The Forgotten Empire: Chronology and Notes on the Insular Cases

1.     February 15, 1898: Sinking of the USS Maine.[i]

2.     April 19,1898: Teller Amendment in Congress on the non-annexation of Cuba.[ii]

3.     April 21, 1898: Congress declares war on Spain. [iii]

4.     July 7, 1898: Hawaii annexed by joint resolution in Congress.

5.     July 26, 1898: President McKinley imposes tariffs on goods shipped from Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the states, and vice versa.

6.     December 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris signed by the U.S and Spanish delegation.

7.     February 6, 1899: Treaty of Paris ratified by the U.S and Spanish delegation.

8.     February 14, 1899: Senate passes resolution no to incorporate Filipinos as U.S. citizens or to annex the Philippines.

9.     August 19, 1899: United States acquires Eastern Samoa by agreement with Britain and Germany.

10.  April 12, 1900: Foraker Act Puerto Rico.

11.  April 30, 1900: Organic Act of Hawaii. Hawaii is declared an incorporated territory.

12.  November 6, 1900: William McKinley reelected U.S. President.

13.  January 14, 1901: 

a.     Neely v. Henkel, 180 U.S. 109

14.  March 2, 1901: Platt amendment on the Constitution of the First Republic of Cuba; Spooner amendment in the Philippines.

15.  May 27, 1901:

a.     De Lima v. Bidwell, 180 U.S. 109

b.     Goetze v. United States, 182 U.S. 221

c.     Crossman v.  United States, 182 U.S. 221

d.     Dooley v. United States, 181 U.S. 222 {Dooley 1}

e.     Armstrong v. United States, 182 U.S. 243

f.      Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244

g.     Huus v. New York and Porto Rico S.S. Co., 182 U.S. 392

16.  September 14, 1901: President McKinley is assassinated; Theodore Roosevelt becomes U.S. president.

17.  December 2, 1901:

a.     Dooley v. United States, 183 U.S. 151 {Dooley 2}

b.     Fourteen Diamond Rings v. United States, 183 U.S. 176

18.  March 8, 1902: Tariffs goods from the Philippines set 85% Dingley Tariff Levels.

19.  May 20, 1902: Establishment of Cuban Republic; “end” of the U.S. occupation.

20.  July 1, 1902: Act to organized Philippine civilian government.

21.  September 15, 1901: Horace dies.

22.  December 8, 1901: Oliver Wendell Holmes takes oath of office.

23.  February 23, 1903: George Shiras Jr. retires.

24.  March 2, 1903: William R. Day takes oath to office.

25.  June 1, 1903:

a.     Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U.S. 197.

26.  October 20, 1903: Settlement with Canada of Alaska boundary dispute.

27.  November 5, 1903: Panama independence established.

28.  November 17, 1903: Hay-Bunua-Varilla Treaty granting the United States exclusive control of the Panama Canal Zone.

29.  December 16, 1903: Cuban Reciprocity Treaty passes the United States Senate.

30.  January 4, 1903:

a.     Gonzalez v. Williams, 192 U.S. 1

31.  May 31, 1904:

a.     Binns v. United States, 194 U.S 486

b.     Kepner v. United States, 195 U.S. 100

c.     Mendezona v. United States, 195 U.S. 158

d.     Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138

32.  November 8, 1904: Theodore Roosevelt reelected U.S. president.

33.  April 1, 1905: United States establishes a protectorate in the Dominican Republic.

34.  April 3, 1905:

a.     Lincoln v. United States; Warner, Barner & Co. v. United States, 197 U.S 419

35.  April 10, 1905:

a.     Rassmussen v. United States, 197 U.S. 516

36.  September 2, 1905: Roosevelt mediates treaty to end Russo-Japanese War.

37.  December 4, 1905:

a.     Trono v. United States, 199 U.S. 521

38.  May 28, 1906: Henry R. Brown retires.

a.     Lincoln v. United States; Warner, Barner & Co. v. United States, 202 U.S. 484 (rehearing.)

39.  December 17, 1906: William H. Moody takes oath of office.

40.  May 27, 1907:

a.     Grafton v. The United States, 206 U.S. 333
b.     United States v. Heinszen & Co., 206 U.S. 370 (1907)

41.  November 16, 1907: Oklahoma admitted as forty-sixth state.

42.  November 18, 1907:

a.     Kent v. Porto Rico, 207 U.S. 113

43.  June 1, 1908:

a.     Ponce v. Roman Catholic Church, 210 U.S. 296

44.  November 3, 1908: William Howard Taft elected U.S president.

45.  January 4, 1909:

a.     Kopel v. Bingham, 211 U.S. 468

46.  October 25, 1909: Rufus W. Packham dies.

47.  January 3, 19010: Horace H. Lurton takes oath to office.

48.  March 28, 1910: David J. Brewer dies.

49.  May 2, 1910:

a.     Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349

50.  July 4, 1910: Melville W. Fuller dies.

51.  October 10, 1910: Charles Evans Hughes takes oath to office.

52.  November 20, 1910: William H. Moody retires.

53.  December 18, 1910: Edward D. White promoted to chief justice.

54.  January 3, 1911: Willis Van Devanter and Joseph R. Lamar take oath of office.

55.  April 3, 1911:

a.     Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338

56.  May 15, 1911:

a.     Dowdell v. United States, 221 U.S. 325

57.  October 14, 1911: John Marshall Harlan dies.

58.  January 6, 1912: New Mexico admitted as forty-seventh state.

59.  February 14, 1912: Arizona admitted as forty-eight state.

60.  March 18, 1912: Mahlon Pitney takes oath of office.

61.  August 24, 1912: Second Organic Act of Alaska.

62.  November 5, 1912: Woodrow Wilson elected U.S. president.

63.  February 14, 1913:

a.     Puerto Rico v. Rosaly, 227 U.S. 270.

64.  June 13, 1903:

a.     Ochoca v. Hernandez, 230 U.S. 139

65.  May 25, 1914:

a.     Ocampo v. United States, 234 U.S. 91

66.  July 12, 1914: Horace H. Lurton dies.

67.  September 5, 1914: James C. McReynolds takes oath to office.

68.  January 2, 1916: Joseph R. Lamar dies.

69.  April 6, 1916: United States enters World War I.

70.  June 5, 1916: Louis D. Brandeis takes oath of office.

71.  June 10, 1916: Charles Evans Hughes resigns.

72.  August 1, 1916: John H. Clarke takes oath of office.

73.  November 7, 1916: Woodrow Wilson reelected U.S. president.

74.  March 2, 1917: Organic Act of Puerto Rico (Jones Act)

75.  March 31, 1917: Virgin Islands transferred from Denmark to the United States for 25 million.

76.  January 21, 1918:

a.     Puerto Rico v. Tapia, 245 U.S. 639

b.     Puerto Rico v. Muratti, 245 U.S. 639

77.  November 11, 1918: Armistice Day, end of World War I.

78.  March 1, 1920:

a.     Board of Public Utility Commissioners v. Ynchausti Co., 251 U.S. 401

79.  November 2. 1920: Warren G. Harding elected U.S president.

80.  May 16, 1921: Edward D. White dies.

81.  July 11, 1921: William Howard Taft takes oath of office as chief justice.

82.  April 10, 1922:

a.     Balzac v. Puerto Rico, 258 U.S. 298

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[i] Cuban’s army destruction of cane fields and sugar mills and with the Wilson Tariff replacing the free-trade McKinley Tariff, Cuban sugar production plummeted, with sugar exports to the United States failing by 75% between 1894 and 1896. Cuban’s army’s growing success against Spain came to the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, and then the publication of the Lome letter (a Spanish diplomat, ridiculed McKinley for his weakness and lack of will.) Pressure for war steadily mounted among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, in the press, especially the yellow press. With the like hood of the Cuban independence, the McKinley administration in March and in April 1898 again sought to buy or otherwise obtain Cuba. McKinley offered 300 million at one point, lesser amount at other times, but Spain will not sell or transferred Cuba to the United States, When Spain at the last minute agreed to surrender Cuba to the United States, the Cuban rebels refused to agree to the ceased fire. The McKinley administration for its part didn’t want to fight alongside the Cuban rebels, in fact the President and his advisers did even consult Cuban leaders Estrada Palma and Máximo Gómez on how they would react to the United States’ annexation of their island. Given that the Cuban independence was unacceptable, the McKinley administration decided on military intervention.

[ii] The Teller Amendment, signed by President McKinley on April 20, 1898 stated: 1) “The people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent; 4) The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that its accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people. Members of Congress supported the Amendment not only because they opposed expansion and because of the poplar cause of “Cuba Libre” made annexation politically difficult, because they sought to protect existing agricultural interests within the states, especially sugar and tobacco growers from Cuban competition. Were Cuba to be part of the United States, then its goods would come in duty-free and thereby undermine workers and producers in business that faced competition from cheaper Cuban goods.

[iii]  Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war. Congress has declared war three times in the history of the United States. The Spanish American War was one of them.