168 



CONGRESS. (THE PORTO Rico MEASURES.) 



of the Treasury, but shall be held as a separate 

 fund, and shall be placed at the disposal of the 

 President to be used for the government and bene- 

 fit of Porto Rico until otherwise provided by law. 



" SEC. 5. This act shall be taken and held to be 

 provisional in its purposes and intended to meet 

 a pressing present need for revenue for the island 

 of Porto Rico, and shall not continue in force 

 after the 1st day of March, 1902." 



In the Senate a bill had been introduced early 

 in the session " to provide for the. government of 

 1'uito Rico and other purposes," and when the 

 House bill came up for consideration it was re- 

 ferred to the Committee on Pacific Islands and 

 Porto Rico, and that committee reported it with 

 an amendment in the form of a substitute, which 

 was the Senate bill for the government of the 

 island slightly modified. This measure defined the 

 term Porto Rico as including that island and 

 those adjacent, and made San Juan the capital. 

 It declared the political status of the people; con- 

 tinued existing laws in force excepting those in 

 which religion was an element; extended the 

 laws of commerce and navigation over the 

 islands; provided for quarantine stations; estab- 

 lished the value of the silver coins, and made 

 1'iiited States coins legal tender; adopted the 

 rate of duty in the House bill on trade between 

 the United States and Porto Rico, to be collected 

 until March 2, 1902; made the island an internal 

 revenue district; and declared the authority of all 

 United States statutes not locally inapplicable. 



The measure provided also for a governor, to be 

 appointed by the President, by and with the ad- 

 vice and consent of the Senate, and having the 

 usual powers of a territorial executive. It estab- 

 lished also an executive council, consisting of a 

 secretary, attorney-general, auditor, treasurer, 

 and commissioner of education, with the usual 

 authority of such officials, and five other mem- 

 bers, all to be appointed by the President, and at 

 least five to be natives of Porto Rico. It created 

 a body, to be called the House of Delegates, the 

 members to be elected by the people, and consti- 

 tuting, with the Executive Council as an upper 

 house, the local Legislature of the island. It pro- 

 vided for a local supreme court and district courts, 

 and made the island a judicial district of the 

 United States. 



The measure was passed by the Senate, April 

 3, by a vote of 40 yeas to 31 nays; not voting, 16. 



April 11 the House concurred in the Senate 

 amendments, in gross, by a vote of 161 yeas to 

 153 nays; not voting, 37. 



Outside of Congress there was no little Repub- 

 lican opposition to the measure, and that element 

 of hostile opinion was represented in the speech 

 of Congressman H. C. Smith, of Michigan. He 

 said: 



" This bill puts it upon the statute books, where 

 it may be read of all men, for all the days of 

 coming time, that the general in command of our 

 armies, appointed by the commander in chief of 

 the armies of the republic, may not have his 

 promises carried out promises ratified by two 

 years of silence, ratified by the opinion and re- 

 port of the Secretary of War, ratified by the pub- 

 lic speeches of the President, and ratified by the 

 1 'resident's message, written in unfading ink, on 

 parchment that will outlast time. 



" We can not, as a nation, afford to say to the 

 world and to the people of the earth that such 

 promises may be rc]>n<liutc<l and are only to be 

 used to stimulate false hopes in the throbbing 

 bosoms of oppressed <uhjects. 



" And we are told that the plain duty to give to 

 the Porto Ricans free trade did no't mean a pres- 



ent duty, but that we were to do this by and 

 by, at some more convenient season. 



" I can not bring my judgment and my con- 

 science to the support of such shuffling and bad 

 faith. 



" To my mind, our obligations are moral, not 

 constitutional. The people of Porto Rico, civi- 

 lized as well as barbarous, ai - e to be, under the 

 new dispensation, cut off from every benefit sup- 

 posed to be bestowed by the American system of 

 government. 



" They are not to be represented in the American 

 Congress. The tariff is a tariff against our own 

 territory. They are left nothing but a dead 

 market. This is the Roman method, ' Make a 

 solitude and call it peace.' It is simply despotism 

 with no regard for the rights of man. 



" The bill ignores the great principle that gov- 

 ernment is for the benefit of the governed. This 

 is a time for candor. 



" General Miles, when first landing American 

 forces on the island, promised the Porto Ricans 

 that they should enjoy the same rights and 

 privileges and immunities as the people of the 

 United States. With this understanding did the 

 Porto Ricans accept American sovereignty not 

 only without opposition, but with joyful trust 

 and confidence. 



" This great republic can not afford to break 

 faith with the little island of Porto Rico. If we 

 break the pledge of General Miles, we ought to 

 give up the fruit which called forth that promise. 



" The people are therefore opposed to this meas- 

 ure, and the national heart and the national con- 

 science has been stirred to the deepest depths. 



" There is nothing in the language of the Con- 

 stitution, in my judgment, which makes the bill 

 unconstitutional. 



" I believe that the power of Congress over all 

 territory outside the boundary lines of the States 

 is coextensive with the power of the English Par- 

 liament. 



" The power to givern such territory is found, 

 necessarily, under our system somewhere. It cer- 

 tainly has not been reserved to the States. The 

 jurisdiction of a State is confined strictly to its 

 own. territory. 



" But this act violates the common law of Eng- 

 land and America, which requires that taxation 

 shall be uniform. 



" This is not a new question. The old stamp 

 act and the duties on tea of George III and his 

 Parliament are in point. 



" Every single argument that can be made in 

 favor of the Porto Rico bill was advanced in 

 favor of those acts. We all know how they were 

 regarded in this country what Adams, Otis, and 

 Jefferson thought of them. 



" A certain cargo of tea was thrown into Bos- 

 ton Harbor. Is there any particular reason why 

 another cargo should not be dumped into the Gulf 

 of Mexico? 



" In my judgment, the Republican party can 

 not afford to follow the example of George 1 1 1 

 now or hereafter. 



" I am an expansionist, but I am uncondition- 

 ally in favor of treating t"he inhabitants of all 

 our territories, at home and abroad, with simple 

 justice. Equality is equity, and equality is the 

 soul of liberty. 



" The question involved is not protection, but 

 equal taxation. Abraham Lincoln freed 4,000.000 

 physical slaves. Are we going to emulate this 

 example in the islands of the sea, or are we, for 

 the sake of selfish interest, and in spite of the 

 pledge of the President, going to fasten commer- 

 cial slavery upon them? 



