OUR NEW POSSESSIONS. 46/ very different. But the President whom we have charged with responsibility has seen fit to put it in the shape which has been unofficially disclosed in our newspapers. The negotiation of the treaty; I do not say that the treaty itself is an accomplished fact. That is now pending in the Senate. Perhaps it may be amended in some respects. For one, I am disposed to believe that it should be. But I think we shall find that it will soon be ratified, sub- stantially in its present shape. Let us, then, assume that we are to have the governing of Cuba for a considerable time, if not for- ever, and that we are to possess Puerto Rico and more or less of the Philippine archipelago, with the duty of furnishing a govern- ment to them. Third, the full annexation of Hawaii is an accom- plished fact; that, like the other islands, has come to us as a consequence of this war. Now observe, what is often forgotten, that we have actually turned a corner. We are no longer considering the expediency of entering upon a foreign colonial policy; we have already begun upon it. All the elements of the problem of governing dis- tant tropical dependencies are found in the case of Hawaii; and Hawaii was definitely made a territory on July 7th, 1898. All the rest of our possessions involve merely a question of more or less. And the questions that confront us are simply these: Having these islands on our hands, (i) What can we do with them? (2) What should we do with them? In other words, (i) What constitutional power have we in the matter; and (2) What is our true policy? I. In the first place, as to our constitutional power, that is a question of constitutional law. Let me at once and shortly say that, in my judgment, there is no lack of power in our nation, — of legal, constitutional power, to govern these islands as colonies, substantially as England might govern them ; that we have the same power that other nations have ; and that we may, subject to the agreements of the treaty, sell them, if we wish, or abandon them, or set up native governments in them, with or without a protectorate, or govern them ourselves. I take it for granted that we shall not sell them or abandon them ; that we shall hold them and govern them, or provide governments for them. In considering this matter of constitutional power, it is necessary, in view of what we are reading in the newspapers nowadays, to discriminate a little. Our papers and magazines and even the discourses of distinguished public men, are sometimes a little con- 61
