CONGRESS. (THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.) 



161 



disapproval, and delay may prevent such disap- 

 proval, although a majority of each house may 

 so desire. 



" In this cursory review of the general powers 

 of the commission it follows, it seems to me, 

 without possibility of controversy, that the com- 

 mission, under the direction of the President, 

 may declare war and make peace. The President 

 and such person or persons as he may designate 

 and under his direction possess all civil, judicial, 

 and military power necessary to govern the is- 

 lands. That covers and includes every conceiv- 

 able power. They may declare war and make 

 peace, because the Constitution does not restrict 

 them. That reservation to Congress is of no 

 potency when we step beyond the shores of the 

 continental republic. That is the theory of the 

 friends and supporters of this bill. 



" The same oligarchy can raise armies and pro- 

 vide navies. It can regulate commerce among the 

 islands and with foreign countries, with any sort 

 of discrimination as to islands and ports. It 

 may lay taxes to the extent of the destruction of 

 the subjects of taxation, without justice and 

 without uniformity, because there is no such 

 limit circumscribing its authority. It may coin 

 money and regulate the value thereof, and it has 

 already set up a bureau relating to coinage and 

 currency as well as banking. It may pass ex-post 

 facto laws and bills of attainder, working cor- 

 ruption of the blood to the remotest generation, 

 with incidental confiscation and things evil to 

 the victim of such legislation. It may take the 

 property of one man and give it to another, and 

 that express authority is given in the pending 

 bill. It can destroy freedom of speech and of 

 the press; make the thought as well as the word 

 and the thought and word as well as the act 

 punishable capitally. 



" Mr. President, I might go on and enumerate 

 the various things that may be done under the 

 authority which we have conferred and which 

 will be conferred under this bill, but these are 

 sufficient to illustrate it. 



" Now, I invite attention specifically to the 

 judiciary, because, as against encroachments of 

 power and acts of tyranny, an independent judi- 

 ciary in every country has usually been the main, 

 the best safeguard. The second section pro- 

 vides : 



"'SEC. 2. That the supreme court, courts of first 

 instance, and municipal courts of said islands 

 shall possess and exercise jurisdiction as here- 

 tofore provided by said commission, subject in 

 all matters to such alteration and amendment as 

 may be hereafter enacted by the commission or 

 otherwise enacted by law; and the chief justice 

 and associate justices of the supreme court shall 

 hereafter be appointed by the President, by and 

 with the advice and consent of the Senate. The 

 judges of the court of first instance shall be 

 appointed by the civil governor, by and with the 

 advice and consent of the Philippine Commis- 

 sion. Provided, That the admiralty jurisdic- 

 tion of the supreme court and courts of first 

 instance shall not be changed except by act of 

 Congress.' 



" The judges of the supreme court are to be 

 appointed with the concurrence of the Senate. 

 They are, however, to have only such jurisdic- 

 tion as may have been conferred upon them by 

 the Philippine Commission, and that may bo 

 regulated, altered, and amended in any way in 

 which the commission may hereafter enact. 

 While these judges are not dependent upon the 

 commission for the tenure of their office, they 

 ;if for the amount and payment of their sal- 

 VOL. XLII. 11 A 



aries, and they are wholly dependent upon the 

 commission as to the extent of the jurisdiction 

 which they may exercise. 



" It will be noted that there is no appeal pro- 

 vided in any case in this statute from the deci- 

 sions of the judges of first instance to the su- 

 preme court herein referred to. When we look 

 to the judges of the courts of first instance, we 

 find that they are to be appointed by the civil 

 governor, by and with the advice and consent of 

 the Philippine Commission. The same commis- 

 sion fixes the compensation of the judges and 

 their terms of office. The extent of their juris- 

 diction is to be defined by laws which the com- 

 mission is expressly authorized to enact. It is 

 competent for the commission to make final every 

 decision of these judges, dependent in every way 

 upon the commission, allowing no appeal from 

 their decision to the supreme court which is pro- 

 vided for in this act. Thus we see how abso- 

 lutely dependent both these courts are upon the 

 United States Philippine Commission. 



" We turn to the provision relating to appeals. 

 There is no provision regulating appeals from the 

 courts of first instance to the supreme court, but 

 section 67 relates to appeals to the Supreme 

 Court of the United States, and is as follows: 



" SEC. 67. That the Supreme Court of the 

 United States shall have jurisdiction to review, 

 revise, reverse, modify, or affirm the final judg- 

 ments and decrees of the supreme court of the 

 Philippine Islands in all actions, cases, causes, 

 and proceedings now pending therein or here- 

 after determined thereby in which the Constitu- 

 tion or any statute, treaty, title, right, privilege, 

 or obligation of the United States is involved, 

 or in causes in which the value in controversy 

 exceeds $5,000, or in which the title or possession 

 of real estate exceeding in value the sum of 

 $5,000, to be ascertained by the oath of either 

 party or of other competent witnesses, is in- 

 volved or brought in question; and such final 

 judgments or decrees may and can be reviewed, 

 revised, reversed, modified, or affirmed by said 

 Supreme Court of the United States on appeal 

 or writ of error by the party aggrieved, in the 

 same manner, under the same regulations, and 

 by the same procedure, as far as applicable, as 

 the final judgments and decrees of the circuit 

 courts of the United States. 



" Mr. President, it will be noted that there 

 is no jurisdiction given the Supreme Court of 

 the United States except such as the Philippine 

 Commission may see fit to allow to be exercised. 

 Having absolute control of the jurisdiction of 

 the supreme court of the islands, that commis- 

 sion can cut off any case from reaching the 

 Supreme Court of the United States which they 

 do not wish to have come before that tribunal 

 for determination. So we have the courts con- 

 structed upon such a plan as to be subject abso- 

 lutely to the control of the United States Phil- 

 ippine Commission; and those courts are, there- 

 fore, no safeguard against the exercise of any 

 power which that commission may undertake to 

 employ, and the victim of its oppression, if it 

 shall practise oppression, can have no remedy 

 except such remedy as the commission may see 

 fit to provide. 



" If it is desired by the commission to appro- 

 priate lands to subserve purposes which they 

 may wish to subserve, and to employ the judi- 

 ciary to that end, they have a subservient tool 

 to carry out that wish. If they want to deprive 

 of liberty any man who becomes obnoxious to 

 them or dares to assert a policy which may be 

 antagonistic to that which they desire, they have 



