Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-02-07

the United States and SUBJECT to the
JURISDICTION thereof, are citizens of the
United States This disposes of the
question unless it can be maintained
that Porto Rico is not a part of the
United States.
"When it is said that all duties inn
posts and excuses, shall be uniform
throughout the United States is it not
the equivalent of, mo duties or excuses
that are not uniform, shall be levied in
the United States.'"
In pointing out the falsity and folly of
the contention that the constitution
does not follow the flag, Mr.. Harrison
outlines possible law to aid us to see
more clearly what it involves:
"Section l. Suspend permanently the
writ of habeas corpus in Porto Rico.
"Sec. 2. Declare an attainder against
all Porto Ricans who have displayed the
Spanish flag since the treaty of peace.
"Sec. 8. Any Porto Rican that shall
speak disrespectfully of congress shall
be guilty Of treason. One witness shall
be sufficient to prove the offense, and on
conviction the offender shall have his
tongue cut out.
"Sec. 4. The Presbyterian church
shall be the established church of the
island, and no one shall be permitted to
worship God after any other form.
"Sec. 5. All proposed publications
shall be submitted to a censor and shall
be printed only after he has approved
the same. Public meetings to discuss
public affairs are prohibited.
"Sec. 6. No inhabitant of Porto Rico
shall keep or bear arms.
"Sec. Z. The soldiers of the island gar
risons shall be quartered in the houses
of the people.
"Sec. 8. The commanding officer in
the island shall have the right to arrest
without warrant, to search the person,
house, papers OF any one suspected by
him.
"Sec. 8. Any person in civil life may
be twice put in jeopardy for the same
offense; and may be compelled to wit
ness against himself.
"Sec. 10. Criminal trials may, in the
discretion OF the presiding judge, be held
in secret, without a. jury, and the ac-
cused shall not be advised before ar
raignment of the nature or the cause of
accusation.
"New Mexico, or Arizona, or Oklahoma
might be substituted for :'orto Rico in
the bill, for think those who affirm that
the constitution has no relation to Porto
Rico do so upon grounds that equally
apply to all other territories.
"Now, no one supposes that congress
will ever assemble in q law such shock
ing provisions. But for themselves our
fathers were not content to let their
rights rest wholly upon the sense of JUS
tice and benevolence Of the congress. The
man whose protection from wrong rests
wholly upon the bcnevolence of another
man, or congress-is a slave-a man
without rights.
"For one | do not believe that the
trainers OF the national constitution were
careful only of their own liberties.
"Ths is the more probable when we
remember that the territories then most
likely to be acquired would naturally be
peopled by their own sons. They cher
ished very broad views rs to the rights
of men. Liberty was a divine gift to be
claimed for ourselves only upon condi-
ton OF allowing it to all men,.
cit is Il brave thing to proclaim law
that condemns your own practices. The
fathers left it to baser generation the
attempt to limit Gods law of liberty to
white men.
"One who has retired from the service,
but not from the love of his country,
must be pardoned if he finds himself UNI
able to rejoice in the acquisition of lands
and forests and mines and commerce at
the cost of the abandonment of the old
American idea that a government OF alb
solute powers is an intollerable thing.
"God forbid that the day should ever
come when, in the American mind, the
thought OF man as a consumer shall sub
merge the old American thought of man
as creature of God, endowed with in
alienable rights.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.