present existing between the American Union and the Insular regions,
is that of _de facto_ Justiciary Union, and the American Congress,
under the lead of President McKinley and President Roosevelt, has
acted, with reference to these regions, according to the principles of
the American system. The American Union, through President McKinley,
has declared itself to be "a liberating, not a conquering nation," and
has recognized the people of Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines as
each having a separate and local citizenship, thus recognizing each of
these regions as a _de facto_ free state connected with the American
Union. The action of the American Union extends to the regulation of
the action of individuals in these free States, so that a Greater
American Union of Free States exists _de facto_. To bring into
existence a Greater American Union _de jure_, it needs, first, the
public and express recognition by the American Union of itself as the
Justiciar State, and of each of the separate Insular regions within
proper territorial limits, as a Free State in just connection and
union with the American Union; and, secondly, the establishment by the
American Union of the necessary Advisory Council for investigating
facts and for advising the President before he, on behalf of the
American Union as Justiciar State, exercises his superior justiciary
powers, and for advising the Congress before it, in the same behalf,
exercises its supreme justiciary powers. Councils suitable for
advising the local Governors, when they, on behalf of the American
Union as Justiciar State, exercise their inferior justiciary powers,
already exist. Of such a Greater American Union, the present American
Union would be the Supreme Justiciary Head, with power to finally
determine the questions arising out of the relationship, not by edict
founded on will and force, but by decision carefully made in each case
after ascertaining the facts in each case and applying to them the
principles of the Law of Connections and Unions properly applicable to
them.
Is not this theory the true _via media_? The theory of the automatic
extension of the constitution of a state over its annexed insular,
transmarine and transterranean regions which from their local or other
circumstances can never equally participate in the institution and
operation of its government, in some cases protects individual rights,
but it takes no account of the right of free statehood, which is the
prime instrumentality for securing these rights. The theory of a power
over these regions not regulated by a supreme law, is a theory of
absolute power over both individuals and communities in these
regions,--a theory which implies an absence of all rights. The theory
of a power over these regions based on the principles of the Law of
Connections and Unions, granting that this law is itself based on the
right of human equality, protects the rights of persons, of
communities, of states and of nations. On this theory the "Territory
Clause" of the Constitution recognizes the Law of Connections and
Unions as determining the relationship between the American Union and
the Insular regions--"needful" rules and regulations being those which
are adapted to accomplish the end desired and which are consistent
with the principles of the Law of Connections and Unions as declared
in the Declaration of Independence. On this theory, the doctrine of
the Supreme Court that the civil rights of individuals in cases
growing out of our relations with our Insular brethren are protected
by "the fundamental principles formulated in the Constitution," or by
"the applicable provisions of the Constitution," is translated into
the doctrine that these individual and civil rights are protected by
the principles of the Law of Connections and Unions of Free States, as
these principles are formulated in the Constitution and as they are
disclosed by an examination of the applicable provisions of the
Constitution, and that not only are these civil rights protected by
this law, but also the political rights of all the parties to the
relationship. On this theory, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
continues to be exactly the same as at present. The necessary Advisory
Councils for ascertaining the just political relations between the
American Union and the Insular regions and for determining the
political rights growing out of that relationship, would not in the
least interfere with the Supreme Court in the exercise of its
functions. They would supplement that Court, which now protects the
civil rights of all concerned through its adjudications in civil
cases, by assisting the Congress and the President to protect and
preserve the political rights of all concerned through dispositions
and needful rules and regulations in political cases.
By adopting this theory of the Reformation and the American
Revolution, may not the American System extend indefinitely without
danger to America herself? There would be no domination, no
subjection. The same Law of Connections and Unions would extend over
and govern throughout the whole Greater American Union. This Greater
American Justiciary Union would be but a logical application of the
principles underlying the American Legislative, Executive, and
Judicial Union formed by the Constitution of the United States.
It would not be the Constitution which would follow the flag into the
regions which America has annexed to herself, but the Law of
Connections and Unions, which is a part of the Law of Nature and of
Nations according to the American System.
I recur, therefore, to my first proposition and submit to your
judgment whether the terms "colony," "dependence," and "empire," on
the one hand, and the terms "free state," "just connection," and
"union," on the other, are not the symbols of two great and
fundamentally opposed systems of politics--the one European, and the
other American; whether the American terms and the American System are
not capable of being applied universally and beneficently, in the way
pointed out above, throughout all places outside the present Union
which are within the limits of its justiciary power; and whether, if
they are capable of this application, it is not our duty, both
logically and ethically, to use the American terms in describing the
relations between us and our Insular brethren, applying at the same
time the principles of the American System, and thus calling into
existence a Greater American Union.
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