The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-06-12
OUTSIDE The CONSTITUTION.
What Manifest Destiny and
Supreme Court Decision Will
Lead 10.

Washington. June 10-The worst
thing about expansion. in the opinion
of many vel-headed men. is not that
the United States Will have to govern
outside the constitution. certain out
lying territory already acquired from
Spain. but that it will be tempted to
90 further and stir up strife for the
purpose of gaining more land. This
tendency is illustrated by recent in
terview given out here by Representa-
tive Boutell, Of Chicago. who not only
declares in favor of keeping what we
have but urges the acquisition Of Can
ada, Mexico, the West Indies, and
Central America down to the line Of
the Nicaraguan canal.
This is manifest destiny with a
vengeance and can hardly be expected
to conduce to the continuance Of good
relations with our already suspicious
Spanisa-Amercian neighbors, whose
good will is necessary to prevent the
incursion of Europe into that part Of
the world. The worst of it is that Mr..
Boutell has always been considred
very level-headed man, not at all
fire brand, and his words may be tax
en- as representative of a large and toll
erably conservative section of the Re-
publican party. He said:
logical conclusion regarding the ulti-
mate course of events in the Island of
Cuba. The time will come, and it will
not be long, before Cuba will be
part of the United States. The wisest
minds of the past have been predict
ing such an outcome, holding that it
will eventually be necessary for this
country to absorb the island, and /
must say that I fully concur in that
opinion. Indeed I go little farther
| think that in time the whole of the
West India Islands will become ours
and that within fifty years the United
States will be exercising its sovereign
ty over every acre of territory down to
the Nicaraguan canal, which water
way, will have been completed by
then. Upon the North I include Can
ada. This combination is bound to
come, | believe, and the United
States will have so expanded in COM
mercial and industrial sense by that
time that the absorption of so much
territory will be iustifab bic policy
Mr.. Boutell believes that if civil
government is established in the Phil
ippines on July l, as is now contem-
plated, withoutssa call for an extra ses-
sion of Congress to enact some meas
ure prescribing specific schedule of
tariff rates, all duties collected on
merchandise from the archipelago be-
tween the frstof next month and the
date upon which Congress finally
passes such an act must be refundep.
AS matter of fact, the President
has come to his peculiar position in
regard to the rights in the Philip
pines, by avoiding the Spooner law.
1.-The departure from right principles
in the first instance, according to some
critics, has led to endless entangling
contradictions, and to save itself from
present dilemma the Administrator
is impelled to discredit the Spanish
title to the Philippines conveyed to
the United States. By placing cloud
upon the Spanish title and questioning
the exact validity of the conveyance, a
distinction is made between cession''
and possession and the war power
is esta ablished as warrant for Execu-
tive authority, independently of the
Spooner law. The idea that civil
government can rule by military law
is surely one of the most peculiar that
any Attorney-General ever held.