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President Taft and the Puerto Rican Appropriation Crisis of 1909

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Truman R. Clark
Truman R. Clark*
Affiliation:
Montgomery County Community College, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
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Extract

William Howard Taft was a central participant at the birth of American imperialism. He won praises for his work with the Philippine Islands, first as head of the commission created to restore the Islands to a peaceful state, then as the first civil governor. He gave up this office to become Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. In his position in the Cabinet Taft had direct or indirect oversight over most of America's scattered empire.

By March, 1909, when Taft succeeded Roosevelt in the Presidency, the constitution of the American empire had largely been formulated, even if strictly speaking, it had not been formalized. Civil governments had been set up in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands. The “insular cases” of 1901 had defined the limits of claims of the dependent peoples upon the Constitution of the United States; the new possessions were neither foreign nor domestic, and thus even though the Constitution did not follow the flag, tariffs might. The only armed resistance to American control—in the Philippines—had long since ended. It was then to the surprise and dismay of President Taft that tiny Puerto Rico immediately presented a hostile challenge to his new administration, the constitutional rebellion known as the appropriation crisis of 1909.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , October 1969 , pp. 152 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1969

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References

1 Neither the appropriation crisis nor Puerto Rico were mentioned in either Pringle, Henry F., The Life and Times of William Howard Taft (2 vols., New York, 1939)Google Scholar or Mrs.Taft, William Howard, Recollections of Full Years (New York, 1914).Google Scholar

2 It is also possible that Taft's skill in this situation, where he enjoyed a commanding position over the colonials, was due to the imperial relationship and implied no similar political acumen in his dealings with Americans.

3 Report of the Governor of Porto Rico to the Secretary of War: 1913 (Washington, 1913), 36.

4 Willoughby, William F., “The Problem of Political Education in Porto Rico,” Report of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian and Other Dependent Peoples (Lake Mohonk, New York, 1909), 167.Google Scholar

5 Cong. Record, 61 Cong., 2 Sess., XLV (June 1, 1910), 7228.

6 U. S., Statutes at Large, XXXI, 81-82.

7 Roosevelt to Senator Foraker, March 30, 1904. Morison, Elting E. and Blum, John M. (eds.), The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (8 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1951-54), IV, 765–66.Google Scholar See also Roosevelt's, annual message for 1906, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, comp. Richardson, James M. (21 vols., New York, 1897-1929), XIV, 7051.Google Scholar

8 Allen, Charles H., “How Civil Government Was Established in Porto Rico,” North American Review, CLXXIV (Feb. 1902), 165.Google Scholar

9 Second Annual Report of the Governor of Porto Rico to the President of the United States (Washington, 1902), 57.

10 Report of the Governor of Porto Rico to the Secretary of War: 1909 (Washington, 1910), 25.

11 This they accomplished by winning in all seven of the electoral districts of the Island, as the winning party in each district got all five of the seats, no matter how close the margin of victory.

12 Report of the Governor: 1909, 26.

13 These included a bill establishing an agricultural bank for small landowners, a bill promoting taxpayer representation on tax appraisal boards, and a bill to establish some manual training schools. Cong. Record, 61 Cong., 1 Sess., XLIV (May 24, 1909), 2340.

14 Post, “Some Facts of Interest Concerning Porto Rico,” Report … Twenty-Seventh … Lake Mohonk Conference, 183.

15 Report of the Governor: 1909, 26.

16 In its final form the resolution omitted the statement about Puerto Rico gaining its liberty by force if it had more people; it also called the Foraker Act “unjust” and “forceful,” not “tyrannical.” San Juan La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, March 12, 1909. (All translations from Puerto Rican sources by the author.)

17 La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, March 16, 1909.

18 Report of the Governor: 1909, 5.

19 Ibid., 27.

20 La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, March 16, 1909; Cong. Record, 61 Cong., 1 Sess., XLIV (May 24, 1909), 2341.

21 La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, March 16, 1909.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Report of the Governor: 1909, 27.

25 Juan, San La Democracia, March 29, 1909.Google Scholar

26 La Correspondencia de Tuerto Rico, March 17, 1909.

27 La Democracia, March 17, 1909.

28 lbid.

29 La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, March 17, 1909.

30 La Democracia, March 18, 1909.

31 San Juan El Tiempo, July 1, 1909. This newspaper, the organ of the Puerto Rican Republican Party (as La Correspondencia and La Democracia were for the Unionist Party), had consistently condemned Muñoz Rivera and the Unionists for the appropriation crisis. With this tactless, indiscreet interview, Governor Post alienated a potentially powerful ally. On July 6, 1909, El Tiempo editorialized: “El Tiempo is opposed to the policy which Mr. Post carries on in Puerto Rico.”

32 La Correspondencia de Tuerto Rico, March 17, 1909.

33 Ibid.

34 La Democracia, March 31, 1909.

35 Pringle, Taft, I, 293.

36 Taft had a hand in the Philippine appropriation statute, for he wrote a letter in 1902 to Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin which strongly recommended the clause, saying he would not want to return to the Philippines as civil governor without it. That letter, read by Cooper in the House of Representatives, was powerful testimony during debate on the Philippine organic act. Cong. Record, 57 Cong., 1 Sess., XXXV (June 19, 1902), Appendix, 471. One ironic note is that the Foraker Act had provided for a commission to study the laws of Puerto Rico, and that commission, after its study, recommended in 1901 an emergency appropriation amendment of this exact type. But Congress did nothing with the suggestion. Pratt, Julius W., America's Colonial Experiment: How the United States Gained, Governed, and In Part Gave Away a Colonial Empire (New York, 1950), 412.Google Scholar

37 Copy of letter, Taft to Depew. William Howard Taft Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Letterbook Series 8, Presidential, Vol. 3, 342. (Hereafter as Taft Papers.)

38 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, XV, 7386-87.

39 La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico, May 12, 1909.

40 Ibid., June 12, 1909.

41 Cong. Record, 61 Cong., 1 Sess., XLIV (June 7, 1909), 2928.

42 Ibid. (May 27, 1909), 2468.

43 The verbatim transcript of this interview is in the Taft Papers, Presidential Series 2, file 106.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 Copy of letter, Taft to Overstreet, April 12, 1909. Taft Papers, Letterbook Series 8, Presidential, Vol. 2, 367.

48 Jones to Doyle, May 26, 1909. Taft Papers, Series 7, Folder 471.

49 June 2, 1909. Ibid.

50 Ibid., Presidential Series 2, File 3515. In an interview with a reporter on Sep-tember 2, Governor Post indicated his desire to leave, giving as reasons his desire to be near kinfolk in the United States, and the illness of his wife. El Tiempo, September 3, 1909.

51 McIntyre to Fred W. Carpenter, September 8, 1909. Taft Papers, Presidential Series 2, File 3515.

52 Ibid.

53 Copy, September 9, 1909. Ibid., Letterbook Series 8, Presidential, Vol. 7, 126.

54 Copy, September 8, 1909. Ibid., 93.

55 Le Democracia, March 17, 1909.

56 Report of the Governor: 1909, 29.

57 Post, Report … Twenty-Seventh … Lake Mohonk Conference, 184.

58 Report of the Governor: 1909, 5, 25-29. This partiality of the Federal District Court in Puerto Rico was a long-standing source of irritation to Puerto Ricans. See the Cong. Record, 64 Cong., 1 Sess., LIII (April 19, 1916), 6412.

59 “Both parties seeking favor with administration.” Coded cable, and translation, Colton to Secretary of War Dickinson, December 6, 1909. National Archives, Bureau of Insular Affairs Records, File 858/13.

60 Ward, said Colton, was ” despised ” and distrusted by both Americans and Puerto Ricans; Rodey, besides having sustained the former governor in his allocation of funds, had never made friends among the Puerto Ricans. Colton to General Edwards, December 8, 1909. Ibid., File 858/14.

61 Cable, Colton to Bureau of Insular Affairs, January 17,1910, Ibid., File 247/52; Copy of letter, Edwards to Colton, February 3, 1910, Ibid., File 247/54.