ger, it rose to the noblest powers of which man is capable. The bill of rights which it promulgates is of rights that are older than human institutions, and spring from the eternal justice that is anterior to the state.

SENATOR: How long is the Republic to last?

PRESIDENT: So long as the ideas of its founders continue dominant.

SENATOR: You now disown, disclaim, and discard for party the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together—that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world! PRESIDENT: Yes. Yes. I tremble for my country, for I

know that God is just.

SENATOR: Commercial Aggression, Imperialism, Colonial Expansion are of more public importance than polite literature or political opinions.

PRESIDENT: That is a sophism worthy the arch-fiend himself. It forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Independence. It feeds the wild, terroristic, clamorous brood of Imperial Harpies.

SENATOR: As to that hallowed document that declares that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, if that is to be literally construed,

THERE NEVER WAS A GREATER FALSEHOOD PALMED OFF BY THE DEVIL UPON A CREDULOUS WORLD. It is not true of the Government of God.

PRESIDENT: In Dred Scott vs. Sandford it was decided there is certainly no power given by the Constitution to the federal Government to establish or maintain colonies bordering on the United States or at a distance, to be ruled and governed at its own pleasure, nor to enlarge its ter

ritorial limits in any way except by the admission of new States. That power is plainly given; and if a new State is admitted it needs no further legislation by Congress, because the Constitution itself defines the relative rights and powers and duties of the State and the citizens of the State and the federal Government. But no power is given to acquire a territory to be held and governed permanently in that character.

And, indeed, the power exercised by Congress to acquire territory and establish a government there, according to its own unlimited discretion, was viewed with great jealousy by the leading statesmen of the day. And in the Federalist (No. 38), written by Mr. Madison, he speaks of the acquisition of the Northwestern Territory by the Confederated States, by the cession from Virginia, and the establishment of a government there, as an exercise of power not warranted by the articles of confederation and dangerous to the liberties of the people. And he urges the adoption of the Constitution as a security and safeguard against such an exercise of power.

We do not mean, however, to question the power of Congress in this respect. The power to expand the territory of the United States by the admission of new States is plainly given, and in the construction of this power by all the departments of the Government it has been held to authorize the acquisition of territory not fit for admission. at the time, but to be admitted as soon as its population and situation would entitle it to admission. It is acquired to become a State, and not to be held as a colony and governed by Congress with absolute authority; and as the propriety of admitting a new State is committed to the sound judgment of Congress, the power to acquire territory for that purpose, to be held by the United States until it is in a suitable condition to become a State upon an equal

footing with the other States, must rest upon the same discretion.

In organizing the government of a Territory, Congress is limited to means appropriate to the attainment of the constitutional object. No powers can be exercised which are prohibited by the Constitution or which are contrary to its spirit, so that, whether the object may be the protection of the property and persons of purchasers of public lands or of communities which have been annexed to the Union by conquest or purchase, they are initiatory to the establishment of State governments, and no more power can be claimed or exercised than is necessary to the attainment of that end. This is the limitation of all the federal powers.

SENATOR: The Act of 1787 for the government of the Northwestern Territory, now occupied by the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota, was recognized in the legislation of the first Congress under the Constitution-that of 1789-for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions, are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said Territory; to provide, also, for the establishment of States and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States.

The ordinance distinctly mentions the establishment of States and permanent government, showing conclusively that in the minds of the Fathers the power of the federal Government to hold and rule this Territory was only temporary.

On April 30, 1803, the United States Government completed the purchase of Louisiana from France. The ter

ritory thus acquired embraced the area now occupied by the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, all but the southwest corner of Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, Nebraska, Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Arkansas River, the two Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, most of Wyoming, and the present Indian Territory. The treaty with France by which this cession was provided contains a manifestation of the same principle:

The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess.

At the time of the making of this treaty Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States and James Madison was Secretary of State. Moreover, the treaty was signed by James Monroe and by Robert Livingston, and was ratified while many of the framers of the Constitution were still at the helm of the ship of state. The whole furnishes a clear and lucid commentary upon the understanding of these men as to the principle of the government of new territory.

PRESIDENT: What was the language of George III. to the Colonies? "I am desirous of restoring to them the blessings of law and liberty, equally enjoyed by every British subject, which they have fatally and desperately exchanged for the calamities of war and the arbitrary tyranny of their chiefs.”

SENATOR: Who were the chiefs?

PRESIDENT: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the other leaders of the revolutionists. It was Fox who said: "But, sir, how is this blessed system of liberty to be established? By the bayonets of disciplined Hessians?” Did you read Goschen's speech?

SENATOR: Yes. I have been thinking in that connection that our pension machine must run on, naturally at diminishing expense, until 1945, when it is calculated that the last survivor of the War of the Rebellion will die. Although the expenditure of $2,600,000,000 looks stupendous, it was estimated a short time ago that it would be more than doubled before the nation has fulfilled all the promises it made to the soldiers of the Union and has gratified all the expectations of the army of pension claim agents that has fattened upon the fees it has been able to

earn.

PRESIDENT: Goschen asked the House of Commons to appropriate $132,770,000 for the British navy, saying that so startling an estimate had not originally been contemplated, but that it had been framed after a careful study of the programmes of the other powers; that the United States, Russia, France, Japan, Italy, and Germany had under construction 685,000 tons of warships, and that England was compelled to shape her action accordingly. The Spanish war has mortgaged American industry with almost $500,000,000. That would have bought all the islands of the earth three times over. (PRESIDENT reads:)

These figures of the expenditures of the American army and navy since the beginning of the war with Spain, and including the war in the Philippines, are taken from a tabulated statement prepared by expert accountants in the Treasury Department;