The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-01
SUNDAY. APRIL l. 1900.
Nr. Edmunds on the Payne Bill.

Mr.. Edmunds on the Payne Bill.
In the course of his lucid and logical
argument against the passage of the Payne
Foraker bill, contained in a letter to Sen
ator Proctor. the Hon. George F. Ed
munds says: ANY such measure, if en-
acted. will, l believe. be unique in our
whole history. 1t will initiate and parallel
the acts of the British Parliament which
forced our fathers to just resistance and
revolution, and led them to establish a
Constitution which. in studied and eX
plicit terms, forbade any such discrimina-
ton
Congress" Mr.. Edmunds declares, lis
the creature of the Constitution and not
the reverse. In his view. law passed
by Congress lis its creature, a mere eX-
preston of its will IT, therefore, Cen
gress were to enact a statute declaring
that the present Constitution shall be ex-
tended over and be in force in that ISL
and porto Rico) the Constitution gets its
oaly force there by the virtue of the
statute. 1t is a statutory constitution. and
nothing else and repeal of the statute
would extinguish it"
Thus in a few terse sentences, one of
the greatest of American constitutional
lawyers demolishes and exposes TO just
ridicule the contention of the Administra-
ton that Congress, the creature of the
Constitution, can make itself supreme at
will in American territory outside of State
boundaries, and, at the same time, ex-
clude from the same its creator. The
country knows that the contention is but
an unworthy and a silly subterfuge, re-
sorted to by the President and his ill-ad-
visers. as the only means in sight Of ac-
counting for their broken word to Porto
Rico. and their perfdy to the fundamental
American law they had sworn 10 support
and defend. They have not even the poor |
excuse of an original error consistently adj !
hered to. II is matter of common report |
and belief that before Mr.. Mckinley wrote |
his annual message to Congress, in which |
he said. Our plain duty is to abolish the !
customs tariffs between the United States /,
and Porto Rico. and give her products fres
access to our markets." he had the benefit |
of careful legal opinion prepared by |
Judge MagOon, the law officer of the War |
Division Of Insular Affairs, in 1
which that functionary held that the Con-
stitution extended to Porto Rico, ex pro-
prio yigore. the moment the island passed
under the complete sovereignty of the
United States. 1t is generally understood
that the President and Cabinet concurred
in the first Magoon opinion, and were
governed by it until the oil, sugar, to-
bscco, and rum trusts insisted that the
national promise to Porto Rico should be
and the Constitution defed, as
the price of a contribution to the party
corruption fund Then, as the story goes.
Judge Magoon was ordered to write a
second opinion, in support of the propcs-
lion that the Constitution is a creature,
and negligible one. of the Republican
majority in Congress, and can be ignored
ana 1outed by the Administration and
its legislative poems at will. That later
is being distributed layishly-
The first has doubtless been destroyed and
its existence We expect to see denied,
should the White House and departmental
authorities be able to assure themselves
that a copy of it is not lurking in
W !
fetal denial. to render the sensation of its
publication the more lurid.
If, in the language we have quoted from
Mr.. Edmunds' letter, he has not complete
y disposed of the anti Unconstitutional ar
yumcnt of men like Henderson and For
iller, he certainly accomplishes it in max
ng the telling point that. whereas if the
rav III 4
United States and adhere to its enemies.
hey would unquestonably be guilty of
reason. it is equally true that treason
S an exclusively defined constitutional +
rhine, and it cannot exist on the island
Inless the Constitution that defines it is
n force there" Indeed, Mr.. Edmunds |
With his unanswerable logic, drives the |
it's masters. and its serfs
INTO a cul de sac and pulls the string. ]
There is now no escape for the combina-
ion from public verdict already regis
cred in nearly every decent journal in
he whole country. that the Payne Foraker ]
MANY is a cowardly and disgraceful bar
er and sale Of national honor and respect !
or the Constitution to the trusts. Party y
discipline and the temptations which the Z
protected monopoiies know so well how TO y
lold out to legislators with weak or no !
onsciences may be eflicacious in securing I
he enactment into temporary Law OF the
Intended outrage; but the Supreme Court =
vii wipe it from the statute book at the
rst opportunity, and the voters of the q,
inion If they have sanity or honesty re-
laining In November will punish the mis- ,
eed by defeating the political organiza- q,
ion responsible-for it, +
Modern Vandalism.
II is s.f5 tbat .bo ,-o., ,oe- s--,ti