[ Previous Page ] -- [ View PDF ] -- [ View in MS Word ] -- [ Next Page ]

3752
the flag and not under the Constitution.   Mr. Chairman, we acquired 
our first possessions without having to ran the gantlet of the 
constitutional lawyers, which every annexation has had to 
encounter. I am always pleased to hear the speeches of the 
distinguished gentleman from Missouri [Mr. DE ARMOND] on account 
of his learning.   I remember not long ago he took occasion to contrast 
the Constitution with the flag, claiming that the Constitution was the 
residuum of the Revolutionary war, that it was the guide and charter 
of the American people.   I would remind him that the flag was the 
inspiration of the Revolutionary war.   It expresses the patriotism of 
our people and the spirit of self-government. I have as great respect 
for the Constitution as any man upon this floor.   I would nut speak 
disparagingly of that instrument, but I would also remind the 
gentleman that wherever there has been a conflict between the 
teaching of the Constitution and the teaching of the flag the 
Constitution has been in error and the flag has been correct. I 
remember when I was a boy the Constitution taught me that the 
black man was property.   The flag taught me that he was a man.   
The teaching of the flag prevailed and the Constitution was amended.   
The flag has never been amended, but the Constitution has been 
amended fifteen times to conform to the growth and development of the 
country and new conditions that have arisen, and to keep it in 
harmony with the teaching of the flag.   You had as well think of 
amending the heavens that declare the glory of God or the firmament 
that showeth His handiwork, which day unto day uttereth speech and 
night unto night showeth knowledge, as to think of amending the 
American flag. Mr. Chairman, I have no doubt that our fathers 
thought when they obtained this grant from England that they had 
all the territory they would ever need, for they made no express 
provisions in the Constitution by which we might acquire more.   I 
have no doubt they had the idea then that they were forming a 
government within and for themselves and their posterity.   But 
within twenty years from that date the great Louisiana purchase 
was made by Thomas Jefferson.   He was censured and condemned 
for his reckless disregard of the Constitution and extravagant 
expenditure of the people's money - $15,000,000 - for the purchase of 
territory for which the country had no use. How is it to-day? That 
territory is worth $3,000,000,000.   Why, its intelligent, cultured, and 
prosperous citizens propose to expend $15,000,000 in 1903 to 
celebrate the Louisiana purchase. There is not money enough in this 
country, gold, silver, and paper, to buy the Louisiana purchase.   
Mr. Jefferson admitted that he stretched the Constitution until it 
cracked in order to make that purchase.   He asked that the act 
ratifying the purchase be made in silence and without debate; and, in 
point of fact, there was more silence and secrecy about the passage 
of that act than there was about the act of 1873, by which some of 
our people think we lost our silver money.   Here was the 
beginning of the American policy which was broader than the 
Constitution. From that day to this the American policy has been 
broader than the Constitution.   We have had seven great 
annexations of territory, by which we have increased our 
possessions to nearly 4,000,000 square miles of territory.   Every 
great question that agitated the people of this country in the 
nineteenth century grew out of annexation.   The public-land 
question, the tariff question, and the slavery question all grew out of 
annexation.  If there had been no public domain added, there would 
have been no public-land question to be fought over between Henry 
Clay and Andrew Jackson.   By reason of these annexations, farming 
lands became very cheap and farming very profitable.   The statesmen 
saw that in order to encourage our people to manufacture their own 
goods, wares, and merchandise they must make manufacturing as 
profitable as farming, so they inaugurated a tariff system that has built 
up this country; and from that day we have had the tariff agitation 
until recent times.   It commenced between Henry Clay, of 
Kentucky, and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. I can not fix the 
day of the death of  "tariff for revenue only," but I can come within 
four years of it.   I believe that it appeared for the last time in the 
national Democratic platform of 1892.   It failed to appear in the 
national Democratic platform of 1896. Somewhere between these 
two dates it winked out.   Both the country and the Democratic 
party had an experience about that time that neither will soon forget.   
The slavery question likewise grew out of annexation, because the 
doctrine of slavery was firmly planted in the Constitution.   It 
required a contempt of law and a revolution to free the original 
thirteen colonies from slavery.   Whenever a new State was made 
the question arose as to whether it should be free or whether it 
should be slave.   This controversy culminated in the irrepressible 
conflict that the eminent statesmanship of Henry Clay deferred for a 
third of a century, but could not prevent. Mr. Chairman, the country 
we have acquired is the richest and most fertile and its people are the 
most cultured, intelligent, and happy of any race of people on the 
earth.   Our country is, indeed,

a chosen land.   When you consider it from an agricultural standpoint, 
we could feed, clothe, and shelter twenty times our present 
population by agricultural pursuits alone.    If you consider it from 
a manufacturing aspect, with our great producing capacity, that has 
been built up by our protective system and with the constantly 
increasing foreign demand for our manufactured articles, we could 
dispense with farming and support our population by manufacturing 
alone. When you come to consider the wealth that is imbedded in the 
earth - our gold, silver, and copper mines, our coal fields, our oil, 
gases, and other minerals, our granite and marble of every hue and 
shade of color - this wealth is like the stars of heaven; it declares the 
glory of God.   We are also a chosen people.   In 1702 it was 
estimated that 85 per cent of our people were of the Anglo-Saxon 
race.   It was very fortunate that we fell under the Anglo-Saxon 
civilization in the beginning, and it is exceedingly fortunate for us 
that every annexation made displaced Latin civilization, which has 
been succeeded by our Americanized Anglo-Saxon civilization. We 
also have a chosen Government.   It is conceded that the American 
Republic has been the most successful experiment of self-
government the world has ever known.   Now, with our brilliant 
history behind us and the enlightening power of our schools and 
churches, with our books and newspapers as numerous as the leaves 
of the forest, shall we not, in the faith of Caleb and Joshua, "go up and 
possess the land" that has come to us by the fortunes of war and by 
the act of purchase, not to deprive the inhabitants that come with 
these islands of their rights or possessions, but by our superior 
civilization teach them the arts of industry and inspire them to the 
pursuits of peace, cultivating among them the knowledge of a more 
enlightened civil liberty, and, if possible, secure to them and their 
posterity the blessings of that method of self-government that came 
to us as a heritage from our fathers. Mr. Chairman, if by the pursuit of 
this beneficent policy we find a market for the surplus products of our 
farms and factories, who shall impugn, or have the right to impugn, 
our motive, question our patriotism, or criticise our policy?   
Certainly not they of our own household.   I have been much pleased 
with what I have seen in this House with regard to our action in 
providing the pending bill.   The Hawaiian Islands were converted 
to Christianity by American missionaries early in the twenties.   In 
1825 they incorporated into their code of laws the Ten 
Commandments.   In 1829 they were recognized by the United 
States as a treaty-making power.   In 1844 they were recognized by 
us as an independent government. In 1900 they are knocking at our 
doors for admission and asking us to enact for them a constitution 
and code of laws.   In doing so the Committee on Territories 
undertook as much as possible to make them conform to American 
ideas and American customs. I was pleased to see that the committee 
unanimously voted against a property qualification for the right of 
suffrage.   I was pleased to know that we unanimously agreed to 
give them a fair election law and leave them as much as possible to 
control their own local affairs.   I have been pleased at the spirit that 
has been shown here in regard to Puerto Rico on both sides of this 
House, notwithstanding we differ very widely as to what is the best 
method of relieving their distress. But, Mr. Chairman, while we are 
providing for the islands of the sea, extending our civilization, 
holding up American national life before the world, are we going to 
allow the torchlight of liberty to be extinguished at the birthplace of 
Abraham Lincoln and the home of Henry Clay? It is in no spirit of 
partisan acrimony that I refer to the situation in Kentucky.   So far 
as the election law  is concerned, we would be glad to exchange 
places with either the Hawaiian Islands or Puerto Rico.   If yon 
would rid us of the Goebel election law, you might put a tariff for 
two years on our products and tax to the full extent, if you please, of 
the Dingley law.   We have two great trusts in Kentucky that would 
bear the burden of taxation; and if they were both taxed to death, the 
youth of the land would be safer and the country all the better off.   
Our Democratic friends get the benefit of both of them - the 
whisky trust and the tobacco trust.   [Laughter.] 

Mr. TALBERT.   Democrats do not drink.   [Laughter.]

Return to Top