
Townsend. decides that Porto Rico
is not q part of the United States
to this extent and will not become
such part until Congress has ex-
pressly defined the status of the island
to this effect.
THE TREATY OF PEACE
left with Congress the determination
of 1.-the civil rights and political
status of the territories hereby
ceded," and it was within the consti-
tional authority of the treaty-making
power, says Judge Townsend, to give
Congress unlimited power in the mat
ter. Congress meantime has refused
to extend the Constitution and the
laws to the island, and accordingly it
remains outside of the Constitution.
It is foreign country so far as the
Constitution is concerned, but United
States territory as against other ma
tions.
Judge Townsend brings out no new
authority or precedent in support of
this side of the question, beyond the
STATEMENT OF CHIEF JUSTICE MAR.
SHALL
lin American Insurance Company
against Carter) respecting 1.-The usage
of the world" in the case of ceded
territory: 1T becomes a part of the
nation to which 1t is annexed, either
on the terms stimulated in the treaty
of cesslon or on such as it's new master
shall impose" The gist of Judge
is contained in the follow
ing:
TO deny this power, to govern ter
ritory at arms length would be to
thwart that intention to make
THE UNITED STATES AN UNFETTERED
SOVEREIGN
in foreign affairs. For If we wage
war successfully we must some time
become, as many think we are now,
charged with territory which it would
be the greatest folly to incorporate at
once into our Union, making our laws
its laws and It's citizens our citizens,
our taxes its taxes; and which, on the
other hand, international considera-
tiOns and the sense of our RESPONSE
biliUy to its inhabitants may forbid US
to abandon. The construction of the
Constitution which would limit our
sovereign power would force US into a
dilemma between violating our duty
to ourselves or the other. That con-
struction would in such case imperil
the honorable existence of our repub-
lie"
And so the president and the Senate,
as the treaty-making power, may an
mex any territory they are able to,
and may then delegate to Congress the
power to act beyond the Constitution,
and exactly as it pleases, in relation to
the new territory.
Now the duly constituted govern
ment of the United States may indeed
be
AN UNFETTERED SOVEREIGN IN FOR
EIGN AFFAIRS;
but when foreign territory has once
been annexed to the United States we
come to deal not with a foreign, but
with a domestic affair-with territory
Of the United States and not with |
some other sovereign power. And
here is the fatal weakness in Judge |
argument. When, there |
fore, he asserts the power of the |
president and Senate to delegate un-
limited power to Congress in relation |
TO territory of the United States, he
is obliged to maintain that the govern
nent at Washington is a government (
or unrestricted powers rather than
'ne exercising a certain measure of
delegated authority from a power par
amount to that of president and Con-
rress.
Such views as these place the gov
rnment above the people who Gre
ted it, and who, in a written Consti-
ution, imposed bounds upon the scope
+ its authority. They seem to US to
%