The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-29
SAVANNAH, GA. WEDNESDAY.

| a cargo of vegetables for the troops
| in the islands had been permitted to
clear from San Francisco, because it
| was most important that these sup
plies should go forward promptly.
Il feel sure" he added, that the
senator from Georgia would have done
the same thing had he been Secretary
| of the Treasury"
Mr.. Bacon expressed his qualification
that no general order suspending the
navigation laws had been issued.
Mr.. Lodge objected to the immediate
consideration of the Joint resolution Of
| fered by Mr.. Bacon, and it went over.
Gen. Merritt Makes Denial.
Referring to a recent criticism of
| Gen. Wesley Merritt, formerly COM
handing the Department of the East,
for some statements he was reported
to have made in a public speech, Mr..
| Foraker presented a letter from Gen.
Merritt, denying emphatically that he
| ever had said the constitution was an
| Anticipated document and ought to be
| abolished.
After a rather breezy colioquy be-
tween Mr., Spooner and Mr.. Tillman
the latter asked Mr. Spooner to say
explicitly whether the Philippine ISL
lands were a part of the United States
IL RECOMMEND" replied Mr.. Spooner
that the senator read the decisions
| of the Supreme Court"
Il have read some of these deci-
| sions," Mr.. Tillman said, but with
| four judges on one side and four on
the other, and the fifth wabbling, I
! could not make much out of them"
Whatever may be said about their
| decisions" replied Mr.. Spooner II
don't think that the justices of the
| Supreme Court will be very sensitive
| as to the senator's criticism
Mr.. Tillman-"Ohi not at ALL
MIR. Spooner-"The Supreme Court
settled one thing, and that is, that
there is a distinction between the
| United States and territory belonging
to the United States"
While Mr.. Spooner was proceeding
with his speech he was interrupted by
Mr.. Tillman, and in an instant a SEN
sational colloquy was in progress.
Mr.. Tillman inquired; will the Sem
ator allow me to ask him If the Plat
amendment had been defeated by de-
bate until the end of the session, would
that side have had courage to have
gone forward in it's philanthropy, hu-
manity, Christianity and liberty and all
that kind of thing, and to have called
an extra session."
Mr. Spooner: 1--WE have courage
enough on this side to do anything on
EARTH"
Mr.. Tillman: Except to defend the
negro"
Mr. Spooner: I'VE have not courage
enough to lynch colored men or de-
prive them of their rights"
| Mr.. Tillman:' docs the Senator de-
sire to discuss the race question here?
He seems to have left the proposition
which he started on to throw a per-
sonal fling at me. 1 am ready to meet
him here, in Wisconsin. or anywhere
| else on the race question"
Mr.. Spooner: Wherever the Senator
is willing to meet me on that question
or any other he will find me there, so
| far as / am concerned. The Senator
| addressed to me an observation, how
ever. offensive In its character"
| Mr.. TiIman: at certainly had no
allusion to lynching."
Mr.. Spooner: No"
TilIman Persists in Wordy War.
Mr.. Tillman: 1.-THE senator under
stands very we'll that l come from
| section of country where lynchings for
| a given crime and for a good many
| other crimes are very prevalent. Now,
| does the senator wish to leave the
| Philippine proposition in which he is
dealing with colored people in most
infamous and damnable and hypocrit-
ical way and go South and hold them
UP as examples that we are dealing
with in a similar way; 1 mean the
colored people here at home. Are we to
have two codes of conduct in regard to
the colored people, one in the Philip
pines by which we butcher them and
shoot Christianity into them; and an
other in the South where we are not
allowed to protect our wives and chill
dren?
Mr.. Spooner: eff we had the same
rule for the colored people in the Phil
ippines as the Senator refers to in the
South. God help the colored man in
the Philippines"
Mr.. Tillman: God help him. In
the Philippines, now you have already
butchered in three years three times
as many as the Spaniards did in three
centuries"
Mr.. Spooner: 'It is one thing to kill
men with arms in their hands against
a government and against the flag.
1t is another thing to burn them"
Kansas, SIR
Mr.. Spooner: wherever 1t is done
it is an outrageous crime"
Mr.. Tillman: oh 1t is very easy
thing for man who has not come
in contact with them in close quar-
tiers to theorize and sentimentalze as
to what other people ought to do"
Mr.. Tillman was admonished by the
President pro tenn that he must not
interrupt a senator without first OBJ
tanning leave, to which he replied that
he was Haunted in a wGy that no white
man from South Carolina can submit
to-"
After little colloquy, Mr.. Tillman
said:
Now / know that for a farmer like
me to discuss the legal points with
a giant in the law like the senator
from Wisconsin is a temerity that
would lay me over to the accusation
of that old doggerel that fools rush
in where angels fear to tread and
/ am fool enough to ask him when
he quoted the constitution a mo-
ment ago in regard to the power Of
Congress In dealing with territory,
and other property, did he include men
as other property whose liberty and
lives and all rights are to be leopard
lied or TO be destroyed in this coun-
try. and whether they are any prop
erty; whether people are property?
You bought them at 81 a head, II is
true. but did you intend to give them
their liberty as we propose, or do you
propose TO hold them under the bayo-
net, under carpet-bag government
more damnable than you put on us in
1862"
THAT IS the Old question:" replied
Mr.. Spooner, the power to occupy
inhabited territory involves the power
I suppose 20 change the allegiance.
We acquired Louisiana. No one ever
pretended that men and women were
bought and sold In that transaction"
Apply Constitution, said Teller.