Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/101

 72 colonial life, and, on the other, associates and connects it with the general life of the nation.

And that third aspect, in which is recapitulated the history of the relations between the Antilles and the mother country, and within which their commerce, their credit, and their wealth, must also be developed, is defined in a series of provisions of a permanent character, which connects the two executive powers—the insular and the national, and at times, their chambers—in such a manner that at every moment they lend each other mutual aid, and assist each other in developing the common interests.

And all this manifold and complex, though not complicated, system is sanctioned and rendered practical by a series of guaranties of associations of constant understandings and public discussions which will absolutely prevent, so far as it is allowable for man to predict that which is to come, unyielding dilemmas, insurmountable difficulties, and collisions between the colonies and the mother country.

This is a point of so great importance that the Government would certainly have subordinated all other questions to it if such subordination had been necessary, which it can not be, nor is there any reason to fear it, since the bases of the new régime are established upon harmony of interests, scrupulous respect for the rights of others, and the desire in the mother country unremittingly to aid the development, prosperity, and peaceful aggrandizement of her beautiful Antilles, which desire the Government does not doubt will be fully shared there.

This does not mean that no questions will arise in which the two spheres of action will be confounded, and that there will be no legitimate doubts as to which is the predominant interest in them, or that there will not be, after the doubts, more or less of passionate discussion. In no colony enjoying autonomy has this failed to happen; in none has the case arisen in which the central Government was always and systematically in accord with the acts of the colonial government. Long is the list of the legislative enactments of Canada which have been vetoed by the British Government, and curious and exceedingly interesting is the list of judicial decisions which have defined the diverse jurisdictions of their local assemblies, either among themselves or with their governors. This has been the case notwithstanding the fact that the great decentralization, the antecedents of Canadian history, and freedom of trade greatly simplify the relations between the two countries.

The excellence of the system, however, lies in the fact that when such cases arise, and especially when they are frequent, the balance of power both within the colonial constitution and in the relations of the colony to the mother country is such that a remedy is always to be had, that a basis of understanding is never lacking, and that a common ground is always to be found on which interests are either harmonized or their antagonism is settled or the will of the people bows to the decision of the courts.

If, therefore, the rights which are recognized by the constitution as belonging to the citizens are violated or their interests are disregarded by the town boards and deputations which are, in their turn, within the system, entirely autonomous, the courts of justice will defend and uphold them; if corporations go beyond their powers, or if, on the other hand, the executive power undertakes to impair what the constitution of the kingdom or the provisions of this decree declare to be powers belonging to the town boards or the provincinal corporations, the accused party has the right to appeal to the courts of the island, and as a last resort to the supreme court, whose duty it will be to settle disputes of jurisdiction between the Governor-General and the colonial parliament, whoever may have given rise to such disputes; both will have the same rights to complain and to seek legal redress for their wrongs.

Thus, whatever difficulties may arise from the establishment of a system, or be the outgrowth of its exercise, will be decided by the courts, which have been, since ancient Rome down to modern England, the most progressive source of right, and which have afforded the most flexible procedure for the harmonization of the growing demands of real life and the slow process of legislation.

Thus the autonomic constitution which the Government proposes for the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico is not exotic or copied, nor is it an imitation. I tis an organization sui generis, conceived and upheld by the natives of the Spanish Antilles, gladly inscribed by the liberal party in their programme in order that the nation might know what it had to expect from that party when it should come into power, and characterized by a feature which no colonial régime has thus far presented, viz: that the Antilles can be wholly autonomous, in the fullest sense of the word, and at the same time have their representatives and form a part of the national parliament.

So that, while the representatives of the insular people direct from their local chambers the special interests of their country, others elected by the same people aid and cooperate in the Cortes in the making of those laws in whose mould are formed and unified the different elements of Spanish nationality. And this is not a small or paltry advantage; still less does it furnish ground for surprise, as some might, perhaps, think, because this present of the deputies from the Antilles in the