The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-31

work if this treaty should be defeated,
l do not think I could vote for it,
Mr. Tillman. Mr. President
The Presiding Officer (Mr. Pettus III
the chair) Does the Senator from North
Carolina yield to the Senator from South
Carolina?
Mr.. Simmons. Certainly.
Mr.. Tillman The Senator from North
Carolina is too good lawyer, judge, not
Ito know that it is good law that the
receiver of stolen goods is as guilty as
the man who steals them.
Mr. Simmons. Oh, L do not think the
President has stolen anything over there.
do not think there is any question of
stolen goods and thievery involved in
this matter.
Mr. President, as L was about to say
when interrupted by the Senator from
South Carolina, if Senators, however
much they desire the canal, believe that
that will be the effect of a vote for this
treaty, while 1 dissent from that conclu-
sion can rot and will not criticise their
opposition to it and their refusal to sup
port il.
To my mind, Mr.. President, the revo-
luton in and the recognition of Panama
and the ratification of the treaty with
Panama as an independent State are two
separate and distinct propositions. And
think to refuse to ratify the treaty be-
cause we can not approve OF the way in
which Panama acquired her independence,
would be to unnecessarily confuse these
two separate proposition Josh Billings
said: Il never argue against success.
The great humOrist probably only meant
by this saying to emphasize the truth
that it is hard to argue against d sue
cess
If, Mr. President. if it is hard to argue
against success, it is impossible to argue
against a fact. You may deal effectively,
you may even punish the agents and in
strumentalities which have brought a
fact into existence, but you can do moth
ing with the fact itself except to recog
nize it. No amount of disapproval, criti
cism or denunciation will destroy it or
modify its existence as a subslstlng
thing.
l join my colleagues on this side of
the Chamber in condemning whatever
wrong the President and the Admins
tration may have done in connection with
bringing about the independence of Pans
anna, but In my vote upon the treaty l
propose to recognize and act upon the
fact that Panama is an independent State,
possessed of equal rights and powers to
make this treaty as we ourselves pos
sess, not only with our consent, but the
practically unanimous consent of all the
civilized nations of the world.
do not suppose that many Democrats
approved of the action OF this Govern
ment in connection with the revolution
and annexation of Hawaii. The charges
made against the action In this matter of
the Administration then in power were
not far different from those now made
against the President.
Surely it can not be said that those
Democrats who voted to give Hawaii rep
resentation in the House of Representa-
tives. and those who have before and
since voted for laws to give to the people
of that island good government and adj
ministration, by those votes condoned the
wrongful and illegal acts of this Govern
ment which led to and made successful
that revolution and annexation. Certain
it is they did not intend by those votes
to condone these things, but only to re-
cognize a subsisting fact and act upon it..
The same is true with reference to the
acts of the Administration toward the
Philippine Islands after we had wrested
that country from the dominion of
Spain 1t was then said that we had
used the power of the Army to take from
these people, whom we had found fighting
for country and liberty, not only their
country, but their freedom, and that, too,
in violation of our plighted faith to them
and of the essential principles Of our own
Constitution, and that when they resisted
we had forced them to submit at the
point of the bayonet and the mouth of
the cannon.
] confess that felt this way about that
business myself; but can it be said that
those Democrats, who a few days ago
voted for Mr.. Luke Wright to be Gov
ernor of the Philippine Islands, by that
act condoned those acts of spoliations,
usurpations, and outrages against the
Constitution of our fathers and the laws
of civilization? Certainly they did not
intend to do any such thing. They in
tended only to recognize an accomplished
fact and to make the best of it, and that
is all that vote or any other vote to give
to the people of those islands good laws
and administration means.
The people of the South voted for the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and sixteenth
amendments to the Constitution OF the
United States, but they did not mean by
those votes to indorse the war that had
been waged against the South to pre-
vent her Withdrawing, as they thought
she had a right to do, peacefully from
the Union They did not mean to indorse
the forcible abolition of slavery. They
simply recognized the fact that the sword
had forever put an end to the right of
slavery and secession in this country and
to act upon these facts without approving
the way in which they had been brought
about.
Mr.. President, to my mind, you might