Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1900-05-03
PAYNE On PORTO RICO
LEGISLATION NEEDED FOR iNSu-
LAR POSSESSIONS.
Republican Talks of the Tre-
mendous and Lasting Consequence of
the Constitutional Question Involved
Follows Lincoln and Webster.

/
the Constitutional Question Involved
/ Follows Lincoln and Webster.
Hon. Henry C. Payne, of Milwaukee,
the Wisconsin member of the Republic
can National Committee, has been in
Los Angeles, where he was interviewed
by the Los Angeles Times, of which
Gen. Harrison Gray Otis is president
and general manager. Speaking of the
| Porto Rican question, Mr.. Payne said:
1T is momentous Question but the
great body Of the people has confidence,
| find, in the ability and good faith of
the administration, and is resting con-
fident in the belief that the President
and the Republican majority in Con
gress will do what is right by Porto
Rico.
president McKinley's declaration in
his message thaat it was our plain duty
to have free and unlimited trade with
Porto Rico was an attractive program,
and met with u sympathetic response.
But it is the Presidents duty to change
his mind, just as it is any other mans,
when he sees, after a careful study OF Il
| question, that another policy is de-
| manded by wisdom and justice.
1.-THE fact is that the President ana
nearly all his advisers in Washington,
| great majority of the Republican Sen
ators and Representatives, arrived at
| the conclusion that the first legislation
with regard to our insular possessions,
| if we may call them SUCH should be in
| the line of setting forth principle, ana
| that principle should be that these new
possessions shall not hold the same re-
| lation to the country as do the Terri
| tories that have become Incorporated
| and are incipient States
II think the more thoughtful people
Of the country are opposed to any plan
| to bring these islands in as integral
parts of the nation. Call it what you
please, we must come down to a colo
| NAL policy of some form. There is
great anxiety on the part of the admin
istration to get started right ON this
matter. Certain newspapers declared
that the Presidents change Of front
was due to the pressure Of the tobacco
| and sugar interests. That charge seems
to me ridiculous in view Of the fact
| that these interests want absolute free
! trade with Porto Rico.
II was born and brought up in Massa-
chusetts, and l always believed in Dan
| lei Webster's Interpretation of the Con-
stitution, instead of that of Mr.. Cal
houn. Some Republican newspapers
seem inclined to line UP with Mr.. Cal
houn and the bred Scott decision, in
considering this Porto Rican matter,
| shouting that the Constitution follows
the f1ag;;' but believe the country can
more safely follow the teachings Of
| Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.
Underneath the trifiing tariff
charges proposed there lies this old con-
| stitutional question, which is of tre-
| mendous and lasting consequence. You
remember that John G. Calhoun and
| the champions of slavery maintained
| that the Constitution went with the flag
into all territory acquired by the Uni
| ted States, and therefore the slavehold-
err had the right to carry his slaves and
| keep them in any territory. This view
was maintained by the Infamous Dred
| Scott decision Of the United States Su-
preme Court, to the effect that the Uni
| ted States can acquire territory on@y
| for the purpose of forming States, and
| that all acquisitions must be treated as
| integral parts of the Union. Webster
and Lincoln took the opposite view
that new territory, acquired in one
way or another, is not an integral part
of the Union till it has been duly incor-
porated, and until then the government
| has constitutional power to regulate
| it's affairs. Here is the real issue in
| yolyed in all this Porto Rican discus
sion, and I firmly believe the thinking
people Of this country, after careful
consideration, will prefer to follow Lin
coin and Webster, whom history has
yindicated, rather than Douglas and
| Calhoun.
'"This little furry about Porto Rico
will soon be over It will not affect the
result Of the Presidential election. The
| administration stands we'll with the
| people. It has fulfilled its pledges to
| them, and more, too. On the money
| question it has done better than it
promised 1t has builded better than
the Republican platform. 1t has re-
| stored confidence and has revived bust
| ness to the extent that we have more
| prosperity even than we had in 1902,
which was high tide. | cannot doubt
that such an administration will be
| sustained
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