American soldiers fighting in the Philippines (1899)March 27: Following the Flag?
American soldiers fighting in the Philippines (1899)
| Tonight, we'll be finishing up with the Gilded Age material, and also be having our latest presentation, this one from the Senate debate over the Treaty of Paris. The central question: was imperialism constitutional? What do you think? |
READINGS
secondary
| Przybyszewski, The Republic According to John Marshall Harlan, pp. 118-146. |
| We continue along in the Harlan biography; again, keep in mind that Harlan was the dissenter in this Court, and ask yourself why his arguments failed to persuade the other Justices. If you want to get up to speed on the international, political, and ideological currents running up to the Insular Cases, click on the link above. |
documents
| Downes v. Bidwell (1901) |
| Senator George Hoar on imperialism |
STUDY QUESTIONS
| 1.) To what extent did Downes (and the other Insular Cases) raise constitutional issues akin to those we have been looking at previously in the term? Do you agree with the Court's majority that these cases involved principles never before decided upon judicially? |
| 2.) What were the constitutional implications behind Hoar's dissent? Was he, in the long term, correct in his assumption that an imperialist foreign policy required the President usurping Congress's role in foreign policy? |
| 3.) Was the term "imperial republic" a contradiction in concepts? |