1900 Foraker Act
In 1900 the U.S. ended its military occupation of Puerto Rico and attempted to define the island’s position within the federal orbit. Beginning as H.R. 6883, a bill to apply U.S. customs and internal revenue laws in Puerto Rico, the Foraker Act was the first law to define Puerto Rico’s territorial status in the early 20th century. The bill was introduced by its chief sponsor, House Ways and Means Chairman Sereno Payne of New York, in January 1900.
Senate bill S. 2264, introduced by Joseph Foraker of Ohio, simultaneously provided a “temporary civil government for Porto Rico.” A report that accompanied the bill recommended “the election of a Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, who shall be allowed a seat but not vote in that body.” Joseph Foraker of Ohio, chairman of the Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico, was a Civil War veteran. Foraker also served as governor of Ohio for two terms before his election to the U.S. Senate.
Two types of opposition emerged. Some Members argued that the legislation did not go far enough, challenging the notion that a single individual could represent more than one million, a constituency significantly larger than any House Member’s. Also, the provision fell significantly short of Puerto Rico’s representation in the Spanish Cortes, which included four senators and 12 deputies. Other Members, such as Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin, believed the legislation went too far. Spooner felt territories such as Puerto Rico and Hawaii would never become states and that the election of a Delegate held out a false promise of eventual statehood. “There is no difference between a Delegate in Congress and a member except in the matter of a vote. It has always been considered a pledge of statehood,” Spooner argued. “I am not yet ready, nor are we called upon now, to give that quasi pledge of statehood, or to imply that they will ever reach a condition where it shall be either for their interests, or certainly for ours, to let them be one of the members of this Union.” Spooner supported the acquisition of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam as U.S. territories, but opposed their permanent annexation.
A small Puerto Rican delegation representing a diverse range of political interests appealed for a civil government during debate on the Foraker Act. Among the members of the delegation was future Resident Commissioner Tulio Larrínaga, who was then a municipal engineer of San Juan and a member of the Puerto Rican Federal Party. Testifying before several House and Senate committees about conditions on the island, he called for free trade with the United States, advocated territorial status for Puerto Rico, and discussed universal male suffrage.34 “Puerto Rico needs a civil government even more than free trade,” he told the House Committee on Ways and Means. “The people want to feel that they have become in a tangible manner attached to the United States and [that Puerto Rico is] not a mere dependency.”
The House passed Payne’s bill by a vote of 172 to 160. The Senate replaced the language in the House bill with its own, adding such extensive amendments that the bill was eventually named for its Senate sponsor. President McKinley signed the Foraker Act (31 Stat. 77–86) on April 12, 1900. The law established a colonial regime, administered by the U.S. President and the Congress, and designated the island an “unorganized territory”; thus, while Puerto Ricans were not granted U.S. citizenship, those who swore loyalty to the United States would receive its protection. The act placed absolute power in the hands of a governor appointed by the President and an 11-member executive council that comprised a majority of U.S. appointees who directed the island’s six principal administrative bureaus.
The law also created a 35-member house of delegates that would be popularly elected every two years, but undermined its authority by vesting the executive council with unchecked veto power. Additionally, it provided that “qualified voters” would elect biennially a Resident Commissioner who would be “entitled to official recognition as such by all Departments” and given a seat in the U.S. House. Finally, the law anticipated, but stopped short of, instituting a system of free trade. Instead it established a reduced ad valorem tariff of 15 percent for all Puerto Rican merchandise entering the United States and all U.S. goods entering Puerto Rico. Although the Foraker Act was economically generous in some respects—it exempted the island from U.S. taxes, for example—many Puerto Ricans were bitterly disappointed because it left the island’s political status unresolved and created an undemocratic administrative structure.
Future Resident Commissioner Luis Muñoz Rivera emerged as the voice of mainstream discontent with the Foraker Act. Addressing the Puerto Rican house of delegates in 1908, he characterized American political leaders as “petty kings” and the house of delegates as an institution serving little purpose because its laws were “wrecked on that perpetual reef ” of the U.S.-appointed governor’s council. Even in oppressed countries like Ireland and Hungary, the lawmakers were natives, Muñoz Rivera noted, but “the members of the Porto Rican senate are Americans, and we are given the laws of Montana, of California.… The inventors of this labyrinth find pleasure in repeating that we are not prepared [for self-government],” he said. “I wish to return the charge word for word … that American statesmen are not prepared to govern foreign colonies so different in character and of such peculiar civilization.”
The Foraker Act also raised questions about American citizenship for Puerto Ricans. Since the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, most territories within the continental United States achieved statehood by following well-established guidelines.39 The Insular Cases, which were eventually heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, stemmed from debate about whether overseas territories such as Puerto Rico should be considered foreign or domestic for tax purposes, but the question on most Americans’ minds, was whether Puerto Ricans would be entitled to full citizenship under the new civil government. Of the Insular Cases heard before the Supreme Court, scholars consider Downes v. Bidwell (182 U.S. 244, 1901), Dorr v. United States (195 U.S. 138, 1904), Balzac v. Porto Rico (258 U.S. 298, 1922), and Rasmussen v. United States (197 U.S. 516, 1925) to be the most important because they delineated the entitlements of incorporated versus nonincorporated territories.
The Supreme Court ruled that nonincorporated territories would receive “fundamental” constitutional protections including “freedom of expression, due process of law, equal protection under the law … [and] protection against illegal searches,” but not the full range of constitutional protections enjoyed by U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court classified Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Pacific territories acquired after 1898 as nonincorporated territories. Incorporated territories received full constitutional protections because they were considered part of the United States. Puerto Ricans were considered “citizens of Porto Rico,” a designation that gave rise to the term “U.S. national,” a person who receives fundamental constitutional protections but is not entitled to full civil or constitutional rights.
The court was deeply divided over the groundbreaking decision in Downes v. Bidwell. In a 5 to 4 decision, the Justices wrote five different opinions (one majority, with two separate concurrences, and two dissenting), reflecting an array of views.43 In effect, the ambiguous ruling reinforced the Supreme Court’s marginal role in territorial jurisdiction, thus preserving—and arguably strengthening—Congress’s absolute authority over Puerto Rico’s status.
Frustrated with the Foraker Act, the Puerto Rican Union Party led a revolt against then-governor Regis Post and the executive council in 1909, accusing them of deliberately resisting calls for political reform on the island. After a large portion of its legislative agenda was rejected, the Puerto Rican house of delegates submitted petitions protesting the Foraker Act to the U.S. Congress and to President William Howard Taft, and threatened to adjourn without passing vital budget and appropriations bills. Congress amended the Foraker Act to enable it to pass Puerto Rico’s budget bills if the house of delegates failed to act, and American officials became newly aware of Puerto Rico’s grievances with its governing legislation.
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