Chapter 5

"The political system of the Allied Powers is essentially different ... from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments, and to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those Powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety....

"It is impossible that the Allied Powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness."

President Monroe Annual Message of December 2, 1823

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM DECLARED TO HAVE EXTENDED ITSELF TO THE WHOLE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, BY PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

"Among the inquiries which were thought entitled to consideration before the determination was taken to accept the invitation [to the proposed Congress of the American Republics at Panama], was that whether the measure might not have a tendency to change the policy, hitherto invariably pursued by the United States, of avoiding all entangling alliances and all unnecessary political connections.

"Mindful of the advice given by the Father of our Country in his Farewell Address, that the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible, and faithfully adhering to the spirit of that admonition, I can not overlook the reflection that the counsel of Washington in that instance, like all counsels of wisdom, was founded upon the circumstances in which our country and the world around us were situated at the time when it was given that the reasons assigned by him for his advice were that Europe had a set of primary interests which to us had none or a very remote relation, that hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which were essentially foreign to our concerns, that our detached and distant situation invited and enabled us to pursue a different course, that by our union and rapid growth, with an efficient Government, the period was not far distant when we might defy material injury from external annoyance, when we might take such an attitude as would cause our neutrality to be respected, and, with reference to belligerent nations, might choose peace or war, as our interests, guided by justice, should counsel."

Compare our situation and the circumstances of that time with those of the present day and what, from the very words of Washington then, would be his counsels to his countrymen now? Europe has still her set of primary interests, with which we have little or a remote relation. Our distant and detached situation with reference to Europe remains the same. But we were then the only independent nation of this hemisphere, and we were surrounded by European colonies, with the greater part of which we had no more intercourse than with the inhabitants of another planet. These colonies have now been transformed into eight independent nations, extending to our very borders, seven of them Republics like ourselves, with whom we have an immensely growing commercial and must have, and have already, important political connections, with reference to whom our situation is neither distant nor detached, whose political principles and systems of government, congenial with our own, must and will have an action and counteraction upon us and ours to which we cannot be indifferent if we would.

The rapidity of our growth, and the consequent increase of our strength, has more than realized the anticipations of this admirable political legacy. Thirty years have nearly elapsed since it was written, and in the interval our population, our wealth, our territorial extension, our power--physical and moral--have nearly trebled. Reasoning upon this state of things from the sound and judicious principles of Washington, must we not say that the period which he predicted, as then not far off, has arrived, that America has a set of primary interests which have none or a remote relation to Europe, that the interference of Europe, therefore, in those concerns should be spontaneously withheld by her upon the same principles that we have never interfered with hers, and that if she should interfere, as she may, by measures which may have a great and dangerous recoil upon ourselves, we might be called, in defence of our altars and firesides, to take an attitude which would cause our neutrality to be respected, and choose peace or war as our interest guided by justice, should counsel?

"The acceptance of this invitation, therefore, far from conflicting with the counsel or the policy of Washington, is directly deducible from and conformable to it. Nor is it less conformable to the views of my immediate predecessor, as declared in his Annual Message to Congress of the 2d December, 1823."

President John Quincy Adams. Communication to the House of Representatives, in answer to their Resolution of Inquiry, regarding the proposed Panama Congress, March 15, 1826.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REDEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN, AT GETTYSBURG.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

President Lincoln. Address at the Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863.

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM APPLIED IN THE EXTERNAL JUSTICIARY RELATIONS OF THE AMERICAN UNION, BY PRESIDENT MCKINLEY.

"In order to facilitate the most humane, specific, and effective extension of authority throughout [the Philippine Islands], and to secure with the least possible delay the benefits of a wise and generous protection of life and property, I have named Jacob G. Schurman, Rear-Admiral George Dewey, Major-General Elwell S. Otis, Charles Denby, and Dean C. Worcester to constitute a Commission to aid in the accomplishment of these results....

"The Commissioners will endeavor,... to ascertain what amelioration in the condition of the inhabitants and what improvements in public order may be practicable, and for this purpose they will study attentively the existing social and political state of the various populations particularly as regards the forms of local government, the administration of justice, the collection of customs and other taxes, the means of transportation and the need of public improvements.

"They will report to the State Department according to the forms customary or hereafter prescribed for transmitting and preserving such communications, the results of their observations and reflections, and will recommend such Executive action as may from time to time seem to them wise and useful....

"It is my desire that in all their relations with the inhabitants of the Islands the Commissioners exercise due respect for all the ideals, customs, and institutions of the tribes and races which compose the population, emphasizing upon all occasions the just and beneficent intentions of the Government of the United States.'

"It is also my wish and expectation that the Commissioners may be received in a manner due to the honored and authorized representatives of the American Republic, duly commissioned, on account of their knowledge, skill and integrity, as bearers of the good will the protection, and the richest blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering nation."

President McKinley--Instructions to the Secretary of State regarding the First Philippine Commission, January 20, 1899.

THE DEFINITION OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM AS APPLIED BOTH TO THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE AMERICAN UNION--BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.

"When all is said and done, the rule of brotherhood remains as the indispensable prerequisite to success in the kind of national life for which we strive. Each man must work for himself, and unless he so works no outside help can avail him, but each man must remember also that he is indeed his brother's keeper, and that while no man who refuses to walk can be carried with advantage to himself or any one else yet that each at times stumbles or halts, that each at times needs to have the helping hand outstretched to him. To be permanently effective, aid must always take the form of helping a man to help himself, and we can all best help ourselves by joining together in the work that is of common interest to all....

"It is no light task for a nation to achieve the temperamental qualities without which the institutions of free government are but an empty mockery. Our people are now successfully governing themselves, because for more than a thousand years they have been slowly fitting themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, toward this end. What has taken us thirty generations to achieve, we cannot expect to see another race accomplish out of hand, especially when large portions of that race start very far behind the point which our ancestors had reached even thirty generations ago. In dealing with the Philippine people we must show both patience and strength, forbearance and steadfast resolution. Our aim is high. We do not desire to do for the islanders merely what has elsewhere been done for tropic peoples by even the best foreign governments. We hope to do for them what has never before been done for any people of the tropics--to make them fit for self-government after the fashion of the really free nations."

President Roosevelt. First Message, December 3, 1901.

THE QUESTION OF TERMINOLOGY

_Mr. President, Members of the Association and Section, Ladies and Gentlemen_:

You have heard ably discussed certain questions which arise out of the relationship between the American Union and the annexed Insular regions, viewed in its sociological and economic aspect. I now ask your attention to a question of immediate interest and importance growing out of this relationship viewed in its political, that is to say, its legal aspect. This question, which the Committee on Arrangements has called "The Question of Terminology," is: What are the correct terms to use in describing the political and legal relationship between the American Union and its distant annexed regions, assuming that this relationship is to be permanent and is to be on terms which are just to all parties?

More specifically, the question which I shall discuss will be, whether we, as Americans, ought, according to American principles, to use, in our political and legal language, the terms "colony," "dependence," and "empire," or whether we ought, according to those principles, to substitute for the term "colony," the term "free state," for "dependence," "just connection," and for "empire," "union."

It is needless to say that I shall accept the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States as final in regard to all the matters adjudicated in them. But the Supreme Court has jurisdiction only for the purpose of determining the rights of individuals. The political relations between the Union and the Insular regions, it determines only so far as may be necessary to ascertain individual rights. Its present doctrine--that the American Union has power over the Insular regions subject to "fundamental principles formulated in the Constitution," or subject to "the applicable provisions of the Constitution," protects the civil rights of individuals, but under it the power of the Union for political purposes remains absolute. The proposition which I shall offer for your judgment, will, I believe, not only not be in conflict with the propositions laid down by the Supreme Court, but will give a reason why they are right. It will, too, I believe, give a reasonable basis for our holding that the power of the American Union over the Insular regions, while ample for the maintenance of a just and proper permanent relationship with them under our control, is not absolute even as respects their political rights.

I have said that I shall discuss this question upon American principles. I shall not base myself on the Constitution of the United States, though I shall try to show the relation of that document to the question, as I understand it. I shall assume it to be settled by the decisions of the Supreme Court,--as it seems clearly to be,--that with the exception of the "Territory" clause of that instrument, it is, and of right ought to be, the Constitution of the thirteen original States of the American Union and of the other States which they have admitted into their Union, and of no other States or communities; and that therefore it does not extend of its own force outside the American Union in any constitutional or legal sense, but only in a metaphorical sense--this being as I understand it, the meaning of the Court when they hold, as they do, that, though the "Territory clause" is of present and universal significance as respects all the regions annexed to the Union, yet, with this exception, only "the applicable provisions of the Constitution" or "the fundamental principles formulated in the Constitution" are in force in the annexed regions. "Extensions," so-called, of the Constitution by Act of Congress, are of course mere Acts of Congress, and whether such metaphorical "extensions" are permanent will depend upon the terms and conditions of the "extension."

But though I shall not base myself on the Constitution of the United States, I shall nevertheless base myself on a great American Document, which preceded the Constitution as a statement of American principles, and which is so far from being inconsistent with it that the Democratic party, in its platform of 1900, called it "the Spirit of the Constitution"--I refer to the Declaration of Independence. It is the American principles set forth in that document which I shall try to discover. If I shall be adjudged to have rightly interpreted that instrument, it will follow that we ought to substitute, in our political and legal language, for the term "colony," the term "free state," for "dependence," "just connection," and for "empire," "union." In making such substitution, however, it will be necessary to give to the terms "free state" and "union," a scientific meaning which will differ from that which they now have in the popular mind, but which will, I believe, be the same as was given to these terms by the Revolutionary statesmen.

I shall not allow myself to be embarrassed by the fact that in my first published writing I used the terms "colony," "dependence" and "empire;" for at the same time that I used these terms, I based myself on principles which were those of free statehood, just connection and union, to which I adhere to this day.

Taking the Declaration of Independence, therefore, as the exposition of the fundamental principles on which all American political theory is based, and to which all American policy must conform, let me state briefly the general meaning and purpose of this instrument, as I understand it.

As a result of the discussion for twelve years preceding the Declaration, the doctrine of the extension of the British Constitution to the American Colonies, which from their situation, could never be represented on equal terms in Parliament, was found to be useless for the protection of American rights, political or civil; and the doctrine that their rights were dependent on the Colonial Charters was found to be inadequate, for these Charters, while protecting the civil rights of the Americans to some extent, proceeded on the theory that they held all their political rights at the will or whim of Great Britain. The Americans felt and knew that they were entitled to political, as well as civil rights, and they all firmly believed that each so-called "colony" was a free state and subject to no external control beyond what was necessary to preserve their relationship with Great Britain on just terms to all the parties. The only question which the Americans discussed, as soon as they comprehended the whole situation, was, Why was each so-called "colony" a free state and why had it always been such? The Declaration of Independence, as I understand it, gave to the world their solution of this problem. Their answer, as I understand it, was, that the American Colonies were and always had been free states, because their relations with the State of Great Britain were not under the British Constitution and were not wholly under the Colonial Charters, but were under a supreme and universal common law, which governs the relations between men, communities, bodies corporate, states and nations, and which they called in the Declaration "the Law of Nature and of Nature's God," according to which every community on the earth's surface, within reasonable limits for the formation and execution of a just public sentiment, is entitled to be a free state,--that is, to be free from external control, in executing its just public sentiment, except so far as may be necessary to enable it to conform to the terms of its just connections with other free states. This doctrine of free statehood as a universal right is, as I understand it, the central idea of the Declaration.

Assuming this to be the central idea, let us see how this idea is reached; and for that purpose, let us notice the exact language of the Declaration. The first paragraph reads:

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

The "causes of separation" are prefaced by a number of propositions determining the nature of the "political bands" by which one people may be "connected with" another. These propositions are all rules of human conduct, and are therefore principles of law, though they are called "self-evident truths." This part of the Declaration reads:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

The conception of the universal right of free statehood is reached, in the Declaration, through a series of three propositions, each stated to be self-evident, and yet all forming a sequence. The basal proposition is, that "all men are created equal." Rufus Choate and John James Ingalls have declared this proposition and the succeeding one that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," to be "glittering generalities." Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, in his speech at Gettysburg, at the most solemn and stirring moment in the country's history, declared that the proposition that all men are created equal was the foundation-idea of the nation, to which it was dedicated by the Fathers.

The doctrine of equality arising from the common creation of all men as the spiritual offspring of a common Creator, was the doctrine of the Reformation in its broadest form, as declared by Penn. Taking into consideration the religious character of the Americans, as well as the learning and acumen of that most remarkable body of men who constituted the Continental Congress, it seems not only not improbable, but probable, and indeed necessary to conclude, that the proposition that "all men are created equal" was intended to be the epitome of the doctrine of the Reformation, as that doctrine was broadened by the influence of Penn and his followers. As the Governments of Europe were at that time acting on the political philosophy of feudalism and mediaevalism, which in its last analysis was based on the proposition that all men are created unequal, or that some are created equal and some unequal, the Declaration, if it be true that it based the American political philosophy upon the broadest doctrine of the Reformation, announced an American System as opposed to the European System.

From the doctrine of equality arising from the common creation of all men by a personal Creator to whom all were equally related, it is declared by the Declaration to follow as a 'self-evident' truth that there are certain rights, which are attached to all men by endowment of the Creator as being the correlative of the unalienable needs of all men, and which inasmuch as they arise from the universal limitations which the Creator has imposed, are as unalienable as the needs themselves. These unalienable rights are declared to be the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.