The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-22
Tuesday a Sale of Granite
 Ware takes place.

bill, merely for the purpose of explaini hg my opinion on this bill.
 As general rule I do not favor radi- cal changes in the form of government. This bill wrenchcs this republican GJv- ernment from the rightful and accustomed course in dealing with Territories of the United States, and starts this Government of limited powers on the new, untried and unauthorized experiment of establishing 3 vast colonial system on islands. con- fessedly belonging to the United States.
 This radical departure from the right full and usual course is based upon the gnfounded assumption that this Govern ment is sovereign in the broad sense of the word. The framers of this bill seem to have lost sight of the fact that this Government is of limited powers.
 Here, Mir. President, I will take the lib- erty of quoting from the old masters the judges of our Supreme Court, what they said in reference to this identical subject. Changes may be made in the law but l do not recognize the power of any court to change the law.
 Chief Justice Marshall, in McCullock V. The State of Maryland 4 Wheaton, 45O, declared:
 This Government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers.
 And the Supreme Court, in the case of United States V. Gratiot GA Peters. 5SO, says:
 And the Constitution of the United States (Article IN.. Section 8 ,-' V 's that Congress shall have power to dis pose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the Unit d States. The term territory" as here used is merely descriptive of one kind of prop erty and is equivalent to the word lands
 In Murphy " Ramsay d14 IT. S., pp l4- 15l. that Court decided as follows:
 The rec pie of the United States as sovereign owners of the national Terri nY ne Hat and their inhabitants. In the exercise of this sovereign dominion they are repre- sented by the Government of the United States, to whom all the powers of gov ernmert over that subject have been delegated, subject only to such restric tions as are expressed in the Constitution or are necessarily implied in its terms
 In the Mormon Church V. The United States dS6 U. S., pp. 42-4D our Supreme Court declared:
 The power of Congress over the terri tory of the United States is general and pienlry S
 the territories, would be subject to those fundamental limi tatlons in favor of per scnal rights which are formulated in the Constitution and its amendments
 In Pollards Lessee V. Fagan. ct al, a Howard, "25l the Supreme Court declared:
 If 1t were true that the United States acquired the whole of Alabama from Spain, no consequences would result as llltS6 CpHIGIutH IOEs IL call IlOI Dc du- n.tteG that the King of Spain could. by treaty or otherwise, tmpart to the Uutted States any of his royal prerogaives, aud much less can it be admitted that they have Cap5 city to receive or power to 'x- e:cisc them. Every nation acquiring ter. ritory by treaty or otherwise must hold ts subject to the constitution and laws of It's G"n governmen. and not according u those of the government ceding 1t.
 lt Is thus proved that this Government is not scVere'g gn in the broad sense of that term, but that this Government is one of enumerated and limited powers The people Of the United States are SoVere ign, bIt they have delegated only part of their sovereign authority to the United States Government, and they have dele gated part of their sovereignty to the several States, and still another part of their sovereignty they have reserved to themselves. And the people" have so expressly declared in the Constitution of the United States, Article x. And the proves the same proposition.
 Every sovereign State. in the broad sense, can grant titles of nobility. The United States can not.
 So sovereign States can establish a re- Ggion, and change such establishment. The Government of the United States can do neither
 States fully sovereign can define and punish crimes throughout the land. -'It the power of the United States to de-
 fine and punis Il crimes in the States is greatly limited.
 Now. as the United States derives all of it's powers from the Constitution, and as every officer of the United States-lcg- islative. executive and Judicial-is re- qircd 10 take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, 1t seems
 impossible for the United States to govern any land lswfullv unless that govern ment Is m conformity to the Constitution of the Unite1 Std+4s. 1T such goVernme 1t is in violation of any limitation of our Constitution, it is a wrong and usurpa- ton to that extent.