The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1901-01-10
EX-PRESIDENT HARRISON VIEWS
On Our New Possessions and How
Far the Constitution Follows
Flag.

The leading statesman in America
do not agree on the policy to be per-
sued towards our newly acquired pos
session or what the constitution re-
quires. 1t is a question as old as the
country. While Ex-President Harri-
son differs with many III his party his
views will be of interest to all. In a
speech to the students of the Univer-
sity of Michigan on December IA, on
The Status of Annexed Territory
and the Right of its Free and Civiliz-
ed Citizens he said:
"We have now taken lands lying in
the tropics untitled for American set
tlement, even if they were not al
ready densely populated. We have
taken over peoples, not lands, and
not of our stock. Their labor is cheap
and threatens competition. There is
a total lack of American ideas. We
have said the Chinese will not homo
logize. Nor will the Philippines do so
rapidly, and the tropics are productive
of wholly new views, and their peoples
are different.
1T has been held by Chief Justice
Marshall that because the constitu-
tion confers on The government the
right to make war and treaties it also
gives it power to acquire territory,
either by conquest or treaty. SO
there is no doubt that the government
has the power of conquest and OF
treaty in acquiring territory. The
people have delegated to the Presi-
dent and congress the power of ac-
quiring territories by the power given
them concerning Hawaii and the
Philippines. But this power is limit
ed? y. 1t applies only to get land cap
able of being erected into the union.
"Our flag waves, but only as sign
of benevolency. For the flag to stand
so is a mockery. We bid the people
hail it as the sign of freedom, and
then our civil governor reads that
congress is their master. If the act
of annexation does not carry the con-
stitution, and the constitution is only
in a territory by an act of congress
which can at any time be repealed.
| think of no way to carry it but by
annexation of new lands as States.
"Some one must determine how far
our territories can be intrusted with
powers. We have, however, no right
to make the lack of this determina-
tion of powers an excuse for injustice.
The constitution holds no rule about
holding conquered territory, and as to
whether we can hold it otherwise than
in a State of freedom. But it is not
practicable for the flag ogo without
the constitution. The conquest of
the annexed Dutch republics has not
strengthened Great Britain. She has
not gained respect, but has multiplied
her garrisons greatly; the number of
her disa ffected people has increased
and she must have more defenses at
home.
"And the recent acquisitions from
Spain, of these you must be judges.
They present very difficult questions,
since we can not safely let them in
under the constitution, nor can we
safely govern them in any way other
than by the constitution. A man true
to the old ideas of freedom can not
ignore that the acquisition of lands
at the cost of the abandonment of old
American ideas and that form of
absolute government is intolerable
and, under the constitution of the
United States, impossible.
"Fellow-citizens, God forbid that
the day shall ever come when in the
American mind the thought of bust.
ness man and consumer should over
come ancient faith in unalienable
rights"