156 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said : " I believe, sir, 

 it is proper enough for me to say, for I think 

 the President himself says it in his annual 

 message, that a treaty was negotiated for the 

 annexation of Dominica to the United States, 

 and that that treaty failed to receive the re- 

 quisite votes in favor of its ratification, thus 

 disclosing the fact that between the President 

 of the United States and the Senate there is 

 a direct opposition of opinion upon the subject 

 of this acquisition. Now, not willing to defer 

 to the opinion of the Senator and I do not 

 say that in order to blame him; he has a right 

 to his own opinion the President, with very 

 great earnestness, urges upon Congress and 

 upon the country the desirableness of this ac- 

 quisition, and he goes so tar as to suggest the 

 mode by which Dominica may be annexed. 

 Seeing that it is not likely to be annexed under 

 the treaty-making power, for want of the re- 

 quisite support in the Senate, he suggests that 

 it may be annexed by joint resolution, as in 

 the case of Texas ; and it is with a view to 

 carry out, no doubt, the wishes or opinions of 

 the President in this particular that the Sena- 

 tor- from Indiana has introduced this joint res- 

 olution. 



"Now, the first thing that strikes me is 

 this : is the. Senate ready to recede from its 

 position? Is the Senate willing to ratify a 

 treaty for the annexation of Dominica, or is 

 the Senate ready to annex Dominica by joint 

 resolution? And in that connection I beg 

 leave to call the attention of the Senate to the 

 fact that you cannot by joint resolution annex 

 Dominica as a Territory ; yon must annex her 

 as a State if you annex her by joint resolution. 

 There is no clause in the Constitution of the 

 United States that provides for the acquisition 

 of territory by joint resolution of Congress 

 unless it be one single provision, and that is 

 that the Congress may admit new States into 

 the Union. And it was upon the argument 

 that there was no limitation upon that power 

 to admit new States into the Union, that it 

 was not limited to territory belonging to the 

 United States, but that territory belonging to 

 a foreign power might be admitted into the 

 Union as a State it was upon that doctrine 

 that the resolution in the case of Texas was 

 passed. But no one has ever pretended that 

 you could by joint resolution annex territory 

 as a Territory without admitting it as a State. 

 Then, if a treaty is to be abandoned, the prop- 

 osition which is before the Senate is, is this 

 Senate prepared to annex Dominica in its pres- 

 ent condition, without one man in it out of 

 ten thousand who can speak the English lan- 

 guage, without one man out of ten thousand 

 who can read a word in any language, without 

 one man in ten thousand who has the slightest 

 idea of our Government ? Is the Senate pre- 

 pared to admit Dominica as a State in this 

 Union at this session of Congress? That is 

 the question." 



Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania, said: "Mr. 



President, it is a wide departure that we are 

 asked to take from the original policy of the 

 Government. It was at one time made a ques- 

 tion, and a very serious one, whether Congress 

 had the right to acquire territory at all. We 

 all know that Mr. Jefferson, when it was pro- 

 posed to acquire Louisiana, if not in his public 

 messages, in his private letters, said that there 

 was no power vested in Congress to acquire 

 it, even although it was a great commercial 

 necessity, and he advised his friends to violate 

 the letter of the Constitution and depend upon 

 the people for an amendment afterward to 

 justify it. But now we are asked not simply 

 to annex territory within the continent, but 

 to go outside and commence the policy of in- 

 sular acquisition. That policy is well worth 

 inquiring into before we send a commission to 

 investigate the physical, and mental, and moral 

 condition of the people who inhabit the island 

 which we are asked to annex." 



Mr. Patterson, of New Hampshire, said: 

 " What are the facts ? We have had a treaty 

 brought before the Senate for the annexation 

 of Dominica. All the facts upon which the 

 President acted in negotiating that treaty are 

 before the President of the United States, and 

 it is in his power to communicate all those 

 facts to the Senate of the United States on the 

 call of the Senator from Massachusetts. If 

 those facts were sufficient to justify the Presi- 

 dent of the United States in negotiating the 

 treaty for the annexation of that island, they 

 are sufficient for the action of the Senate when 

 the subject is brought before the Senate. If 

 they are not sufficient for the Senate of the 

 United States, then, sir, they were not suf- 

 ficient for the President of the United States 

 in negotiating the treaty, and no treaty ever 

 should have been negotiated without a fuller 

 knowledge of the facts. 



" It seems to me that this is a point which 

 we have overlooked in this discussion. The 

 President has all the facts on which the ori- 

 ginal treaty was negotiated, and he can com- 

 municate them to the Senate upon the call of 

 the Senator from Massachusetts. If they were 

 sufficient for him in his action, they should be 

 sufficient for the Senate of the United States 

 in its action. If sufficient facts are not ac- 

 cessible to us here in Washington, then tlu 

 facts were not sufficient to justify the Ad- 

 ministration in negotiating the treaty which 

 was placed before us for our action." 



Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, said : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I trust that this resolution will be al- 

 lowed to go to the Committee on Foreign 

 Relations. The Senator from Indiana has al- 

 ready intimated his willingness to accept of 

 one amendment. I think that if the resolution 

 is to pass it ought to be very carefully matured 

 and further amended. Why this haste? Why 

 not take a little time to consider a matter so 

 confessedly important, and have it properly 

 matured, if we are to do any thing of this kind 

 at this early day ? I hope, therefore, that the 



