Events Leading up to Establishment of Civil Government Conditions of the Problem of Civil Government in the Islands Municipal Government in Provinces under Nueva Vizcaya Act . . 331 PREFACE A FULL consideration of all questions arising out of the expansion of the United States from its limited. territory as comprehended within the boundaries of the original thirteen States to its present extent with over-sea possessions, would involve studies along three quite distinct lines: that of the history proper of the movement, or of the causes leading up to, and the circumstances attending, the actual acquisition of new territory; that of an account of the policy pursued by the United States in granting to these new territories political rights, in determining their relations. to itself and in organizing forms of government for them; and that of the examination of the great problems, political, economic and educational, arising out of the possession of such territories. A work dealing with all three of these phases in a broad and comprehensive way would make a welcome addition to existing literature. During the present initial stage, however, of the real study of the colonial problem of the United States, and while the factors of that problem, in its modern aspect at least, are as yet so little determined, the preparation of such a work would be exceedingly difficult and it is more than doubtful whether it could be successfully accomplished. Under these circumstances, there is for the present a manifest advantage in keeping fairly distinct the three lines of inquiry. The history of our western expansion and of our recent acquisitions in the Atlantic and the Pacific has already been fully given in numerous works, or is still fresh in the minds of most readers. The proper examination of colonial problems, strictly speaking, can only be achieved after a thorough knowledge has been obtained of the political institutions with which the possessions involved are endowed. The present work, therefore, will be concerned with only the second of these three fieldsthat of the actual policy pursued, and the action taken, by the United States in respect to the government and administration of the various dependent territories which have successively come under its sovereignty, and the conferring of political rights upon their inhabitants. This consideration, in order to keep it within the scope of the American State Series, of which it is a part, must necessarily be largely descriptive in character. While no attempt will thus be made to discuss colonial problems as such, nevertheless every effort will be made in the proper places to call attention to the existence of such problems and to indicate the main considerations therein involved. In this way it is hoped that the present work will pave the way for, or serve as a general introduction to, the study of our colonial problems, in their broadest aspects. A few words should be said in explanation of the allotment of space to the different subjects to be considered. Comparatively few pages have been given. to the description of the government of the organized territories of the United States on the mainland. The reasons for this are evident: the form of government of the organized territories as laid down in their organic acts is a simple one and permits of statement in brief compass, while the problem of local government within them presents no features differing essentially from those found in the States. Again, owing to the small number of such Territories now in existence, and the likelihood that these few will speedily be admitted into the Union as States, a consideration of their government becomes of constantly less importance. As regards the Territories proper, our chief interest will therefore be centered upon tracing historically the action of the United States in respect to the organization of a government for them at the time of their first acquisition, subsequent changes made in such government, the extent to which the action taken has been the result of a policy deliberately adopted and consistently followed out, and especially the extent to which the experience thus gained has been influential in shaping subsequent action where different conditions have been met with in dealing with our recently acquired insular dependencies. In the second place, a very large amount of space will be devoted to the treatment of local government and internal administration within the insular dependencies. The problem of government of dependencies has in the past almost invariably been considered from the standpoint of the mother country, and, consequently, almost as if the only consideration involved in the case of each dependency was that of devising a system of central government for it and of determining the relations that such government should have to the mother country. In point of fact, the establishment of a central government constitutes but the first real step in the solution of the general problem of its administration. There still remains the much more complicated task of working out a proper system of local government and administration and of formulating and enacting the great body of fundamental laws, such as those relating to judicial procedure and police, taxation and finance, banking and currency, education and public works, which in their immediate effects upon the progress of the dependency and the welfare of its inhabitants are, if possible, of even greater importance than that of the particular constitutional system with which the dependency may be endowed as regards its relation to the nation of which it is a part. There are various reasons why this study of local government and administration is of an importance equal to if not greater than that of the central government. While the latter represents the policy and action of the mother country in respect to the grant of political powers, the former, for the most part, represents the ideas and action of the dependency itself. If the granting or withholding of political rights to the inhabitants of dependent territory and the determination of the exact relations that the government of such dependency shall have to the mother country are matters difficult of wise adjustment, the similar problems of the distribution of governmental powers between the central and local governments within a dependency, and the fixing of the measure of control of the former over the latter, are even more delicate |