The Girl with the Dragonfruit Tattoo

(Trouble in Paradise! 3) Carrie Doyle

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Books. Change. Lives.

Copyright © 2023 by Carrie Doyle
Cover and internal design © 2023 by Sourcebooks
Cover art by Patrick Knowles
Sourcebooks, Poisoned Pen Press, and the colophon are registered
trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information
storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing
from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are
used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
All brand names and product names used in this book are
trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their
respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product
or vendor in this book.
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
sourcebooks.com
 Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31
Chapter 32

Excerpt from Something's Guava Give

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Back Cover
To Nadia and all the Caribbean fun we’ve had.
 Chapter 1

The Caribbean island of Paraiso is known for its lush scenery, uncrowded
white-sand beaches, excellent snorkeling, delicious local food, and charming
people. Las Frutas, the island’s premier luxury resort, has been a favorite
destination for discerning travelers for over fifty years. Boasting two world-
class golf courses, twelve clay tennis courts, a shooting range, polo fields, a
marina where you can dock your yacht, and several outstanding restaurants,
Las Frutas will fulfill all your wildest dreams.

Plum Lockhart’s fingers paused above her computer’s keyboard.

The description felt generic and trite. Not to mention totally
fabricated. If someone were to put her on a witness stand, she
would not be able to honestly swear under oath that she had met
one person who had all their wildest dreams fulfilled at Las Frutas.
They may have had a great vacation, yes. Or more recently, they
may have ended up murdered, which was unfortunate and quite
tragic. But she couldn’t write that.
Set on the edge of the sparkling Caribbean Sea, the four-thousand-acre resort
is situated on a former sugar plantation…

Okay, she had to stop there as well. Now that the world was finally
acknowledging the traumatic history of plantations, it was not
exactly a selling point or something to brag about. The Rijo family,
who owned the resort and all the sugarcane fields on the island,
were both revered and reviled.
 Boasting a vibrant nightlife and a slower pace of life, Las Frutas Resort…

Again, Plum hesitated. Wasn’t that an oxymoron? Peaceful and

frenetic? She sounded confused. Plum sighed deeply and snapped
her laptop closed with frustration. Her colleague Lucia glanced up
from her desk and stared at her through her thick glasses, her wise
eyes scrutinizing Plum.
“What’s wrong?” asked Lucia with concern.
The sixty-four-year-old stocky grandmother was a reassuring
presence at Plum Lockhart Luxury Retreats. Lucia was calm,
practical, rarely ruffled, and fortunately one of the most competent
and sharp Paraisons Plum had met.
“It’s so unlike me, but I’m having a difficult time updating our
website and marketing materials,” Plum responded tartly.
“Why do we need to update it?” asked Lucia. “It’s perfect.”
Plum gave her a patient and, yes, patronizing, look. Lucia might be
savvy, but Plum prided herself on being an expert at marketing and
promotion—she would own up to self-promotion as well. She had
the esteemed career to prove her expertise. Her tenacity had helped
her ascend her from a lowly intern at a beauty magazine to the
editor in chief of Travel and Respite Magazine in only a decade.
When the world of publishing went belly-up and her magazine job
imploded earlier this year, Plum left New York City and moved to
Paraiso, diving into a new profession as a villa broker leasing
beautiful mansions to vacationers. She was proud that she had been
nimble and able to reinvent herself without missing a beat.
True, there were a few bumps along the way. Plum had initially
gone to work for Jonathan Mayhew Caribbean Escapes (she would
claim he wooed her; he would claim she begged him), but it had
ended badly, and after only a couple of months, she had set out on
her own and established her eponymous firm. There were also the
pesky abovementioned murders on the island, which Plum somehow
found herself embroiled in through no fault of her own. She swore
she would run for the hills next time she suspected anything close to
homicide in her path.
Despite the setbacks, there was good news as well. Her agency
was gaining traction: she had several villas she now represented,
and clients were reaching out to secure houses for their vacations.
Plum’s romantic life, which had been nonexistent until recently,
showed a glimmer of promise.
“Lucia, it’s important to remain current,” explained Plum in a tone
she thought was instructive but was in reality slightly condescending.
“That’s why I am constantly tweaking.”
“Tweaking, twerking—your silly stuff isn’t necessary,” said Lucia,
waving a dismissive hand in the air.
Plum sighed. “Oh, really?”
“Oh, really, yes,” agreed Lucia emphatically. “Everyone knows
Paraiso is the best island in the world. That’s all you need to say.”
Plum smiled. “I love your patriotism.”
Lucia shrugged. “You can call it patriotism; I call it fact. And no
matter how many fancy words you use like breathtaking, exotic,
tropical, it all means the same thing. I wouldn’t waste any more time
on your descriptions of ‘twinkling’ seas.”
Plum shook her head and stood, her five-foot-ten-inch figure
looming over her tiny gray-haired colleague. “A misused adjective
can decimate a business. You have to trust me. It’s why I was an
instant success as soon as I stepped foot in Paraiso.”
Fortunately, Plum was already striding toward the kitchenette and
did not see Lucia roll her eyes. But Plum knew her colleague well
enough to call her out on it.
 “Don’t roll your eyes at me.” Plum sniffed, swinging open the
refrigerator door and leaning down to scan the contents. “Power is
perception.”
“Says who?” mumbled Lucia from the other room.
“Says about a zillion online business and marketing courses I took,”
chirped Plum, who was always proud of her efforts to better herself
and advance her career.
Plum could hear Lucia retort in Spanish, but as she was still not
completely fluent in the language (“Not even close,” Lucia would
say), she couldn’t understand what her colleague had said. Plum
didn’t see anything worth eating in the fridge (despite it being fully
stocked) and slammed the door shut with gusto. Her eyes flitted
around the kitchen and zeroed in on the platter of Lucia’s homemade
cheese and guava tarts on the counter. In her past life, she hadn’t
cared about food, but Paraiso had unleashed her taste buds, and she
couldn’t get enough of the local fare.
After grabbing a large glass of hibiscus iced tea, Plum wandered
back into her work area, which also doubled as her living room.
Much to her dismay, Plum was still residing and working in a modest
town house in the northernmost part of the resort. It was meant to
be temporary, but there was little inventory available now that it was
high season. Plum would just have to wait to secure a more
appropriate accommodation and a workplace that befit the stature
she felt she deserved.
“Your power is not helping you at all,” mumbled Lucia. “Dead
bodies are piling up.”
Before Plum could answer Lucia, her cell phone rang, and she
returned to her desk to answer it.
“Hi,” said the deep voice on the other end of the phone. “It’s Juan
Kevin.”
 “Hi!” boomed Plum enthusiastically as she dropped into her chair.
Lucia’s expression broke into a smirk. Plum, riled that she still
couldn’t afford separate offices and the decorum of discretion,
swiveled her chair around so her back was to her colleague. Now
Lucia would be unable to witness the goofy unedited grin that had
taken over her face.
“How are you today?” Juan Kevin asked.
Plum had recently had a very cozy lunch date with the tall, dark,
and handsome director of security at Las Frutas, known as Juan
Kevin Muñoz, and she felt like a teenager in the throes of a major
crush.
“I’m well. Finishing some marketing copy before I head off to the
big event,” cooed Plum, in a voice that surprised even her. Was she
flirting?
“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “It’s Carmen Rijo’s ladies’ luncheon.”
“Yes,” agreed Plum. “My social calendar is completely empty, and
then both Carmen Rijo and Alexandra Rijo decide to have a lunch
and dinner on the same day. Seems like an odd choice of scheduling
for two women who hate each other and were married to the same
man.”
“Oh, but it’s not,” Juan Kevin corrected. “It’s actually extremely
calculated. Alexandra Rijo, wife number one, always had her Las
Frutas Charity dinner on the first Friday in April. But when Carmen,
wife number two, came along…”
“You mean when Emilio left her for Carmen,” interjected Plum.
“Yes,” conceded Juan Kevin. “Well, Carmen was obviously excluded
from that dinner and decided she would have an annual lunch on the
same day.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t have a dinner the same night,” remarked
Plum. She stared out the window at a lizard crawling up the palm
tree. “She’s certainly competitive.”
“True. But Carmen is also shrewd and understands that people
would attend Alexandra’s dinner over hers, and why risk the
embarrassment of hosting a dinner when all the luminaries are at
your rival’s?” explained Juan Kevin.
“But a lunch?”
Juan Kevin cleared his throat. “I prefer not to engage in gossip…”
“Please be a gossip,” insisted Plum.
She could hear him sigh on the other end of the phone before he
spoke. “Some less charitable people say that she likes to overserve
the ladies at her lunch so they don’t end up making it to Alexandra’s
dinner.”
Plum laughed. She appreciated Carmen’s cunning. “I suppose I
should be careful,” conceded Plum. “Because I definitely want to
attend both.”
“That’s what I want to ask you. Would you like me to pick you up
on the way to dinner?”
“That would be lovely,” she said.
Plum averted her eyes and purposely did not look at Lucia when
she hung up the phone. Fortunately, Lucia was discreet enough to
refrain from commenting on the burgeoning love affair. After
reopening her computer and making a few more attempts at
amending the website, Plum clicked off. She decided to casually
change the subject.
“So, what’s going on in the world according to Chisme?” asked
Plum.
Chisme was the Spanish word for gossip. It was also the name of a
magazine that circulated through the whole network of resort
workers at Las Frutas. It detailed all the squabbles, fights,
marriages, divorces, and affairs of the villa owners and vacationers.
No one knew who wrote it, but every story always turned out to be
true.
Lucia shrugged and flipped closed her copy. “The owners of Casa
el Kiwi are getting a divorce because the wife was having an affair
with a professional golfer.”
“Really?” asked Plum. “Not sure I know them. But perhaps they’ll
want to rent or sell their villa with the impending divorce. Their
misfortune could be our little gold mine.”
She wrote down the villa’s name and made a note to do some due
diligence. “What other gossip items are there?”
Lucia scanned her magazine and began clucking before glancing
up. “You know the Norwegian zillionaire Arne Larsen?”
Plum shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“He owns Casa el Caqui?” asked Lucia, who continued speaking
when Plum gave her a blank look. “He has recently bought a house
on the ocean in East Hampton, Long Island, and paid sixty-eight
million dollars for it. Díos mío! Who has that money to spend?”
muttered Lucia.
“Sometimes it feels like there is more than one percent out there.”
Plum sighed.
“Sí,” agreed Lucia. “And it says the house in East Hampton is a turn
down!”
“A turn down?” asked Plum, confused. Then she smiled. “A
teardown, you mean.”
“They are going to wreck it. It says here it is next to a hotshot
named David Gifford. He is head of Universal Telecoms. And he
bought his house for ninety million dollars and tore it down!”
A surge of competitiveness seized Plum. “Well, it would be nice if
they would all forgo East Hampton and buy a house through me
here in Paraiso.”
 “That would be nice,” agreed Lucia. “But not tear it down. Too
much.”
“Agreed.”
Development at Las Frutas had exploded due to high demand,
which was both good and bad. It was great for Plum’s business that
there were always people looking to rent or buy villas, but the
construction everywhere could be annoying.
“Isn’t it time you go to your fancy lunch?” asked Lucia, glancing up
at the clock on the wall.
Plum nodded. “Yes, I should get ready.”
“Make sure you wear a necklace made of garlic to ward off the evil
spirits,” Lucia muttered. She was not a huge fan of the Rijo family in
general but particularly disliked Carmen, whom she regarded as a
dangerous home-wrecker.
“I’ll see what I can find in my jewelry box.” Plum laughed. Her
colleague might be full of superstitions, but Plum actually knew Lucia
was incredibly astute and her radical suppositions usually ended up
being prophetic.
Plum went upstairs to her bedroom to freshen up. She changed
out of her casual work outfit and applied a thick layer of sunblock
(her chalk-white skin burned to a crisp without it), then stood in
front of the meek air-conditioning unit until it dried. She longed for
the day she could move and have central air. Once the gummy SPF
cream had been absorbed, she donned a short-sleeved navy
shirtdress with crisp white buttons and slid dangly earrings through
her lobes.
Then it was on to the bathroom to apply her makeup. As she
smoothed gloss on her lips, she eyed her case of false eyelashes and
debated. She hadn’t been wearing them lately and had enjoyed the
more natural look. Not to mention that they often peeled off because
of the mugginess. But the events today were important for
networking and her career, and she had to look like a professional
success. Therefore, she took the painstaking time to paste on the
lashes over her blue eyes, blinking and tearing up as she did so. She
was definitely out of practice!
Plum carefully brushed out her long strawberry-blond Botticelli
curls. As usual, the humidity instantly rendered that useless, and her
hair immediately returned to its Little Orphan Annie origins.
Frustrated, she tied it up in a chignon and stomped out of the
bathroom. She felt cursed by her curly hair. Plum had been
compared to Nicole Kidman in looks, both favorably (Kidman circa
2010) and negatively (Kidman circa 1990). She preferred to think of
herself as looking like the 2010 version, when Nicole had clearly
hired a stylist and full-time hairdresser, but she supposed being
compared to her in any capacity was flattering.
After putting on a pair of open-toe navy leather espadrille wedges,
she stood in front of the mirror and assessed herself. Her mind
immediately went to Juan Kevin, and she wondered if he would
approve. There had been one long kiss so far, and her heart
quickened thinking of the future. It had been a daytime smooch,
when she was leaving his house after a delicious lunch he had
prepared for her. He had taken her in his arms and kissed her gently
as his arm slid down her back before he released her. At the time
she had wanted more, but now she was excited that they were
taking it slowly. Or at least had been taking it slowly. She had other
plans for tonight.
 Chapter 2

Lemon verbena, coconut, and sea mist scented the languid April day.
The sun was blazing down as Plum steered her golf cart toward
Carmen Rijo’s cliffside mansion. Although Plum had recently
purchased a used car she revered and doted on, she had opted to
leave it at the condo and drive the golf cart to the party. She had
learned that the small vehicle could be squeezed into tight spots,
which afforded her an immense advantage when she attended large
gatherings with a clotted parking lot. While her fellow revelers
angled for the valets’ attention, she could quickly abscond.
There was zero breeze and a cloudless sky, and Plum could already
feel her body temperature rise. This would be her first spring living
in the Caribbean, and she would have to remember to stay hydrated
and SPF protected to survive. A sun hat was simply not an option; it
made her feel old-ladyish and dated, like one of those extras on an
eighties soap opera with big shoulder pads.
Plum turned down a road that hugged the coastline and headed
toward the Mediterranean behemoth where Emilio Rijo had spent his
last years with his trophy wife, Carmen, before his death. It was
situated on a peninsula with its own private beach at the
westernmost end of the resort. Plum harbored wild fantasies about
representing all these villas one day and renting them out for top
dollar. It was part of her grand professional scheme.
 After giving her name to the guards at the gate, she circumvented
the valets clamoring to park her golf cart and pulled under a shaded
palm tree at the end of the driveway, ignoring the valets’ dirty looks.
She gazed up at the capacious mega mansion with its barrel-tiled
roof and large picture windows and put on her party face. Even
though she had navigated all levels of society on her own, she often
experienced waves of insecurity when she remembered her humble
beginnings as a lower-class girl from the middle of nowhere. Quickly
taking a deep breath and brushing all other thoughts away, Plum
followed the stream of women entering the house. She walked
through the double-height reception hall with a winding floating
staircase and lavishly embellished decor to reach the lush garden.
“I’m so happy you could come,” purred Carmen Rijo when Plum
reached the front of the long receiving line. Carmen double kissed
Plum and clasped her hands with her own heavily bejeweled ones,
which Plum noted were cold.
“Thank you so much for having me,” Plum replied.
“I invite the most important and successful women on Paraiso to
my exclusive lunch. You, my new friend, are one of them,” she
announced in what Plum considered a rehearsed manner.
“I’m flattered,” said Plum.
“And may I say your hair looks so interesting today,” added
Carmen. “I know you are up on all the fashion trends, so this new
natural look with frizz must be in all the fashion magazines.”
Plum’s hand flew to her hair, and she realized some of her curls
had escaped her chignon and were hanging freely and haphazardly
in twisted side ringlets. She wanted to scream.
Alternatively, Carmen, a bombshell in every sense of the word, was
completely done to perfection. Her long glossy black hair cascaded
down the back of her sexy red cocktail dress in an effortless manner.
Her makeup was immaculate, with her plump lips painted a bright
red and her heavily lashed dark eyes lined a deep charcoal.
“My hair has a mind of its own,” said Plum with faux casualness.
“Now, you must have one of my signature cocktails,” Carmen
insisted. She snapped her fingers at a waiter holding a silver tray full
of frothy drinks and summoned him over.
“These are the Carmenitos,” she said when the waiter arrived.
Plum demurred. “I’m not a big day drinker. I’ll just have seltzer,”
she said to the waiter.
Carmen waved her red lacquered fingernails in the air. “Don’t
worry, I have virgin Carmenitos also. They have the pink umbrellas
in them.”
“Oh, okay,” Plum said with hesitation. She retrieved one from the
waiter and took a sip. It was actually quite good. “Delicious.”
As Plum was still a relatively recent arrival to the island and had
mostly kept herself busy with her work or by inadvertently solving
murders, she had very few acquaintances. Nearly all the guests
seemed to know each other and broke off into small klatches to
gossip and catch up. Plum tried not to allow the exclusion to faze
her. She strolled around the sprawling grounds, clutching her
mocktail and giving the impression that she was intensely interested
in the pink and yellow hibiscuses, white and magenta bougainvilleas,
and flaming-orange pride of Barbados that edged the property.
“Plum? How are you, sugar?” drawled Leslie Abernathy in her
Texan accent.
“Leslie!” said Plum with an enthusiasm that surprised her. “Good to
see you.”
Leslie Abernathy was an extremely fit and tan blond in her sixties
who passed as a much younger woman from a distance. The error
could be jarring to people who approached her assuming she was a
teenager only to come face-to-face with someone who had
submitted herself to every surgical treatment and dermatological
advancement possible. She also favored outfits one would find on a
pop star, and today was no different. She had on a lavender romper
with a plunging neckline.
“You too, doll,” said Leslie, grabbing a cocktail with a blue umbrella
from the waiter. She pressed her puffed-up lips onto the straw and
drained a large swig. “Aren’t these divine?”
Plum nodded. “Very delicious.”
“I am so happy to be here today. You cannot believe the week I’ve
had! There were some troubling circumstances happening on my
ranch in Waco, so I had to pop up to settle some scores and get
some heads rolling! Let’s just say you won’t be seeing my former
stepson around for a long, long time.” She chuckled.
“Oh dear,” said Plum, who recalled that Leslie had hinted at a dark
and dangerous past full of sketchy ex-husbands.
Leslie smiled (as much as possible with her frozen face muscles).
“Now, don’t get your panties in a bunch, doll. He’s still on the face of
this earth, just won’t be storming around the property that his daddy
rightfully left to me.”
“I guess that’s…good,” said Plum.
“It sure as heck is. And that’s what I tell Carmen she needs to do
with that nasty stepson of hers. Martin is a damn menace, and he
makes her life a living, breathing hell! It’s time she took matters into
her own hands and taught him a lesson he won’t forget,” said Leslie
firmly, taking a large sip of her drink.
“Martin is a very frightening individual,” Plum agreed, recalling her
own harrowing interactions with him. Her eyes flitted around the
property to make sure he was nowhere to be seen. The last party
she had attended at Carmen’s, he had crashed and made a scene.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 supply or medical departments is known to have been court
martialed or even censured. Yet I do not hesitate to say that
the summary dismissal from the service, in the beginning, of
two or three quartermasters and commissaries, including the
gentlemen who were the cause of sending thousands of cars to
Tampa without invoices or anything on the outside of them to
indicate their contents, would have saved the lives of
hundreds of our soldiers. Under these circumstances it is most
lamentable to find that the awful experiences which have made
so many homes desolate, and so many of our best young men
invalids, have borne no practical fruit. Both the army
officials and Congress are like the Bourbons, they 'have
learned nothing and forgotten nothing.'"

G. W. Wingate,
What the Beef Scandal Teaches
(Independent, April 6, 1899).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.

Joint High Commission for settlement of
pending questions with Canada.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October).

Military government of Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-January).

Instructions by the President to General Otis,
Military Governor of the Philippines.
Their proclamation by the latter in a modified form.
The effect.
 See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-JANUARY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January).

The case of Commissary-General Eagan.

A court-martial, sitting in January, 1899, for the trial of

Commissary-General Eagan, on the charge that he had been
guilty of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and
conduct to the prejudice of good order and military
discipline," in the abusive language that he had applied to
the commanding general of the army, in the course of his
testimony before the Commission to investigate the conduct of
the War Department found the accused officer guilty, and
imposed the inevitable penalty of dismissal from the service,
but recommended executive clemency in his case.

See:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.

The sentence was commuted by the President to suspension from

rank and duty for six years. This involved no loss of pay,
and, at the end of six years, General Eagan will go on the
retired list.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January).

Appointment of the First Commission to the Philippines.
The President's instructions to the Commissioners.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January-February).

The Treaty of Peace in the Senate.
Its ratification.

The Treaty of Peace with Spain, signed at Paris December 10,

1898, was sent by the President to the Senate on the 4th of
January, 1899, and held under debate in that body until the
6th of February following. The opposition to it was very
strong, being especially directed against the acquisition of
the Philippine Islands, involving, as that acquisition did,
the embarkation of the Republic in a colonial or imperial
policy, of conquest and of government without the consent of
the governed, which seemed to a great number of thoughtful
people, not only incongruous with its constitution, but a
dangerous violation of the principles on which its republican
polity is founded. But even those most opposed to the
acquisition of the Philippine Islands were reluctant to reopen
the state of war by rejection of the treaty, and directed
their efforts mainly towards the securing of a definite
declaration from Congress of the intention of the government
of the United States to establish independence in the islands.

"Even before the signing of the treaty at Paris, on the 6th of

December, when the demand of the American commissioners for
cession of the Philippines was known, the opposition expressed
itself in the following resolution, introduced by Senator
Vest, of Missouri:

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America in Congress assembled. That under the
Constitution of the United States no power is given to the
Federal Government to acquire territory to be held and
governed permanently as colonies. The colonial system of
European nations can not be established under our present
Constitution, but all territory acquired by the Government,
except such small amount as may be necessary for coaling
stations, correction of boundaries, and similar governmental
purposes, must be acquired and governed with the purpose of
ultimately organizing such territory into States suitable for
admission into the Union."

This resolution became the ground of much senatorial debate

 during the following weeks. The arguments opposed to it, and
supporting the policy of the administration, are represented
fairly by the following passage from a speech made by Senator
Platt, of Connecticut, on December 16:

{635}

"I propose to maintain that the United States is a nation;

that as a nation it possesses every sovereign power not
reserved in its Constitution to the States or the people; that
the right to acquire territory was not reserved, and is
therefore an inherent sovereign right; that is a right upon
which there is no limitation, and with regard to which there
is no qualification; that in certain instances the right may
be inferred from specific clauses in the Constitution, but
that it exists independent of these clauses; that in the right
to acquire territory is found the right to govern it; and as
the right to acquire is a sovereign and inherent right, the
right to govern is a sovereign right not limited in the
Constitution, and that these propositions are in accordance
with the views of the framers of the Constitution, the
decisions of the Supreme Court, and the legislation of
Congress.

"Mr. President, this is a nation. It has been called by

various names. It has been called a Confederated Republic, a
Federal Union, the Union of States, a league of States, a rope
of sand; but during all the time these names have been applied
to it it has been a nation. It was so understood by the
framers of the Constitution. It was so decided by the great
judges of the Supreme Court in the early days of the
Constitution. It is too late to deny it, and, Mr. President,
it is also too late to admit it, and not have faith in it.
Intellectual assent to the doctrines of Christianity does not
make a man a Christian. It is saving faith that makes the
Christian. And a mere intellectual assent to the doctrine that
we are a nation does not make the true patriot. It is high
time that we come to believe without qualification, to believe
in our hearts, in the exercise of patriotic faith, that the
United States is a nation. When we come to believe that, Mr.
President, many of the doubts and uncertainties which have
troubled men will disappear.

"It is time to be heroic in our faith and to assert all the

power that belongs to the nation as a nation. … The attempt to
shear the United States of a portion of its sovereign power is
an attempt which may well be thoroughly and fully discussed.
In the right to acquire territory is found the right to
govern, and as the right to acquire is sovereign and
unlimited, the right to govern is a sovereign right, and I
maintain is not limited in the Constitution. If I am right in
holding that the power to acquire is the sovereign power
without limitation, I think it must be admitted that the right
to govern is also sovereign and unlimited. But if it is sought
to rest the right to govern upon that clause of the
Constitution which gives Congress the power to dispose of or
make 'all needful rules and regulations' for the government of
the territory of the United States, I submit there is no
limitation there. There is no qualification there."

On the 4th of January the Senate received the treaty from the
President. On the 7th, Senator Mason, of Illinois, introduced
the following resolution, and, subsequently, spoke with
earnestness in its support:

"Whereas all just powers of government are derived from the

consent of the governed: Therefore, be it

"Resolved by the Senate of the United States, That the

Government of the United States of America will not attempt to
govern the people of any other country in the world without
the consent of the people themselves, or subject them by force
to our dominion against their will."
On the 9th an impressive speech was made by Senator Hoar, of
Massachusetts, mainly in reply to Senator Platt. He spoke
partly as follows:

"Mr. President, I am quite sure that no man who will hear or

who will read what I say today will doubt that nothing could
induce me to say it but a commanding sense of public duty. I
think I dislike more than most men to differ from men with
whom I have so long and so constantly agreed. I dislike to
differ from the President, whose election I hailed with such
personal satisfaction and such exulting anticipations for the
Republic. I dislike to differ from so many of my party
associates in this Chamber, with whom I have for so many years
trod the same path and sought the same goal. I am one of those
men who believe that little that is great or good or permanent
for a free people can be accomplished without the
instrumentality of party. And I have believed religiously, and
from my soul, for half a century, in the great doctrines and
principles of the Republican party. I stood in a humble
capacity by its cradle. I do not mean, if I can help it, to
follow its hearse. I am sure I render it a service; I am sure
I help to protect and to prolong the life of that great
organization, if I can say or can do anything to keep it from
forsaking the great principles and doctrines in which alone it
must live or bear no life. I must, in this great crisis,
discharge the trust my beloved Commonwealth has committed to
me according to my sense of duty as I see it. However
unpleasant may be that duty, as Martin Luther said, 'God help
me. I can do no otherwise.'

"I am to speak for my country, for its whole past and for its
whole future. I am to speak to a people whose fate is bound up
in the preservation of our great doctrine of constitutional
liberty. I am to speak for the dead soldier who gave his life
for liberty that his death might set a seal upon his country's
historic glory. I am to speak for the Republican party, all of
whose great traditions are at stake, and all of whose great
 achievements are in peril. …

"The question with which we now have to deal is whether

Congress may conquer and may govern, without their consent and
against their will, a foreign nation, a separate, distinct,
and numerous people, a territory not hereafter to be populated
by Americans, to be formed into American States and to take its
part in fulfilling and executing the purposes for which the
Constitution was framed, whether it may conquer, control, and
govern this people, not for the general welfare, common
defense, more perfect union, more blessed liberty of the
people of the United States, but for some real or fancied
benefit to be conferred against their desire upon the people
so governed or in discharge of some fancied obligation to
them, and not to the people of the United States.

"Now, Mr. President, the question is whether the men who

framed the Constitution, or the people who adopted it, meant
to confer that power among the limited and restrained powers
of the sovereign nation that they were creating. Upon that
question I take issue with my honorable friend from
Connecticut.
{636}
I declare not only that this is not among the express powers
conferred upon the sovereignty they created, that it is not
among the powers necessarily or reasonably or conveniently
implied for the sake of carrying into effect the purposes of
that instrument, but that it is a power which it can be
demonstrated by the whole contemporaneous history and by our
whole history since until within six months they did not mean
should exist—a power that our fathers and their descendants
have ever loathed and abhorred—and that they believed that no
sovereign on earth could rightfully exercise it, and that no
people on earth could rightfully confer it. They not only did
not mean to confer it, but they would have cut off their right
hands, everyone of them, sooner than set them to an instrument
which should confer it. …
"The great contemporaneous exposition of the Constitution is
to be found in the Declaration of Independence. Over every
clause, syllable, and letter of the Constitution the
Declaration of Independence pours its blazing torch-light. The
same men framed it. The same States confirmed it. The same
people pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor to support it. The great characters in the
Constitutional Convention were the great characters of the
Continental Congress. There are undoubtedly, among its burning
and shining truths, one or two which the convention that
adopted it were not prepared themselves at once to put into
practice. But they placed them before their countrymen as an
ideal moral law to which the liberty of the people was to
aspire and to ascend as soon as the nature of existing
conditions would admit. Doubtless slavery was inconsistent
with it, as Jefferson, its great author, has in more than one
place left on record. But at last in the strife of a great
civil war the truth of the Declaration prevailed and the
falsehood of slavery went down, and at last the Constitution
of the United States conformed to the Declaration and it has
become the law of the land, and its great doctrines of liberty
are written upon the American flag wherever the American flag
floats. Who shall haul them down?"

Two days later (January 11) the following resolutions were

introduced by Senator Bacon, of Georgia:

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America in Congress assembled,

First, That the Government and people of the United States

have not waged the recent war with Spain for conquest and for
the acquisition of foreign territory, but solely for the
purposes set forth in the resolution of Congress making the
declaration of said war, the acquisition of such small tracts
of land or harbors as may be necessary for governmental
purposes being not deemed inconsistent with the same.

"Second. That in demanding and in receiving the cession of the

Philippine Islands it is not the purpose of the Government of
the United States to secure and maintain dominion over the
same as a part of the territory of the United States, or to
incorporate the inhabitants thereof as citizens of the United
States, or to hold said inhabitants as vassals or subjects of
this Government.

"Third. That whereas at the time of the declaration of war by

the United States against Spain, and prior thereto, the
inhabitants of the Philippine Islands were actively engaged in
a war with Spain to achieve their independence, and whereas
said purpose and the military operations thereunder have not
been abandoned, but are still being actively prosecuted
thereunder, therefore, in recognition of and in obedience to
the vital principle announced in the great declaration that
governments derive 'their just powers from the consent of the
governed,' the Government of the United States recognizes that
the people of the Philippine Islands of a right ought to be
free and independent; that, with this view and to give effect
to the same, the Government of the United States has required
the Government of Spain to relinquish its authority and
government in the Philippine Islands and to withdraw its land
and naval forces from the Philippine Islands and from the
waters thereof.

"Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaim any

disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,
jurisdiction, or control over said islands, and assert their
determination when an independent government shall have been
duly erected therein entitled to recognition as such, to
transfer to said government, upon terms which shall be
reasonable and just, all rights secured under the cession by
Spain, and to thereupon leave the government and control of
the islands to their people."
 On the 13th, Senator McLaurin, of South Carolina, returned to
the question of constitutional power in the government of the
United States to hold territory in a permanently subject
state, and spoke against the view maintained by Senator Platt,
of Connecticut: "To hold," he said, "that there is an inherent
power of sovereignty in the nation, outside of the
Constitution, to do something not authorized by that
instrument is to place this 'inherent sovereignty' above the
Constitution and thus destroy the very foundation upon which
constitutional government rests. Judge Gray in the
Chinese-exclusion case, said: 'The United States are a
sovereign and independent nation, and are invested by the
Constitution with the entire control of international
relations and with all the powers of government necessary to
maintain that control and make it effective.' While holding
that the United States are a sovereign and independent nation,
it will be seen that he also holds that the sovereignty of the
nation is vested by the Constitution; and if so, it can only
be exercised in the mode pointed out in the Constitution and
is controlled by the words of the grant of this sovereignty.
There was no nation of the United States until the adoption of
the Federal Constitution; hence before that time there could
be no sovereignty of the nation. What conferred this
sovereignty? Clearly the States, by and through the Federal
Constitution. If so, then there can be no inherent right of
sovereignty except that conferred by the Constitution.

"The Senator further contends that we are a sovereign nation,

and as such have the same inherent right to acquire territory
as England, France, Germany, and Mexico. I controvert that
proposition. The sovereignty of the nation of Great Britain
and the others is vested in the people, and has never been
delegated and limited as in our country. These Governments
enjoy sovereignty in its elementary form.
{637}
What the government wills it may do without considering the
act or its consequences in the light of an organic law of
binding obligation. Our Government is in a very different
position. The Federal Constitution is the embodiment of the
sovereignty of the United States as a nation, and this
sovereignty can only be exercised in accordance with the
powers contained in its provisions. Great Britain can do
anything as a nation in the way of the exercise of
governmental functions. There is nothing to prohibit or
restrict the fullest exercise of her sovereignty as a nation.
Hence there is no analogy, and the sovereignty of the United
States as a nation differs widely from that of Great Britain.

"It is further contended that a sovereign right can not be

limited and that all our Constitution can do is to prescribe
the manner in which it can be exercised. If, as already shown,
the sovereignty of the United States was conferred by the
States through the Federal Constitution, it is clear that, in
conferring the power and prescribing the manner of its
exercise, they did set a limit in the very terms of the
instrument itself. I deny, therefore, that the United States
as a nation has a sovereign, inherent right and control
outside of the grant of such power in the Constitution. This
is not an essential element of nationality so far as our
nation is concerned, although it may be in England or Russia,
where the nationality and sovereignty incident to it are not
created and limited by a written constitution."

On the 14th of January, Mr. Hoar submitted the following:

"Resolved, That the people of the Philippine islands of right

ought to be free and independent; that they are absolved from
all allegiance to the Spanish Crown, and that all political
connection between them and Spain is and ought to be totally
dissolved, and that they have, therefore, full power to do all
acts and things which independent states may of right do; that
it is their right to institute a new government for
themselves, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness; and that with
these rights the people of the United States do not propose to
interfere."

On the 18th, Mr. Bacon amended his resolutions, given above,

by changing the phrase "an independent government" to "a
stable and independent government," and then spoke upon them
with force, saying, among other things: "The simple fact that
we went to war with Spain did not devolve upon us any
obligation with reference to the Philippine Islands. We went
to war with Spain not for the purpose of correcting all the
evils with which her people were afflicted; we went to war
with Spain not to break the chains of tyranny with which she
might be binding her different colonies: we did not undertake
to be the great universal benefactor and to right all the
wrongs of all the world, or even all the wrongs that Spain
might be inflicting upon any of her people. "We went to war
because a particular colony which she was afflicting lay at
our doors; we went to war because the disorders of that
Government affected the peace of our community and were
injurious to our material interest. We said there was a
condition of affairs which was unbearable and that we would
put an end to it.

"To that extent and to that alone we claimed and avowed the
reason for the declaration of war. So it follows that the mere
declaration of war did not affect in any manner our relations
with the Philippine Islands except to put us in a state of war
with them as a part of the Spanish domain, and in no manner
laid any obligations upon us as to those islands. We were not
charged with the duty of preserving order in Asia. We were not
charged with the obligations of seeing that they had a stable
and orderly government in any part of that hemisphere. No such
duty rested upon us. None such was assumed by us. Therefore
the simple declaration of war did not lay any obligation upon
us as to the Philippine Islands, and I desire that any Senator
will put his finger upon the act which laid us under any
obligations to the Philippine Islands outside of the fact that
in the war which ensued we took those who were the insurgents
in those islands to be our allies and made a common cause with
them.

"Now, Mr. President, all that grows out of that—all that grows
out of the fact of that cooperation and that alliance—is to
impose upon us a single obligation which we must not ignore.
How far does that obligation go? Does it require that we shall
for all time undertake to be the guardians of the Philippine
Islands? Does that particular obligation lay upon us the duty
hereafter, not only now but for years to come, to maintain an
expensive military establishment, to burden our people with
debt, to run the risk of becoming involved in wars in order
that we may keep our hands upon the Philippine Islands and
keep them in proper condition hereafter? I am unable to see
how the obligation growing out of the fact that they were our
allies can possibly be extended to that degree. No Senator has
yet shown any reason why such an obligation rests upon us, and
I venture to say that none which is logical will or can be
shown."

The practical considerations, of circumstance and expediency,

which probably had more influence than those of law or
principle, were strongly urged by Senator Lodge, of
Massachusetts, who said, on the 24th:

"Suppose we ratify the treaty. The islands pass from the

possession of Spain into our possession without committing us
to any policy. I believe we can be trusted as a people to deal
honestly and justly with the islands and their inhabitants
thus given to our care. What our precise policy shall be I do
not know, because I for one am not sufficiently informed as to
the conditions there to be able to say what it will be best to
do, nor, I may add, do I think anyone is. But I believe that
we shall have the wisdom not to attempt to incorporate those
 islands with our body politic, or make their inhabitants part
of our citizenship, or set their labor alongside of ours and
within our tariff to compete in any industry with American
workmen. I believe that we shall have the courage not to
depart from those islands fearfully, timidly, and unworthily
and leave them to anarchy among themselves, to the brief and
bloody domination of some self-constituted dictator, and to
the quick conquest of other powers, who will have no such
hesitation as we should feel in crushing them into subjection
by harsh and repressive methods. It is for us to decide the
destiny of the Philippines, not for Europe, and we can do it
alone and without assistance. …

{638}

"During the campaign of last autumn I said in many speeches to

the people of my State that I could never assent to hand those
islands back to Spain; that I wanted no subject races and no
vassal States; but that we had by the fortunes of war assumed
a great responsibility in the Philippines; that we ought to
meet it, and that we ought to give to those people an
opportunity for freedom, for peace, and for self-government;
that we ought to protect them from the rapacity of other
nations and seek to uplift those whom we had freed. From those
views I have never swerved, and I believed then, as I believe
now, that they met with the approbation of an overwhelming
majority of the people of Massachusetts. …

"Take now the other alternative. Suppose we reject the treaty

or strike out the clause relating to the Philippines. That
will hand the islands back to Spain; and I cannot conceive
that any American should be willing to do that. Suppose we
reject the treaty: what follows? Let us look at it
practically. We continue the state of war, and every sensible
man in the country, every business interest, desires the
re-establishment of peace in law as well as in fact. At the
same time we repudiate the President and his action before the
whole world, and the repudiation of the President in such a
matter as this is, to my mind, the humiliation of the United
States in the eyes of civilized mankind and brands us a people
incapable of great affairs or of taking rank where we belong,
as one of the greatest of the great world powers.

"The President cannot be sent back across the Atlantic in the

person of his commissioners, hat in hand, to say to Spain,
with bated breath, 'I am here in obedience to the mandate of a
minority of one-third of the Senate to tell you that we have
been too victorious, and that you have yielded us too much,
and that I am very sorry that I took the Philippines from
you.' I do not think that any American President would do
that, or that any American would wish him to."

Senator Harris, of Kansas, submitted the following on the 3d

of February:

"Resolved by the Senate of the United States of America, That

the United States hereby disclaim any disposition or intention
to exercise permanent sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control
over the Philippine Islands, and assert their determination,
when a stable and independent government shall have been
erected therein entitled to recognition as such, to transfer
to said government, upon terms which shall be reasonable and
just, all rights secured under the cession by Spain, and to
thereupon leave the government and control of the islands to
their people."

The following was offered on the 27th of January by Senator

Sullivan, of Mississippi:

"Resolved, That the ratification of the pending treaty of

peace with Spain shall in no wise determine the policy to be
pursued by the United States in regard to the Philippines, nor
shall it commit this Government to a colonial policy; nor is
it intended to embarrass the establishment of a stable,
independent government by the people of those islands whenever
conditions make such a proceeding hopeful of successful and
desirable results."

On the same day a joint resolution was proposed by Senator

Lindsay, of Kentucky:

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
acquisition by the United States, through conquest, treaty, or
otherwise, of territory, carries with it no constitutional
obligation to admit said territory, or any portion thereof,
into the Federal Union as a State or States.

"Section 2.
That it is against the policy, traditions, and interests of
the American people to admit states erected out of other than
North American territory into our union of American States.

"Section 3.
That the United States accept from Spain the cession of the
Philippine Islands with the hope that the people of those
islands will demonstrate their capacity to establish and
maintain a stable government, capable of enforcing law and
order at home and of discharging the international obligations
resting on separate and independent States, and with no
expectation of permanently holding those islands as colonies
or provinces after they shall demonstrate their capacity for
self-government, the United States to be the judge of such
capacity."

None of the resolutions given above obtained favorable

consideration in the Senate. On the 6th of February the treaty
was ratified, by one vote in excess of the two-thirds which
the constitution requires. It received 57 votes against 27, or
61 against 29 if account be taken of senators absent and
paired. Of the supporters of the treaty, 42 were Republicans;
 of its opponents, 24 were Democrats. It was signed by
President McKinley on the 10th of February, and by the Queen
of Spain on the 17th of March.

After the ratification of the treaty, the Senate, by 26 votes

against 22, adopted the following resolution, offered by Mr.
McEnery of Louisiana:

"Resolved, That by the ratification of the treaty of peace

with Spain it is not intended to incorporate the inhabitants
of the Philippine islands into citizenship of the United
States, nor is it intended to permanently annex said islands
as an integral part of the territory of the United States. But
it is the intention of the United States to establish on said
islands a government suitable to the wants and conditions of
the inhabitants of said islands, to prepare them for local
self-government, and in due time to make such disposition of
said islands as will best promote the interests of the
citizens of the United States and the inhabitants of said
islands."

Congressional Record,
December 6, 1898—February 6, 1899.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (January-November).

Attack on Americans at Manila by Aguinaldo's forces.
Continued hostilities.
Progress of American conquest.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (March).

Appointment of the Isthmian Canal Commission.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1889-1899.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (May).
Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.

See (in this volume)

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1899.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (June-October).

Arbitration and settlement of the Venezuela boundary question.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.

{639}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (July).

Cabinet change.

General Russel A. Alger resigned his place in the President's

Cabinet as Secretary of War, in July, and was succeeded by the
Honorable Elihu Root, of New York.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (July).

Provisional government established in the island of Negros.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-JULY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (October).

Report of conditions in Cuba by the Military Governor.
 See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (October).

Modus Vivendi fixing provisional boundary line between Alaska
and Canada.

See (in this volume)

ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).

Death of Vice-President Hobart.

Honorable Garret A. Hobart, Vice-President of the United

States, died November 21. Under the Act provided for this
contingency, the Secretary of State then became the successor
to the President, in the event of the death of the latter
before the expiration of his term.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).

Re-arrangement of affairs in the Samoan Islands.
Acquisition of the eastern group, with Pago Pago harbor.

See (in this volume)

SAMOAN ISLANDS.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1900 (September-February).

Arrangement with European Powers of the commercial policy
of the "open-door" in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1900 (November-

November).
Continued military operations in the Philippines.
 See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.

Reciprocity arrangements under the Dingley Tariff Act,
not ratified by the Senate.

The Dingley Tariff Act, which became law on the 24th of July,
1897, authorized the making of tariff concessions to other
countries on terms of reciprocity, if negotiated within two
years from the above date. At the expiration of two years,
such conventions of reciprocity had been arranged with France
and Portugal, and with Great Britain for her West Indian
colonies of Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Bermuda, and British
Guiana. With France, a preliminary treaty signed in May, 1898,
was superseded in July, 1899, by one of broader scope, which
opens the French markets to an extensive list of American
commodities at the minimum rates of the French tariff, and
cuts the American tariff from 5 to 20 per cent. on many French
products, not inclusive of sparkling wines. In the treaty with
Portugal, the reduction of American duties on wines is more
general. The reciprocal reduction on American products extends
to many agricultural and mineral products. The reciprocal
agreement with the British West Indies covers sugar, fruits,
garden products, coffee and asphalt, on one side, and flour,
meat, cotton goods, agricultural machinery, oils, etc., on the
other.

None of these treaties was acted upon by the United States

Senate during the session of 1899-1900, and it became
necessary to extend the time for their ratification, which was
done. Some additional reciprocity agreements were then
negotiated, of which the following statement was made by the
President in his Message to Congress, December 3, 1900:

"Since my last communication to the Congress on this subject

special commercial agreements under the third section of the