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                             2025
That thing was undertaken a little while ago practically and substantially 
in one of our own Territories, the Territory of Arizona.
Mr. WOLCOTT. Did the governor of Arizona have power to remove at will?
Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. He thought he had. He raised the question. I 
do not know how it came out. But there was a controversy there, a serious 
controversy, growing out of his at-tempt to remove immediately after the 
adjournment of the legislature.
By this means a governor, acting within his authority, could substantially evade 
the provision requiring these appointments to be approved by the senate.
Performances of like character under the monarchy are too fresh in the minds 
of the Hawaiian community to permit them to contemplate without dismay the 
possibility of a repetition thereof.
The governor, under the provisions of the act recommended by the com-mission , 
will have less check to his administration of affairs than was the case with the 
sovereigns under the monarchy, excepting only in the matter of tenure of office. 
Moreover, the features of the existing Hawaiian civil system, which compel a certain 
amount of publicity in all administrative acts, are swept away, and the governor 
may act in absolute secrecy, or, if he shall be so inclined, with the advice and under 
the influence of any persons he may choose to admit to his deliberations.
This feature of the proposed executive status, it will be seen, might expose the 
governor to influences hostile to the public good, and possibly to great and constantly 
recurring temptations to subordinate public to private interests.
The provision of the Hawaiian system which compels the president to consult his 
constitutional advisers lessens this danger.
Besides, this beneficial result of the existing system is the safeguard that it 
guarantees to the administration of public affairs through the diminished liability 
of the best of men to make mistakes when assisted by the judgment of others.
So President Dole himself, with all his desire to perpetuate American 
government in those islands, thought this bill went very much too far.
Now, my amendment does not correct the bill in many of the respects of 
which he spoke, but I do insist that as to the judges who are to have final 
jurisdiction in those islands and from whose decisions there is to be no appeal, 
either to the Supreme Court of the United States or to the circuit court of 
appeals in the United States, should not be put beyond the power of the 
President of the United States to appoint or remove. Their terms ought to be 
like the terms of all other judges in all our Territories-for four years. That is 
a wise provision, and, as I said, it is wiser in my judgment for Hawaii than it 
has been for the other Territories which we have heretofore created.
Mr. CLARK of Wyoming. I simply wish to ask the Senator from 
Connecticut if it would not be well to add to his amendment by striking out the 
last four lines of the section which present difficulties of construction?
Mr. PLATT of Connecticut. I intended to do that. The last three lines.
Mr. CLARK of Wyoming.   Yes; the last three lines.
Mr. PLATT of Connecticut.   Lines 13, 14, and 15, on page 37.
Mr. TELLER.   I should like to have the amendment stated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER.   The amendment will be stated.
The SECRETARY. In section 81, page 35, line 22, after the word "the," it is 
proposed to strikeout the word "governor" and insert the word" President:" 
after the word" senate," in line 23, to strike out "of the Territory of Hawaii;" 
after the word "courts," in line 25, to insert a semicolon and insert "and the 
governor shall nominate and, by the advice and consent of the senate of the 
Territory of Hawaii, appoint;" in line 11, page 36. after the word "may," to 
insert "by and with the advice and consent of the senate of the Territory of 
Hawaii;" in line 16, on the same page, after the word "remove," to strike out 
all down to and including the word "and," in line 20; and to strike out, on page 
37, the three lines beginning with the thirteenth, as follows:
Except the chief justice and associate justices of the supreme court and the 
judges of the circuit courts, who shall continue in office until their respective 
offices become vacant.
Mr. MORGAN.   What is the amendment on page 36?
The SECRETARY. In line 11, page 36, after the word " may," it is proposed to 
insert "by and with the advice and consent of the senate of the Territory of 
Hawaii," and, on the same page, line 16, after the word "removed," to strikeout 
"except the chief justice and justices of the supreme court, who shall hold their 
offices during good behavior, and the judges of the circuit courts, whose terms 
of office shall be six years, and."
Mr. TELLER. I want to say to the Senator from Illinois that those of us who 
sit in the rear can not understand what the amendments are. Will the Senator 
tell us about this one?
Mr. CULLOM. As I understand the amendment and the explanation of his 
purpose by the Senator from Connecticut him-self, the substance of what he is 
trying to accomplish is to secure the appointment of the supreme and circuit 
judges by the President of the United States.
Mr. PLATT of Connecticut.   And a term of office of four years.
Mr. CULLOM. And a term of office of four years. I refer to the Territorial 
judges, not the United States judge whom we are undertaking to create.


I do not know that it is a matter of very great consequence whether those 
judges are appointed by the governor or by the President of the United States; 
but as we are dealing with a settled community, a state, a government, full of 
people, so far as it has gone-not a great number there yet-but there has been a 
government established for a great many years; they have their sys-tem of courts, 
they have their system of law, they have their construction of statutes by their 
supreme court and circuit courts, and they are familiar with them, and they felt 
entirely satisfied with the system they have, and it seemed to the commission 
and afterwards to the committee that the less we interfered with them the better it 
was for the people there as well as for the United States generally.
Now, we have had a good deal of talk here from time to time about what is 
to be done with these islands we have acquired either by cession, by 
annexation, regularly, or irregularly, as some thought at the time, it not being 
by treaty but by act of Congress, and others as the result of the war in which 
we have been engaged; and everybody in the Senate and other places, 
apparently, seemed to be alarmed for fear that we would take them in and 
make them a part of the United States, and put our laws over them, and all that 
sort of thing. We, as a commission, in the first place felt and believed that we 
were coming nearer to Recognizing the ideas of the people of the United States in 
letting that government alone so far as we could at all consistently with the laws 
of the United States and the Constitution of the United States, and not 
interfering with anything there that it did not seem absolutely necessary to 
interfere with.
So we found the supreme court there doing business with just as much 
dignity, with just as much sense of honor and of duty, and apparently with just 
as much intelligence as the supreme court of the State of Illinois or of 
Connecticut, or of any other State. There was nothing in the establishment there 
in any way that the commission could see would justify us in uprooting the 
supreme court or the circuit courts of the islands and requiring the Government 
of the United States to meddle with them. So it was the conclusion of the 
commission and of the committee that as far as that was concerned we ought to 
leave that alone at present.
The Senator from Connecticut seems to. go upon the idea that we are making 
a constitution for those people that can never be repealed. If we find that this 
plan does not work right, if we find that the judges of those courts are not doing 
their duty, or the governor does not do his, we can modify this law next year, 
or any other time in the future. Our whole purpose, so far as the Government of 
the United States is concerned, it seems to me, should be to give the people of 
those islands a start under some sort of law made by the United States, an 
organic act, and let them continue in the regular line of duty as they have been 
going on heretofore.
But while everybody has seemed to want us to let them alone, when we come 
to try to let them alone everybody seems to object to it. That seems to be the 
situation here, and there is no reason, in my judgment, in anything existing or in 
any fear that may be anticipated why we should overturn that court now and say 
to the President of the United States, "You appoint all these judges," lest they do 
something wrong, between now and next year or five years from now that ought 
not to be allowed to be done.
Mr. TELLER.   May I ask the Senator from Illinois a question?
Mr. CULLOM.   Certainly.
Mr. TELLER. Is not that exactly what you do? You overturn the court when 
yon authorize the governor to appoint.
Mr. CULLOM. No; we do not in the full sense, because the purpose of the 
bill is not to turn these men out until their terms expire.
Mr. TELLER. Yon assume that the governor will reappoint the present 
judges?
Mr. CULLOM. There will be only two to be appointed, so far as the supreme 
court is concerned, because the chief justice has resigned since this bill has been 
reported to the Senate.
Mr. TELLER. Does the bill legislate the present judges in office?
Mr. CULLOM. It lets them stay there. That is all. It does not legislate them 
out.
It seems to me, Mr. President, that apparently the fear is over-ruling, 
especially in the mind of my friend the Senator from Connecticut, that something 
is going to be done over there, within a month perhaps after this proposed law shall 
be passed, that will be thoroughly in conflict with the laws and Constitution of 
the United States, if we allow the governor to appoint. Let mo say to the Senator 
that the governor can lie removed by the President if he does anything wrong. If 
he fails to do his duty the President can call him down or nominate and appoint 
somebody else. It seems to me there is no great need or occasion for alarm if the 
plan shall stand substantially as the commission and the commit-tee report it. I 
think myself that the provision is a little mixed as to a strict construction of 
what it means. I am willing that

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