Yet we must face the fact that able and conscientious men believe the United States has no constitutional power to hold territory that is not to be erected into States in the Union, or to govern people that are not to be made citizens.
Reid discusses the constitutional debate surrounding the United States' power to govern territories not intended for statehood.
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It will make an end forever of Spain in this hemisphere.
Above all, if there is a trace of politics in their work, or of seeking for political effect at home, they will fail, and deserve to fail.
Let those who invoke the Supreme Law of the land learn and bow to it.
It seems to me, then, idle to thresh over old straw when the grain is not only winnowed, but gone to the mill.