Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
That the provision of the Treaty of Paris pledging the United States to the
protection of all rights of property in the islands, and as well the
principle of our own Government which prohibits the taking of private
property without due process of law, shall not be violated; that the
welfare of the people of the islands, which should be a paramount
consideration, shall be attained consistently with this rule of property
right; that if it becomes necessary for the public interest of the people
of the islands to dispose of claims to property which the Commission finds
to be not lawfully acquired and held disposition shall be made thereof by
due legal procedure, in which there shall be full opportunity for fair and
impartial hearing and judgment; that if the same public interests require
the extinguishment of property rights lawfully acquired and held due
compensation shall be made out of the public treasury therefore; that no
form of religion and no minister of religion shall be forced upon any
community or upon any citizen of the islands; that, upon the other hand, no
minister of religion shall be interfered with or molested in following his
calling, and that the separation between State and Church shall be real,
entire, and absolute.
It will be the duty of the Commission to promote and extend, and, as they
find occasion, to improve the system of education already inaugurated by
the military authorities. In doing this they should regard as of first
importance the extension of a system of primary education which shall be
free to all, and which shall tend to fit the people for the duties of
citizenship and for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. This
instruction should be given in the first instance in every part of the
islands in the language of the people. In view of the great number of
languages spoken by the different tribes, it is especially important to the
prosperity of the islands that a common medium of communication may be
established, and it is obviously desirable that this medium should be the
English language. Especial attention should be at once given to affording
full opportunity to all the people of the islands to acquire the use of the
English language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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