Melville Fuller

Name: The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court
Author: Melville Fuller

The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

Summary

“The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court”, is a work by Melville Fuller. It explores elements such as the United States, Porto Rico and treaty.

Quotes from The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court (Melville Fuller)

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ It cannot be considered as a legislative act, since the power to legislate is vested in the President, Senate, and House of Representatives. There is something, too, which shocks the conscience in the idea that a treaty can be put forth as embodying the terms of an arrangement with a foreign power or an Indian tribe, a material provision of which is unknown to one of the contracting parties, and is kept in the background to be used by the other only when the exigencies of a particular case may demand it. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ This theory also presupposes that territory may be held indefinitely by the United States; that it may be treated in every particular, except for tariff purposes, as domestic territory; that laws may be enacted and enforced by officers of the United States sent there for that purpose; that insurrections may be suppressed, wars carried on, revenues collected, taxes imposed; in short, that everything may be done which a government can do within its own boundaries, and yet that the territory may still remain a foreign country. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ The Philippines thereby ceased, in the language of the treaty, 'to be Spanish.' Ceasing to be Spanish, they ceased to be foreign country. They came under the complete and absolute sovereignty and dominion of the United States, and so became territory of the United States over which civil government could be established. The result was the same although there was no stipulation that the native inhabitants should be incorporated into the body politic, and none securing to them the right to choose their nationality. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ The Senate has no right to ratify the treaty and introduce new terms into it, which shall be obligatory upon the other power, although it may refuse its ratification, or make such ratification conditional upon the adoption of amendments to the treaty. If, for instance, the treaty with Spain had contained a provision instating the inhabitants of the Philippines as citizens of the United States, the Senate might have refused to ratify it until this provision was stricken out. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ By the Constitution (art. 2, § 2) the President 'shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.' Obviously the treaty must contain the whole contract between the parties, and the power of the Senate is limited to a ratification of such terms as have already been agreed upon between the President, acting for the United States, and the commissioners of the other contracting power. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ It may undoubtedly become necessary for the adequate administration of a domestic territory to pass a special act providing the proper machinery and officers, as the President would have no authority, except under the war power, to administer it himself; but no act is necessary to make it domestic territory if once it has been ceded to the United States. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ Bidwell Porto Rico was held not to be a foreign country after the cession, and that a prior act exclusively applicable to foreign countries became inapplicable.
In Downes v. Bidwell the conclusion of a majority of the court was that an act of Congress levying duties on goods imported from Porto Rico into New York, not in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution in respect to the imposition of duties, imposts, and excises, was valid. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Melville Fuller, The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court

“ The distinction was drawn between a special act in respect of the particular country and a general and prior act only applicable to countries foreign to ours in every sense. The latter was obliged to conform to the rule of uniformity, which was wholly disregarded in the former. ”

Melville Fuller

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Quotes from The Diamond Rings — Opinion of the Court (Melville Fuller)

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