The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-05-27

on the one hand and violating our duty
to ourselves on the other. That con-
/ struction would in such case imperil
the honorable existence of our republic.
1t could not have been Intended by those
who framed our constitution that we
/ should be born a cripple among the ma
tons.
There has been found then, no reason
either on principle OF authority why the
United States should not accept sover-
eighty over territory without admitting
IT. as an integral part of the Union or
making 1t bear the burden Of the taxa
ton uniform throughout our nation.
TO deny this power is to deny to this
nation an important attribute of SOW
ereignty. The intent of the constitution
is to make the federal government
full sovereign with powers equal to
those of other nations in it's dealings
for the states in foreign affairs. If the
United States have this power, and we
have found no reason to deny it, the
treaty Of Paris is constitutional 1t is
unnecessary to determine what limita-
tons may control us in governing such
territory; it is sufficient that we have
the power to govern it without subject
ing 1t to the burden Of our national
taxation There is, then, no ground for
declaring unconstitutional the treaty of
cession, which accepts sovereignty on
the condition that the status of the
coded territory as foreign country shall
be preserved as it was until congress
shall determine it. The treaty of Paris,
then, is valid. 1t left the political
status of the inhabitants of Porto Rico
unchanged. Their status at the time of
the cession was, as declared by the SUI
rene court, that of Inhabitants of
foreign country as regards the consti-
tuition of the United States and within
the meaning Of the tariff acts. The
treaty Of cession did not change that
status And as congress had not acted
at the time OF this importation Porto
Rico was still foreign country in the
sense of the tariff law, and duties We're
lawfully assessed OH the articles i'm
ported therefrom. The decision Of the
board of general appraisers is affirmed
Concerning this decision of Judge
Townsend the New York Sun said edi-
torially at the time of its announcement
as follows:
Porto Rico and the Constitution.
We printed yesterday part of the
decision rendered by Judge William X.
in the United States district
court for the southern district of New
York, in the case of the importers who 4
protested against paying tariff rates on
tobacco from Porto Rico They main
tanned that Porto Rico was not for
eign country and that the imposition Of
a duty on goods carried from one part
of United States territory to another
was unconstitutional.
The court decides that the duty on
the tobacco was properly imposed; that
the power to hold and govern ceded
territory without Incorporating it exists
as one of the ordinary attributes of
sovereignty; that the article of the
Paris treaty leaving to congress the de-
of the civil rights and polit-
zeal status of the Porto Ricans Is not |
In conflict with the constitution; In |
short, that while Porto Rico is a pos |
session of the United States, and to be |
considered as such in it's relations to |
the rest of the world, it does not come
In under the constitution until congress
shall incorporate 1t.
To- day we publish the entire text of
this opinion of Judge Townsend's, not
only because it possesses prime impor
lance as the first judicial decision that