DOCUMENTS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF PUERTO RICO (SECOND EDITION - JUNE 1964) COMPLIMENTS OF COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - JUNE 1964 Hennage Lithograph Co. 9th and H Streets, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20001 ABOUT THIS REVISED EDITION The first edition of Documents on the Constitutional History of Puerto Rico was assembled by the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Washington at the advice of Resident Commissioner Dr. A. Fernós-Isern and was printed in 1948. Since, an extraordinary political development has taken place. Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth in 1952 under a Constitution drafted and adopted by its own people. Under the terms of Public Law 600, 81st Congress, (1950) enacted in the nature of a compact, the people of Puerto Rico were enabled politically to organize themselves. All the documents pertaining to the new political status of Puerto Rico have been added in the present revised edition, including legal cases recently decided. These materials are designed to give the reader a fairly complete picture of how the Commonwealth came to be what it is. Jorge Pelices- Petrantoni Jorge Felices-Pietrantoni Administrator Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Washington, D. C. June, 1964 FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION Constitutional life for Puerto Rico started with constitutional life in the Spanish Kingdom, of which the island was a part. During the Napoleonic Invasion of the Spanish Peninsula, while the rest of European Spain was under the French Army of Occupation, there functioned in Cádiz what amounted to a government in exile, protected by the English Fleet. The Spanish King was in France as the prisoner-guest of Napoleon. Meanwhile the Provisional Government called a National Assembly at Cádiz. It adopted a constitutional form of government for Spain. After the return of the King, the Constitution did not last long. He quickly restored the absolute monarchy. Later, however, other Constitutions were forced from the Crown by the people. The last one to be adopted, prior to the Spanish American War, became effective in 1876. Puerto Rico, as a Spanish province, was living under the Constitution of 1876 when it became an American possession in 1898. Under the terms of the Constitution of 1876, the overseas provinces (including Puerto Rico) were to be governed in accordance with special laws. Such a provision could work in two ways; either by making for less liberal laws in the overseas provinces than in the Peninsula, or for more liberal laws. It was under this provision that in 1897 a special government charter for Cuba and Puerto Rico was decreed by the Spanish Government, subject to ultimate approval by the Cortes. This form of government the peninsular provinces did not enjoy. Peninsular Spain was continuing to function as a unitarian parliamentary body politic. Under the Treaty of Paris of 1898 Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States. From 1898 to 1900 it was under military government. In 1900 Congress established a civil government in Puerto Rico through the law known as the Foraker Act. Congress added several important new provisions to this law in 1917. These served to democratize the local government and extended American citizenship to Puerto Ricans. In 1947 further liberalizing changes were made in the Organic Act. The Supreme Court of the United States has rendered important decisions bearing on the status of Puerto Rico. In the opinion of the Supreme Court, Puerto Rico belongs but does not form part of the United States. It is a possession of the United States. Puerto Ricans constitute a body politic known as "The People of Puerto Rico". Through the 1947 amendment of the Organic Act the executive branch of the Government becomes responsible to the people as has been the local legislature in the past. The Judges of the Supreme Court and the Auditor will continue to be appointed by the President. Commercial relations between Puerto Rico and the United States are characterized by free trade, with common tariffs. This could be interpreted to be actually a Customs Union, although the adoption and modification of the U. S. tariff is solely the prerrogative of the Federal Government, with the same rates becoming automatically operative in Puerto Rico. Above all, Congress may limit trade between Puerto Rico and the United States through quantitative restrictions on the size and number of Puerto Rican shipments to the mainland. Such restrictions have been imposed in the case of refined sugar. This want of complete mutuality impairs the principles upon which Customs Unions should be predicated, and accentuates Puerto Rico's colonial status. Federal services function in Puerto Rico as they do in any State. As a unit of the United States economic system, Puerto Rico participates, though limitedly, in the benefits of some of the grant-in-aid laws adopted by Congress since the early '30s. Federal taxes do not extend to Puerto Rico nor to merchandise shipped to or from the island. As provided in the Organic Act, the Insular Government is supported from its own revenues. These revenues are derived from customs duties, special taxes on exports to the mainland markets and other imposts. All of these inequalities and paradoxes prompt a sense of insecurity and unrest in the Island. Puerto Ricans are unanimous in their desire to resolve them. Indoctrinated as they are in democratic principles which they devotedly practice both in their everyday life and in their political undertakings so far as is permitted by the Organic Act, they long for the time when they may live under a soundly democratic form of Government-one based |
