198 



CONGRESS. (ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY.) 



dom, in the interest of good government : that we 

 went into it as no other people in the history of 

 the world ever went into a war. We have stood 

 before the world presenting a spectacle and an 

 example unheard of in history, ready to pour 

 out our money and sacrifice life in the interest of 

 those strangers. 



" We can not stop. We commenced this great 

 work of humanity, and we are bound to carry 

 it on until we have accomplished the great ob- 

 ject for which we began. We can not do it by 

 turning over to those people the government of 

 these various countries, in my judgment, in the 

 present disorganized condition of affairs there; 

 but we ought to keep in view all the time that 

 some day these people are to be self-reliant and 

 self-governing, as we are, or they are to become 

 a part and parcel of this republic, entitled to all 

 the rights and subject to all the duties of citizen- 

 ship of States." 



Mr. C'affery, of Louisiana, supported the reso- 

 lution, and contended for the following proposi- 

 tions: 



" First. That the Government of the United 

 States being ' of the people, by the people, and 

 for the people,' is inhibited from acquiring terri- 

 tory for the purpose of incorporating it and its 

 people into the Union against their will or with- 

 out their consent. 



" Second. That if a territory is acquired by the 

 United States and its condition, character, soil, 

 climate, and population fit it for statehood, Con- 

 gress can only govern it, under the limitations 

 of the Constitution, with a view to its becoming 

 a State as early as possible. 



" Third. That if the people of a territory pro- 

 posed to be annexed are incapable of self-govern- 

 ment, we can not incorporate them into the Union 

 nor hold them as dependencies to be governed 

 despotically by Congress. 



" Fourth. That even if capable of self-govern- 

 ment and they give their consent, but are in- 

 habitants of a distant country beyond the sea 

 and of a dissimilar race, with different laws, re- 

 ligions, customs, manners, traditions, and habits, 

 it is impolitic, unwise, and dangerous to incor- 

 porate them into the Union. 



" Fifth. That wherever any territory is acquired 

 by the United States in full sovereignty the citi- 

 zens thereof become citizens of the United States, 

 with the' privilege of removal if they object to 

 the sway of the United States, and that taxes, 

 duties, and imposts shall be uniform throughout 

 the United States, including all its Territories. 



" Mr. President, in support of the proposition 

 that we can not acquire territory for the purpose 

 of incorporating it and its people into the Union 

 against their will and consent, I can only argue 

 upon general principles. We have announced to 

 the world that this is a Government based upon 

 the free consent of the American people. We 

 have held up this example of a free government 

 as one to be copied by all the nations of the 

 earth. We have by that act estopped ourselves 

 from setting up any kind of government any- 

 where, under any circumstances, other than a 

 free government based upon the consent of the 

 governed. 



" There is no room in any line or word or im- 

 plication from the Constitution to justify des- 

 potic government, but if the principle announced 

 upon this floor is to obtain we can introduce into 

 the very core of our institutions, in the very cita- 

 del of our liberty, the principle of unlimited des- 

 potic sway. If the principle is to obtain that we 

 can annex foreign territory and govern that terri- 

 tory and its inhabitants indefinitely under the 



sole jurisdiction and dominion of the Congress of 

 the United States, we will have made of Cbngress 

 the hugest despotism in the world. 



" Mr. President, if I am correct in the propo- 

 sition that the inhabitants of a territory acquired 

 by the United States that territory coming 

 under the jurisdiction and full sovereignty of 

 the United States are citizens of the United 

 States, then I contend that those citizens have a 

 constitutional right to free government, and that 

 means a government by their consent. 



" Of course it follows that if, in the acquisition 

 of territory or the project of the acquisition of 

 territory, the inhabitants of that country do not 

 consent, but are opposed and become hostile to 

 the United States, there is no warrant under the 

 Constitution, under the spirit of the Constitu- 

 tion, to bring those people under the jurisdiction 

 of the flag as aliens and hostile to the institutions 

 of our Government. We must have a free people, 

 governed according to their own volition and 

 choice, and not subjects ground beneath the heel 

 of despotism, even if it be the despotism of such 

 a free republic as the United States." 



He argued against tropical dependencies as 

 unfit for American settlement, and the natural 

 home of people not qualified for American insti- 

 tutions, and consequently to be held in subjec- 

 tion, if held at all. 



" I desire to draw attention to the difference 

 between extending nationality and extending em- 

 pire. You can extend your power, but if you 

 want to extend your nationality, extend your in- 

 stitutions, extend your liberty, you must do it 

 with people of your own kind. They are the ones 

 to be governed by your law. Every other exten- 

 sion is a weakness. Every extension of the sort 

 that is contemplated in this case is a crime. You 

 can not obliterate the nationality of 10,000,000 

 Malays. 



"There are 287,000,000 East Indians in the 

 peninsula of India. Great Britain has held that 

 country for two hundred and fifty years, and yet 

 there are there but six hundred and odd thousand 

 Englishmen all told. The same of Algeria; the 

 same of the British West Indies; the same of 

 Spanish America; the same of every country in 

 the equatorial belt unsusceptible of settlement by 

 white men. Wherever there has been a strong 

 nationality in the tropics adapted to the soil and 

 to the climate, no other nationality has ever been 

 able to exterminate or govern them except by 

 physical force. Our nationality can not extend 

 to this Pacific group of islands. Our power can 

 go there; our flag can float there; but the genius 

 of American liberty will remain upon our shores. 

 It can not be implanted there. The material is 

 not there for it to flourish and grow upon. 



"Is that the sort of 'expansion' we want? 

 Is that the sort of empire we are derided as old 

 fogies and little Americans for not desiring to 

 establish? Mr. President, we are told that duty 

 and destiny and some undefinable power are push- 

 ing us on to a splendid and magnificent future 

 that the fathers never dreamed of. '* This evil 

 thing we are called on to do can not be painted 

 in such bright, dazzling colors as to deceive the 

 American eye. It is nothing but a wanton stretch 

 of power. It is lust for power and greed for land, 

 veneered with the tawdriness of false humanity. 

 You can not hide its hideousness with the cloth- 

 ing of high-sounding phrases. You can not pros- 

 titute the flag made to float over freemen by 

 driving under its folds millions of slaves. 



" I want no despotism, sir. I do not want our 

 country to be poisoned at the core. I do not 

 want our people to be accustomed to the exercise 



