Evening star., 1901-08-09

only for a short period. or even refrain
from exercising it at all.
Mr.. Edmunds discovers a distinction to
the detriment of modern republican spirit
in the slight differences of wording In the
acts giving Jefferson the power to admins
ter Louisiana territory and Mckinley the
power to administer the Philippines. JEFF
ferson, Mr.. Edmunds says, was empowered
only to administer existing laws; Mckinley
was authorized to set up and execute all
laws thought by him to be necessary.
Before Congress acted Jefferson was to
execute the existing laws of the despotic
government of Louisiana colony without
any power to modify them on republican
lines; Mckinley IN enforcing the Spanish
laws in the Philippines was it is said, en-
powered by Congress to make such modifi-
cations. Which method of treatment Is
more republican, more democratic, more
American in tendency? Mr.. Edmunds'
construction of the Louisiana act makes 1t
an unconstitutional re-enactment by Con-
gress of all the oppressive and despotic
laws then existing in Louisiana, and a
command to the President of free re-
public to enforce without modification this
,monarchical system.
The historian Henry Adams says of the
acquisition of Louisiana:
within three years of his inauguration
Jefferson bought a foreign colony without
Its consent and against it's will. annexed 1T
to the United States by an act which he
said made blank paper of the Constitution;
and then he who had found his predeces-
sors too monarchical and the Constitution
too liberal in it's powers made
himself monarch of the new territory and
welded over it against it's protests the
powers of its old kings
OF the bill for the temporary government
of Louisiana passed later. Thomas H. Ben
ton says:
1t was startling bill, continuing the
existing Spanish government: putting the
President in the place of the King of Spain;
putting all the territorial officers in place
of the kings officers. and placing the ap-
pointment of all these officers in the Presi-
oent alone without the consent of the SEN
ate. Nothing could be more incompatible
with our Constitution than such govern
ment-a mere emanatiOn of Spanish deSpo-
tism, in which all powers, civil and mill
tary, legislative. executive and judicial,
were in the acknowledgement representing
the king; and where the people, far from
possessing political rights, were punishable
arbitrarily for presuming to meddle with
political subjects"
Mr.. Edmunds suggestion Is to the effect
that the Taft government In the Philip
pines would be more in harmony with
American ana republican principles and
the spirit of the Constitution If 1t had been
forbidden by Congress to inject into the
laws anything Of Americanism and repub-
licanism and had been authorized merely
to perform executive functions. substitute
ing itself for the governor-general and the
frlars who represented the King of Spain
in applying to the Filipinos the despotic
laws and governmental system which the
people had found unbearable and against
which they had revolted On this theory
the King of Spain Is preferred to the Presi-
dent of the United States as temporary
law-maker in a new territorial acquisition
during the preliminary transition period
which continues until Congress gets ready
to act.