No considerable or general tariff reduction for the United States proper was to be thought of by the Republicans. But it would not do to maintain in the ports of the new possessions the high duties established by law in the United States proper. Were this done, the United States would in effect be forcing its colonies to buy and sell in the suzerain country alone, as was done by George III. through those Navigation Acts which occasioned the Revolutionary War. Such a system was certain to be condemned. If the expansion policy was to succeed in pleasing our people a plan had to be devised by which duties at the new ports could be reduced to approximate a revenue level while remaining rigidly protective in the old ports. Out of this dilemma was gradually excogitated the theory, which had been rejected by nearly all interpreters of the Constitution, that the United States can possess "appurtenant" territory, subject to, but not part of itself, to which the Constitution does not apply save so far as Congress votes that it shall apply. So construed, the Constitution does not ex proprio vigore follow the flag. Under that construction, inhabitants of the acquired islands could not plead a single one of its guaranties unless Congress voted them such a right. If Congress failed to do this, then, so far as concerned the newly acquired populations, the Constitution might as well never have been penned. They were subjects of the United States, not citizens. The Republican party's first avowal of this "imperialist" theory and policy was the Porto Rico tariff bill, approved April 12, 1900, establishing for Porto Rico a line of customs duties differing from that of the United States. This bill was at first disapproved by President McKinley. "It is our plain duty," he said, "to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico, and give her products free access to our markets." Until after its passage the bill was earnestly opposed both by a number of eminent Republican statesmen besides the President and by nearly all the leading Republican party organs. Every possible plea--constitutional, humanitarian, prudential-- was urged against it. The bill passed, nevertheless. The result was a momentous improvement in Democratic prospects. The schism on expansion which had divided the Democratic party was closed at once, while many Republicans who had deemed the taking over of the Philippines simply a step in the nation's growth similar in nature to all the preceding ones, and had laughed at imperialism as a Democratic "bogy," changed their minds and sidled toward the Democratic lines.