The Porto Rico Bill

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 10, 1900

The Porto Rico Bill

The Porto Rico bill was passed by the United States Senate, Tuesday, April 3, by a vote of forty to thirty-one. It decides—

1. That Porto Rico is not a part of the United States, but is the property of the United States.

2. That the Constitution of the United States does not extend to Porto Rico.

3. That Congress has power to rule Porto Rico as Congress may choose.

4. That the inhabitants of Porto Rico are not citizens of the United States; but are only “citizens of Porto Rico, and as such are entitled to the protection of the United States—in other words, colonists.

5. “That Porto Rico is a body politic separate and apart from the United States, an autonomous state under the rule of Congress, and therefore not foreign territory; in other words, a colony with limited self-government.”

6. “That Porto Rico, instead of being absorbed into the United States and started toward Statehood, is set up by itself, and put upon the path that leads to colonial self-government similar to that of Canada, New Zealand, or the Australian states.”