Let me first, however, call attention to the well known, but very interesting fact that the American people throughout this period of eight years since the Spanish war during which the question has been discussed by experts almost exclusively as one which relates to the application of the Constitution outside the Union, have always had an idea that it was the Declaration of Independence, rather than the Constitution, to which we were to look for the solution of our Insular problems. In 1900, the Democrats, in their platform, "reaffirmed their faith in the Declaration of Independence--that immortal proclamation of the inalienable rights of man and described it as "the spirit of our Government, of which the Constitution is the form and letter." The Republicans in their platform declared it to be "the high duty of Government ... to confer the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all rescued peoples," and announced their intention to secure to these peoples "the largest measure of self government consistent with their welfare and our duties." The Populists in their platform in the same year, insisted that "the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the American flag are one and inseparable." The Silver Republicans declared that they "recognized that the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence are fundamental and everlastingly true in their application to government among men." The Anti-Imperialists declared that the truths of the Declaration, not less self-evident to-day than when first announced by the Fathers, are of universal application, and cannot be abandoned while government by the people endures." In 1904, the Democratic party, while professing adherence to fundamental principles declared in favor of casting into the outer darkness of the fictitious "independence" every people "incapable of being governed under American laws, and in consonance with the American Constitution," but the Populists still held to the principles of the Declaration, while the Republicans held to their declarations of 1900.