Congressional Record-House. February 27
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I 2330 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. FEBRUARY 27, Sidney W. Brewster, of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I do not intend to go into any elaborate discus· Paul E. Chamberlin, of Virginia. sion of the constitutional questions involved in this bill. I wish Douglas C. McDougal, of California. to address myself briefly to some of the adcaptandum arguments Albert N. Brn.nzell, of Idaho. and appeals made by the gentlemen on the other side of the Cham Presley M. Rixey, of Virginia. ber to seduce the consciences of members from what the President T. Edward Backstrom, of Mississippi. calls their "plain duty" and from what the Constitution makes Assistant paymaster in the NamJ. their sworn duty. We have had a tremendous rattling of the dry bones of slavery Ray Spear, a citizen of Washington, to be an assistant pay and secession, and the bloody shirt has been waived with some master in the Navy, from the 19th day of February, 1900. thing of the old time vigor in order to get members upon the Colonel in the Mm·ine Corps. other side in the proper condition of mental imbecility for tram Lieut. Col. William S. Muse, to be a colonel in the United pling upon the Constitution and violating the oath they have taken States Marine Corps, from the 31st day of January, 1900. to support and defend it The distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GROSVE.NOR] cracked the party whip over the heads of his associates and invoked the old spirit of sectional passion to aid HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. him in his assault upon the Constitution. His speech was as rank an appeal to prejudice and to ignorance TUESDAY, February 27, 1900. as was ever made upon the floor of this House, and I am sorry that the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GROSVENOR] is not here, for The House met at 11 o'clock a. m. Prayer by the Chaplain, I had intended to say that in making it he displayed an ignorance Rev. HENRY N. COUDEN, D. D. of the record and history of his own party almost as dense as the The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read and ap ignorance to which he appealed. [Laughter and applause on the proved. Democratic side.] TRADE OF PUERTO RICO. The gentleman's speech as it appears in the RECORD is headed Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House now resolve ''The real issue. The battle of 1860 again on." itself into Committee of the Whole House on the state of the By a very incomplete and very unfair quotation from the plat Union for the further consideration of the bill H. R. 8245. form of 1860 the gentleman from Ohio seeks to make it appear The motion was agreed to. that the Republican party in that campaign planted itself squarely Accordingly the House resolved itself into Committee of the upon the doctrine that the Constitution did not extend to the Whole House on the state of the Union, with Mr. HULL in the Territories, and that this was the issue in that campaign, just as it chair, for the further consideration of the bill H. R. 8245. is the issue in this debate. The CHAIRMAN. The House is now in Committee of the Now, Mr. Chairman, with the platforms of the Republican Whole House on the state of the Union for the further considera party before me, I say that there was no such issue in that cam tion of the bill H. R. 8245. paign. Mr. CARMACK. Mr. Chairman, the head of the President's I say that the Republican platform in 1860 was directly to the Philippine Commission, Mr. Schurman, in a lecture delivered contrary of the position taken by the majority of the Ways and some weeks ago, frankly admitted that the new policy upon which Means Committee, and was exactly in accord with those who op we am about to enter involves a serious shock to all our national pose the passage of this bill. I say the same thing is true of the traditions ·and habits of thought, and even to the venerable Con platform of 1856, and I wish to call the attention of gentlemen stitution itself. This bill, Mr. Chairman, is the first shock which first to this platform of 1856, the first platform ever adopted by the authors of this new policy have prepared for the Constitution. the Republican party. This platform declares that while the Con It is difficult to escape the conclusion that it was prepared stitution- trusting to the complaisance of the Supreme Court and its readi contains ample provision for the protection of life, liberty, and property of ness to overturn, as it did in the income-tax decision, the law and every citizen, that the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas the precedents of a hundred years. The gentleman from Penn have been fraudulently and violently taken from them. sylvania [Mr. DALZELL] frankly admits that if the Constitution And among the constitutional rights which belong to them and is to cover all our new possessions, as it has covered all of the ter which were alleged to have been taken away were the right of ritory we have acquired in the past, then the new policy is a stu trial by jury, the right to bear arms, the right to be exempt from pendous mistake. unreasonable searches and seizures, and that no man shall be de The President of the United States, speaking with reference to prived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. the Philippine Islands, declared that- These were among the" constitutional" rights which belonged Onr priceless principles undergo no change beneath a tropical snn. to the people in the Territory of Kansas, according to the state The theory of the gentleman from Pennsylvania and of his asso ment of the Republican platform of 1856. It may be said, Mr. ciates is that we must either abandon our " priceless principles " Chairman, that this was true because an act of Congress had ex or abandon our new possessions, and that is the issue which is tended the Constitution over them; but the very wording of the now presented to this House. We can not fail to regard this bill, platform shows that the men who made it believed that they de Mr. Chairman, in the light of the frank forewarning given us by rived their rights direct from the Constitution and without any the late head of the Philippine Commission, that this new policy aid from Congress whatever. premeditates a deliberate assault on the Constitution and a revo But whatever may be said of the platform of 1856, I say that the lution in the character and principles of our Government. platform of 1860, the very platform quoted by the gentleman from The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the distin Ohio (Mr. GROSVENORJ, declares in unmistakable terms that the guished gentleman from New York [Mr. PAYNE], wants this bill Constitution of the Umted States does extend to the Territorie3 of as a precedent because he is alarmed at the prospect of free trade the United States, and that it extends there of its own force, with with the pauper labor of the Philippine Islands. out any legislation from Congress whatever. The gentleman from Why, Mr. Chairman, we have been dazzled by the accounts of Ohio read that part of the platform which denounces the new the great addition to be made to our trade and commerce by reason dogma-that the Constitution of its own force carries slavery into of our new possessions; and yet here at the very threshold gen the Territories, and he construes that as a denial that the Consti tlemen on the other side start back affrighted and appalled lest tution itself was there. the very trade to which they have looked with such covetous Now, Mr. Chairman, this declaration means what it says and eyes shall bring destruction to American labor and American no more. It does not deny that the Constitution extends to the industry. Territories. It simply denies that it carries slavery there. The We have been told that our possessions would open splendid gentleman argues that if the Constitution had extended to the opportunities for American capital and Ame1ican enterprise; but Territories it would have carried slave1·y there, because of the pro let me ask, Mr. Chairman, how shall we encourage American vision that no man shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property capital or American enterprise to seek employment in Puerto Rico without due process of law; and slaves, says the gentleman from or the Philippine Islands if we deny them access to the markets of Ohio, were property. under the Constitution. the United States? Now, Mr. Chairman, this very platform from which the gen This, then, is your dilemma. If you adopt a policy which will tleman read denies and denounces the doctrine that slaves were encourage American capital to develop the resources of Puerto property under the Constitution, and in taking that position, in · Rico and the Philippines, you bring them into dangerous compe saying that slaves were property in the senRe of the Constitution, tition with American industry. If yon adopt a policy that will the gentleman from Ohio expressly repudiates .the Republican shut off this competition, then you make it impossible for Ameri platform of 1860, and he plants himself squarely upon the Dred can capital to find profitable employment there. What, then, is Scott decision, which he and others have denounced with such ig left, Mr.