The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-05-31
CONGRESS SUPERIOR TO THE CON-
,STTTU7TON

CONGRESS SUPERIOR TO THE CON-
S71TU71ON
The long anticipated decision in the
Porto Rican cases has, at last, been
handed down by the Supreme Court
of the United States. While the
question OF constitutional law pre-
sented in these cases rested upon the
right of the government to impose
tariffduties upon our new possessions
both prior and subsequent to the en-
actment of what is known as the
Foraker Act of Congress, yet the far
greater and more serious question of
governmental sovereignty in a re-
public; its creation and in whom it
rests supreme; the extent of its ex-
ercise within and without the limita-
tons of the written Constitution
under which the government itself
was formulated, by people who
had broken asunder the bonds of I'M
just taxation imposed by Monarchial
sovereignty.-These questions, ofsuch
tremendous import, have been
answered. And by a decision of a
divided Court, extra Constitutional
sovereignty has been lodged in a
Congress of a Republic. But, if the
contention of the founders of our
government was correct, and the re-
fusal by the Parliament of Monarch
ial Britain to extend the provisions
of the English Constitution, in an
equal and just imposition oftaxation
upon all her subjects, was an uncon-
stitutional assumption of Sovereign
power-it no longer holds good in a
republic Of freemen. The highest
authority in our own land has spoken
and we all must reverently bow to its
august decision.
Whence comes this weird power,
to be welded by a whimsical Con-
gress, we are not told. 1t does not
harmonic with the well-known con-
victions of the people who carried
into execution the Bill of Inalienable
Rights, nor does it comport with the
principles of rational liberty, as
boldly proclaimed in their national
declaration-the soul and spirit of
their carefully formulated organic
law-But as it has now been finally
decided that the Congress of the Re-
public is a law unto itself, we abide
in the fervent hope that the results
gifts creative genius will not disap-
point the expectations of those who
have given it the primal place in a
government, republican in form and
mysterious in substance.
THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD thus
tersely epitomizes the voluminous
decisions:
"The decision of the United States
Supreme Court in the insular cases,
seems involved and contradictory
even after the most careful reading.
The islands are held to be "domes-
tic" and not foreign" territory, and
yet not a part of the United States.
They appertain to the United States.
The Constitution, the Court decides,
only follows the flag to the extent
that Congress shall permit. The
islands are in the United States, in so
far that they are subject to the
authority Of Congress; but not in so
far that their inhabitants have be-
come citizens of the country, entitled
to the equal protection of the laws.
In other words, they are colonies as
distinguished from territories. For
tariff purposes they are held, though
domestic territory, to be without the
pale of the Constitution, which es-
tablishes free trade between the
States and forbids the levy of export
duties.
The Government is overruled in its
minor contentious and sustained in
it's major position. The President
was right in at first insisting that
free trade with Porto Rico was a
plain duty, and is yet sustained in
afterward asserting to the imposi-
ton of a tariff on Porto Rican pro-
ducts, or, as Justice White sarcac-
tically observed, latter the Foraker
act Porto Rico ceased to be a part of
the United States, and before the
Foraker act it was a part of the
United States"
The decision, as we now understand
it, is a most momentous one, involv-
ing a grave change in the character
of our government. Congress, itself
the creature of the Constitution, is
apparently invested with imperial
powers which find no warrant in the
Constitution. The Court has taken
a long time to arrive at any con-
clusion, and has been unable to reach |
a decision satisfactory to more than
bare majority of its membership. |
1t may be possible that when con-
sidered in all its bearings a clearer !