Speech #560029079

It exists in absolute unity as a nation. with full and undisputed natural resources. In that national character we treated for peace with Spain. In that national character we accepted the sovereignty of her recent Asiatic possessions. and. doing so. assumed the duty of controlling their future. It is a poor compliment to the National Constitution to insist that in the administration of this great trust and in the performance of this solemn and responsible duty the organic law denies to Congress the right to consider the racial.. mental. and moral peculiarities of the inhabitants of those countries. or their capacity for selfgovernment. or their geographical situation and environment. and imperatively imposes the duty of legislating for them as we might and would legislate if they were descended from the selfgoverning races of Europe and inhabited contiguous American territory. I can not give my adhesion to such a rule of constitutional construction. 1 can not seriously contemplate the possibility of the Supreme Court adopting and enforcing such a rule. Since we have broken the bonds of continental isolation. all the departments of Government must recognize that. while preserving our American system. our influence henceforth is to have its due weight in directing the progress of those Asiatic countries whose commerce is to be transported over the waters of the Pacific. When the authority of tho United States to control. as our national interests may require. our relations with the Philippines. or to determine whether those comtries are to be incorporated into our Union or their inhabitants endowed with the rights of American citizenship. shall be called in question in the Supreme Court. I rely. with confidence. on a decision sustaining their authority to decide these questions. each and all. at their unrestrained discretion. so far as constitutional limitations or restrictions are concerned.