Whitelaw Reid: “In any event, with Cuba a State, Porto Rico could not be kept a Territory.”

We must, then, be prepared with a policy for maintaining it ourselves.

Public sentiment was against the sale of lands to the Yankees; “Get white laborers,” they urged, “and in a year you’ll make enough to be able to hold on to your lands.

Congress is supreme, and, for all the purposes of this department, has all the powers of the people of the United States, except such as have been expressly or by implication reserved in the prohibitions of the Constitution.

We are all washed under, and the most of us only live peaceable lives by the sufferance of our Rebel neighbors.