under the provisions of the Constitution. The territory being a part of the United States, the government and the citizen both enter it under the authority of the Constitu tion, with their respective rights defined and marked out; and the Federal government can exercise no power over his person and property, beyond what that instrument con fers, nor lawfully deny any right which it has reserved." The learned chief justice then calls atten tion to the provisions of the Constitution guaranteeing religious liberty, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to trial by jury, to peaceably as semble and petition for the redress of griev ances, etc., and says: "The powers over person and property of which we speak are not only not granted to Congress, but are in express terms denied, and they are forbid den to exercise them. And this prohibition is not confined to the States, but the words are general, and extend to the whole terri tory over which the Constitution gives it power to legislate, including those portions of it remaining under territorial government, as well as that governed by States. It is a total absence of power everywhere within the dominion of the United States, and plaees the citizens of a territory, so far as these rights are eoneerned, ou the same footing with eitizens of the States, andguards them as firmly and plainly against any inroads which the general government might attempt, un der the plea of implied or incidental powers." This being the law, that there is no power in Congress higher than the Constitution, it must be apparent that the "open door" policy, which undertakes to give European nations the same rights in the Philippines as ourselves, cannot be made operative. The moment these islands are annexed to the United States they become a part of its territory, and are subject to the provisions of the Constitution, which requires that " all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States," and that " no
tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State." The Dingley tariff act, by operation of law, becomes operative at every port of entry in any of the possessions of the United States immediately upon the ratifica tion of the treaty of session, and the Con gress has no authority to change it, except as it may change the law in respect to all ports of entry. By the same act of ratifica tion the inhabitants of the Philippines be come naturalized citizens of the United States, and entitled to all of the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States; they may come into the State of New York, and, after a residence of one year, become entitled to vote at all elections. It equally nullifies the contract labor law, in so far as these islanders are concerned, and the op portunities for profitable colonization of voters is thus materially extended. Would it not be well to suspend action in reference to the Philippine Islands until we have solved the problem of dealing with our new possessions in Hawaii and Porto Rico? Gibbons tells us that " In the decline of the Roman Empire, the proud distinctions of the republic were gradually abolished; and the reason or instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the posses sion of hereditary wealth or the memory of famous ancestors. He delighted to honor with titles and emoluments his generals, magistrates and senators, and his precarious indulgence communicated some rays of their glory to their wives and children. But in the eye of the law all Roman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire were citizens of Rome. That inestimable charac ter was degraded to an obsolete and empty name." Are we not confronted by this same menace to our national life; is that citi zenship worth the having which is placed on an equality with that of an alien race, ages behind the development even of those whom we have but recently freed from bondage?
