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diff --git a/26064.txt b/26064.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6e5e56 --- /dev/null +++ b/26064.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6588 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Problems of Expansion, by Whitelaw Reid + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Problems of Expansion + As Considered In Papers and Addresses + +Author: Whitelaw Reid + +Release Date: July 15, 2008 [EBook #26064] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF EXPANSION *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +PROBLEMS OF EXPANSION + +AS CONSIDERED IN PAPERS AND ADDRESSES + + + +BY + +WHITELAW REID + + + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1900 + +Copyright, 1898, 1900, by +THE CENTURY CO. + +THE DEVINNE PRESS. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +So general have been the expressions as to the value of these scattered +papers and addresses that I have thought it a useful service to gather +them together from the authorized publications at the time, or, in some +cases, from newspaper reports, and (with the consent of the Century Co. +and of Mr. John Lane for the copyrighted articles) to embody them +consecutively, in the order of their several dates, in this volume. + +The article entitled "The Territory with which We are Threatened" was +prepared before the appointment of its author as a member of the +Commission to negotiate terms of peace with Spain, and published only a +few days afterward. This circumstance attracted unusual attention to +its views about retaining the territory the country had taken. + +As to the attitude of every one else connected officially with the +determination of that question there has been, naturally, more or less +diplomatic reserve; but the position of Mr. Reid before he was +appointed was thus clearly revealed. When the storm of opposition was +apparently reaching its height, in June, 1899, he took occasion to avow +explicitly the course it was obvious he must have recommended. In his +address at the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Miami University, referring +to some apparently authorized despatches on the subject from +Washington, he said: "I readily take the time which hostile critics +consider unfavorable, for accepting my own share of responsibility, and +for avowing for myself that I declared my belief in the duty and policy +of holding the whole Philippine Archipelago in the very first +conference of the Commissioners in the President's room at the White +House, in advance of any instructions of any sort. If vindication for +it be needed, I confidently await the future." + +This measure of responsibility for the expansion policy upon which the +country is launched has necessarily given special interest to Mr. +Reid's subsequent discussions of the various problems it has raised. +They have been called for on important occasions both abroad and in all +parts of our own country. They have covered many phases of the subject, +but have preserved a singular uniformity of purpose and consistency of +ideas throughout. They appeared at times when public men often seemed +to be groping in the dark on an unknown road, but it is now evident +that the road which has been taken is substantially the road they +marked out. As a foreign critic said in comment on one of the +addresses: "The author is one man who knows what he thinks about the +new policy required by the new situation in which his country is +placed, and has the courage and candor to say it." + +It has seemed desirable with each paper and address to prefix a brief +record of the circumstances under which it was made. A few memoranda +which Mr. Reid had prepared to elucidate the text are added, in +foot-notes and in the Appendices which include the Resolutions of +Congress as to Cuba, the Protocol of Washington, and the text of the +Peace of Paris. + + +C. C. BUEL. + +NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK, +May 25, 1900. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Page + + I. THE TERRITORY WITH WHICH WE ARE THREATENED 1 + In "The Century," September, 1898. + + II. WAS IT TOO GOOD A TREATY? 25 + At the Lotos Club, New York, February 11, 1899. + + III. PURPORT OF THE TREATY 35 + At the Marquette Club, Chicago, February 13, 1899. + + IV. THE DUTIES OF PEACE 53 + At the Ohio Society dinner, New York, February 25, 1899. + + V. THE OPEN DOOR 65 + At the dinner of the American-Asiatic Association, + New York, February 23, 1899. + + VI. SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF PARIS 71 + From "The Anglo-Saxon Review," June, 1899. + + VII. OUR NEW DUTIES 109 + Address at the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Miami + University, June 15, 1899. + +VIII. LATER ASPECTS OF OUR NEW DUTIES 161 + At Princeton University, on Commemoration Day, + October 21, 1899. + + IX. A CONTINENTAL UNION 199 + At the Massachusetts Club, Boston, March 3, 1900. + + X. OUR NEW INTERESTS 221 + At the University of California, on Charter Day, + March 23, 1900. + + XI. "UNOFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS" 259 + At the Farewell Banquet to the Philippine Commission, + San Francisco, April 12, 1900. + + + + +APPENDICES + +1. POWER TO ACQUIRE AND GOVERN TERRITORY 271 + +2. THE TARIFF IN UNITED STATES TERRITORY 277 + +3. THE RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS AS TO CUBA 280 + +4. THE PROTOCOL OF WASHINGTON 282 + +5. THE PEACE OF PARIS 285 + + + + +I + +THE TERRITORY WITH WHICH WE ARE THREATENED + +This paper first appeared in "The Century Magazine" for September, +1898, for which it was written some time before the author's +appointment as a member of the Paris Commission to negotiate the terms +of peace with Spain, and, in fact, before hostilities had been +suspended or the peace protocol agreed upon in Washington. + + + + +THE TERRITORY WITH WHICH WE ARE THREATENED + + +Men are everywhere asking what should be our course about the territory +conquered in this war. Some inquire merely if it is good policy for the +United States to abandon its continental limitations, and extend its +rule over semi-tropical countries with mixed populations. Others ask if +it would not be the wisest policy to give them away after conquering +them, or abandon them. They say it would be ruinous to admit them as +States to equal rights with ourselves, and contrary to the Constitution +to hold them permanently as Territories. It would be bad policy, they +argue, to lower the standard of our population by taking in hordes of +West Indians and Asiatics; bad policy to run any chance of allowing +these people to become some day joint arbiters with ourselves of the +national destinies; bad policy to abandon the principles of +Washington's Farewell Address, to which we have adhered for a century, +and involve ourselves in the Eastern question, or in the entanglements +of European politics. + +The men who raise these questions are sincere and patriotic. They are +now all loyally supporting the Government in the prosecution of the war +which some of them were active in bringing on, and others to the last +deprecated and resisted. Their doubts and difficulties deserve the +fairest consideration, and are of pressing importance. + +[Sidenote: Duty First, not Policy.] + +But is there not another question, more important, which first demands +consideration? Have we the right to decide whether we shall hold or +abandon the conquered territory, solely, or even mainly as a matter of +national policy? Are we not bound by our own acts, and by the +responsibility we have voluntarily assumed before Spain, before Europe, +and before the civilized world, to consider it first in the light of +national duty? + +For that consideration it is not needful now to raise the question +whether we were in every particular justifiable for our share in the +transactions leading to the war. However men's opinions on that point +may differ, the Nation is now at war for a good cause, and has in a +vigorous prosecution of it the loyal and zealous support of all good +citizens. + +The President intervened, with our Army and Navy, under the direct +command of Congress, to put down Spanish rule in Cuba, on the distinct +ground that it was a rule too bad to be longer endured. Are we not, +then, bound in honor and morals to see to it that the government which +replaces Spanish rule is better? Are we not morally culpable and +disgraced before the civilized world if we leave it as bad or worse? +Can any consideration of mere policy, of our own interests, or our own +ease and comfort, free us from that solemn responsibility which we have +voluntarily assumed, and for which we have lavishly spilled American +and Spanish blood? + +Most people now realize from what a mistake Congress was kept by the +firm attitude of the President in opposing a recognition of the +so-called Cuban Republic of Cubitas. It is now generally understood +that virtually there was no Cuban Republic, or any Cuban government +save that of wandering bands of guerrilla insurgents, probably less +numerous and influential than had been represented. There seems reason +to believe that however bad Spanish government may have been, the rule +of these people, where they had the power, was as bad; and still +greater reason to apprehend that if they had full power, their sense of +past wrongs and their unrestrained tropical thirst for vengeance might +lead to something worse. Is it for that pitiful result that a civilized +and Christian people is giving up its sons and pouring out blood and +treasure in Cuba? + +In commanding the war, Congress pledged us to continue our action until +the pacification of the island should be secured. When that happy time +has arrived, if it shall then be found that the Cuban insurgents and +their late enemies are able to unite in maintaining a settled and +peaceable government in Cuba, distinctly free from the faults which now +lead the United States to destroy the old one, we shall have discharged +our responsibility, and will be at liberty to end our interference. But +if not, the responsibility of the United States continues. It is +morally bound to secure to Cuba such a government, even if forced by +circumstances to furnish it itself. + +[Sidenote: The Pledge of Congress.] + +At this point, however, we are checked by a reminder of the further +action of Congress, "asserting its determination, when the pacification +of Cuba has been accomplished, to leave the government and control of +the island to its people." + +Now, the secondary provisions of any great measure must be construed in +the light of its main purpose; and where they conflict, we are led to +presume that they would not have been adopted but for ignorance of the +actual conditions. Is it not evident that such was the case here? We +now know how far Congress was misled as to the organization and power +of the alleged Cuban government, the strength of the revolt, and the +character of the war the insurgents were waging. We have seen how +little dependence could be placed upon the lavish promises of support +from great armies of insurgents in the war we have undertaken; and we +are beginning to realize the difference between our idea of a humane +and civilized "pacification" and that apparently entertained up to this +time by the insurgents. It is certainly true that when the war began +neither Congress nor the people of the United States cherished an +intention to hold Cuba permanently, or had any further thought than to +pacify it and turn it over to its own people. But they must pacify it +before they turn it over; and, from present indications, to do that +thoroughly may be the work of years. Even then they are still +responsible to the world for the establishment of a better government +than the one they destroy. If the last state of that island should be +worse than the first, the fault and the crime must be solely that of +the United States. We were not actually forced to involve ourselves; we +might have passed by on the other side. When, instead, we insisted on +interfering, we made ourselves responsible for improving the situation; +and, no matter what Congress "disclaimed," or what intention it +"asserted," we cannot leave Cuba till that is done without national +dishonor and blood-guiltiness. + +[Sidenote: Egypt and Cuba.] + +The situation is curiously like that of England in Egypt. She +intervened too, under far less provocation, it must be admitted, and +for a cause rather more commercial than humanitarian. But when some +thought that her work was ended and that it was time for her to go, +Lord Granville, on behalf of Mr. Gladstone's government, addressed the +other great European Powers in a note on the outcome of which Congress +might have reflected with profit before framing its resolutions. +"Although for the present," he said, "a British force remains in Egypt +for the preservation of public tranquillity, Her Majesty's government +are desirous of withdrawing it as soon as the state of the country and +the organization of proper means for the maintenance of the Khedive's +authority will admit of it. In the meantime the position in which Her +Majesty's government are placed towards His Highness imposes upon them +the duty of giving advice, with the object of securing that the order +of things to be established shall be of a satisfactory character and +possess the elements of stability and progress." As time went on this +declaration did not seem quite explicit enough; and accordingly, just a +year later, Lord Granville instructed the present Lord Cromer, then Sir +Evelyn Baring, that it should be made clear to the Egyptian ministers +and governors of provinces that "the responsibility which for the time +rests on England obliges Her Majesty's government to insist on the +adoption of the policy which they recommend, and that it will be +necessary that those ministers and governors who do not follow this +course should cease to hold their offices." + +That was in 1884--a year after the defeat of Arabi, and the +"pacification." It is now fourteen years later. The English are still +there, and the Egyptian ministers and governors now understand quite +well that they must cease to hold their offices if they do not adopt +the policy recommended by the British diplomatic agent. If it should be +found that we cannot with honor and self-respect begin to abandon our +self-imposed task of Cuban "pacification" with any greater speed, the +impetuous congressmen, as they read over their own inconsiderate +resolutions fourteen years hence, can hide their blushes behind a copy +of Lord Granville's letter. They may explain, if they like, with the +classical excuse of Benedick, "When I said I would die a bachelor, I +did not think I should live till I were married." Or if this seems too +frivolous for their serious plight, let them recall the position of Mr. +Jefferson, who originally declared that the purchase of foreign +territory would make waste paper of the Constitution, and subsequently +appealed to Congress for the money to pay for his purchase of +Louisiana. When he held such an acquisition unconstitutional, he had +not thought he would live to want Louisiana. + + +As to Cuba, it may be fairly concluded that only these points are +actually clear: (1) We had made ourselves in a sense responsible for +Spain's rule in that island by our consistent declaration, through +three quarters of a century, that no other European nation should +replace her--Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, even seeking to +guard her hold as against Great Britain. (2) We are now at war because +we say Spanish rule is intolerable; and we cannot withdraw our hand +till it is replaced by a rule for which we are willing to be +responsible. (3) We are also pledged to remain till the pacification is +complete. + +[Sidenote: The Conquered Territories.] + +In the other territories in question the conditions are different. We +are not taking possession of them, as we are of Cuba, with the avowed +purpose of giving them a better government. We are conquering them +because we are at war with Spain, which has been holding and governing +them very much as she has Cuba; and we must strike Spain wherever and +as hard as we can. But it must at once be recognized that as to Porto +Rico at least, to hold it would be the natural course and what all the +world would expect. Both Cuba and Porto Rico, like Hawaii, are within +the acknowledged sphere of our influence, and ours must necessarily be +the first voice in deciding their destiny. Our national position with +regard to them is historic. It has been officially declared and known +to every civilized nation for three quarters of a century. To abandon +it now, that we may refuse greatness through a sudden craven fear of +being great, would be so astonishing a reversal of a policy steadfastly +maintained by the whole line of our responsible statesmen since 1823 as +to be grotesque. + +John Quincy Adams, writing in April of that year, as Secretary of +State, to our Minister to Spain, pointed out that the dominion of Spain +upon the American continents, North and South, was irrevocably gone, +but warned him that Cuba and Porto Rico still remained nominally +dependent upon her, and that she might attempt to transfer them. That +could not be permitted, as they were "natural appendages to the North +American continent." Subsequent statements turned more upon what Mr. +Adams called "the transcendent importance of Cuba to the United +States"; but from that day to this I do not recall a line in our state +papers to show that the claim of the United States to control the +future of Porto Rico as well as of Cuba was ever waived. As to Cuba, +Mr. Adams predicted that within half a century its annexation would be +indispensable. "There are laws of political as well as of physical +gravitation," he said; and "Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own +unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can +gravitate only towards the North American Union, which, by the same law +of nature, cannot cast her off from its bosom." If Cuba is incapable of +self-support, and could not therefore be left, in the cheerful language +of Congress, to her own people, how much less could little Porto Rico +stand alone? + +There remains the alternative of giving Porto Rico back to Spain at the +end of the war. But if we are warranted now in making war because the +character of Spanish rule in Cuba was intolerable, how could we justify +ourselves in handing back Porto Rico to the same rule, after having +once emancipated her from it? The subject need not be pursued. To +return Porto Rico to Spain, after she is once in our possession, is as +much beyond the power of the President and of Congress as it was to +preserve the peace with Spain after the destruction of the _Maine_ in +the harbor of Havana. From that moment the American people resolved +that the flag under which this calamity was possible should disappear +forever from the Western hemisphere, and they will sanction no peace +that permits it to remain. + +The question of the Philippines is different and more difficult. They +are not within what the diplomatists of the world would recognize as +the legitimate sphere of American influence. Our relation to them is +purely the accident of recent war. We are not in honor bound to hold +them, if we can honorably dispose of them. But we know that their +grievances differ only in kind, not in degree, from those of Cuba; and +having once freed them from the Spanish yoke, we cannot honorably +require them to go back under it again. That would be to put us in an +attitude of nauseating national hypocrisy; to give the lie to all our +professions of humanity in our interference in Cuba, if not also to +prove that our real motive was conquest. What humanity forbade us to +tolerate in the West Indies, it would not justify us in reestablishing +in the Philippines. + +What, then, can we do with them? Shall we trade them for something +nearer home? Doubtless that would be permissible, if we were sure of +thus securing them a better government than that of Spain, and if it +could be done without precipitating fresh international difficulties. +But we cannot give them to our friend and their neighbor Japan without +instantly provoking the hostility of Russia, which recently interfered +to prevent a far smaller Japanese aggrandizement. We cannot give them +to Russia without a greater injustice to Japan; or to Germany or to +France or to England without raising far more trouble than we allay. +England would like us to keep them; the Continental nations would like +that better than any other control excepting Spain's or their own; and +the Philippines would prefer it to anything save the absolute +independence which they are incapable of maintaining. Having been led +into their possession by the course of a war undertaken for the sake of +humanity, shall we draw a geographical limit to our humanity, and say +we cannot continue to be governed by it in Asiatic waters because it is +too much trouble and is too disagreeable--and, besides, there may be no +profit in it? + +Both war and diplomacy have many surprises; and it is quite possible +that some way out of our embarrassing possession may yet be found. The +fact is clear that many of our people do not much want it; but if a way +of relinquishing it is proposed, the one thing we are bound to insist +on is that it shall be consistent with our attitude in the war, and +with our honorable obligations to the islands we have conquered and to +civilization. + +[Sidenote: Fear of them as States.] + +The chief aversion to the vast accessions of territory with which we +are threatened springs from the fear that ultimately they must be +admitted into the Union as States. No public duty is more urgent at +this moment than to resist from the very outset the concession of such +a possibility. In no circumstances likely to exist within a century +should they be admitted as States of the Union. The loose, disunited, +and unrelated federation of independent States to which this would +inevitably lead, stretching from the Indian Archipelago to the +Caribbean Sea, embracing all climes, all religions, all races,--black, +yellow, white, and their mixtures,--all conditions, from pagan +ignorance and the verge of cannibalism to the best product of centuries +of civilization, education, and self-government, all with equal rights +in our Senate and representation according to population in our House, +with an equal voice in shaping our national destinies--that would, at +least in this stage of the world, be humanitarianism run mad, a +degeneration and degradation of the homogeneous, continental Republic +of our pride too preposterous for the contemplation of serious and +intelligent men. Quite as well might Great Britain now invite the +swarming millions of India to send rajas and members of the lower +House, in proportion to population, to swamp the Lords and Commons and +rule the English people. If it had been supposed that even Hawaii, with +its overwhelming preponderance of Kanakas and Asiatics, would become a +State, she could not have been annexed. If the territories we are +conquering must become States, we might better renounce them at once +and place them under the protectorate of some humane and friendly +European Power with less nonsense in its blood. + +This is not to deny them the freest and most liberal institutions they +are capable of sustaining. The people of Sitka and the Aleutian Islands +enjoy the blessings of ordered liberty and free institutions, but +nobody dreams of admitting them to Statehood. New Mexico has belonged +to us for half a century, not only without oppression, but with all the +local self-government for which she was prepared; yet, though an +integral part of our continent, surrounded by States, and with an +adequate population, she is still not admitted to Statehood. Why should +not the people on the island of Porto Rico, or even of Cuba, prosper +and be happy for the next century under a rule similar in the main to +that under which their kinsmen of New Mexico have prospered for the +last half-century? + +With some necessary modifications, the territorial form of government +which we have tried so successfully from the beginning of the Union is +well adapted to the best of such communities. It secures local +self-government, equality before the law, upright courts, ample power +for order and defense, and such control by Congress as gives security +against the mistakes or excesses of people new to the exercise of these +rights. + +[Sidenote: Will the Constitution Permit Withholding Statehood?] + +But such a system, we are told, is contrary to our Constitution and to +the spirit of our institutions. Why? We have had just that system ever +since the Constitution was framed. It is true that a large part of the +territory thus governed has now been admitted into the Union in the +form of new States. But it is not true that this was recognized at the +beginning as a right, or even generally contemplated as a probability; +nor is it true that it has been the purpose or expectation of those who +annexed foreign territory to the United States, like the Louisiana or +the Gadsden Purchase, that it would all be carved into States. That +feature of the marvelous development of the continent has come as a +surprise to this generation and the last, and would have been +absolutely incredible to the men of Thomas Jefferson's time. Obviously, +then, it could not have been the purpose for which, before that date, +our territorial system was devised. It is not clear that the founders +of the Government expected even all the territory we possessed at the +outset to be made into States. Much of it was supposed to be worthless +and uninhabitable. But it is certain that they planned for outside +accessions. Even in the Articles of Confederation they provided for the +admission of Canada and of British colonies which included Jamaica as +well as Nova Scotia. Madison, in referring to this, construes it as +meaning that they contemplated only the admission of these colonies as +colonies, not the eventual establishment of new States ("Federalist," +No. 43). About the same time Hamilton was dwelling on the alarms of +those who thought the country already too large, and arguing that great +size was a safeguard against ambitious rulers. + +Nevertheless, the objectors still argue, the Constitution gives no +positive warrant for a permanent territorial policy. But it does! +Ordinarily it may be assumed that what the framers of the Constitution +immediately proceeded to do under it was intended by them to be +warranted by it; and we have seen that they immediately devised and +maintained a territorial system for the government of territory which +they had no expectation of ever converting into States. The case, +however, is even plainer than that. The sole reference in the +Constitution to the territories of the United States is in Article IV, +Section 3: "The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all +needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other +property belonging to the United States." Jefferson revised his first +views far enough to find warrant for acquiring territory; but here is +explicit, unmistakable authority conferred for dealing with it, and +with other "property," precisely as Congress chooses. The territory was +not a present or prospective party in interest in the Union created +under this organic act. It was "property," to be disposed of or ruled +and regulated as Congress might determine. The inhabitants of the +territory were not consulted; there was no provision that they should +even be guaranteed a republican form of government like the States; +they were secured no right of representation and given no vote. So, +too, when it came to acquiring new territory, there was no thought of +consulting the inhabitants. Mr. Jefferson did not ask the citizens of +Louisiana to consent to their annexation, nor did Mr. Monroe submit +such a question to the Spaniards of Florida, nor Mr. Polk to the +Mexicans of California, nor Mr. Pierce to the New Mexicans, nor Mr. +Johnson to the Russians and Aleuts of Alaska. The power of the +Government to deal with territory, foreign or domestic, precisely as it +chooses was understood from the beginning to be absolute; and at no +stage in our whole history have we hesitated to exercise it. The +question of permanently holding the Philippines or any other conquered +territory as territory is not, and cannot be made, one of +constitutional right; it is one solely of national duty and of national +policy. + +[Sidenote: Does the Monroe Doctrine Interfere?] + +As a last resort, it is maintained that even if the Constitution does +not forbid, the Monroe Doctrine does. But the famous declaration of Mr. +Monroe on which reliance is placed does not warrant this conclusion. +After holding that "the American continents, by the free and +independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are +henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by +any European Power," Mr. Monroe continued: "We should consider any +attempt on their part to extend their system to any part of this +hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing +colonies or dependencies of any European Power we have not interfered, +and shall not interfere." The context makes it clear that this +assurance applies solely to the existing colonies and dependencies they +still had in this hemisphere; and that even this was qualified by the +previous warning that while we took no part "in the wars of European +Powers, in matters relating to themselves," we resented injuries and +defended our rights. It will thus be seen that Mr. Monroe gave no +pledge that we would never interfere with any dependency or colony of +European Powers anywhere. He simply declared our general policy not to +interfere with existing colonies still remaining to them on our coast, +so long as they left the countries alone which had already gained their +independence, and so long as they did not injure us or invade our +rights. And even this statement of the scope of Mr. Monroe's +declaration must be construed in the light of the fact that the same +Administration which promulgated the Monroe Doctrine had already issued +from the State Department Mr. Adams's prediction, above referred to, +that "the annexation of Cuba will yet be found indispensable." Perhaps +Mr. Monroe's language might have been properly understood as a general +assurance that we would not meddle in Europe so long as they gave us no +further trouble in America; but certainly it did not also abandon to +their exclusive jurisdiction Asia and Africa and the islands of the +sea. + +[Sidenote: The Necessary Outcome.] + +The candid conclusions seem inevitable that, not as a matter of policy, +but as a necessity of the position in which we find ourselves and as a +matter of national duty, we must hold Cuba, at least for a time and +till a permanent government is well established for which we can afford +to be responsible; we must hold Porto Rico; and we may have to hold the +Philippines. + +The war is a great sorrow, and to many these results of it will seem +still more mournful. They cannot be contemplated with unmixed +confidence by any; and to all who think, they must be a source of some +grave apprehensions. Plainly, this unwelcome war is leading us by ways +we have not trod to an end we cannot surely forecast. On the other +hand, there are some good things coming from it that we can already +see. It will make an end forever of Spain in this hemisphere. It will +certainly secure to Cuba and Porto Rico better government. It will +furnish an enormous outlet for the energy of our citizens, and give +another example of the rapid development to which our system leads. It +has already brought North and South together as nothing could but a +foreign war in which both offered their blood for the cause of their +reunited country--a result of incalculable advantage both at home and +abroad. It has brought England and the United States together--another +result of momentous importance in the progress of civilization and +Christianity. Europe will know us better henceforth; even Spain will +know us better; and this knowledge should tend powerfully hereafter to +keep the peace of the world. The war should abate the swaggering, +swash-buckler tendency of many of our public men, since it has shown +our incredible unreadiness at the outset for meeting even a third-rate +Power; and it must secure us henceforth an army and navy less +ridiculously inadequate to our exposure. It insures us a mercantile +marine. It insures the Nicaragua Canal, a Pacific cable, great +development on our Pacific coast, and the mercantile control of the +Pacific Ocean. It imposes new and very serious business on our public +men, which ought to dignify and elevate the public service. Finally, it +has shown such splendid courage and skill in the Army and Navy, such +sympathy at home for our men at the front, and such devoted eagerness, +especially among women, to alleviate suffering and humanize the +struggle, as to thrill every patriotic heart and make us all prouder +than ever of our country and its matchless people. + + + + +II + +WAS IT TOO GOOD A TREATY? + +This speech was made at a dinner given in New York by the Lotos Club in +honor of Mr. Reid, who had been its president for fourteen years prior +to his first diplomatic service abroad in 1889. It was the first public +utterance by any one of the Peace Commissioners after the ratification +of the Treaty of Paris. + +Among the many letters of regret at the dinner, the following, from the +Secretary of State and from his predecessor, were given to the public: + + WASHINGTON, D.C., February 9, 1899. + + _To John Elderkin, Lotos Club, New York:_ + + I received your note in due time, and had hoped until now to be + able to come and join you in doing honor to my life-long friend, + the Hon. Whitelaw Reid; but the pressure of official engagements + here has made it impossible for me to do so. I shall be with you in + spirit, and shall applaud to the best that can be said in praise of + one who, in a life of remarkable variety of achievement, has + honored every position he has held. + + Faithfully yours, + + JOHN HAY. + + + CANTON, OHIO, February 8, 1899. + + _To Chester S. Lord, Lotos Club, New York:_ + + I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to attend the + dinner to be given to the Hon. Whitelaw Reid on the evening of the + 11th inst. Nothing would afford me more pleasure than to join the + members of the Lotos Club in doing honor to Mr. Reid. It is a + source of much regret that circumstances compel me to forego the + privilege. His high character and worth, leadership in the best + journalism of the day, eminent services, and wide experience long + since gave him an honorable place among his contemporaries. The + Commission to negotiate the treaty concluded at Paris on December + 10 had no more valued member. His fellow-Commissioners were + fortunate in being able to avail themselves of Mr. Reid's wide + acquaintance with the leading statesmen and diplomats residing in + Paris. His presence as a member of the Commission rendered + unnecessary any further introduction to those who had known him as + our Minister to France. He gave to the work of the Commission in + unstinted measure the benefit of his wisdom in council, judgment, + and skill in the preparation and presentation of the American case + at Paris. Permit me to join you in congratulations and best wishes + to Mr. Reid, and to express the hope that there are in store for + him many more years of usefulness and honor. + + Very truly yours, + + WILLIAM R. DAY. + + + + +WAS IT TOO GOOD A TREATY? + + +Obviously the present occasion has no narrow or merely personal +meaning. It comes to me only because I had the good fortune, through +the friendly partiality of the President of the United States, to be +associated with a great work in which you took a patriotic interest, +and over the ratification of which you use this means of expressing +your satisfaction. It was a happy thing for us to be able to bring back +peace to our own land, and happier still to find that our treaty is +accepted by the Senate and the people as one that guards the honor and +protects the interests of the country. Only so should a nation like +ours make peace at all. + + Come, Peace, not like a mourner bowed + For honor lost and dear ones wasted, + But proud, to meet a people proud, + With eyes that tell of triumph tasted. + +I shall make no apology--now that the Senate has unsealed our lips--for +speaking briefly of this work just happily completed. + +The only complaint one hears about it is that we did our duty too +well--that, in fact, we made peace on terms too favorable to our own +country. In all the pending discussion there seems to be no other fault +found. On no other point is the treaty said by any one to be seriously +defective. + +It loyally carried out the attitude of Congress as to Cuba. It enforced +the renunciation of Spanish sovereignty there, but, in spite of the +most earnest Spanish efforts, it refused to accept American +sovereignty. It loaded neither ourselves nor the Cubans with the +so-called Cuban debts, incurred by Spain in the efforts to subdue them. +It involved us in no complications, either in the West Indies or in the +East, as to contracts or claims or religious establishments. It dealt +liberally with a fallen foe--giving him a generous lump sum that more +than covered any legitimate debts or expenditures for pacific +improvements; assuming the burden of just claims against him by our own +people; carrying back the armies surrendered on the other side of the +world at our own cost; returning their arms; even restoring them their +artillery, including heavy ordnance in field fortifications, munitions +of war, and the very cattle that dragged their caissons. It secured +alike for Cubans and Filipinos the release of political prisoners. It +scrupulously reserved for Congress the power of determining the +political status of the inhabitants of our new possessions. It declared +on behalf of the most Protectionist country in the world for the policy +of the Open Door within its Asiatic sphere of influence. + +With all this the Senate and the country seemed content. But the treaty +refused to return to Spanish rule one foot of territory over which that +rule had been broken by the triumphs of our arms. + +Were we to be reproached for that? Should the Senate have told us: "You +overdid this business; you looked after the interests of your own +country too thoroughly. You ought to have abandoned the great +archipelago which the fortunes of war had placed at your country's +disposal. You are not exactly unfaithful servants; you are too blindly, +unswervingly faithful. You haven't seized an opportunity to run away +from some distant results of the war into which Congress plunged the +country before dreaming how far it might spread. You haven't dodged for +us the responsibilities we incurred." + +That is true. When Admiral Dewey sank the Spanish fleet, and General +Merritt captured the Spanish army that alone maintained the Spanish +hold on the Philippines, the Spanish power there was gone; and the +civilization and the common sense and the Christianity of the world +looked to the power that succeeded it to accept its responsibilities. +So we took the Philippines. How could men representing this country, +jealous of its honor, or with an adequate comprehension either of its +duty or its rights, do otherwise? + +A nation at war over a disputed boundary or some other material +interest might properly stop when that interest was secured, and give +back to the enemy all else that had been taken from him. But this was +not a war for any material interest. It was a war to put down a rule +over an alien people, which we declared so barbarous that we could no +longer tolerate it. How could we consent to secure peace, after we had +broken down this barbarous rule in two archipelagos, by agreeing that +one of them should be forced back under it? + +There was certainly another alternative. After destroying the only +organized government in the archipelago, the only security for life and +property, native and foreign, in great commercial centers like Manila, +Iloilo, and Cebu, against hordes of uncivilized pagans and Mohammedan +Malays, should we then scuttle out and leave them to their fate? A band +of old-time Norse pirates, used to swooping down on a capital, +capturing its rulers, seizing its treasure, burning the town, +abandoning the people to domestic disorder and foreign spoliation, and +promptly sailing off for another piratical foray--such a band of +pirates might, no doubt, have left Manila to be sacked by the +insurgents, while it fled from the Philippines. We did not think a +self-respecting, civilized, responsible Christian Power could. + +[Sidenote: Indemnity.] + +There was another side to it. In a conflict to which fifty years of +steadily increasing provocation had driven us we had lost 266 sailors +on the _Maine_; had lost at Santiago and elsewhere uncounted victims of +Spanish guns and tropical climates; and had spent in this war over +$240,000,000, without counting the pensions that must still accrue +under laws existing when it began. Where was the indemnity that, under +such circumstances, it is the duty of the victorious nation to exact, +not only in its own interest, but in the interest of a Christian +civilization and the tendencies of modern International Law, which +require that a nation provoking unjust war shall smart for it, not +merely while it lasts, but by paying the cost when it is ended? Spain +had no money even to pay her own soldiers. No indemnity was possible, +save in territory. Well, we once wanted to buy Cuba, before it had +been desolated by twelve years of war and decimated by Weyler; yet +our uttermost offer for it, our highest valuation even then, was +$125,000,000--less than half the cost of our war. But now we were +precluded from taking Cuba. Porto Rico, immeasurably less important to +us, and eight hundred miles farther away from our coast, is only one +twelfth the size of Cuba. Were the representatives of the United +States, charged with the duty of protecting not only its honor, but its +interests, in arranging terms of peace, to content themselves with +little Porto Rico, away off a third of the way to Spain, plus the petty +reef of Guam, in the middle of the Pacific, as indemnity for an +unprovoked war that had cost and was to cost their country +$300,000,000? + +[Sidenote: The Trouble they Give--are they Worth it?] + +But, some one exclaims, the Philippines are already giving us more +trouble than they are worth! It is natural to say so just now, and it +is partly true. What they are worth and likely to be worth to this +country in the race for commercial supremacy on the Pacific--that is to +say, for supremacy in the great development of trade in the Twentieth +Century--is a question too large to be so summarily decided, or to be +entered on at the close of a dinner, and under the irritation of a +Malay half-breed's folly. But nobody ever doubted that they would give +us trouble. That is the price nations must pay for going to war, even +in a just cause. I was not one of those who were eager to begin this +war with Spain; but I protest against any attempt to evade our just +responsibility in the position in which it has left us. We shall have +trouble in the Philippines. So we shall have trouble in Cuba and in +Porto Rico. If we dawdle, and hesitate, and lead them to think we fear +them and fear trouble, our trouble will be great. If, on the other +hand, we grasp this nettle danger, if we act promptly, with inexorable +vigor and with justice, it may be slight. At any rate, the more serious +the crisis the plainer our path. God give us the courage to purify our +politics and strengthen our Government to meet these new and grave +duties! + + + + +III + +PURPORT OF THE TREATY + +This speech was made, two days after the preceding one, on the +invitation of the Marquette Club of Chicago, at the dinner of six +hundred which it gave in the Auditorium Hotel, February 13, 1899, in +honor of Lincoln's birthday. + + + + +PURPORT OF THE TREATY + + +Beyond the Alleghanies the American voice rings clear and true. It does +not sound, here in Chicago, as if you favored the pursuit of partizan +aims in great questions of foreign policy, or division among our own +people in the face of insurgent guns turned upon our soldiers on the +distant fields to which we sent them. We are all here, it would seem, +to stand by the peace that has been secured, even if we have to fight +for it. + +Neither has any reproach come from Chicago to the Peace Commissioners +because, when intrusted with your interests in a great negotiation in a +foreign capital, they made a settlement on terms too favorable to their +own country--because in bringing home peace with honor they also +brought home more property than some of our people wanted! When that +reproach has been urged elsewhere, it has recalled the familiar defense +against a similar complaint in an old political contest. There might, +it was said, be some serious disadvantages about a surplus in the +national Treasury; but, at any rate, it was easier to deal with a +surplus than with a deficit! If we have brought back too much, that is +only a question for Congress and our voters. If we had brought back too +little, it might have been again a question for the Army and the Navy. + +No one of you has ever been heard to find fault with an agent because +in making a difficult settlement he got all you wanted, and a free +option on something further that everybody else wanted! Do you know of +any other civilized nation of the first or even of the second class +that wouldn't jump at that option on the Philippines? Ask Russia. Ask +Germany. Ask Japan. Ask England or France. Ask little Belgium![1] And +yet, what one of them, unless it be Japan, has any conceivable interest +in the Philippines to be compared with that of the mighty Republic +which now commands the one side of the Pacific, and, unless this +American generation is blinder to opportunity than any of its +predecessors, will soon command the other? + + [1] At this time it was still a secret that among the many + intrigues afoot during the negotiations at Paris was one for the + transfer of the Philippines to Belgium. But for the perfectly + correct attitude of King Leopold, it might have had a chance to + succeed, or at least to make trouble. + +Put yourselves for a moment in our place on the Quai d'Orsay. Would you +really have had your representatives in Paris, the guardians of your +honor in negotiating peace with your enemy, declare that while Spanish +rule in the West Indies was so barbarous that it was our duty to +destroy it, we were now so eager for peace that for its sake we were +willing in the East to reestablish that same barbarous rule? Or would +you have had your agents in Paris, the guardians also of your material +interests, throw away all chance for indemnity for a war that began +with the loss of 266 American sailors on the _Maine_, and had cost +your Treasury during the year over $240,000,000? Would you have had +them throw away a magnificent foothold for the trade of the farther +East, which the fortune of war had placed in your hand, throw away a +whole archipelago of boundless possibilities, economic and strategic, +throw away the opportunity of centuries for your country? Would you +have had them, on their own responsibility, then and there decide this +question for all time, and absolutely refuse to reserve it for the +decision of Congress and of the American people, to whom that decision +belongs, and who have the right to an opportunity first for its +deliberate consideration? + +[Sidenote: Some Features in the Treaty.] + +Your toast is to the "Achievements of American Diplomacy." Not such +were its achievements under your earlier statesmen; not such has been +its work under the instructions of your State Department, from John +Quincy Adams on down the honored line; and not such the work your +representatives brought back to you from Paris. + +They were dealing with a nation with whom it has never been easy to +make peace, even when war was no longer possible; but they secured a +peace treaty without a word that compromises the honor or endangers the +interests of the country. + +They scrupulously reserved for your own decision, through your Congress +or at the polls, the question of political status and civil rights for +the inhabitants of your new possessions. + +They resisted adroit Spanish efforts for special privileges and +guaranties for their established church, and pledged the United States +to absolute freedom in the exercise of their religion for all these +recent Spanish subjects--pagan, Mohammedan, Confucian, or Christian. + +They maintained, in the face of the most vehement opposition, not +merely of Spain, but of well-nigh all Europe, a principle vital to +oppressed people struggling for freedom--a principle without which our +own freedom could not have been established, and without which any +successful revolt against any unjust rule could be made practically +impossible. That principle is that, contrary to the prevailing rule and +practice in large transfers of sovereignty, debts do not necessarily +follow the territory if incurred by the mother country distinctly in +efforts to enslave it. Where so incurred, your representatives +persistently and successfully maintained that no attempt by the mother +country to mortgage to bondholders the revenues of custom-houses or in +any way to pledge the future income of the territory could be +recognized as a valid or binding security--that the moment the hand of +the oppressor relaxed its grasp, his claim on the future revenues of +the oppressed territory was gone. It is a doctrine that raised an +outcry in every Continental bourse, and struck terror to every gambling +European investor in national loans, floated at usurious profits, to +raise funds for unjust wars. But it is right, and one may be proud that +the United States stood like a rock, barring any road to peace which +led to loading either on the liberated territory or on the people that +had freed it the debts incurred in the wars against it. If this is not +International Law now, it will be; and the United States will have made +it. + +But your representatives in Paris placed your country in no tricky +attitude of endeavoring either to evade or repudiate just obligations. +They recognized the duty of reimbursement for debts legitimately +incurred for pacific improvements or otherwise, for the real benefit of +the transferred territory. Not till it began to appear that, of the +Philippine debt of forty millions Mexican, or a little under twenty +millions of our money, a fourth had been transferred direct to aid the +war in Cuba, and the rest had probably been spent mainly in the war in +Luzon, did your representatives hesitate at its payment; and even then +they decided to give a lump sum equal to it, which could serve as a +recognition of whatever debts Spain might have incurred in the past for +expenditures in that archipelago for the benefit of the people. + +They protected what was gained in the war from adroit efforts to put it +all at risk again, through an untimely appeal to the noble principle of +Arbitration. They held--and I am sure the best friends of the principle +will thank them for holding--that an honest resort to Arbitration must +come before war, to avert its horrors, not after war, to escape its +consequences. + +They were enabled to pledge the most Protectionist country in the world +to the liberal and wise policy of the Open Door in the East. + +And finally they secured that diplomatic novelty, a treaty in which the +acutest senatorial critics have not found a peg on which inadmissible +claims against the country may be hung. + +[Sidenote: The Material Side of the Business.] + +At the same time they neither neglected nor feared the duty of caring +for the material interests of their own country;--the duty of grasping +the enormous possibilities upon which we had stumbled, for sharing in +the awakening and development of the farther East. That way lies now +the best hope of American commerce. There you may command a natural +rather than an artificial trade--a trade which pushes itself instead of +needing to be pushed; a trade with people who can send you things you +want and cannot produce, and take from you in return things they want +and cannot produce; in other words, a trade largely between different +zones, and largely with less advanced peoples, comprising nearly one +fourth the population of the globe, whose wants promise to be speedily +and enormously developed. + +The Atlantic Ocean carries mainly a different trade, with people as +advanced as ourselves, who could produce or procure elsewhere much of +what they buy from us, while we could produce, if driven to it, most of +what we need to buy from them. It is more or less, therefore, an +artificial trade, as well as a trade in which we have lost the first +place and will find it difficult to regain. The ocean carriage for the +Atlantic is in the hands of our rivals. + +The Pacific Ocean, on the contrary, is in our hands now. Practically we +own more than half the coast on this side, dominate the rest, and have +midway stations in the Sandwich and Aleutian Islands. To extend now the +authority of the United States over the great Philippine Archipelago is +to fence in the China Sea and secure an almost equally commanding +position on the other side of the Pacific--doubling our control of it +and of the fabulous trade the Twentieth Century will see it bear. +Rightly used, it enables the United States to convert the Pacific Ocean +almost into an American lake. + +Are we to lose all this through a mushy sentimentality, characteristic +neither of practical nor of responsible people--alike un-American and +un-Christian, since it would humiliate us by showing lack of nerve to +hold what we are entitled to, and incriminate us by entailing endless +bloodshed and anarchy on a people whom we have already stripped of the +only government they have known for three hundred years, and whom we +should thus abandon to civil war and foreign spoliation? + +[Sidenote: Bugbears.] + +Let us free our minds of some bugbears. One of them is this notion that +with the retention of the Philippines our manufacturers will be crushed +by the products of cheap Eastern labor. But it does not abolish our +custom-houses, and we can still enforce whatever protection we desire. + +Another is that our American workmen will be swamped under the +immigration of cheap Eastern labor. But tropical laborers rarely +emigrate to colder climates. Few have ever come. If we need a law to +keep them out, we can make it. + +It is a bugbear that the Filipinos would be citizens of the United +States, and would therefore have the same rights of free travel and +free entry of their own manufactures with other citizens. The treaty +did not make them citizens of the United States at all; and they never +will be, unless you neglect your Congress. + +It is a bugbear that anybody living on territory or other property +belonging to the United States must be a citizen. The Constitution says +that "persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of +the United States"; while it adds in the same sentence, "and of the +State wherein they reside," showing plainly that the provision was not +then meant to include territories. + +It is equally a bugbear that the tariff must necessarily be the same +over any of the territory or other property of the United States as it +is in the Nation itself. The Constitution requires that "all duties, +imposts, and excises shall be the same throughout the United States," +and while there was an incidental expression from the Supreme Bench in +1820 to the effect that the name United States as here used should +include the District of Columbia and other territory, it was no part +even then of the decision actually rendered, and it would be absurd to +stretch this mere dictum of three quarters of a century ago, relating +then, at any rate, to this continent alone, to carry the Dingley tariff +now across to the antipodes. + +[Sidenote: Duties of the Hour.] + +Brushing aside, then, these bugbears, gentlemen, what are the obvious +duties of the hour? + +First, hold what you are entitled to. If you are ever to part with it, +wait at least till you have examined it and found out that you have no +use for it. Before yielding to temporary difficulties at the outset, +take time to be quite sure you are ready now to abandon your chance for +a commanding position in the trade of China, in the commercial control +of the Pacific Ocean, and in the richest commercial development of the +approaching century. + +Next, resist admission of any of our new possessions as States, or +their organization on a plan designed to prepare them for admission. +Stand firm for the present American Union of sister States, undiluted +by anybody's archipelagos. + +Make this fight easiest by making it at the beginning. Resist the first +insidious effort to change the character of this Union by leaving the +continent. The danger commences with the first extra-continental State. +We want no Porto Ricans or Cubans to be sending Senators and +Representatives to Washington to help govern the American Continent, +any more than we want Kanakas or Tagals or Visayans or Mohammedan +Malays. We will do them good and not harm, if we may, all the days of +our life; but, please God, we will not divide this Republic, the +heritage of our fathers, among them. + +Resist the crazy extension of the doctrine that government derives its +just powers from the consent of the governed to an extreme never +imagined by the men who framed it, and never for one moment acted upon +in their own practice. Why should we force Jefferson's language to a +meaning Jefferson himself never gave it in dealing with the people of +Louisiana, or Andrew Jackson in dealing with those of South Carolina, +or Abraham Lincoln with the seceding States, or any responsible +statesman of the country at any period in its history in dealing with +Indians or New Mexicans or Californians or Russians? What have the +Tagals done for us that we should treat them better and put them on a +plane higher than any of these? + +And next, resist alike either schemes for purely military governments, +or schemes for territorial civil governments, with offices to be filled +up, according to the old custom, by "carpet-baggers" from the United +States, on an allotment of increased patronage, fairly divided among +the "bosses" of the different States. Egypt under Lord Cromer is an +object-lesson of what may be done in a more excellent way by men of our +race in dealing with such a problem. Better still, and right under our +eyes, is the successful solution of the identical problem that +confronts us, in the English organization and administration of the +federated Malay States on the Malacca Peninsula. + +[Sidenote: The Opposition as Old as Webster.] + +I wish to speak with respect of the sincere and conscientious +opposition to all these conclusions, manifest chiefly in the East and +in the Senate; and with especial respect of the eminent statesman who +has headed that opposition. No man will question his ability, his moral +elevation, or the courage with which he follows his intellectual and +moral convictions. But I may be permitted to remind you that the noble +State he worthily represents is not now counted for the first time +against the interest and the development of the country. In February, +1848, Daniel Webster, speaking for the same great State and in the same +high forum, conjured up precisely the same visions of the destruction +of the Constitution, and proclaimed the same hostility to new +territory. Pardon me while I read you half a dozen sentences, and note +how curiously they sound like an echo--or a prophecy--of what we have +lately been hearing from the Senate: + + Will you take peace without territory and preserve the integrity of + the Constitution of the country?... I think I see a course adopted + which is likely to turn the Constitution of this land into a + deformed monster--into a curse rather than a blessing.... There + would not be two hundred families of persons who would emigrate + from the United States to New Mexico for agricultural purposes in + fifty years.... I have never heard of anything, and I cannot + conceive of anything, more absurd and more affrontive of all sober + judgment than the cry that we are getting indemnity by the + acquisition of New Mexico and California. I hold that they are not + worth a dollar! + +It was merely that splendid empire in itself, stretching from Los +Angeles and San Francisco eastward to Denver, that was thus despised +and rejected of Massachusetts. And it was only fifty years ago! With +all due respect, a great spokesman of Massachusetts is as liable to +mistake in this generation as in the last. + +[Sidenote: Lack of Faith in the People.] + +It is fair, I think, to say that this whole hesitation over the treaty +of peace is absolutely due to lack of faith in our own people, distrust +of the methods of administration they may employ in the government of +distant possessions, and distrust of their ability to resist the +schemes of demagogues for promoting the ultimate admission of Kanaka +and Malay and half-breed commonwealths to help govern the continental +Republic of our pride, this homogeneous American Union of sovereign +States. If there is real reason to fear that the American people cannot +restrain themselves from throwing open the doors of their Senate and +House of Representatives to such sister States as Luzon, or the +Visayas, or the Sandwich Islands, or Porto Rico, or even Cuba, then the +sooner we beg some civilized nation, with more common sense and less +sentimentality and gush, to take them off our hands the better. If we +are unequal to a manly and intelligent discharge of the +responsibilities the war has entailed, then let us confess our +unworthiness, and beg Japan to assume the duties of a civilized +Christian state toward the Philippines, while England can extend the +same relief to us in Cuba and Porto Rico. But having thus ignominiously +shirked the position demanded by our belligerency and our success, let +us never again presume to take a place among the self-respecting and +responsible nations of the earth that can ever lay us liable to another +such task. If called to it, let us at the outset admit our unfitness, +withdraw within our own borders, and leave these larger duties of the +world to less incapable races or less craven rulers. + +Far other and brighter are the hopes I have ventured to cherish +concerning the course of the American people in this emergency. I have +thought there was encouragement for nations as well as for individuals +in remembering the sobering and steadying influence of great +responsibilities suddenly devolved. When Prince Hal comes to the crown +he is apt to abjure Falstaff. When we come to the critical and +dangerous work of controlling turbulent semi-tropical dependencies, the +agents we choose cannot be the ward heelers of the local bosses. Now, +if ever, is the time to rally the brain and conscience of the American +people to a real elevation and purification of their Civil Service, to +the most exalted standards of public duty, to the most strenuous and +united effort of all men of good will to make our Government worthy of +the new and great responsibilities which the Providence of God rather +than any purpose of man has imposed upon it. + + + + +IV + +THE DUTIES OF PEACE + +A speech made at the dinner given by the Ohio Society in honor of the +Peace Commissioners, in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, February +25, 1899. + + + + +THE DUTIES OF PEACE + + +You call and I obey. Any call from Ohio, wherever it finds me, is at +once a distinction and a duty. But it would be easier to-night and more +natural for me to remain silent. I am one of yourselves, the givers of +the feast, and the occasion belongs peculiarly to my colleagues on the +Peace Commission. I regret that more of them are not here to tell you +in person how profoundly we all appreciate the compliment you pay us. +Judge Day, after an experience and strain the like of which few +Americans of this generation have so suddenly and so successfully met, +is seeking to regain his strength at the South; Senator Frye, at the +close of an anxious session, finds his responsible duties in Washington +too exacting to permit even a day's absence; and Senator Davis, who +could not leave the care of the treaty to visit his State even when his +own reelection was pending, has at last snatched the first moment of +relief since he was sent to Paris last summer, to go out to St. Paul +and meet the constituents who have in his absence renewed to him the +crown of a good and faithful servant. + +It is all the more fortunate, therefore, that you are honored by the +presence of the patriotic member of the opposition who formed the +regulator and balance-wheel of the Commission. When Senator Gray +objected, we all reexamined the processes of our reasoning. When he +assented, we knew at once we must be on solid ground and went ahead. It +was an expected gratification to have with you also the accomplished +secretary and counsel to the Commission, a man as modest and +unobtrusive as its president, and, like him, equal to any summons. In +his regretted absence, we rejoice to find here the most distinguished +military aid ordered to report to the Commission, and the most +important witness before it--the Conqueror of Manila. + +So much you will permit me to say in my capacity as one of the hosts, +rather than as a member of the body to which you pay this gracious +compliment. + +It is not for me to speak of another figure necessarily missing +to-night, though often with you heretofore at these meetings--the +member of the Ohio Society who sent us to Paris! A great and shining +record already speaks for him. He will be known in our history as the +President who freed America from the last trace of Spanish blight; who +realized the aspiration of our earlier statesmen, cherished by the +leaders of either party through three quarters of a century, for +planting the flag both on Cuba and on the Sandwich Islands; more than +this, as the President who has carried that flag half-way round the +world and opened the road for the trade of the Nation to follow it. + +All this came from simply doing his duty from day to day, as that duty +was forced upon him. No other man in the United States held back from +war as he did, risking loss of popularity, risking the hostility of +Congress, risking the harsh judgment of friends in agonizing for peace. +It was no doubt in the spirit of the Prince of Peace, but it was also +with the wisdom of Polonius: "Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, +being in, bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee!" Never again +will any nation imagine that it can trespass indefinitely against the +United States with impunity. Never again will an American war-ship run +greater risks in a peaceful harbor than in battle. The world will never +again be in doubt whether, when driven to war, we will end it in a gush +of sentimentality or a shiver of unmanly apprehension over untried +responsibilities, by fleeing from our plain duty, and hastening to give +up what we are entitled to, before we have even taken an opportunity to +look at it. + +[Sidenote: Does Peace Pacify?] + +But it must be confessed that "looking at it" during the past week has +not been an altogether cheerful occupation. While the aspect of some of +these new possessions remains so frowning there are faint hearts ready +enough to say that the Peace Commission is in no position to be +receiving compliments. Does protection protect? is an old question that +used to be thrown in our faces--though I believe even the questioners +finally made up their minds that it did. Does peace pacify? is the +question of the hour. Well, as to our original antagonist, historic, +courageous Spain, there seems ground to hope and believe and be glad +that it does--not merely toward us, but within her own borders. When +she jettisoned cargo that had already shifted ruinously, there is +reason to think that she averted disaster and saved the ship. Then, as +to Porto Rico there is no doubt of peace; and as to Cuba very +little--although it would be too much to hope that her twelve years of +civil war could be followed by an absolute calm, without disorders. + +As to other possessions in the farther East, we may as well recognize +at once that we are dealing now with the same sort of clever barbarians +as in the earlier days of the Republic, when, on another ocean not then +less distant, we were compelled to encounter the Algerine pirates. But +there is this difference. Then we merely chastised the Algerines into +letting us and our commerce alone. The permanent policing of that coast +of the Mediterranean was not imposed upon us by surrounding +circumstances, or by any act of ours; it belonged to nearer nations. +Now a war we made has broken down the only authority that existed to +protect the commerce of the world in one of its greatest Eastern +thoroughfares, and to preserve the lives and property of people of all +nations resorting to those marts. We broke it down, and we cannot, dare +not, display the cowardice and selfishness of failing to replace it. +However men may differ as to our future policy in those regions, there +can be no difference as to our present duty. It is as plain as that of +putting down a riot in Chicago or New York--all the plainer because, +until recently, we have ourselves been taking the very course and doing +the very things to encourage the rioters. + +[Sidenote: Why Take Sovereignty?] + +A distinguished and patriotic citizen said to me the other day, in a +Western city: "You might have avoided this trouble in the Senate by +refusing title in the Philippines exactly as in Cuba, and simply +enforcing renunciation of Spanish sovereignty. Why didn't you do it?" +The question is important, and the reason ought to be understood. But +at the outset it should be clearly realized that the circumstances +which made it possible to take that course as to Cuba were altogether +exceptional. For three quarters of a century we had asserted a special +interest and right of interference there as against any other nation. +The island is directly on our coast, and no one doubted that at least +as much order as in the past would be preserved there, even if we had +to do it ourselves. There was also the positive action of Congress, +which, on the one hand, gave us excuse for refusing a sovereignty our +highest legislative authority had disclaimed, and, on the other, +formally cast the shield of our responsibility over Cuba when left +without a government or a sovereignty. Besides, there was a people +there, advanced enough, sufficiently compact and homogeneous in +religion, race, and language, sufficiently used already to the methods +of government, to warrant our republican claim that the sovereignty was +not being left in the air--that it was only left where, in the last +analysis, in a civilized community, it must always reside, in the +people themselves. + +And yet, under all these conditions, the most difficult task your Peace +Commissioners had at Paris was to maintain and defend the demand for a +renunciation of sovereignty without anybody's acceptance of the +sovereignty thus renounced. International Law has not been so +understood abroad; and it may be frankly confessed that the Spanish +arguments were learned, acute, sustained by the general judgment of +Europe, and not easy to refute. + +A similar demand concerning the Philippines neither could nor ought to +have been acquiesced in by the civilized world. Here were ten millions +of people on a great highway of commerce, of numerous different races, +different languages, different religions, some semi-civilized, some +barbarous, others mere pagan savages, but without a majority or even a +respectable minority of them accustomed to self-government or believed +to be capable of it. Sovereignty over such a conglomeration and in such +a place could not be left in the air. The civilized world would not +recognize its transfer, unless transferred to somebody. Renunciation +under such circumstances would have been equivalent in International +Law to abandonment, and that would have been equivalent to anarchy and +a race for seizure among the nations that could get there quickest. + +We could, of course, have refused to accept the obligations of a +civilized, responsible nation. After breaking down government in those +commercial centers, we could have refused to set up anything in its +stead, and simply washed our hands of the whole business; but to do +that would have been to show ourselves more insensible to moral +obligations than if we had restored them outright to Spain. + +[Sidenote: How to Deal with the Philippines.] + +Well, if the elephant must be on our hands, what are we going to do +with it? I venture to answer that first we must put down the riot. The +lives and property of German and British merchants must be at least as +safe in Manila as they were under Spanish rule before we are ready for +any other step whatever. + +Next, ought we not to try to diagnose our case before we turn every +quack doctor among us loose on it--understand what the problem is +before beginning heated partizan discussions as to the easiest way of +solving it? And next, shall we not probably fare best in the end if we +try to profit somewhat by the experience others have had in like cases? + +The widest experience has been had by the great nation whose people and +institutions are nearest like our own. Illustrations of her successful +methods may be found in Egypt and in many British dependencies, but, +for our purposes, probably best of all either on the Malay Peninsula or +on the north coast of Borneo, where she has had the happiest results in +dealing with intractable types of the worst of these same races. Some +rules drawn from this experience might be distasteful to people who +look upon new possessions as merely so much more government patronage, +and quite repugnant to the noble army of office-seekers; but they +surely mark the path of safety. + +The first is to meddle at the outset as little as possible with every +native custom and institution and even prejudice; the next is to use +every existing native agency you can; and the next to employ in the +government service just as few Americans as you can, and only of the +best. Convince the natives of your irresistible power and your +inexorable purpose, then of your desire to be absolutely just, and +after that--not before--be as kind as you can. At the outset you will +doubtless find your best agents among the trained officers of the Navy +and the Army, particularly the former. On the retired list of both, but +again particularly of the Navy, ought to be found just the experience +in contact with foreign races, the moderation, wide views, justice, +rigid method, and inflexible integrity, you need. Later on should come +a real civil service, with such pure and efficient administration +abroad as might help us ultimately to conclude that we ourselves +deserve as well as the heathen, and induce us to set up similar +standards for our own service at home. Meantime, if we have taught the +heathen largely to govern themselves without being a hindrance and +menace to the civilization and the commerce of the world, so much the +better. Heaven speed the day! If not, we must even continue to be +responsible for them ourselves--a duty we did not seek, but should be +ashamed to shirk. + + + + +V + +THE OPEN DOOR + +A speech made at the dinner given by the American-Asiatic Association +in honor of Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, at Delmonico's, New +York, February 23, 1899. + + + + +THE OPEN DOOR + + +The hour is late, you have already enjoyed your intellectual feast, you +have heard the man you came to hear, and I shall detain you for but a +moment. The guest whom we are all here to honor and applaud is +returning from a journey designed to promote the safety and extension +of his country's trade in the Chinese Orient. He has probably been +accustomed to think of us as the most extreme Protectionist nation in +the world; and he may have heard at first of our recent acquisition on +the China Sea with some apprehension on that very account. + +[Sidenote: United States a Free-Trade Country.] + +Now, there are two facts that might be somewhat suggestive to any who +take that view. One is that, though we may be "enraged Protectionists," +as our French friends occasionally call us, we have rarely sought to +extend the protective system where we had nothing and could develop +nothing to protect. The other is that we are also the greatest +free-trade country in the world. Nowhere else on the globe does +absolute free trade prevail over so wide, rich, and continuous an +expanse of territory, with such variety and volume of production and +manufacture; and nowhere have its beneficent results been more +conspicuous. From the Golden Gate your guest has crossed a continent +teeming with population and manufactures without encountering a +custom-house. If he had come back from China the other way, from Suez +to London, he would have passed a dozen! + +When your Peace Commissioners were brought face to face with the +retention of the Philippines, they were at liberty to consider the +question it raised for immediate action in the light of both sides of +the national practice. Here was an archipelago practically without +manufactures to protect, or need for protection to develop +manufactures; and here were swarming populations with whom trade was +sure to increase and ramify, in proportion to its freedom from +obstructions. Thus it came about that your Commissioners were led to a +view which to many has seemed a new departure, and were finally enabled +to preface an offer to Spain with the remark that it was the policy of +the United States to maintain in the Philippines an open door to the +world's commerce. Great Protectionist leader as the President is and +long has been, he sanctioned the declaration; and Protectionist as is +the Senate, it ratified the pledge. + +[Sidenote: The Open Door.] + +Under treaty guaranty Spain is now entitled to the Open Door in the +Philippines for ten years. Under the most favored nation clause, what +is thus secured to Spain would not be easily refused, even if any one +desired it, to any other nation; and the door that stands open there +for the next ten years will by that time have such a rising tide of +trade pouring through it from the awakening East that no man +thenceforward can ever close it. + +There are two ways of dealing with the trade of a distant dependency. +You may give such advantage to your own people as practically to +exclude everybody else. That was the Spanish way. That is the French +way. Neither nation has grown rich of late on its colonial extensions. +Again, you may impose such import or export duties as will raise the +revenue needed for the government of the territory, to be paid by all +comers at its ports on a basis of absolute equality. In some places +that is the British way. Henceforth, in the Philippines, that is the +United States way. The Dingley tariff is not to be transferred to the +antipodes. + +Protectionists or Free-traders, I believe we may all rejoice in this as +best for the Philippines and best for ourselves. I venture to think +that we may rejoice over it, too, with your distinguished guest. It +enables Great Britain and the United States to preserve a common +interest and present a common front in the enormous commercial +development in the East that must attend the awakening of the Chinese +Colossus; and whenever and wherever Great Britain and the United States +stand together, the peace and the civilization of the world will be the +better for it. + + + + +VI + +SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF PARIS + +This discussion of the advances in International Law and changes in +national policy traceable to the negotiations that ended in the Peace +of Paris, was written in March, for the first number of "The +Anglo-Saxon Review" (then announced for May), which appeared in June, +1899. + + + + +SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF PARIS + + +In 1823 Thomas Jefferson, writing from the retirement of Monticello to +James Monroe, then President of the United States, said: + + Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any + one on all the earth, and with her on our side we need not fear the + world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial + friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than + to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. + +As these lines are written,[2] the thing which Jefferson looked forward +to has, in a small way, come to pass. For the first time under +government orders since British regulars and the militia of the +American colonies fought Indians on Lake Champlain and the French in +Canada, the Briton and the American have been fighting side by side, +and again against savages. In a larger sense, too, they are at last +embarked side by side in the Eastern duty, devolved on each, of +"bearing the white man's burden." It seems natural, now, to count on +such a friendly British interest in present American problems as may +make welcome a brief statement of some things that were settled by the +late Peace of Paris, and some that were unsettled. + + [2] The request of the editor for the preparation of this article + was received just after the British and American forces had their + conflict with the natives in Samoa. + +Whether treaties really settle International Law is itself an unsettled +point. English and American writers incline to give them less weight in +that regard than is the habit of the great Continental authorities. But +it is reasonable to think that some of the points insisted upon by the +United States in the Treaty of Paris will be precedents as weighty, +henceforth, in international policy as they are now novel to +international practice. If not International Law yet, they probably +will be; and it is confidently assumed that they will command the +concurrence of the British government and people, as well as of the +most intelligent and dispassionate judgment on the Continent. + +[Sidenote: When Arbitration is Inadmissible.] + +The distinct and prompt refusal by the American Commissioners to submit +questions at issue between them and their Spanish colleagues to +arbitration marks a limit to the application of that principle in +international controversy which even its friends will be apt hereafter +to welcome. No civilized nation is more thoroughly committed to the +policy of international arbitration than the United States. The Spanish +Commissioners were able to reinforce their appeal for it by striking +citations from the American record: the declaration of the Senate of +Massachusetts, as early as 1835, in favor of an international court for +the peaceful settlement of all disputes between nations; the action of +the Senate of the United States in 1853, favoring a clause in all +future treaties with foreign countries whereby difficulties that could +not be settled by diplomacy should be referred to arbitrators; the +concurrence of the two Houses, twenty years later, in reaffirming this +principle; and at last their joint resolution, in 1888, requesting the +President to secure agreements to that end with all nations with whom +he maintained diplomatic intercourse. + +But the American Commissioners at once made it clear that the rational +place for arbitration is as a substitute for war, not as a second +remedy, to which the contestant may still have a right to resort after +having exhausted the first. In the absence of the desired obligation to +arbitrate, the dissatisfied nation, according to the American theory, +may have, after diplomacy has completely failed, a choice of remedies, +but not a double remedy. It may choose arbitration, or it may choose +war; but the American Commissioners flatly refused to let it choose +war, and then, after defeat, claim still the right to call in +arbitrators and put again at risk before them the verdict of war. +Arbitration comes before war, they insisted, to avert its horrors; not +after war, to afford the defeated party a chance yet to escape its +consequences. + +The principle thus stated is thought self-evidently sound and just. +Americans were surprised to find how completely it was overlooked in +the contemporaneous European discussion--how general was the sympathy +with the Spanish request for arbitration, and how naif the apparently +genuine surprise at the instant and unqualified refusal to consider it. +Even English voices joined in the chorus of encouraging approval that, +from every quarter in Europe, greeted the formal Spanish appeal for an +opportunity to try over in another forum the questions they had already +submitted to the arbitrament of arms. The more clearly the American +view is now recognized and accepted, the greater must be the tendency +in the future to seek arbitration at the outset. To refuse arbitration +when only sought at the end of war, and as a means of escaping its +consequences, is certainly to stimulate efforts for averting war at the +beginning of difficulties by means of arbitration. The refusal prevents +such degradation of a noble reform to an ignoble end as would make +arbitration the refuge, not of those who wish to avoid war, but only of +those who have preferred war and been beaten at it. The American +precedent should thus become a powerful influence for promoting the +cause of genuine international arbitration, and so for the preservation +of peace between nations. + +[Sidenote: Does Debt Follow Sovereignty?] + +Equally unexpected and important to the development of ordered liberty +and good government in the world was the American refusal to accept any +responsibility, for themselves or for the Cubans, on account of the +so-called Cuban debt. The principle asserted from the outset by the +American Commissioners, and finally maintained, in negotiating the +Peace of Paris, was that a national debt incurred in efforts to subdue +a colony, even if called a colonial debt, or secured by a pledge of +colonial revenues, cannot be attached in the nature of a mortgage to +the territory of that colony, so that when the colony gains its +independence it may still be held for the cost of the unsuccessful +efforts to keep it in subjection. + +The first intimations that no part of the so-called Cuban debt would +either be assumed by the United States or transferred with the +territory to the Cubans, were met with an outcry from every bourse in +Europe. Bankers, investors, and the financial world in general had +taken it for granted that bonds which had been regularly issued by the +Power exercising sovereignty over the territory, and which specifically +pledged the revenues of custom-houses in that territory for the payment +of the interest and ultimately of the principal, must be recognized. +Not to do it, they said, would be bald, unblushing repudiation--a thing +least to be looked for or tolerated in a nation of spotless credit and +great wealth, which in past times of trial had made many sacrifices to +preserve its financial honor untarnished. + +It must be admitted that modern precedents were not altogether in favor +of the American position. Treaties ceding territory not infrequently +provide for the assumption by the new sovereign of a proportional part +of the general obligations of the ceding state. This is usually true +when the territory ceded is so considerable as to form an important +portion of the dismembered country. Even "the great conqueror of this +century," as the Spanish Commissioners exclaimed in one of their +arguments, "never dared to violate this rule of eternal justice in any +of the treaties he concluded with those sovereigns whose territories he +appropriated, in whole or in part, as a reward for his victories." They +cited his first treaty of August 24, 1801, with Bavaria providing that +the debts of the duchy of Deux-Ponts, and of that part of the +Palatinate acquired by France, should follow the countries, and +challenged the production of any treaty of Napoleon's or of any modern +treaty where the principle of such transfer was violated. + +They were able to base a stronger claim on the precedents of the New +World. They were, indeed, betrayed into some curious errors. One was +that the thirteen original States, at the close of the Revolutionary +War, paid over to Great Britain fifteen million pounds as their share +of the public debt. Another was that the payment of the Texas debt by +the United States must be a precedent now for its payment of the Cuban +debt--whereas the Texas debt was incurred by the Texas insurgents in +their successful war for independence, while the Cuban debt was +incurred by the mother country in her unsuccessful effort to put down +the Cuban insurgents. But as to the Spanish-American republics, they +were more nearly on solid ground. It was true, and was more to the +point than most of their other citations, that every one of these +Spanish-American republics assumed its debt, that most of them did it +before their independence was recognized, and that they gave these +debts contracted by Spain the preference over later debts contracted by +themselves. The language in the treaty with Bolivia was particularly +sweeping. It assumed as its own these debts of every kind whatsoever, +"including all incurred for pensions, salaries, supplies, advances, +transportation, forced loans, deposits, contracts, and any other debts +incurred during war-times or prior thereto, chargeable to said +treasuries; provided they were contracted by direct orders of the +Spanish government or its constituted authorities in said territories." +The Argentine Republic and Uruguay, in negotiating their treaties, +expressed the same idea more tersely: "Just as it acquires the rights +and privileges belonging to the crown of Spain, so it also assumes all +the duties and obligations of the crown." + +The argument was certainly obvious, and at first sight seemed fair, +that what every other revolted American colony of Spain had done, on +gaining its independence, the last of the long line should also do. But +an examination shows that in no case were the circumstances such as to +make it a fair precedent for Cuba. In the other colonies the debts were +largely due to their own people. To a considerable extent they had been +incurred for the prosecution of improvements of a pacific character, +generally for the public good and often at the public desire. Another +part had been spent in the legitimate work of preserving public order +and extending the advantages of government over wild regions and native +tribes.[3] The rich, compact, populous island of Cuba had called for no +such loans up to the time when Spain had already lost all of her +American colonies on the continent, and had consequently no other +dependency on which to fasten her exacting governor-generals and hosts +of other official leeches. There was no Cuban debt. Any honest +administration had ample revenues for all legitimate expenses, and a +surplus; and this surplus seems not to have been used for the benefit +of the island, but sent home. Between 1856 and 1861 over $20,000,000 of +Cuban surplus were thus remitted to Madrid. Next began a plan for using +Cuban credit as a means of raising money to re-conquer the lost +dominions; and so "Cuban bonds" (with the guaranty of the Spanish +nation) were issued, first for the effort to regain Santo Domingo, and +then for the expedition to Mexico. By 1864 $3,000,000 had been so +issued; by 1868 $18,000,000--not at the request or with the consent of +the Cubans, and not for their benefit. Then commenced the Cuban +insurrection; and from that time on, all Spain could wring from Cuba or +borrow in European markets on the pledge of Cuban revenues and her own +guaranty went in the effort to subdue a colony in revolt against her +injustice and bad government. The lenders knew the facts and took the +risk. Two years after this first insurrection was temporarily put down, +these so-called Cuban debts had amounted to over $170,000,000. They +were subsequently consolidated into other and later issues; but +whatever change of form or date they underwent, they continued to +represent practically just three things: the effort to conquer Santo +Domingo, the expedition to Mexico, and the efforts to subdue Cuba. A +movement to refund at a lower rate of interest was begun in 1890, and +for this purpose an issue of $175,000,000 of Spanish bonds was +authorized, to be paid out of the revenues of Cuba, but with the +guaranty of the Spanish nation. Before many had been placed the +insurrection had again broken out. Thenceforward they were used not to +refund old bonds, but to raise money for the prosecution of the new +war. Before its close this indebtedness had been swollen to over double +the figure named above, and a part of the money must have been used +directly in the war against the United States. + + [3] One of the author's colleagues at Paris, the Hon. Cushman K. + Davis, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United + States Senate, and among the most scholarly students of + International Law now in American public life, says in a private + letter: + + "I was at first very much struck by the unanimity of action + by the South American republics in the assumption of debts + created by Spain. But some reflection upon the subject has + caused that action to lose, to me, much of its apparent + relevancy. There was in none of those cases any funded debt, + in the sense of bond obligations, held in the markets of the + world. There were two parties in the various Spanish + provinces of North and South America, one of which supported + Spanish ascendancy, and the other of which was revolutionary. + The debts created by the exactions of Spain and of the + revolutionary party alike were, mainly if not entirely, + obligations due to the people of the colonies themselves. As + to the continuance of pensions, endowments, etc., it must be + remembered that these were Catholic countries, and that these + obligations ran to a state church, which continued to be a + state church after the colonies had achieved their + independence. As to the Napoleonic treaties cited by the + Spanish Commissioners, they were mere matters of covenant in + a special case, and were not, in my judgment, the result of + any anterior national obligation." + +In the negotiations Spain took high moral ground with reference to +these debts. She utterly denied any right to inquire how the proceeds +had been expended. She did not insist for her own benefit on their +recognition and transfer with the territory. She was concerned, not for +herself, but for international morality and for the innocent holders. +Some, no doubt, were Spanish citizens, but many others were French, or +Austrian, or of other foreign nationalities. The bonds were freely +dealt in on the Continental bourses. A failure to provide for them +would be a public scandal throughout civilization; it would cause a +wide-spread and profound shock to the sense of security in national +obligations the world over, besides incalculable injustice and +individual distress. + +But the fact was that these were the bonds of the Spanish nation, +issued by the Spanish nation for its own purposes, guaranteed in terms +"by the faith of the Spanish nation," and with another guaranty +pledging Spanish sovereignty and control over certain colonial +revenues. Spain failed to maintain her title to the security she had +pledged, but the lenders knew the instability of that security when +they risked their money on it. All the later lenders and many of the +early ones knew, also, that it was pledged for money to continue +Spain's efforts to subdue a people struggling to free themselves from +Spanish rule. They may have said the morality or justice of the use +made of the money was no concern of theirs. They may have thought the +security doubtful, and still relied on the broad guaranty of the +Spanish nation. At any rate, caveat emptor! The one thing they ought +not to have relied upon was that the island they were furnishing money +to subdue, if it gained its freedom, would turn around and insist on +reimbursing them! + +The Spanish contention that it was in their power, as absolute +sovereign of the struggling island, to fasten ineradicably upon it, for +their own hostile purposes, unlimited claims to its future revenues, +would lead to extraordinary results. Under that doctrine, any +hard-pushed oppressor would have a certain means of subduing the most +righteous revolt and condemning a colony to perpetual subjugation. He +would only have to load it with bonds, issued for his own purposes, +beyond any possible capacity it could ever have for payment. Under that +load it could neither sustain itself independently, even if successful +in war, nor persuade any other Power to accept responsibility for and +control over it. It would be rendered impotent either for freedom or +for any change of sovereignty. To ask the Nation sprung from the +successful revolt of the thirteen colonies to acknowledge and act on an +immoral doctrine like that, was, indeed, ingenuous--or audacious. The +American Commissioners pronounced it alike repugnant to common sense +and menacing to liberty and civilization. The Spanish Commissioners +resented the characterization, but it is believed that the considerate +judgment of the world will yet approve it. International practice will +certainly hesitate hereafter, in transfers of sovereignty over +territory after its successful revolt, at any recognition of loans +negotiated by the ceding Power in its unsuccessful effort to subdue the +revolt--no matter what pledges it had assumed to give about the future +territorial revenues. Loans for the prosecution of unjust wars will be +more sharply scrutinized in the money markets of the world, and will +find less ready takers, however extravagant the rates. It may even +happen that oppressing nations, in the increasing difficulty of +floating such loans, will find it easier to relax the rigors of their +rule and promote the orderly development of more liberal institutions +among their subjects. + +Far from being an encouragement, therefore, to repudiation, the +American rejection of the so-called Cuban debt was a distinct +contribution to international morality, and will probably furnish an +important addition to International Law. + +[Sidenote: Ready to Pay Legitimate Colonial Debts.] + +At the same time the American Commissioners made clear in another case +their sense of the duty to recognize any debt legitimately attaching to +ceded territory. There was not the remotest thought of buying the +Philippines, when a money payment was proposed, in that branch of the +negotiations. When the Spanish fleet was sunk and the Spanish army +captured at Manila, Spanish control over the Philippines was gone, and +the Power that had destroyed it was compelled to assume its +responsibilities to the civilized world at that commercial center and +on that oceanic highway.[4] If that was not enough reason for the +retention of the Philippines, then, at any rate, the right of the +United States to them as indemnity for the war could not be contested +by the generation which had witnessed the exaction of Alsace and +Lorraine plus $1,000,000,000 indemnity for the Franco-Prussian War. The +war with Spain had already cost the United States far above +$300,000,000. When trying to buy Cuba from Spain, in the days of that +island's greatest prosperity, the highest valuation the United States +was ever willing to attach to it was $125,000,000. As an original +proposition, nobody dreams that the American people would have +consented to buy the remote Philippines at that figure or at the half +of it. Who could think the Government exacting if it accepted them in +lieu of a cash indemnity (which Spain was wholly incapable of paying) +for a great deal more than double the value it had put upon Cuba, at +its very doors? + + [4] It might, of course, have run away and left them to disorder. + That is what a pirate could have done, and would have compelled + the intervention of European governments for the protection of + their own citizens. Or it might have restored them to Spain. + Besides the desertion of natives whose aid against Manila had + been encouraged, that would have been to say that while the + United States went to war because the injustice and barbarity of + Spanish rule in the West Indies were such that they could no + longer be tolerated, it was now so eager to quit and get peace + that it was willing to reestablish that same rule in the East + Indies! + +It was certain, then, that the Philippines would be retained, unless +the President and his Commissioners so construed their duty to protect +their country's interests as to throw away, in advance of popular +instruction, all possible chance of indemnity for the war. But there +was an issue of Spanish bonds, called a Philippine loan, amounting to +forty million dollars Mexican, or say a little less than twenty +millions of American money. Warned by the results of inquiry as to the +origin of the Cuban debt, the American Commissioners avoided +undertaking to assume this en bloc. But in their first statement of the +claim for cession of sovereignty in the Philippines, while intimating +their belief in their absolute right to enforce the demand on the +single ground of indemnity, they were careful to say that they were +ready to stipulate "for the assumption of any existing indebtedness of +Spain incurred for public works and improvements of a pacific character +in the Philippines." When they learned that this entire "Philippine +debt" had only been issued in 1897, that apparently a fourth had been +transferred to Cuba to carry on the war against the Cuban insurgents, +and finally against the United States, and that much of what was left +of the remainder, after satisfying the demands of officials for "costs +of negotiation," must have gone to the support of the government while +engaged in prosecuting the war against the natives in Luzon, the +American Commissioners abandoned the idea of assuming it. But even then +they resolved, in the final transfer, to fix an amount at least equal +to the face value of that debt, which could be given to Spain. She +could use it to pay the Philippine bonds if she chose. Nothing further +was said to Spain about the Philippine debt, and no specific reason for +the payment was given in the ultimatum. The Commissioners merely +observed that they "now present a new proposition, embodying the +concessions which, for the sake of immediate peace, their Government +is, under the circumstances, willing to tender." What had gone before +showed plainly enough the American view as to the sanctity of public +debt legitimately incurred in behalf of ceded territory, and explained +the money payment in the case of the Philippines, as well as the +precise amount at which it was finally fixed. + +[Sidenote: Privateering.] + +Neither the Peace of Paris nor the conflict which it closed can be said +to have quite settled the status of private war at sea. "Privateering +is and remains abolished," not in International Law, but merely between +the Powers that signed that clause in the Declaration of Paris in 1856. +But the greatest commercial nation, as well as the most powerful, that +withheld its signature was the United States. Obviously its adhesion to +the principle would bring more weight to the general acceptance among +civilized nations, which is the essential for admission in +International Law, than that of all the other dissenting nations. + +Under these circumstances, the United States took the occasion of an +outbreak of war between itself and another of the dissenting nations to +announce that, for its part, it did not intend, under any +circumstances, to resort to privateering. The other gave no such +assurance, and was, in fact, expected (in accordance with frequent +semi-official outgivings from Madrid) to commission privateers at an +early day; but the disasters to its navy and the collapse of its +finances left it without a safe opportunity. The moral effect of this +volunteer action of the United States, with no offset of any active +dissent by its opponent, becomes almost equivalent to completing that +custom and assent of the civilized world which create International +Law. Practically all governments may henceforth regard privateering as +under international ban, and no one of the states yet refraining from +assent--Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, or China--is likely to defy the ban. +The announcement of the United States can probably be accepted as +marking the end of private war at sea, and a genuine advance in the +world's civilization. + +[Sidenote: Exempt all Private Property.] + +The refusal of the United States, in 1856, to join in the clause of the +Declaration of Paris abolishing privateering was avowedly based upon +the ground that it did not go far enough. The American claim was that +not only private seizure of enemy's goods at sea should be prohibited, +but that all private property of the enemy at sea should be entitled to +the same protection as on land--prizes and prize courts being thus +almost abolished, and no private property of the enemy anywhere being +liable to confiscation, unless contraband of war. It was frankly stated +at the time that without this addition the abolition of privateering +was not in the interest of Powers like the United States, with a small +navy, but a large and active merchant fleet. This peculiar adaptability +of privateering at that time to the situation of the United States +might have warranted the suspicion that its professions of a desire to +make the Declaration of Paris broader than the other nations wished +only masked a desire to have things remain as they were. + +But the subsequent action of its Government in time of profound peace +compelled a worthier view of its attitude. A treaty with Italy, +negotiated by George P. Marsh, and ratified by the United States in +1871, embodied the very extension of the Declaration of Paris for which +the United States contended. This treaty provides that "in the event of +a war between them (Italy and the United States) the private property +of their respective citizens and subjects, with the exception of +contraband of war, shall be exempt from capture or seizure, on the high +seas or elsewhere, by the armed vessels or by the military forces of +either party." Is it too much to hope that this early committal of the +United States with Italy, and its subsequent action in the war with +Spain, may at last bring the world to the advanced ground it +recommended for the Declaration of Paris, and throw the safeguards of +civilization henceforth around all private property in time of war, +whether on land or sea? + +[Sidenote: The Monroe Doctrine Stands.] + +Here, then, are three great principles, important to the advancement of +civilization, which, if not established in International Law by the +Peace of Paris and the war it closed, have at least been so powerfuly +reinforced that no nation is likely hereafter lightly or safely to +violate them. + +But it has often been asked, and sometimes by eminent English writers, +whether the Americans have not, at the same time, fatally unsettled the +Monroe Doctrine, which never, indeed, had the sanction of International +Law, but to which they were known to attach the greatest importance. A +large and influential body of American opinion at first insisted that +the acquisition of the West Indian, Philippine, and Sandwich Islands +constituted an utter abandonment of that Doctrine; and apparently most +European publicists have accepted this view. Only slight inquiry is +needed to show that the facts give it little support. + +The Monroe Doctrine sprang from the union of certain absolute monarchs +(not claiming to rule by the will of the people, but by "divine right") +in a "Holy Alliance" against that dangerous spread of democratic ideas +which, starting in the revolt of the American colonies, had kindled the +French Revolution and more or less unsettled government in Europe. It +was believed that these monarchs meant not only to repress republican +tendencies in Europe, but to assist Spain in reducing again to +subjection American republics which had been established in former +Spanish colonies, and had been recognized as independent by the United +States. Under these circumstances, James Monroe, then President, in his +Annual Message in 1823, formally announced the famous "Doctrine" in +these words: + + The occasion has been deemed proper for asserting as a principle in + which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, + that the American continents, by the free and independent condition + which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be + considered as subjects for future colonization by any European + Powers.... Our policy in regard to Europe ... is not to interfere + in the internal concerns of any of its Powers. + +That is the whole substance of it. There was no pledge of abstention +throughout the future and under all circumstances from the internal +concerns of European Powers--only a statement of present practice. Far +less was there a pledge, as seems to have been widely supposed, that if +the Holy Alliance would only refrain from aiding Spain to force back +the Mexican and South American republics into Spanish colonies, the +United States would refrain from extending its institutions or its +control over any region in Asia or Africa or the islands of the sea. +Less yet was there any such talk as has been sometimes quoted, about +keeping Europe out of the Western hemisphere and ourselves staying out +of the Eastern hemisphere. What Mr. Monroe really said, in essence, was +this: "The late Spanish colonies are now American republics, which we +have recognized. They shall not be reduced to colonies again; and the +two American continents have thus attained such an independent +condition that they are no longer fields for European colonization." +That fact remains. It does not seem probable that anybody will try or +wish to change it. Furthermore, the United States has not interfered in +the internal concerns of any European Powers. But it is under no direct +pledge for the future to that effect; and as to Asia, Africa, and the +islands of the sea, it is and always has been as free as anybody else. +It encouraged and protected a colony on the west coast of Africa. It +acquired the Aleutian Islands, largely in the Asiatic system. It long +maintained a species of protectorate over the Sandwich Islands. It +acquired an interest in Samoa and joined there in a protectorate. It +has now taken the Sandwich Islands and the Philippines. Meanwhile the +Monroe Doctrine remains just where it always was. Nothing has been done +in contravention of it, and it stands as firmly as ever, though with +the tragic end of the Franco-Austrian experiment in Mexico, and now +with the final disappearance from the Western world of the unfortunate +Power whose colonial experiences led to its original promulgation, the +circumstances have so changed that nobody is very likely to have either +interest or wish to interfere with it. + +[Sidenote: Leaving the Continent.] + +What has really been unsettled, if anything, by the Peace of Paris and +the preceding war, has been the current American idea as to the sphere +of national activities, and the power under the Constitution for their +extension. It is perfectly true that the people did not wish for more +territory, and never dreamed of distant colonies. There had always been +a party that first opposed and then belittled the acquisition of +Alaska. There was no considerable popular support since the Civil War +for filibustering expeditions of the old sort against Cuba. There was +genuine reluctance to take the steps which recent circumstances and the +national committals for half a century made almost unavoidable in the +Sandwich Islands. Now suddenly the United States found itself in +possession of Cuba, Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The first +impression was one of great popular perplexity. What was to be done +with them? Must they be developed through the territorial stage into +independent States in the Union? or, if not, how govern or get rid of +them? What place was there in the American system for territories that +were never to be States, for colonies, or for the rule of distant +subject races? + +Up to this time, from the outbreak of the war, the Administration had +found the American people united in its support as they had hardly been +united for a century. The South vied with the North, the West forgot +the growing jealousy of the East, the poor the new antagonism to the +rich, and the wildest cow-boys from Arizona and New Mexico marched +fraternally beside scions of the oldest and richest families from New +York, under the orders of a great Secessionist cavalry general. + +But now two parties presently arose. One held that there was no +creditable escape from the consequences of the war; that the +Government, having broken down the existing authority in the capital of +the Philippines, and practically throughout the archipelago, could +neither set up that authority again nor shirk the duty of replacing it; +that it was as easy and as constitutional to apply some modification of +the existing territorial system to the Philippines as it had been to +Alaska and the Aleutians; and that, while the task was no doubt +disagreeable, difficult, and dangerous, it could not be avoided with +honor, and would ultimately be attended with great profit. On the other +hand, some prominent members of the Administration party led off in +protests against the retention of the Philippines on constitutional, +humanitarian, and economic grounds, pronouncing it a policy absolutely +antagonistic to the principles of the Republic and the precursor of its +downfall. In proportion as the Administration itself inclined to the +former view, the opposition leaders fell away from the support they had +given during the war, and began to align themselves with those members +of the Administration party who had opposed the ratification of the +treaty. They were reinforced by a considerable body of educated and +conservative public opinion, chiefly at the East, and by a number of +trades-union and labor leaders, who had been brought to believe that +the new policy meant cheap labor and cheap manufactures in competition +with their own, together with a large standing army, to which they have +manifested great repugnance ever since the Chicago riots. + +[Sidenote: Anti-Administration View of the Constitution.] + +In the universal ferment of opinion and discussion that ensued, the +opponents of what is assumed to be the Administration policy on the new +possessions have seemed to rely chiefly on two provisions in the +Constitution of the United States and a phrase in the Declaration of +Independence. The constitutional provisions are: + + The Congress shall have power to levy and collect taxes ... and + provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United + States; _but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform + throughout the United States_.--Art. I, Sec. 8. + + All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to + the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of + the State wherein they reside.--Art. XIV, Sec. 1. + +To serve the purpose for which these clauses of the Constitution are +invoked, it is necessary to hold that any territory to which the United +States has a title is an integral part of the United States; and +perhaps the greatest name in the history of American constitutional +interpretation, that of Mr. Chief Justice Marshall of the Supreme Court +of the United States, is cited in favor of that contention. If +accepted, it follows that when the treaty ceding Spanish sovereignty in +the Philippines was ratified, that archipelago became an integral part +of the United States. Then, under the first clause above cited, the +Dingley tariff must be immediately extended over the Philippines (as +well as Porto Rico, the Sandwich Islands, and Guam) precisely as over +New York; and, under the second clause, every native of the Philippines +and the other new possessions is a citizen of the United States, with +all the rights and privileges thereby accruing. The first result would +be the disorganization of the present American revenue system by the +free admission into all American ports of sugar and other tropical +products from the greatest sources of supply, and the consequent loss +of nearly sixty millions of annual revenue. Another would be the +destruction of the existing cane- and beet-sugar industries in the +United States. Another, apprehended by the laboring classes, who are +already suspicious from their experience with the Chinese, would be an +enormous influx, either of cheap labor or of its products, to beat down +their wages. + +Next, it is argued, there is no place in the theory or practice of the +American Government for territories except for development into +Statehood; and, consequently, the required population being already +present, new States must be created out of Luzon, Mindanao, the +Visayas, Porto Rico, and the Sandwich Islands. The right to hold them +permanently in the territorial form, or even under a protectorate, is +indignantly denied as conflicting with Mr. Jefferson's phrase in the +Declaration of Independence, to the effect that governments derive +their just powers from the consent of the governed. Some great names +can certainly be marshaled in support of such views--Chancellor Kent, +Mr. John C. Calhoun, Mr. Chief Justice Taney, and others. Denial of +this duty to admit the new possessions as States is denounced as a +violation by the Republic of the very law of its being, and its +transformation into an empire; as a revival of slavery in another form, +both because of government without representation, and because of the +belief that no tropical colony can be successful without contract +labor; as a consequent and inevitable degradation of American +character; as a defiance of the warnings in Washington's Farewell +Address against foreign entanglements; as a repudiation of the +congressional declaration at the outbreak of the war, that it was not +waged for territorial aggrandizement; and finally as placing Aguinaldo +in the position of fighting for freedom, independence, and the +principles of the fathers of the Republic, while the Republic itself is +in the position of fighting to control and govern him and his people in +spite of their will. + +On the other hand, the supporters of the treaty and of the policy of +the Administration, so far as it has been disclosed, begin their +argument with another provision of the Constitution, the second part of +Section 3 in Article IV: + + The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful + rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property + belonging to the United States. + +They claim that, under this, Congress has absolute power to do what it +will with the Philippines, as with any other territory or other +property which the United States may acquire. It is admitted that +Congress is, of course, under an implied obligation to exercise this +power in the general spirit of the Constitution which creates it, and +of the Government of which it is a part. But it is denied that Congress +is under any obligation to confer a republican form of government upon +a territory whose inhabitants are unfit for it, or to adopt any form of +government devised with reference to preparing it for ultimate +admission to the Union as a State. + +It is further denied that Congress is under any obligation, arising +either from the Constitution itself or from the precedents of the +Nation's action under it, to ask the consent of the inhabitants in +acquired territory to the form of government which may be given them. +And still further, it is not only denied that Congress is under any +obligations to prepare these territories for Statehood or admit them to +it, but it is pointed out that, at least as to the Philippines, that +body is prevented from doing so by the very terms, of the preamble to +the Constitution itself--concluding with the words, "do ordain and +establish this Constitution for the United States _of America_." There +is no place here for States of Asia. + +[Sidenote: Replies to Constitutional Objections.] + +In dealing with the arguments against retention of the Philippines, +based on the sections previously quoted from Articles I and XIV of the +Constitution, the friends of the policy say that the apparent conflict +in these articles with the wide grant of powers over territory to +Congress which they find in Article IV arises wholly from a failure to +recognize the different senses in which the term "the United States" is +used. As the name of the Nation it is often employed to include all +territory over which United States sovereignty extends, whether +originally the property of the individual States and ceded to the +United States, or whether acquired in treaties by the Nation itself. +But such a meaning is clearly inconsistent with its use in certain +clauses of the Constitution in question. Thus Article XIII says: +"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude ... shall exist within the +United States _or any place subject to their jurisdiction_." + +The latter clause was obviously the constitutional way of conveying the +idea about the Territories which the opponents of the Philippine policy +are now trying to read into the name "United States." The constitutional +provision previously cited about citizenship illustrates the same +point. It says "all persons born," etc., "are citizens of the United +States _and of the State wherein they reside_." There is no possibility +left here that Territories are to be held as an integral part of the +United States, in the sense in which the Constitution, in this clause, +uses the name. If they had been, the clause would have read, "and of +the State _or Territory_ in which they reside." For these opinions +high authorities are also cited, including debates in the Senate, acts +of Congress, the constant practice of the Executive, and most of the +judicial rulings of the last half-century that seem to bear upon the +present situation. + +[Sidenote: The Outcome not Doubtful.] + +It has been thought best, in an explanation to readers in another +country of the perplexity arising in the American mind, in a sudden +emergency, from these disputed points in constitutional powers, to set +forth with impartial fairness and some precision the views on either +side. It is essential to a fair judgment as to the apparent hesitation +since this problem began to develop, that the real basis for the +conflicting opinions should be understood, and that full justice should +be done to the earnest repugnance with which many conscientious +citizens draw back from sending American youth to distant tropical +regions to enforce with an armed hand the submission of an unwilling +people to the absolute rule of the Republic. It should be realized, +too, how far the new departure does unsettle the practice and policy of +a century. The old view that each new Territory is merely another +outlet for surplus population, soon to be taken in as another State in +the Union, must be abandoned. The old assumption that all inhabitants +of territory belonging to the United States are to be regarded as +citizens is gone. The idea that government anywhere must derive its +just powers only from the consent of the governed is unsettled, and +thus, to some, the very foundations of the Republic seem to be shaken. +Three generations, trained in Washington's warnings against foreign +entanglements, find it difficult all at once to realize that advice +adapted to a people of three millions, scattered along the border of a +continent, may need some modifications when applied to a people of +seventy-five millions, occupying the continent, and reaching out for +the commerce of both the oceans that wash its shores. + +But whatever may be thought of the weight of the argument, either as to +constitutional power or as to policy, there is little doubt as to the +result. The people who found authority in their fundamental law for +treating paper currency as a legal tender in time of war, in spite of +the constitutional requirement that no State should "make anything but +gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts," will find there +also all the power they need for dealing with the difficult problem +that now confronts them. And when the constitutional objections are +surmounted, those as to policy are not likely to lead the American +people to recall their soldiers from the fields on which the Filipinos +attacked them, or abandon the sovereignty which Spain ceded. The +American Government has the new territories, and will hold and govern +them. + +A republic like the United States has not been well adapted hitherto to +that sort of work. Congress is apt to be slow, if not also changeable, +and under the Constitution the method of government for territories +must be prescribed by Congress. It has not yet found time to deal with +the Sandwich Islands. Its harsher critics declare it has never yet +found time to deal fairly with Alaska. No doubt, Executive action in +advance of Congress might be satisfactory; but a President is apt to +wait for Congress unless driven by irresistible necessities. He can +only take the initiative through some form of military government. For +this the War Department is not yet well organized. Possibly the easiest +solution for the moment would be in the organization of another +department for war and government beyond the seas, or the development +of a measurably independent bureau for such work in the present +department. Whatever is done, it would be unreasonable to expect +unbroken success or exemption from a learner's mistakes and +discouragements. But whoever supposes that these will result either in +the abandonment of the task or in a final failure with it does not know +the American people. + + + + +VII + +OUR NEW DUTIES + +This commencement address was delivered on the campus at Miami +University, Oxford, Ohio, at the celebration of its seventy-fifth +anniversary, June 15, 1899. + + + + +OUR NEW DUTIES + + +Sons and Friends of Miami: I join you in saluting this venerable mother +at a notable waymark in her great life. One hundred and seven years ago +the Congress voted, and George Washington approved, a foundation for +this University. Seventy-five years ago it opened its doors. Now, si +monumentum quaeris, circumspice. There is the catalogue. There are the +long lists of men who so served the State or the Church that their +lives are your glory, their names your inspiration.[5] There are the +longer lists of others to whom kinder fortune did not set duties in the +eye of the world; but Miami made of them citizens who leavened the lump +of that growing West which was then a sprawling, irregular line of +pioneer settlements, and is now an empire. Search through it, above and +below the Ohio, and beyond the Mississippi. So often, where there are +centers of good work or right thinking and right living--so often and +so widely spread will you find traces of Miami, left by her own sons or +coming from those secondary sources which sprang from her example and +influence, that you are led in grateful surprise to exclaim: "If this +be the work of a little college, God bless and prolong the little +college! If, half starved and generally neglected, she has thus +nourished good learning and its proper result in good lives through the +three quarters of a century ended to-day, may the days of her years be +as the sands of the sea; may the Twentieth Century only introduce the +glorious prime of a career of which the Nineteenth saw but modest +beginnings, and may good old Miami still flourish in saecula saeculorum!" + + [5] Much attention had been attracted, as the date for this + celebration approached, to the numerous sons of this small + college who had in one way or another become prominent; and the + newspapers printed long lists of them. Among the names thus + singled out in the press were Benjamin Harrison, of the class of + 1852, President of the United States, 1889-93; William Dennison, + class of 1835, Governor of Ohio, 1859-63, and Postmaster-General + under Abraham Lincoln; Caleb B. Smith, 1826, Secretary of the + Interior in the same Administration; General Robert C. Schenck, + 1827, Chairman Ways and Means Committee in House of + Representatives, Major-General in the Civil War, and United + States Minister to Brazil and to Great Britain; William S. + Groesbeck, 1834, Congressman, counsel for Andrew Johnson in the + impeachment proceedings, and United States delegate to the + International Monetary Congress, 1878; Samuel Shellabarger, 1841, + Congressman, member of the Credit Mobilier Investigation, and of + the United States Civil Service Commission; Oliver P. Morton, + 1845, War Governor of Indiana, and United States Senator; Charles + Anderson, 1833, Governor of Ohio; James Birney, 1836, Governor of + Michigan; Richard Yates, 1830, War Governor of Illinois, and + United States Senator; Milton Sayler, 1852, Speaker House of + Representatives; John S. Williams, 1838, the "Cerro Gordo + Williams" of the Mexican War, United States Senator from + Kentucky; George E. Pugh, 1840, United States Senator from Ohio; + James W. McDill, 1853, United States Senator from Iowa; General + Samuel F. Carey, 1835, Congressman from Ohio, and temperance + orator; Albert S. Berry, 1856, Congressman from Kentucky; Dr. + John S. Billings, U.S.A., 1857, head of New York Library; David + Swing, 1852, the Chicago clergyman; General A. C. McClurg, 1853, + the Chicago publisher; Henry M. MacCracken, 1857, Chancellor of + New York University; William M. Thomson, 1828, author of "The + Land and the Book"; Calvin S. Brice, 1863, railway-builder, and + United States Senator; etc. + +But the celebration of her past and the aspirations for her future +belong to worthier sons--here among these gentlemen of the Board who +have cared for her in her need. I make them my profound acknowledgments +for the honor they have done me in assigning me a share in the work of +this day of days, and shall best deserve their trust by going with +absolute candor straight to my theme. + +[Sidenote: New Duties; a New World.] + +I shall speak of the new duties that are upon us and the new world that +is opening to us with the new century--of the spirit in which we should +advance and the results we have the right to ask. I shall speak of +public matters which it is the duty of educated men to consider; and of +matters which may hereafter divide parties, but on which we must refuse +now to recognize party distinctions. Partizanship stops at the +guard-line. "In the face of an enemy we are all Frenchmen," said an +eloquent Imperialist once in my hearing, in rallying his followers to +support a foreign measure of the French Republic. At this moment our +soldiers are facing a barbarous or semi-civilized foe, who +treacherously attacked them in a distant land, where our flag had been +sent, in friendship with them, for the defense of our own shores. Was +it creditable or seemly that it was lately left to a Bonaparte on our +own soil to teach some American leaders that, at such a time, patriotic +men at home do not discourage those soldiers or weaken the Government +that directs them?[6] + + [6] "MY DEAR SIR: I have received your letter of the 23d inst., + notifying me of my election as a vice-president of the + Anti-Imperialist League. I recognize the compliment implied in + this election, and appreciate it the more by reason of my respect + for the gentlemen identified with the league, but I do not think + I can appropriately or consistently accept the position, + especially since I learn through the press that the league + adopted at its recent meeting certain resolutions to which I + cannot assent.... I may add that, while I fully recognize the + injustice and even absurdity of those charges of 'disloyalty' + which have been of late freely made against some members of the + league, and also that many honorable and patriotic men do not + feel as I do on this subject, I am personally unwilling to take + part in an agitation which may have some tendency to cause a + public enemy to persist in armed resistance, or may be, at least, + plausibly represented as having this tendency. There can be no + doubt that, as a matter of fact, the country is at war with + Aguinaldo and his followers. I profoundly regret this fact;... + but it is a fact, nevertheless, and, as such, must weigh in + determining my conduct as a citizen.... + + "CHARLES JEROME BONAPARTE. + + "BALTIMORE, + "May 25, 1899." + +Neither shall I discuss, here and now, the wisdom of all the steps that +have led to the present situation. For good or ill, the war was fought. +Its results are upon us. With the ratification of the Peace of Paris, +our Continental Republic has stretched its wings over the West Indies +and the East. It is a fact and not a theory that confronts us. We are +actually and now responsible, not merely to the inhabitants and to our +own people, but, in International Law, to the commerce, the travel, the +civilization of the world, for the preservation of order and the +protection of life and property in Cuba, in Porto Rico, in Guam, and in +the Philippine Archipelago, including that recent haunt of piracy, the +Sulus. Shall we quit ourselves like men in the discharge of this +immediate duty; or shall we fall to quarreling with each other like +boys as to whether such a duty is a good or a bad thing for the +country, and as to who got it fastened upon us? There may have been a +time for disputes about the wisdom of resisting the stamp tax, but it +was not just after Bunker Hill. There may have been a time for hot +debate about some mistakes in the antislavery agitation, but not just +after Sumter and Bull Run. Furthermore, it is as well to remember that +you can never grind with the water that has passed the mill. Nothing in +human power can ever restore the United States to the position it +occupied the day before Congress plunged us into the war with Spain, or +enable us to escape what that war entailed. No matter what we wish, the +old continental isolation is gone forever. Whithersoever we turn now, +we must do it with the burden of our late acts to carry, the +responsibility of our new position to assume. + +When the sovereignty which Spain had exercised with the assent of all +nations over vast and distant regions for three hundred years was +solemnly transferred under the eye of the civilized world to the United +States, our first responsibility became the restoration of order. Till +that is secured, any hindrance to the effort is bad citizenship--as bad +as resistance to the police; as much worse, in fact, as its +consequences may be more bloody and disastrous. "You have a wolf by the +ears," said an accomplished ex-Minister of the United States to a +departing Peace Commissioner last autumn. "You cannot let go of him +with either dignity or safety, and he will not be easy to tame." + +[Sidenote: Policy for the New Possessions.] + +But when the task is accomplished,--when the Stars and Stripes at last +bring the order and peaceful security they typify, instead of wanton +disorder, with all the concomitants of savage warfare over which they +now wave,--we shall then be confronted with the necessity of a policy +for the future of these distant regions. It is a problem that calls for +our soberest, most dispassionate, and most patriotic thought. The +colleges, and the educated classes generally, should make it a matter +of conscience--painstakingly considered on all its sides, with +reference to International Law, the burdens of sovereignty, the rights +and the interests of native tribes, and the legitimate demands of +civilization--to find first our national duty and then our national +interest, which it is also a duty for our statesmen to protect. On such +a subject we have a right to look to our colleges for the help they +should be so well equipped to give. From these still regions of +cloistered thought may well come the white light of pure reason, not +the wild, whirling words of the special pleader or of the partizan, +giving loose rein to his hasty first impressions. It would be an ill +day for some colleges if crude and hot-tempered incursions into current +public affairs, like a few unhappily witnessed of late, should lead +even their friends to fear lest they have been so long accustomed to +dogmatize to boys that they have lost the faculty of reasoning with +men. + +When the first duty is done, when order is restored in those commercial +centers and on that commercial highway, somebody must then be +responsible for maintaining it--either ourselves or some Power whom we +persuade to take them off our hands. Does anybody doubt what the +American people in their present temper would say to the latter +alternative?--the same people who, a fortnight ago, were ready to break +off their Joint Commission with Great Britain and take the chances, +rather than give up a few square miles of worthless land and a harbor +of which a year ago they scarcely knew the name, on the remote coast of +Alaska. Plainly it is idle now, in a government so purely dependent on +the popular will, to scheme or hope for giving the Philippine task over +to other hands as soon as order is restored. We must, then, be prepared +with a policy for maintaining it ourselves. + +Of late years men have unthinkingly assumed that new territory is, in +the very nature of our Government, merely and necessarily the raw +material for future States in the Union. Colonies and dependencies, it +is now said, are essentially inconsistent with our system. But if any +ever entertained the wild dream that the instrument whose preamble says +it is ordained for the United States of _America_ could be stretched to +the China Sea, the first Tagal guns fired at friendly soldiers of the +Union, and the first mutilation of American dead that ensued, ended the +nightmare of States from Asia admitted to the American Union. For that +relief, at least, we must thank the uprising of the Tagals. It was a +Continental Union of independent sovereign States our fathers planned. +Whoever proposes to debase it with admixtures of States made up from +the islands of the sea, in any archipelago, East or West, is a bad +friend to the Republic. We may guide, protect, elevate them, and even +teach them some day to stand alone; but if we ever invite them into our +Senate and House, to help to rule us, we are the most imbecile of all +the offspring of time. + +[Sidenote: The Constitutional Objection.] + +Yet we must face the fact that able and conscientious men believe the +United States has no constitutional power to hold territory that is not +to be erected into States in the Union, or to govern people that are +not to be made citizens. They are able to cite great names in support +of their contention; and it would be an ill omen for the freest and +most successful constitutional government in the world if a +constitutional objection thus fortified should be carelessly considered +or hastily overridden. This objection rests mainly on the assumption +that the name "United States," as used in the Constitution, necessarily +includes all territory the Nation owns, and on the historic fact that +large parts of this territory, on acquiring sufficient population, have +already been admitted as States, and have generally considered such +admission to be a right. Now, Mr. Chief Justice Marshall--than whom no +constitutional authority carries greater weight--certainly did declare +that the question what was designated by the term "United States" in +the clause of the Constitution giving power to levy duties on imposts +"admitted of but one answer." It "designated the whole of the American +empire, composed of States and Territories." If that be accepted as +final, then the tariff must be applied in Manila precisely as in New +York, and goods from Manila must enter the New York custom-house as +freely as goods from New Orleans. Sixty millions would disappear +instantly and annually from the Treasury, and our revenue system would +be revolutionized by the free admission of sugar and other tropical +products from the United States of Asia and the Caribbean Sea; while, +on the other hand, the Philippines themselves would be fatally +handicapped by a tariff wholly unnatural to their locality and +circumstances. More. If that be final, the term "United States" should +have the same comprehensive meaning in the clause as to citizenship. +Then Aguinaldo is to-day a citizen of the United States, and may yet +run for the Presidency. Still more. The Asiatics south of the China Sea +are given that free admission to the country which we so strenuously +deny to Asiatics from the north side of the same sea. Their goods, +produced on wages of a few cents a day, come into free competition in +all our home markets with the products of American labor, and the cheap +laborers themselves are free to follow if ever our higher wages attract +them. More yet. If that be final, the Tagals and other tribes of Luzon, +the Visayans of Negros and Cebu, and the Mohammedan Malays of Mindanao +and the Sulus, having each far more than the requisite population, may +demand admission next winter into the Union as free and independent +States, with representatives in Senate and House, and may plausibly +claim that they can show a better title to admission than Nevada ever +did, or Utah or Idaho. + +Nor does the great name of Marshall stand alone in support of such +conclusions. The converse theory that these territories are not +necessarily included in the constitutional term "the United States" +makes them our subject dependencies, and at once the figure of +Jefferson himself is evoked, with all the signers of the immortal +Declaration grouped about him, renewing the old war-cry that government +derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. At different +periods in our history eminent statesmen have made protests on grounds +of that sort. Even the first bill for Mr. Jefferson's own purchase of +Louisiana was denounced by Mr. Macon as "establishing a species of +government unknown to the United States"; by Mr. Lucas as "establishing +elementary principles never previously introduced in the government of +any Territory of the United States"; and by Mr. Campbell as "really +establishing a complete despotism." In 1823 Chancellor Kent said, with +reference to Columbia River settlements, that "a government by Congress +as absolute sovereign, over colonies, absolute dependents, was not +congenial to the free and independent spirit of American institutions." +In 1848 John C. Calhoun declared that "the conquest and retention of +Mexico as a province would be a departure from the settled policy of +the Government, in conflict with its character and genius, and in the +end subversive of our free institutions." In 1857 Mr. Chief Justice +Taney said that "a power to rule territory without restriction as a +colony or dependent province would be inconsistent with the nature of +our Government." And now, following warily in this line, the eminent +and trusted advocate of similar opinions to-day, Mr. Senator Hoar of +Massachusetts, says: "The making of new States and providing national +defense are constitutional ends, so that we may acquire and hold +territory for those purposes. The governing of subject peoples is not a +constitutional end, and there is therefore no constitutional warrant +for acquiring and holding territory for that purpose." + +[Sidenote: An Alleged Constitutional Inability.] + +We have now, as is believed, presented with entire fairness a summary +of the more important aspects in which the constitutional objections +mentioned have been urged. I would not underrate by a hair's breadth +the authority of these great names, the weight of these continuous +reassertions of principle, the sanction even of the precedent and +general practice through a century. And yet I venture to think that no +candid and competent man can thoroughly investigate the subject, in the +light of the actual provisions of the Constitution, the avowed purpose +of its framers, their own practice and the practice of their +successors, without being absolutely convinced that this whole fabric +of opposition on constitutional grounds is as flimsy as a cobweb. This +country of our love and pride is no malformed, congenital cripple of a +nation, incapable of undertaking duties that have been found within the +powers of every other nation that ever existed since governments among +civilized men began. Neither by chains forged in the Constitution nor +by chains of precedent, neither by the dead hand we all revere, that of +the Father of his Country, nor under the most authoritative exponents +of our organic act and of our history, are we so bound that we cannot +undertake any duty that devolves or exercise any power which the +emergency demands. Our Constitution has entrapped us in no impasse, +where retreat is disgrace and advance is impossible. The duty which the +hand of Providence, rather than any purpose of man, has laid upon us, +is within our constitutional powers. Let me invoke your patience for a +rather minute and perhaps wearisome detail of the proof. + +The notion that the United States is an inferior sort of nation, +constitutionally without power for such public duties as other nations +habitually assume, may perhaps be dismissed with a single citation from +the Supreme Court. Said Mr. Justice Bradley, in the Legal Tender Cases: +"As a government it [the United States] was invested with all the +attributes of sovereignty.... It seems to be a self-evident proposition +that it is invested with all those inherent and implied powers which, +at the time of adopting the Constitution, were generally considered to +belong to every government as such, and as being essential to the +exercise of its functions" (12 Wall. 554). + +Every one recalls this constitutional provision: "The Congress shall +have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations +respecting the territory or other property of the United States." That +grant is absolute, and the only qualification is the one to be drawn +from the general spirit of the Government the Constitution was framed +to organize. Is it consistent with that spirit to hold territory +permanently, or for long periods of time, without admitting it to the +Union? Let the man who wrote the very clause in question answer. That +man was Gouverneur Morris of New York, and you will find his answer on +page 192 of the third volume of his writings, given only fifteen years +after, in reply to a direct question as to the exact meaning of the +clause: "I always thought, when we should acquire Canada and Louisiana, +it would be proper to govern them as provinces, and allow them no voice +in our councils. In wording the third section of the fourth article, I +went as far as circumstances would permit to establish the exclusion." +This framer of the Constitution desired then, and intended definitely +and permanently, to keep _Louisiana_ out! And yet there are men who +tell us the provision he drew would not even permit us to keep the +Philippines out! To be more papist than the Pope will cease to be a +thing exciting wonder if every day modern men, in the consideration of +practical and pressing problems, are to be more narrowly constitutional +than the men that wrote the Constitution! + +Is it said that, at any rate, our practice under this clause of the +Constitution has been against the view of the man that wrote it, and in +favor of that quoted from Mr. Chief Justice Marshall? Does anybody +seriously think, then, that though we have held New Mexico, Arizona, +and Oklahoma as territory organized or unorganized, part of it nearly a +century and all of it half a century, our representatives believed all +the while they had no constitutional right to do so? Who imagines that +when the third of a century during which we have already held Alaska is +rounded out to a full century, that unorganized Territory will even +then have any greater prospect than at present of admission as a State? +or who believes our grandchildren will be violating the Constitution in +keeping it out? Who imagines that under the Constitution ordained on +this continent specifically "for the United States of _America_," we +will ever permit the Kanakas, Chinese, and Japanese, who make up a +majority of the population in the Sandwich Islands, to set up a +government of their own and claim admission as an independent and +sovereign State of our American Union? Finally, let me add that +conclusive proof relating not only to practice under the Constitution, +but to the precise construction of the constitutional language as to +the Territories by the highest authority, in the light of long previous +practice, is to be found in another part of the instrument itself, +deliberately added three quarters of a century later. Article XIII +provides that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist +within the United States, _or any place subject to their jurisdiction_." +If the term "the United States," as used in the Constitution, really +includes the Territories as an integral part, as Mr. Chief Justice +Marshall said, what, then, does the Constitution mean by the additional +words, "or any place subject to their jurisdiction"? Is it not too +plain for argument that the Constitution here refers to territory not a +part of the United States, but subject to its jurisdiction--territory, +for example, like the Sandwich Islands or the Philippines? + +What, then, shall we say to the opinion of the great Chief +Justice?--for, after all, his is not a name to be dealt with lightly. +Well, first, it was a dictum, not a decision of the court. Next, in +another and later case, before the same eminent jurist, came a +constitutional expounder as eminent and as generally accepted,--none +other than Daniel Webster,--who took precisely the opposite view. He +was discussing the condition of certain territory on this continent +which we had recently acquired. Said Mr. Webster: "What is Florida? It +is no part of the United States. How can it be? Florida is to be +governed by Congress as it thinks proper. Congress might have done +anything--might have refused a trial by jury, and refused a +legislature." After this flat contradiction of the court's former +dictum, what happened? Mr. Webster won his case, and the Chief Justice +made not the slightest reference to his own previous and directly +conflicting opinion! Need we give it more attention now than Marshall +did then? + +Mr. Webster maintained the same position long afterward, in the Senate +of the United States, in opposition to Mr. John C. Calhoun, and his +view has been continuously sustained since by the courts and by +congressional action. In the debate with Mr. Calhoun in February, 1849, +Mr. Webster said: "What is the Constitution of the United States? Is +not its very first principle that all within its influence and +comprehension shall be represented in the Legislature which it +establishes, with not only a right of debate and a right to vote in +both houses of Congress, but a right to partake in the choice of +President and Vice-President?... The President of the United States +shall govern this territory as he sees fit till Congress makes further +provision.... We have never had a territory governed as the United +States is governed.... I do not say that while we sit here to make laws +for these territories, we are not bound by every one of those great +principles which are intended as general securities for public liberty. +But they do not exist in territories till introduced by the authority +of Congress.... Our history is uniform in its course. It began with the +acquisition of Louisiana. It went on after Florida became a part of the +Union. In all cases, under all circumstances, by every proceeding of +Congress on the subject and by all judicature on the subject, it has +been held that territories belonging to the United States were to be +governed by a constitution of their own,... and in approving that +constitution the legislation of Congress was not necessarily confined +to those principles that bind it when it is exercised in passing laws +for the United States itself." Mr. Calhoun, in the course of this +debate, asked Mr. Webster for judicial opinion sustaining these views, +and Mr. Webster said that "the same thing has been decided by the +United States courts over and over again for the last thirty years." + +I may add that it has been so held over and over again during the +subsequent fifty. Mr. Chief Justice Waite, giving the opinion of the +Supreme Court of the United States (in National Bank _v._ County of +Yankton, 101 U.S. 129-132), said: "It is certainly now too late to +doubt the power of Congress to govern the Territories. Congress is +supreme, and, for all the purposes of this department, has all the +powers of the people of the United States, except such as have been +expressly or by implication reserved in the prohibitions of the +Constitution." + +Mr. Justice Stanley Matthews of the United States Supreme Court stated +the same view with even greater clearness in one of the Utah polygamy +cases (Murphy _v._ Ramsey, 114 U.S. 44, 45): "It rests with Congress to +say whether in a given case any of the people resident in the Territory +shall participate in the election of its officers or the making of its +laws. It may take from them any right of suffrage it may previously +have conferred, or at any time modify or abridge it, as it may deem +expedient.... Their political rights are franchises which they hold as +privileges, in the legislative discretion of the United States." + +The very latest judicial utterance on the subject is in harmony with +all the rest. Mr. Justice Morrow of the United States Court of Appeals +for the Ninth Circuit, in February, 1898, held (57 U.S. Appeals 6): +"The now well-established doctrine [is] that the Territories of the +United States are entirely subject to the legislative authority of +Congress. They are not organized under the Constitution nor subject to +its complex distribution of the powers of government. The United +States, having rightfully acquired the Territories, and being the only +Government which can impose laws upon them, has the entire dominion and +sovereignty, national and municipal, Federal and State." + +[Sidenote: More Recent Constitutional Objections.] + +In the light of such expositions of our constitutional power and our +uniform national practice, it is difficult to deal patiently with the +remaining objections to the acquisition of territory, purporting to be +based on constitutional grounds. One is that to govern the Philippines +without their consent or against the opposition of Aguinaldo is to +violate the principle--only formulated, to be sure, in the Declaration +of Independence, but, as they say, underlying the whole +Constitution--that government derives its just powers from the consent +of the governed. In the Sulu group piracy prevailed for centuries. How +could a government that put it down rest on the consent of Sulu? Would +it be without just powers because the pirates did not vote in its +favor? In other parts of the archipelago what has been stigmatized as a +species of slavery prevails. Would a government that stopped that be +without just powers till the slaveholders had conferred them at a +popular election? In another part head-hunting is, at certain seasons +of the year, a recognized tribal custom. Would a government that +interfered with that practice be open to denunciation as an usurpation, +without just powers, and flagrantly violating the Constitution of the +United States, unless it waited at the polls for the consent of the +head-hunters? The truth is, all intelligent men know--and few even in +America, except obvious demagogues, hesitate to admit--that there are +cases where a good government does not and ought not to rest on the +consent of the governed. If men will not govern themselves with respect +for civilization and its agencies, then when they get in the way they +must be governed--always have been, whenever the world was not +retrograding, and always will be. The notion that such government is a +revival of slavery, and that the United States by doing its share of +such work in behalf of civilization would therefore become infamous, +though put forward with apparent gravity in some eminently respectable +quarters, is too fantastic for serious consideration. + +Mr. Jefferson may be supposed to have known the meaning of the words he +wrote. Instead of vindicating a righteous rebellion in the Declaration, +he was called, after a time, to exercise a righteous government under +the Constitution. Did he himself, then, carry his own words to such +extremes as these professed disciples now demand? Was he guilty of +subverting the principles of the Government in buying some hundreds of +thousands of Spaniards, Frenchmen, Creoles, and Indians, "like sheep in +the shambles," as the critics untruthfully say we did in the +Philippines? We bought nobody there. We held the Philippines first by +the same right by which we held our own original thirteen States,--the +oldest and firmest of all rights, the right by which nearly every great +nation holds the bulk of its territory,--the right of conquest. We held +them again as a rightful indemnity, and a low one, for a war in which +the vanquished could give no other. We bought nothing; and the twenty +millions that accompanied the transfer just balanced the Philippine +debt. + +But Jefferson did, if you choose to accept the hypercritical +interpretation of these latter-day Jeffersonians--Jefferson did buy the +Louisianians, even "like sheep in the shambles," if you care so to +describe it; and did proceed to govern them without the consent of the +governed. Monroe bought the Floridians without their consent. Polk +conquered the Californians, and Pierce bought the New Mexicans. Seward +bought the Russians and Alaskans, and we have governed them ever since, +without their consent. Is it easy, in the face of such facts, to +preserve your respect for an objection so obviously captious as that +based on the phrase from the Declaration of Independence? + +Nor is the turn Senator Hoar gives the constitutional objection much +more weighty. He wishes to take account of motives, and pry into the +purpose of those concerned in any acquisition of territory, before the +tribunals can decide whether it is constitutional or not. If acquired +either for the national defense or to be made a State, the act is +constitutional; otherwise not. If, then, Jefferson intended to make a +State out of Idaho, his act in acquiring that part of the Louisiana +Purchase was all right. Otherwise he violated the Constitution he had +helped to make and sworn to uphold. And yet, poor man, he hardly knew +of the existence of that part of the territory, and certainly never +dreamed that it would ever become a State, any more than Daniel Webster +dreamed, to quote his own language in the Senate, that "California +would ever be worth a dollar." Is Gouverneur Morris to be arraigned as +false to the Constitution he helped to frame because he wanted to +acquire Louisiana and Canada, and keep them both out of the Union? Did +Mr. Seward betray the Constitution and violate his oath in buying +Alaska without the purpose of making it a State? It seems--let it be +said with all respect--that we have reached the reductio ad absurdum, +and that the constitutional argument in any of its phases need not be +further pursued. + +[Sidenote: The Little Americans.] + +If I have wearied you with these detailed proofs of a doctrine which +Mr. Justice Morrow rightly says is now well established, and these +replies to its assailants, the apology must be found in the persistence +with which the utter lack of constitutional power to deal with our new +possessions has been vociferously urged from the outset by the large +class of our people whom I venture to designate as the Little +Americans, using that term not in the least in disparagement, but +solely as distinctive and convenient. From the beginning of the +century, at every epoch in our history we have had these Little +Americans. They opposed Jefferson as to getting Louisiana. They opposed +Monroe as to Florida. They were vehement against Texas, against +California, against organizing Oregon and Washington, against the +Gadsden Purchase, against Alaska, and against the Sandwich Islands. At +nearly every stage in that long story of expansion the Little Americans +have either denied the constitutional authority to acquire and govern, +or denounced the acquisitions as worthless and dangerous. At one stage, +indeed, they went further. When State after State was passing +ordinances of secession, they raised the cry,--erroneously attributed +to my distinguished predecessor and friend, Horace Greeley, but really +uttered by Winfield Scott,--"Wayward Sisters, depart in peace!" +Happily, this form, too, of Little Americanism failed. We are all glad +now,--my distinguished classmate here,[7] who wore the gray and invaded +Ohio with Morgan, as glad as myself,--we all rejoice that these +doctrines were then opposed and overborne. It was seen then, and I +venture to think it may be seen now, that it is a fundamental principle +with the American people, and a duty imposed upon all who represent +them, to maintain the Continental Union of American Independent States +in all the purity of the fathers' conception; to hold what belongs to +it, and get what it is entitled to; and, finally, that wherever its +flag has been rightfully advanced, there it is to be kept. If that be +Imperialism, make the most of it! + + [7] The Hon. Albert S. Berry, M.C., from the Covington, + Kentucky, District. + +[Sidenote: The Plain Path of Duty.] + +It was no vulgar lust of power that inspired the statesmen and soldiers +of the Republic when they resisted the halting counsel of the Little +Americans in the past. Nor is it now. Far other is the spirit we invoke: + + Stern daughter of the Voice of God, + O Duty! If that name thou love-- + +in that name we beg for a study of what the new situation that is upon +us, the new world opening around us, now demand at our hands. + +The people of the United States will not refuse an appeal in that name. +They never have. They had been so occupied, since the Civil War, first +in repairing its ravages, and then in occupying and possessing their +own continent, they had been so little accustomed, in this generation +or the last, to even the thought of foreign war, that one readily +understands why at the outset they hardly realized how absolute is the +duty of an honorable conqueror to accept and discharge the +responsibilities of his conquest. But this is no longer a child-nation, +irresponsible in its nonage and incapable of comprehending or assuming +the responsibilities of its acts. A child that breaks a pane of glass +or sets fire to a house may indeed escape. Are we to plead the baby +act, and claim that we can flounce around the world, breaking +international china and burning property, and yet repudiate the bill +because we have not come of age? Who dare say that a self-respecting +Power could have sailed away from Manila and repudiated the +responsibilities of its victorious belligerency? After going into a war +for humanity, were we so craven that we should seek freedom from +further trouble at the expense of civilization? + +If we did not want those responsibilities we ought not to have gone to +war, and I, for one, would have been content. But having chosen to go +to war, and having been speedily and overwhelmingly successful, we +should be ashamed even to think of running away from what inexorably +followed. Mark what the successive steps were, and how link by link the +chain that binds us now was forged. + +The moment war was foreseen the fleet we usually have in Chinese waters +became indispensable, not merely, as before, to protect our trade and +our missionaries in China, but to checkmate the Spanish fleet, which +otherwise held San Francisco and the whole Pacific coast at its mercy. +When war was declared our fleet was necessarily ordered out of neutral +ports. Then it had to go to Manila or go home. If it went home, it left +the whole Pacific coast unguarded, save at the particular point it +touched, and we should have been at once in a fever of apprehension, +chartering hastily another fleet of the fastest ocean-going steamers we +could find in the world, to patrol the Pacific from San Diego to Sitka, +as we did have to patrol the Atlantic from Key West to Bar Harbor. +Palpably this was to go the longest way around to do a task that had to +be done in any event, as well as to demoralize our forces at the +opening of the war with a manoeuver in which our Navy has never been +expert--that of avoiding a contest and sailing away from the enemy! The +alternative was properly taken. Dewey went to Manila and sank the +Spanish fleet. We thus broke down Spanish means for controlling the +Philippines, and were left with the Spanish responsibility for +maintaining order there--responsibility to all the world, German, +English, Japanese, Russian, and the rest--in one of the great centers +and highways of the world's commerce. + +But why not turn over that commercial center and the island on which it +is situated to the Tagals? To be sure! Under three hundred years of +Spanish rule barbarism on Luzon had so far disappeared that this +commercial metropolis, as large as San Francisco or Cincinnati, had +sprung up and come to be thronged by traders and travelers of all +nations. Now it is calmly suggested that we might have turned it over +to one semi-civilized tribe, absolutely without experience in governing +even itself, much less a great community of foreigners, probably in a +minority on the island, and at war with its other inhabitants--a tribe +which has given the measure of its fitness for being charged with the +rights of foreigners and the care of a commercial metropolis by the +violation of flags of truce, treachery to the living, and mutilation of +the dead which have marked its recent wanton rising against the Power +that was trying to help it! + +If running away from troublesome responsibility and duty is our role, +why did we not long ago take the opportunity, in our early feebleness, +to turn over Tallahassee and St. Augustine to the Seminoles, instead of +sending Andrew Jackson to protect the settlements and subdue the +savages? Why, at the first Apache outbreak after the Gadsden Purchase, +did we not hasten to turn over New Mexico and Arizona to _their_ +inhabitants? Or why, in years within the memory of most of you, when +the Sioux and Chippewas rose on our Northwestern frontier, did we not +invite them to retain possession of St. Cloud, and even come down, if +they liked, to St. Paul and Minneapolis? + +Unless I am mistaken in regarding all these suggestions as too unworthy +to be entertained by self-respecting citizens of a powerful and +self-respecting nation, we have now reached two conclusions that ought +to clear the air and simplify the problem that remains: First, we have +ample constitutional power to acquire and govern new territory +absolutely at will, according to our sense of right and duty, whether +as dependencies, as colonies, or as a protectorate. Secondly, as the +legitimate and necessary consequence of our own previous acts, it has +become our national and international duty to do it. + +[Sidenote: The Policy for our Dependencies] + +How shall we set about it? What shall be the policy with which, when +order has been inexorably restored, we begin our dealings with the new +wards of the Nation? Certainly we must mark our disapproval of the +treachery and barbarities of the present contest. As certainly the +oppression of other tribes by the Tagals must be ended, or the +oppression of any tribe by any other within the sphere of our active +control. Wars between the tribes must be discouraged and prevented. We +must seek to suppress crimes of violence and private vengeance, secure +individual liberty, protect individual property, and promote the study +of the arts of peace. Above all, we must give and enforce justice; and +for the rest, as far as possible, leave them alone. By all means let us +avoid a fussy meddling with their customs, manners, prejudices, and +beliefs. Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in +other regards to our ways. All this points directly to utilizing +existing agencies as much as possible, developing native initiative and +control in local matters as fast and as far as we can, and ultimately +giving them the greatest degree of self-government for which they prove +themselves fitted. + +Under any conditions that exist now, or have existed for three hundred +years, a homogeneous native government over the whole archipelago is +obviously impossible. Its relations to the outside world must +necessarily be assumed by us. We must preserve order in Philippine +waters, regulate the harbors, fix and collect the duties, apportion the +revenue, and supervise the expenditure. We must enforce sanitary +measures. We must retain such a control of the superior courts as shall +make justice certainly attainable, and such control of the police as +shall insure its enforcement. But in all this, after the absolute +authority has been established, the further the natives can themselves +be used to carry out the details, the better. + +Such a system might not be unwise even for a colony to which we had +reason to expect a considerable emigration of our own people. If +experience of a kindred nation in dealing with similar problems counts +for anything, it is certainly wise for a distant dependency, always to +be populated mainly, save in the great cities, by native races, and +little likely ever to be quite able to stand alone, while, +nevertheless, we wish to help it just as much as possible to that end. + +[Sidenote: The Duty of Public Servants.] + +Certainly this is no bed of flowery ease in the dreamy Orient to which +we are led. No doubt these first glimpses of the task that lies before +us, as well as the warfare with distant tribes into which we have been +unexpectedly plunged, will provoke for the time a certain discontent +with our new possessions. But on a far-reaching question of national +policy the wise public man is not so greatly disturbed by what people +say in momentary discouragement under the first temporary check. That +which really concerns him is what people at a later day, or even in a +later generation, might say of men trusted with great duties for their +country, who proved unequal to their opportunities, and through some +short-sighted timidity of the moment lost the chance of centuries. + +It is quite true, as was recently reported in what seemed an +authoritative way from Washington, that the Peace Commissioners were +not entirely of one mind at the outset, and equally true that the final +conclusion at Washington was apparently reached on the Commission's +recommendation from Paris. As the cold fit, in the language of one of +our censors, has followed the hot fit in the popular temper, I readily +take the time which hostile critics consider unfavorable, for accepting +my own share of responsibility, and for avowing for myself that I +declared my belief in the duty and policy of holding the whole +Philippine Archipelago in the very first conference of the +Commissioners in the President's room at the White House, in advance of +any instructions of any sort. If vindication for it be needed, I +confidently await the future. + +What _is_ the duty of a public servant as to profiting by opportunities +to secure for his country what all the rest of the world considers +material advantages? Even if he could persuade himself that rejecting +them is morally and internationally admissible, is he at liberty to +commit his country irrevocably to their rejection, because they do not +wholly please his individual fancy? At a former negotiation of our own +in Paris, the great desire of the United States representative, as well +as of his Government, had been mainly to secure the settled or partly +settled country adjoining us on the south, stretching from the Floridas +to the city of New Orleans. The possession of the vast unsettled and +unknown Louisiana Territory, west of the Mississippi, was neither +sought nor thought of. Suddenly, on an eventful morning in April, 1803, +Talleyrand astonished Livingston by offering, on behalf of Napoleon, to +sell to the United States, not the Floridas at all, but merely +Louisiana, "a raw little semi-tropical frontier town and an unexplored +wilderness." + +Suppose Livingston had rejected the offer? Or suppose Gadsden had not +exceeded his instructions in Mexico and boldly grasped the opportunity +that offered to rectify and make secure our Southwestern frontier? +Would this generation judge that they had been equal to their +opportunities or their duties? + +The difficulties which at present discourage us are largely of our own +creation. It is not for any of us to think of attempting to apportion +the blame. The only thing we are sure of is that it was for no lack of +authority that we hesitated and drifted till the Tagals were convinced +we were afraid of them, and could be driven out before reinforcements +arrived. That was the very thing our officers had warned us +against,--the least sign of hesitation or uncertainty,--the very danger +every European with knowledge of the situation had dinned in our ears. +Everybody declared that difficulties were sure to grow on our hands in +geometrical proportion to our delays; and it was perfectly known to the +respective branches of our Government primarily concerned that while +the delay went on it was in neglect of a duty we had voluntarily +assumed. + +For the American Commissioners, with due authority, distinctly offered +to assume responsibility, pending the ratification of the treaty, for +the protection of life and property and the preservation of order +throughout the whole archipelago. The Spanish Commissioners, after +consultation with their Government, refused this, but agreed that each +Power should be charged, pending the ratification, with the maintenance +of order in the places where it was established. The American assent to +that left absolutely no question as to the diminished but still grave +responsibility thus devolved.[8] That responsibility was avoided from +the hour the treaty was signed till the hour when the Tagal chieftain, +at the head of an army he had been deliberately gathering and +organizing, took things in his own hand and made the attack he had so +long threatened. Disorder, forced loans, impressment, confiscation, +seizure of waterworks, contemptuous violations of our guard-lines, and +even the practical siege of the city of Manila, had meantime been going +on within gunshot of troops held there inactive by the Nation which had +volunteered responsibility for order throughout the archipelago, and +had been distinctly left with responsibility for order in the island on +which it was established. If the bitterest enemy of the United States +had sought to bring upon it in that quarter the greatest trouble in the +shortest time, he could have devised for that end no policy more +successful than the one we actually pursued. There may have been +controlling reasons for it. An opposite course might perhaps have cost +more elsewhere than it saved in Luzon. On that point the public cannot +now form even an opinion. But as to the effect in Luzon there is no +doubt; and because of it we have the right to ask a delay in judgment +about results there until the present evil can be undone. + + [8] Protocol No. 19 of the Paris Commission, Conference of + December 5, 1898: "The President of the Spanish Commission having + agreed, at the last session, to consult his Government regarding + the proposal of the American Commissioners that the United States + should maintain public order over the whole Philippine + Archipelago pending the exchange of ratifications of the treaty + of peace, stated that the answer of his Government was that the + authorities of each of the two nations shall be charged with the + maintenance of order in the places where they may be established, + those authorities agreeing among themselves to this end whenever + they may deem it necessary." + +[Sidenote: The Carnival of Captious Objection.] + +Meantime, in accordance with a well-known and probably unchangeable law +of human nature, this is the carnival and very heyday of the objectors. +The air is filled with their discouragement. + +Some exclaim that Americans are incapable of colonizing or of managing +colonies; that there is something in our national character or +institutions that wholly disqualifies us for the work. Yet the most +successful colonies in the whole world were the thirteen original +colonies on our Atlantic coast; and the most successful colonists were +our own grandfathers! Have the grandsons so degenerated that they are +incapable of colonizing at all, or of managing colonies? Who says so? +Is it any one with the glorious history of this continental +colonization bred in his bone and leaping in his blood? Or is it some +refugee from a foreign country he was discontented with, who now finds +pleasure in disparaging the capacity of the new country he came to, +while he has neither caught its spirit nor grasped the meaning of its +history? + +Some bewail the alleged fact that, at any rate, our system has little +adaptability to the control of colonies or dependencies. Has our system +been found weaker, then, than other forms of government, less adaptable +to emergencies, and with people less fit to cope with them? Is the +difficulty inherent, or is it possible that the emergency may show, as +emergencies have shown before, that whatever task intelligence, energy, +and courage can surmount the American people and their Government can +rise to? + +It is said the conditions in our new possessions are wholly different +from any we have previously encountered. This is true; and there is +little doubt the new circumstances will bring great modifications in +methods. That is an excellent reason, among others, for some doubt at +the outset as to whether we know all about it, but not for despairing +of our capacity to learn. It might be remembered that we have +encountered some varieties of conditions already. The work in Florida +was different from that at Plymouth Rock; Louisiana and Texas showed +again new sets of conditions; California others; Puget Sound and Alaska +still others; and we did not always have unbroken success and plain +sailing from the outset in any of them. + +It is said we cannot colonize the tropics, because our people cannot +labor there. Perhaps not, especially if they refuse to obey the prudent +precautions which centuries of experience have enjoined upon others. +But what, then, are we going to do with Porto Rico? How soon are our +people going to flee from Arizona? And why is life impossible to +Americans in Manila and Cebu and Iloilo, but attractive to the throngs +of Europeans who have built up those cities? Can we mine all over the +world, from South Africa to the Klondike, but not in Palawan? Can we +grow tobacco in Cuba, but not in Cebu; or rice in Louisiana, but not in +Luzon? + +An alarm is raised that our laboring classes are endangered by +competition with cheap tropical labor or its products. How? The +interpretation of the Constitution which would permit that is the +interpretation which has been repudiated in an unbroken line of +decisions for over half a century. Only one possibility of danger to +American labor exists in our new possessions--the lunacy, or worse, of +the dreamers who want to prepare for the admission of some of them as +States in the American Union. Till then we can make any law we like to +prevent the immigration of their laborers, and any tariff we like to +regulate the admission of their products. + +It is said we are pursuing a fine method for restoring order, by +prolonging the war we began for humanity in order to force liberty and +justice on an unwilling people at the point of the bayonet. The sneer +is cheap. How else have these blessings been generally diffused? How +often in the history of the world has barbarism been replaced by +civilization without bloodshed? How were our own liberty and justice +established and diffused on this continent? Would the process have been +less bloody if a part of our own people had noisily taken the side of +the English, the Mexican, or the savage, and protested against "extreme +measures"? + +Some say a war to extend freedom in Cuba or elsewhere is right, and +therefore a duty; but the war in the Philippines now is purely selfish, +and therefore a crime. The premise is inaccurate; it is a war we are in +duty bound to wage at any rate till order is restored--but let that +pass. Suppose it to be merely a war in defense of our own just rights +and interests. Since when did such a war become wrong? Is our national +motto to be, "Quixotic on the one hand, Chinese on the other"? + +How much better it would have been, say others, to mind our own +business! No doubt; but if we were to begin crying over spilt milk in +that way, the place to begin was where the milk was spilled--in the +Congress that resolved upon war with Spain. Since that congressional +action we have been minding what it made our own business quite +diligently, and an essential part of our business now is the +responsibility for our own past acts, whether in Havana or Manila. + +Some say that since we began the war for humanity, we are disgraced by +coming out of it with increased territory. Then a penalty must always +be imposed upon a victorious nation for presuming to do a good act. The +only nation to be exempt from such a penalty upon success is to be the +nation that was in the wrong! It is to have a premium, whether +successful or not; for it is thus relieved, even in defeat, from the +penalty which modern practice in the interest of civilization +requires--the payment of an indemnity for the cost of an unjust war. +Furthermore, the representatives of the nation that does a good act are +thus bound to reject any opportunity for lightening the national load +it entails. They must leave the full burden upon their country, to be +dealt with in due time by the individual taxpayer! + +Again, we have superfine discussions of what the United States "stands +for." It does not stand, we are told, for foreign conquest, or for +colonies or dependencies, or other extensions of its power and +influence. It stands solely for the development of the individual man. +There is a germ of a great truth in this, but the development of the +truth is lost sight of. Individual initiative is a good thing, and our +institutions do develop it--and its consequences! There is a species of +individualism, too, about a bulldog. When he takes hold he holds on. It +may as well be noticed by the objectors that that is a characteristic +much appreciated by American people. They, too, hold on. They remember, +besides, a pregnant phrase of their fathers, who "ordained this +Constitution," among other things, "to promote the general welfare." +That is a thing for which "this Government stands" also; and woe to the +public servant who rejects brilliant opportunities to promote it--on +the Pacific Ocean no less than the Atlantic, by commerce no less than +by agriculture or manufactures. + +It is said the Philippines are worthless--have, in fact, already cost +us more than the value of their entire trade for many years to come. So +much the more, then, are we bound to do our duty by them. But we have +also heard in turn, and from the same quarters, that every one of our +previous acquisitions was worthless. + +Again, it is said our continent is more than enough for all our needs, +and our extensions should stop at the Pacific. What is this but +proposing such a policy of self-sufficient isolation as we are +accustomed to reprobate in China--planning now to develop only on the +soil on which we stand, and expecting the rest of the world to protect +our trade if we have any? Can a nation with safety set such limits to +its development? When a tree stops growing, our foresters tell us, it +is ripe for the ax. When a man stops in his physical and intellectual +growth he begins to decay. When a business stops growing it is in +danger of decline. When a nation stops growing it has passed the +meridian of its course, and its shadows fall eastward. + +Is China to be our model, or Great Britain? Or, better still, are we to +follow the instincts of our own people? The policy of isolating +ourselves is a policy for the refusal of both duties and +opportunities--duties to foreign nations and to civilization, which +cannot be respectably evaded; opportunities for the development of our +power on the Pacific in the Twentieth Century, which it would be craven +to abandon. There has been a curious "about face," an absolute reversal +of attitude toward England, on the part of our Little Americans, +especially at the East and among the more educated classes. But +yesterday nearly all of them were pointing to England as a model. There +young men of education and position felt it a duty to go into politics. +There they had built up a model civil service. There their cities were +better governed, their streets cleaner, their mails more promptly +delivered. There the responsibilities of their colonial system had +enforced the purification of domestic politics, the relentless +punishment of corrupt practices, and the abolition of bribery in +elections, either by money or by office. There they had foreign trade, +and a commercial marine, and a trained and efficient foreign service, +and to be an English citizen was to have a safeguard the whole world +round. Our young men were commended to their example; our legislators +were exhorted to study their practice and its results. Suddenly these +same teachers turn around. They warn us against the infection of +England's example. They tell us her colonial system is a failure; that +she would be stronger without her colonies than with them; that she is +eaten up with "militarism"; that to keep Cuba or the Philippines is +what a selfish, conquering, land-grabbing, aristocratic government like +England would do, and that her policy and methods are utterly +incompatible with our institutions. When a court thus reverses itself +without obvious reason (except a temporary partizan purpose), our +people are apt to put their trust in other tribunals. + +[Sidenote: The Future.] + +"I had thought," said Wendell Phillips, in his noted apology for +standing for the first time in his antislavery life under the flag of +his country, and welcoming the tread of Massachusetts men marshaled for +war--"I had thought Massachusetts wholly choked with cotton-dust and +cankered with gold." If Little Americans have thought so of their +country in these stirring days, and have fancied that initial reverses +would induce it to abandon its duty, its rights, and its great +permanent interests, they will live to see their mistake. They will +find it giving a deaf ear to these unworthy complaints of temporary +trouble or present loss, and turning gladly from all this incoherent +and resultless clamor to the new world opening around us. Already it +draws us out of ourselves. The provincial isolation is gone; and +provincial habits of thought will go. There is a larger interest in +what other lands have to show and teach; a larger confidence in our +own; a higher resolve that it shall do its whole duty to mankind, moral +as well as material, international as well as national, in such fashion +as becomes time's latest offspring and its greatest. We are grown more +nearly citizens of the world. + +This new knowledge, these new duties and interests, must have two +effects--they must extend our power, influence, and trade, and they +must elevate the public service. Every returning soldier or traveler +tells the same story--that the very name "American" has taken a new +significance throughout the Orient. The shrewd Oriental no longer +regards us as a second- or third-class Power. He has just seen the only +signs he recognizes of a nation that knows its rights and dare maintain +them--a nation that has come to stay, with an empire of its own in the +China Sea, and a Navy which, from what he has seen, he believes will be +able to defend it against the world. He straightway concludes, after +the Oriental fashion, that it is a nation whose citizens must +henceforth be secure in all their rights, whose missionaries must be +endured with patience and even protected, and whose friendship must be +sedulously cultivated. The national prestige is enormously increased, +and trade follows prestige--especially in the farther East. Not within +a century, not during our whole history, has such a field opened for +our reaping. Planted directly in front of the Chinese colossus, on a +great territory of our own, we have the first and best chance to profit +by his awakening. Commanding both sides of the Pacific, and the +available coal-supplies on each, we command the ocean that, according +to the old prediction, is to bear the bulk of the world's commerce in +the Twentieth Century. Our remote but glorious land between the Sierras +and the sea may then become as busy a hive as New England itself, and +the whole continent must take fresh life from the generous blood of +this natural and necessary commerce between people of different +climates and zones. + +But these developments of power and trade are the least of the +advantages we may hopefully expect. The faults in American character +and life which the Little Americans tell us prove the people unfit for +these duties are the very faults that will be cured by them. The +recklessness and heedless self-sufficiency of youth must disappear. +Great responsibilities, suddenly devolved, must sober and elevate now, +as they have always done in natures not originally bad, throughout the +whole history of the world. + +The new interests abroad must compel an improved foreign service. It +has heretofore been worse than we ever knew, and also better. On great +occasions and in great fields our diplomatic record ranks with the best +in the world. No nation stands higher in those new contributions to +International Law which form the high-water mark of civilization from +one generation to another. At the same time, in fields less under the +public eye, our foreign service has been haphazard at the best, and +often bad beyond belief--ludicrous and humiliating. The harm thus +wrought to our national good name and the positive injury to our trade +have been more than we realized. We cannot escape realizing them now, +and when the American people wake up to a wrong they are apt to right +it. + +More important still should be the improvement in the general public +service at home and in our new possessions. New duties must bring new +methods. Ward politics were banished from India and Egypt as the price +of successful administration, and they must be excluded from Porto Rico +and Luzon. The practical common sense of the American people will soon +see that any other course is disastrous. Gigantic business interests +must come to reinforce the theorists in favor of a reform that shall +really elevate and purify the Civil Service. + +Hand in hand with these benefits to ourselves, which it is the duty of +public servants to secure, go benefits to our new wards and benefits to +mankind. There, then, is what the United States is to "stand for" in +all the resplendent future: the rights and interests of its own +Government; the general welfare of its own people; the extension of +ordered liberty in the dark places of the earth; the spread of +civilization and religion, and a consequent increase in the sum of +human happiness in the world. + + + + +VIII + +LATER ASPECTS OF OUR NEW DUTIES + +This address was delivered on the invitation of the Board of Trustees, +at Princeton University, in Alexander Hall, on October 21, 1899. + + + + +LATER ASPECTS OF OUR NEW DUTIES + + +The invitation for to-day with which Princeton honored me was +accompanied with the hint that a discussion of some phase of current +public affairs would not be unwelcome. That phase which has for the +past year or two most absorbed public attention is now more absorbing +than ever. Elsewhere I have already spoken upon it, more, perhaps, than +enough. But I cannot better obey the summons of this honored and +historic University, or better deserve the attention of this company of +scholars, gentlemen, and patriots, than by saying with absolute candor +what its present aspects prompt. + +[Sidenote: Questions that have been Disposed of.] + +And first, the chaos of opinion into which the country was thrown by +the outbreak of the Spanish-American War ceases to be wholly without +form and void. The discussions of a year have clarified ideas; and on +some points we may consider that the American people have substantially +reached definite conclusions. + +There is no need, therefore, to debate laboriously before you whether +Dewey was right in going to Manila. Everybody now realizes that, once +war was begun, absolutely the most efficient means of making it +speedily and overwhelmingly victorious, as well as of defending the +most exposed half of our own coast, was to go to Manila. "Find the +Spanish fleet and destroy it" was as wise an order as the President +ever issued, and he was equally wise in choosing the man to carry it +out. + +So, also, there is no need to debate whether Dewey was right in staying +there. From that come his most enduring laurels. The American people +admire him for the battle which sank the Spanish navy; but they trust +and love him for the months of trial and triumph that followed. The +Administration that should have ordered him to abandon the Eastern +foothold he had conquered for his country--to sail away like a sated +pirate from the port where his victory broke down all civilized +authority but our own, and his presence alone prevented domestic +anarchy and foreign spoliation--would have deserved to be hooted out of +the capital. + +So, again, there is no need to debate whether the Peace Commissioners +should have thrown away in Paris what Dewey had won in Manila. The +public servant who, without instructions, should in a gush of +irresponsible sentimentality abandon great possessions to which his +country is justly entitled, whether by conquest or as indemnity for +unjust war, would be not only an unprofitable but a faithless servant. +It was their obvious duty to hold what Dewey had won, at least till the +American people had time to consider and decide otherwise. + +Is there any need to debate whether the American people will abandon it +now? Those who have a fancy for that species of dialectics may weigh +the chances, and evolve from circumstances of their own imagination, +and canons of national and international obligation of their own +manufacture, conclusions to their own liking. I need not consume much +of your time in that unprofitable pursuit. We may as well, here and +now, keep our feet on solid ground, and deal with facts as they are. +The American people are in lawful possession of the Philippines, with +the assent of all Christendom, with a title as indisputable as the +title to California; and, though the debate will linger for a while, +and perhaps drift unhappily into partizan contention, the generation is +yet unborn that will see them abandoned to the possession of any other +Power. The Nation that scatters principalities as a prodigal does his +inheritance is too sentimental and moon-shiny for the Nineteenth +Century or the Twentieth, and too unpractical for Americans of any +period. It may flourish in Arcadia or Altruria, but it does not among +the sons of the Pilgrims, or on the continent they subdued by stern +struggle to the uses of civilization. + +Nevertheless, our people did stop to consider very carefully their +constitutional powers. I believe we have reached a point also where the +result of that consideration may be safely assumed. The constitutional +arguments have been fully presented and the expositions and decisions +marshaled. It is enough now to say that the preponderance of +constitutional authorities, with Gouverneur Morris, Daniel Webster, and +Thomas H. Benton at their head, and the unbroken tendency of decisions +by the courts of the United States for at least the last fifty years, +from Mr. Chief Justice Waite and Mr. Justice Miller and Mr. Justice +Stanley Matthews, of the Supreme Court, down to the very latest +utterance on the subject, that of Mr. Justice Morrow of the Circuit +Court of Appeals, sustain the power to acquire "territory or other +property" anywhere, and govern it as we please.[9] Inhabitants of such +territory (not obviously incapable) are secure in the civil rights +guaranteed by the Constitution; but they have no political rights under +it, save as Congress confers them. The evidence in support of this view +has been fully set forth, examined, and weighed, and, unless I greatly +mistake, a popular decision on the subject has been reached. The +constitutional power is no longer seriously disputed, and even those +who raised the doubt do not seem now to rely upon it. + + [9] Some of these authorities have already been briefly presented + in the address at Miami University, pp. 107-158. It may be + desirable to consult a few additional ones, covering the main + points that have been disputed. They are grouped for convenience + in the Appendix. + +[Sidenote: Contributions to International Law and Morality.] + +In thus summarizing what has been already settled or disposed of in our +dealings with the questions of the war, I may be permitted to pause for +a moment on the American contributions it brought about to +international morality and law. On the day on which the American Peace +Commissioners to Paris sailed for home after the ceremonial courtesy +with which their labors were concluded, the most authoritative journal +in the world published an interview with the eminent President of the +corresponding Spanish Commission, then and for some time afterward +President also of the Spanish Senate, in which he was reported as +saying: "We knew in advance that we should have to deal with an +implacable conqueror, who would in no way concern himself with any +pre-existing International Law, but whose sole object was to reap from +victory the largest possible advantage. This conception of +International Law is absolutely new; it is no longer a case of might +against right, but of might without right.... The Americans have acted +as vainqueurs parvenus."[10] + + [10] London "Times," December 17, 1898. + +Much may be pardoned to the anguish of an old and trusted public +servant over the misfortunes of his native land. We may even, in our +sympathy, endeavor to forget what country it was that proposed to defy +the agreements of the Conference of Paris and the general judgment of +nations by resorting to privateering, or what country it was that +preferred to risk becoming an asylum for the criminals of a continent +rather than revive, even temporarily, that basic and elementary +implement of modern international justice, an extradition treaty, which +had been in force with acceptable results for over twenty years. But +when Americans are stigmatized as "vainqueurs parvenus," who by virtue +of mere strength violate International Law against a prostrate foe, and +when one of the ablest of their American critics encourages the Spanish +contention by talking of our "bulldog diplomacy at Paris," it gives us +occasion to challenge the approval of the world--as the facts amply +warrant--for the scrupulous conformity to existing International Law, +and the important contributions to its beneficent advancement that have +distinguished the action of the United States throughout these whole +transactions. Having already set these forth in some detail before a +foreign audience,[11] I must not now do more than offer the briefest +summary. + + [11] See (pp. 70-105) article from "The Anglo-Saxon Review." + +The United States ended the toleration of Privateering. It was +perfectly free to commission privateers on the day war was declared. +Spain was equally free, and it was proclaimed from Madrid that the +Atlantic would soon swarm with them, sweeping American commerce from +the ocean. Under these circumstances one of the very first and noblest +acts of the President was to announce that the United States would not +avail itself of the right to send out privateers, reserved under the +Declaration of Paris. The fast-thickening disasters of Spain prevented +her from doing it, and thus substantially completed the practice or +acquiescence of the civilized world, essential to the acceptance of a +principle in International Law. It is safe to assume that Christendom +will henceforth treat Privateering as under international ban. + +The United States promoted the cause of genuine International +Arbitration by promptly and emphatically rejecting an insidious +proposal for a spurious one. It taught those who deliberately prefer +War to Arbitration, and, when beaten at it, seek then to get the +benefit of a second remedy, that honest Arbitration must come before +War, to avert its horrors, not after War, to evade its penalties. + +The United States promoted peace among nations, and so served humanity, +by sternly enforcing the rule that they who bring on an unjust war must +pay for it. For years the overwhelming tendency of its people had been +against any territorial aggrandizement, even a peaceful one; but it +unflinchingly exacted the easiest, if not the only, payment Spain could +make for a war that cost us, at the lowest, from four to five hundred +million dollars, by taking Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. It +requires some courage to describe this as either a violation of +International Law, or a display of unprecedented severity by an +implacable conqueror, in the very city and before the very generation +that saw the Franco-Prussian War concluded, not merely by a partition +of territory, but also by a cash payment of a thousand millions +indemnity. + +The United States promoted the peaceful liberalizing of oppressive rule +over all subject peoples by making it more difficult to negotiate loans +in the markets of the world to subdue their outbreaks. For it firmly +rejected in the Cuban adjustments the immoral doctrine that an +ill-treated and revolting colony, after gaining its freedom, must still +submit to the extortion from it of the cost of the parent country's +unsuccessful efforts to subdue it. We therefore left the so-called +Cuban bonds on the hands of the Power that issued them, or of the +reckless lenders who advanced the money. At the same time the United +States strained a point elsewhere in the direction of protecting any +legitimate debt, and of dealing generously with a fallen foe, by a +payment which the most carping critic will some day be ashamed to +describe as "buying the inhabitants of the Philippines at two dollars a +head."[12] + + [12] There has been so much misconception and misrepresentation + about this payment of twenty millions that the following exact + summary of the facts may be convenient. + + When Spain sued for peace in the summer of 1898, she had lost + control of the Philippines, and any means for regaining control. + Her fleet was sunk; her army was cooped up in the capital, under + the guns of the American fleet, and its capture or surrender had + only been delayed till the arrival of reinforcements for the + American Army, because of the fears expressed by foreigners and + the principal residents of Manila that the city might be looted + by natives unless American land forces were at hand in strength + ample to control them. The Spanish army did so surrender, in + fact, shortly after the arrival of these reinforcements, before + the news of the armistice could reach them. + + In the protocol granting an armistice, the United States exacted + at once the cession of Porto Rico and an island in the Ladrones, + but reserved the decision as to the control, disposition, and + government of the Philippines for the treaty of peace, apparently + with a view to the possibility of accepting them as further + indemnity for the war. + + When the treaty came to be negotiated, the United States required + the cession of the Philippines. Its Peace Commissioners stated + that their Government "felt amply supported in its right to + demand this cession, with or without concessions," added that + "this demand might be limited to the single ground of indemnity," + and pointed out that it was "not now putting forward any claim + for _pecuniary_ indemnity, to cover the enormous cost of the + war." It accompanied this demand for a transfer of sovereignty + with a stipulation for assuming any existing indebtedness of + Spain incurred for public works and improvements of a pacific + character in the Philippines. The United States thus asserted its + right to the archipelago for indemnity, and at the same time + committed itself to the principle of payment on account of the + Philippine debt. + + When it became necessary to put the Philippine case into an + ultimatum, the Peace Commissioners did not further refer to the + debt or give any specific reason either for a cession or for a + payment. They simply said they now presented "a new proposition, + embodying the concessions which, for the sake of immediate peace, + their Government is, under the circumstances, willing to tender." + + But it was really the old proposition (with the "Open Door" and + "Mutual Relinquishment of Claims" clauses added), with the + mention for the first time of a specific sum for the payment, and + without any question of "pacific improvements." That sum just + balanced the Philippine debt--40,000,000 Mexican, or, say, + 20,000,000 American dollars. + +All these are acts distinctly in accord with International Law so far +as it exists and applies, and distinctly tending to promote its humane +and Christian extension. Let me add, in a word, that the peace +negotiations in no way compromised or affected the Monroe Doctrine, +which stands as firm as ever, though much less important with the +disappearance of any probable opposition to it; and that the prestige +they brought smoothed the way for the one hopeful result of the Czar's +Conference at The Hague, a response to the American proposal for a +permanent International Court of Arbitration. + +A trifling but characteristic inaccuracy concerning the Peace +Commission may as well be corrected before the subject is left. This is +the statement, apparently originating from Malay sources, but promptly +indorsed in this country by unfriendly critics, to the effect that the +representative of Aguinaldo was uncivilly refused a hearing in Paris. +It was repeated, inadvertently, no doubt, with many other curious +distortions of historic facts, only the other day, by a distinguished +statesman in Chicago.[13] As he put it, the doors were slammed in their +faces in Washington as well as in Paris. Now, whatever might have +happened, the door was certainly never slammed in their faces in Paris, +for they never came to it. On the contrary, every time Mr. Agoncillo +approached any member of the Commission on the subject, he was +courteously invited to send the Commissioners a written request for a +hearing, which would, at any rate, receive immediate consideration. No +such request ever came, and any Filipino who wrote for a hearing in +Paris was heard. + + [13] General Carl Schurz, at the Chicago Anti-Expansion + Convention, October, 1899. + +[Sidenote: The Present Duty.] + +Meanwhile we are now in the midst of hostilities with a part of the +native population, originating in an unprovoked attack upon our troops +in the city they had wrested from the Spaniards, before final action on +the treaty. It is easy to say that we ought not to have got into this +conflict, and to that I might agree. "I tell you, they can't put you in +jail on that charge," said the learned and disputatious counsel to the +client who had appealed from his cell for help. "But I _am_ in," was +the sufficient answer. The question just then was not what might have +been done, but what can be done. I wish to urge that we can only end +this conflict by manfully fighting through it. The talk one hears that +the present situation calls for "diplomacy" seems to be mistimed. That +species of diplomacy which consists in the tact of prompt action in the +right line at the right time might, quite possibly, have prevented the +present hostilities. Any diplomacy now would seem to our Tagal +antagonists the raising of the white flag--the final proof that the +American people do not sustain their Army in the face of unprovoked +attack. Every witness who came before the American Peace Commission in +Paris, or sent it a written statement, English, German, Belgian, Malay, +or American, said the same thing. Absolutely the one essential for +dealing with the Filipinos was to convince them at the very outset that +what you began you stood to; that you did not begin without +consideration of right and duty, or quail then before opposition; that +your purpose was inexorable and your power irresistible, while +submission to it would always insure justice. On the contrary, once let +them suspect that protests would dissuade and turbulence deter you, and +all the Oriental instinct for delay and bargaining for better terms is +aroused, along with the special Malay genius for intrigue and +double-dealing, their profound belief that every man has his price, and +their childish ignorance as to the extent to which stump speeches here +against any Administration can cause American armies beyond the seas to +retreat. + +No; the toast which Henry Clay once gave in honor of an early naval +hero fits the present situation like a glove. He proposed "the policy +which looks to peace as the end of war, and war as the means of peace." +In that light I maintain that the conflict we are prosecuting is in the +line of national necessity and duty; that we cannot turn back; that the +truest humanity condemns needless delay or half-hearted action, and +demands overwhelming forces and irresistible onset. + +[Sidenote: Eliminate Temporary Discouragements.] + +But in considering this duty, just as in estimating the Treaty of +Paris, we have the right to eliminate all account of the trifling +success, so far, in the Philippines, or of the great trouble and cost. +What it was right to do there, and what we are bound to do now, must +not be obscured by faults of hesitation or insufficient preparation, +for which neither the Peace Commissioners nor the people are +responsible. I had occasion to say before a college audience last June +what I now repeat with the additional emphasis subsequent events have +warranted--that the difficulties which at present discourage us are +largely of our own making; and I repeat that it is still not for us, +here and now, to apportion the blame. We have not the knowledge to say +just who, or whether any man or body, is wholly at fault. What we do +know is that the course of hesitation and inaction which the Nation +pursued in face of an openly maturing attack was precisely the policy +sure to give us the greatest trouble, and that we are now paying the +penalty. If the opposite course had been taken at the outset--unless +all the testimony from foreign observers and from our own officers is +at fault--there would have been either no outbreak at all, or only one +easily controlled and settled to the general satisfaction of most of +the civilized and semi-civilized inhabitants of the island. + +On the personal and partizan disputes already lamentably begun, as to +senatorial responsibility, congressional responsibility, or the +responsibility of this or that executive officer, we have no occasion +here to enter. What we have a right to insist on is that our general +policy in the Philippines shall not be shaped now merely by the just +discontent with the bad start. The reports of continual victories, that +roll back on us every week, like the stone of Sisyphus, and need to be +won over again next week, the mistakes of a censorship that was +absolutely right as a military measure, but may have been +unintelligently, not to say childishly, conducted--all these are beside +the real question. They must not obscure the duty of restoring order in +the regions where our troops have been assailed, or prejudice our +subsequent course. + + +I venture to say of that course that neither our duty nor our interest +will permit us to stop short of a pacification which can only end in +the establishment of such local self-government as the people are found +capable of conducting, and its extension just as far and as fast as the +people prove fit for it. + +[Sidenote: Pacification and Natural Course of Organization.] + +The natural development thus to be expected would probably proceed +safely, along the lines of least resistance, about in this order: +First, and till entirely clear that it is no longer needed, Military +Government. Next, the rule of either Military or Civil Governors (for a +considerable time probably the former), relying gradually more and more +on native agencies. Thirdly, the development of Dependencies, with an +American Civil Governor, with their foreign relations and their highest +courts controlled by us, and their financial system largely managed by +members of a rigidly organized and jealously protected American Civil +Service, but in most other respects steadily becoming more +self-governing. And, finally, autonomous governments, looking to us for +little save control of their foreign relations, profiting by the +stability and order the backing of a powerful nation guarantees, +cultivating more and more intimate trade and personal relations with +that nation, and coming to feel themselves participants of its fortunes +and renown. + +Such a course Congress, after full investigation and deliberation, +might perhaps wisely formulate. Such a course, with slight +modifications to meet existing limitations as to his powers, has +already been entered upon by the President, and can doubtless be +carried on indefinitely by him until Congress acts. This action should +certainly not be precipitate. The system demands most careful study, +not only in the light of what the English and Dutch, the most +successful holders of tropical countries, have done, but also in the +light of the peculiar and varied circumstances that confront us on +these different and distant islands, and among these widely differing +races--circumstances to which no previous experience exactly applies, +and for which no uniform system could be applicable. If Congress should +take as long a time before action to study the problem as it has taken +in the Sandwich Islands, or even in Alaska, the President's power would +still be equal to the emergency, and the policy, while flexible, could +still be made as continuous, coherent, and practical as his best +information and ability would permit. + +[Sidenote: Evasions of Duty.] + +Against such a conscientious and painstaking course in dealing with the +grave responsibilities that are upon us in the East, two lines of +evasion are sure to threaten. The one is the policy of the upright but +short-sighted and strictly continental patriot--the same which an +illustrious statesman of another country followed in the Sudan: +"Scuttle as quick as you can." + +The other is the policy of the exuberant patriot who believes in the +universal adaptability and immediate extension of American +institutions. He thinks all men everywhere as fit to vote as himself, +and wants them for partners. He is eager to have them prepare at once, +in our new possessions, first in the West Indies, then in the East, to +send Senators and Representatives to Congress, and his policy is: "Make +Territories of them now, and States in the American Union as soon as +possible." I wish to speak with the utmost respect of the sincere +advocates of both theories, but must say that the one seems to me to +fall short of a proper regard for either our duty or our interest, and +the other to be national suicide. + +Gentlemen in whose ability and patriotism we all have confidence have +lately put the first of these policies for evading our duty in the form +of a protest "against the expansion and establishment of the dominion +of the United States, by conquest or otherwise, over unwilling peoples +in any part of the globe." Of this it may be said, first, that any +application of it to the Philippines probably assumes a factional and +temporary outbreak to represent a settled unwillingness. New Orleans +was as "unwilling," when Mr. Jefferson annexed it, as Aguinaldo has +made Manila; and Aaron Burr came near making the whole Louisiana +Territory far worse. Mr. Lincoln, you remember, always believed the +people of North Carolina not unwilling to remain in the Union, yet we +know what they did. But next, this protest contemplates evading the +present responsibility by a reversal of our settled policy any way. Mr. +Lincoln probably never doubted the unwillingness of South Carolina to +remain in the Union, but that did not change his course. Mr. Seward +never inquired whether the Alaskans were unwilling or not. The historic +position of the United States, from the day when Jefferson braved the +envenomed anti-expansion sentiment of his time and bought the territory +west of the Mississippi, on down, has been to consider, not the +willingness or unwillingness of any inhabitants, whether aboriginal or +colonists, but solely our national opportunity, our own duty, and our +own interests. + +Is it said that this is Imperialism? That implies usurpation of power, +and there is absolutely no ground for such a charge against this +Administration at any one stage in these whole transactions. If any +complaint here is to lie, it must relate to the critical period when we +were accepting responsibility for order at Manila, and must be for the +exercise of too little power, not too much. It is not Imperialism to +take up honestly the responsibility for order we incurred before the +world, and continue under it, even if that should lead us to extend the +civil rights of the American Constitution over new regions and strange +peoples. It is not Imperialism when duty keeps us among these chaotic, +warring, distracted tribes, civilized, semi-civilized, and barbarous, +to help them, as far as their several capacities will permit, toward +self-government, on the basis of those civil rights. + +A terser and more taking statement of opposition has been recently +attributed to a gentleman highly honored by this University and by his +townsmen here. I gladly seize this opportunity, as a consistent +opponent during his whole political life, to add that his words carry +great weight throughout the country by reason of the unquestioned +ability, courage, and patriotic devotion he has brought to the public +service. He is reported as protesting simply against "the use of power +in the extension of American institutions." But does not this, if +applied to the present situation, seem also to miss an important +distinction? What planted us in the Philippines was the use of our +power in the most efficient naval and military defense then available +for our own institutions where they already exist, against the attack +of Spain. If the responsibility entailed by the result of these acts in +our own defense does involve some extension of our institutions, shall +we therefore run away from it? If a guaranty to chaotic tribes of the +civil rights secured by the American Constitution does prove to be an +incident springing from the discharge of the duty that has rested upon +us from the moment we drove Spain out, is that a result so +objectionable as to warrant us in abandoning our duty? + +There is, it is true, one other alternative--the one which Aguinaldo +himself is said to have suggested, and which has certainly been put +forth in his behalf with the utmost simplicity and sincerity by a +conspicuous statesman at Chicago. We might at once solicit peace from +Aguinaldo. We might then encourage him to extend his rule over the +whole country,--Catholic, pagan, and Mohammedan, willing and unwilling +alike,--and promise him whatever aid might be necessary for that task. +Meantime, we should undertake to protect him against outside +interference from any European or Asiatic nation whose interests on +that oceanic highway and in those commercial capitals might be +imperiled![14] I do not desire to discuss that proposition. And I submit +to candid men that there are just those three courses, and no more, now +open to us--to run away, to protect Aguinaldo, or to back up our own +army and firmly hold on! + + [14] The exact proposition made by General Carl Schurz in + addressing the Chicago Anti-Expansion Convention, October 17, + 1899. + +[Sidenote: Objections to Duty.] + +If this fact be clearly perceived, if the choice between these three +courses be once recognized as the only choice the present situation +permits, our minds will be less disturbed by the confused cries of +perplexity and discontent that still fill the air. Thus men often say, +"If you believe in liberty for yourself, why refuse it to the Tagals?" +That is right; they should have, in the degree of their capacity, the +only kind of liberty worth having in the world, the only kind that is +not a curse to its possessors and to all in contact with them--ordered +liberty, under law, for which the wisdom of man has not yet found a +better safeguard than the guaranties of civil rights in the +Constitution of the United States. Who supposes that to be the liberty +for which Aguinaldo is fighting? What his people want, and what the +statesman at Chicago wishes us to use the Army and Navy of the United +States to help him get, is the liberty to rule others--the liberty +first to turn our own troops out of the city and harbor we had in our +own self-defense captured from their enemies; the liberty next to rule +that great commercial city, and the tribes of the interior, instead of +leaving us to exercise the rule over them that events have forced upon +us, till it is fairly shown that they can rule themselves. + +Again it is said, "You are depriving them of freedom." But they never +had freedom, and could not have it now. Even if they could subdue the +other tribes in Luzon, they could not establish such order on the other +islands and in the waters of the archipelago as to deprive foreign +Powers of an immediate excuse for interference. What we are doing is in +the double line of preventing otherwise inevitable foreign seizure and +putting a stop to domestic war. + +"But you cannot fit people for freedom. They must fit themselves, just +as we must do our own crawling and stumbling in order to learn to +walk." The illustration is unfortunate. Must the crawling baby, then, +be abandoned by its natural or accidental guardian, and left to itself +to grow strong by struggling, or to perish, as may happen? Must we turn +the Tagals loose on the foreigners in Manila, and on their enemies in +the other tribes, that by following their instincts they may fit +themselves for freedom? + +Again, "It will injure us to exert power over an unwilling people, just +as slavery injured the slaveholders themselves." Then a community is +injured by maintaining a police. Then a court is injured by rendering a +just decree, and an officer by executing it. Then it is a greater +injury, for instance, to stop piracy than to suffer from it. Then the +manly exercise of a just responsibility enfeebles instead of developing +and strengthening a nation. + +"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the +governed." "No man is good enough to govern another against his will." +Great truths, from men whose greatness and moral elevation the world +admires. But there is a higher authority than Jefferson or Lincoln, Who +said: "If a man smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other +also." Yet he who acted literally on even that divine injunction toward +the Malays that attacked our Army in Manila would be a congenital idiot +to begin with, and his corpse, while it lasted, would remain an +object-lesson of how not to deal with the present stage of Malay +civilization and Christianity. + +Why mourn over our present course as a departure from the policy of the +fathers? For a hundred years the uniform policy which they began and +their sons continued has been acquisition, expansion, annexation, +reaching out to remote wildernesses far more distant and inaccessible +then than the Philippines are now--to disconnected regions like Alaska, +to island regions like Midway, the Guano Islands, the Aleutians, the +Sandwich Islands, and even to quasi-protectorates like Liberia and +Samoa. Why mourn because of the precedent we are establishing? The +precedent was established before we were born. Why distress ourselves +with the thought that this is only the beginning, that it opens the +door to unlimited expansion? The door is wide open now, and has been +ever since Livingston in Paris jumped at Talleyrand's offer to sell him +the wilderness west of the Mississippi instead of the settlements +eastward to Florida, which we had been trying to get; and Jefferson +eagerly sustained him. For the rest, the task that is laid upon us now +is not proving so easy as to warrant this fear that we shall soon be +seeking unlimited repetitions of it. + +[Sidenote: Evasion by Embrace.] + +That danger, in fact, can come only if we shirk our present duty by the +second of the two alternative methods of evasion I have mentioned--the +one favored by the exuberant patriot who wants to clasp Cuban, Kanaka, +and Tagal alike to his bosom as equal partners with ourselves in our +inheritance from the fathers, and take them all into the Union as +States. + +We will be wise to open our eyes at once to the gravity and the +insidious character of this danger--the very worst that could threaten +the American Union. Once begun, the rivalry of parties and the fears of +politicians would insure its continuance. With Idaho and Wyoming +admitted, they did not dare prolong the exclusion even of Utah, and so +we have the shame of seeing an avowed polygamist with a prima facie +right to sit in our Congress as a legislator not merely for Utah, but +for the whole Union. At this moment scarcely a politician dares frankly +avow unalterable opposition to the admission of Cuba, if she should +seek it. Yet, bad as that would be, it would necessarily lead to worse. +Others in the West Indies might not linger long behind. In any event, +with Cuba a State, Porto Rico could not be kept a Territory. No more +could the Sandwich Islands. And then, looming direct in our path, like +a volcano rising out of the mist on the affrighted vision of mariners +tempest-tossed in tropic seas, is the specter of such States as Luzon +and the Visayas and Haiti. + +They would have precedents, too, to quote, and dangerous ones. When we +bought Louisiana we stipulated in the treaty that "the inhabitants of +the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United +States and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of +the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, +advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States." We made +almost identically the same stipulation when we bought Florida. When +one of the most respected in the long line of our able Secretaries of +State, Mr. William L. Marcy, negotiated a treaty in 1854 for the +annexation of the Sandwich Islands, he provided that they should be +incorporated as a State, with the same degree of sovereignty as other +States, and on perfect equality with them. The schemes prior to 1861 +for the purchase or annexation of Cuba practically all looked to the +same result. Not till the annexation of San Domingo was proposed did +this feature disappear from our treaties. It is only candid to add that +the habit of regarding this as the necessary destiny of any United +States Territory as soon as it has sufficient population has been +universal. It is no modern vagary, but the practice, if not the theory, +of our whole national life, that would open the doors of our Senate and +House, and give a share in the Government to these wild-eyed newcomers +from the islands of the sea. + +The calamity of admitting them cannot be overrated. Even in the case of +the best of these islands, it would demoralize and degrade the national +suffrage almost incalculably below the point already reached. To the +Senate, unwieldy now, and greatly changed in character from the body +contemplated by the Constitution, it would be disastrous. For the +present States of the Union it would be an act of folly like that of a +business firm which blindly steered for bankruptcy by freely admitting +to full partnership new members, strangers, and non-residents, not only +otherwise ill qualified, but with absolutely conflicting interests. And +it would be a distinct violation of the clause in the preamble that +"we, the people,... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the +United States of _America_." + +There is the only safe ground--on the letter and the spirit of the +Constitution. It contemplated a Continental Union of sovereign States. +It limited that Union to the American Continent. The man that takes it +farther sounds its death-knell. + +[Sidenote: The General Welfare.] + +I have designedly left to the last any estimate of the material +interests we serve by holding on in our present course. Whatever these +may be, they are only a subordinate consideration. We are in the +Philippines, as we are in the West Indies, because duty sent us; and we +shall remain because we have no right to run away from our duty, even +if it does involve far more trouble than we foresaw when we plunged +into the war that entailed it. The call to duty, when once plainly +understood, is a call Americans never fail to answer, while to calls of +interest they have often shown themselves incredulous or contemptuous. + +But the Constitution we revere was also ordained "to promote the +general welfare," and he is untrue to its purpose who squanders +opportunities. Never before have they been showered upon us in such +bewildering profusion. Are the American people to rise to the occasion? +Are they to be as great as their country? Or shall the historian record +that at this unexampled crisis they were controlled by timid ideas and +short-sighted views, and so proved unequal to the duty and the +opportunity which unforeseen circumstances brought to their doors? The +two richest archipelagos in the world are practically at our disposal. +The greatest ocean on the globe has been put in our hands, the ocean +that is to bear the commerce of the Twentieth Century. In the face of +this prospect, shall we prefer, with the teeming population that +century is to bring us, to remain a "hibernating nation, living off its +own fat--a hermit nation," as Mr. Senator Davis has asked? For our +first Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Hill, was right when he said +that not to enter the Open Door in Asia means the perpetual isolation +of this continent. + +[Sidenote: Have they any Value?] + +Are we to be discouraged by the cry that the new possessions are +worthless? Not while we remember how often and under what circumstances +we have heard that cry before. Half the public men of the period +denounced Louisiana as worthless. Eminent statesmen made merry in +Congress over the idea that Oregon or Washington could be of any use. +Daniel Webster, in the most solemn and authoritative tones +Massachusetts has ever employed, assured his fellow-Senators that, in +his judgment, California was not worth a dollar. + +Is it said that the commercial opportunities in the Orient, or at least +in the Philippines, are overrated? So it used to be said of the +Sandwich Islands. But what does our experience show? Before their +annexation even, but after we had taken this little archipelago under +our protection and into our commercial system, our ocean tonnage in +that trade became nearly double as heavy as with Great Britain. Why? +Because, while we have lost the trade of the Atlantic, superior +advantages make the Pacific ours. Is it said that elsewhere on the +Pacific we can do as well without a controlling political influence as +with it? Look again! Mexico buys our products at the rate of $1.95 for +each inhabitant; South America at the rate of 90 cents; Great Britain +at the rate of $13.42; Canada at the rate of $14; and the Hawaiian +Islands at the rate of $53.35 for each inhabitant. Look at the trade of +the chief city on the Pacific coast. All Mexico and Central America, +all the western parts of South America and of Canada, are as near to it +as is Honolulu; and comparison of the little Sandwich Islands in +population with any of them would be ridiculous. Yet none of them +bought as much salmon in San Francisco as Hawaii, and no countries +bought more save England and Australia. No countries bought as much +barley, excepting Central America; and even in the staff of life, the +California flour, which all the world buys, only five countries +outranked Hawaii in purchases in San Francisco. + +No doubt a part of this result is due to the nearness of Hawaii to our +markets, and her distance from any others capable of competing with us, +and another part to a favorable system of reciprocity. Nevertheless, +nobody doubts the advantage our dealers have derived in the promotion +of trade from controlling political relations and frequent intercourse. +There are those who deny that "trade follows the flag," but even they +admit that it leaves if the flag does. And, independent of these +advantages, and reckoning by mere distance, we still have the better of +any European rivals in the Philippines. Now, assume that the Filipino +would have far fewer wants than the Kanaka or his coolie laborer, and +would do far less work for the means to gratify them. Admit, too, that, +with the Open Door, our political relations and frequent intercourse +could have barely a fifth or a sixth of the effect there they have had +in the Sandwich Islands. Roughly cast up even that result, and say +whether it is a value which the United States should throw away as not +worth considering! + +And the greatest remains behind. For the trade in the Philippines will +be but a drop in the bucket compared to that of China, for which they +give us an unapproachable foothold. But let it never be forgotten that +the confidence of Orientals goes only to those whom they recognize as +strong enough and determined enough always to hold their own and +protect their rights! The worst possible introduction for the Asiatic +trade would be an irresolute abandonment of our foothold because it was +too much trouble to keep, or because some Malay and half-breed +insurgents said they wanted us away. + +[Sidenote: The Future.] + +Have you considered for whom we hold these advantages in trust? They +belong not merely to the seventy-five millions now within our borders, +but to all who are to extend the fortunes and preserve the virtues of +the Republic in the coming century. Their numbers cannot increase in +the startling ratio this century has shown. If they did the population +of the United States a hundred years hence would be over twelve hundred +millions. That ratio is impossible, but nobody gives reasons why we +should not increase half as fast. Suppose we do actually increase only +one fourth as fast in the Twentieth Century as in the Nineteenth. To +what height would not the three hundred millions of Americans whom even +that ratio foretells bear up the seething industrial activities of the +continent! To what corner of the world would they not need to carry +their commerce? What demands on tropical productions would they not +make? What outlets for their adventurous youth would they not require? +With such a prospect before us, who thinks that we should shrink from +an enlargement of our national sphere because of the limitations that +bound, or the dangers that threatened, before railroads, before ocean +steamers, before telegraphs and ocean cables, before the enormous +development of our manufactures, and the training of executive and +organizing faculties in our people on a constantly increasing scale for +generations? + +Does the prospect alarm? Is it said that our Nation is already too +great, that all its magnificent growth only adds to the conflicting +interests that must eventually tear it asunder? What cement, then, like +that of a great common interest beyond our borders, that touches not +merely the conscience but the pocket and the pride of all alike, and +marshals us in the face of the world, standing for our own? + +What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? Hold fast! Stand +firm in the place where Providence has put you, and do the duty a just +responsibility for your own past acts imposes. Support the army you +sent there. Stop wasting valuable strength by showing how things might +be different if something different had been done a year and a half +ago. Use the educated thought of the country for shaping best its +course now, instead of chiefly finding fault with its history. Bring +the best hope of the future, the colleges and the generation they are +training, to exert the greatest influence and accomplish the most good +by working intelligently in line with the patriotic aspirations and the +inevitable tendencies of the American people, rather than against them. +Unite the efforts of all men of good will to make the appointment of +any person to these new and strange duties beyond seas impossible save +for proved fitness, and his removal impossible save for cause. Rally +the colleges and the churches, and all they influence, the brain and +the conscience of the country, in a combined and irresistible demand +for a genuine, trained, and pure Civil Service in our new possessions, +that shall put to shame our detractors, and show to the world the +Americans of this generation, equal still to the work of civilization +and colonization, and leading the development of the coming century as +bravely as their fathers led it in the last. + + + + +IX + +A CONTINENTAL UNION + +This speech was delivered on the invitation of the Massachusetts Club, +at their regular dinner in Boston, March 3, 1900. + + + + +A CONTINENTAL UNION + + +A third of a century ago I had the honor to be a guest at this club, +which met then, as now, in Young's Hotel. It has ever since been a +pleasure to recall the men of Boston who gathered about the board, +interested, as now, in the affairs of the Republic to which they were +at once ornament and defense. Frank Bird sat at the head. Near him was +Henry Wilson. John M. Forbes was here, and John A. Andrew, and George +S. Boutwell, and George L. Stearns, and many another, eager in those +times of trial to seek and know the best thing to be done to serve this +country of our pride and love. They were practical business men, true +Yankees in the best sense; and they spent no time then in quarreling +over how we got into our trouble. Their one concern was how to get out +to the greatest advantage of the country. + +Honored now by another opportunity to meet with the club, I can do no +better than profit by this example of your earlier days. You have asked +me to speak on some phase of the Philippine question. I would like to +concentrate your attention upon the present and practical phase, and to +withdraw it for the time from things that are past and cannot be +changed. + +[Sidenote: Things that Cannot be Undone.] + +Stare decisis. There are some things settled. Have we not a better and +more urgent use for our time now than in showing why some of us would +have liked them settled differently? In my State there is a dictum by +an eminent judge of the Court of Appeals, so familiar now as to be a +commonplace, to the effect that when that court has rendered its +decision, there are only two things left to the disappointed advocate. +One is to accept the result attained, and go to work on it as best he +can; the other, to go down to the tavern and "cuss" the court. I want +to suggest to those who dislike the past of the Philippine question +that there is more important work pressing upon you at this moment than +to cuss the court. You cannot change the past, but you may prevent some +threatened sequences which even in your eyes would be far greater +calamities. + +There is no use bewailing the war with Spain. Nothing can undo it, and +its results are upon us. There is no use arguing that Dewey should have +abandoned his conquest. He didn't. There is no use regretting the Peace +of Paris. For good or for ill, it is a part of the supreme law of the +land. There is no use begrudging the twenty millions. They are paid. +There is no use depreciating the islands, East or West. They are the +property of the United States by an immutable title which, whatever +some of our own people say, the whole civilized world recognizes and +respects. There is no use talking about getting rid of them--giving +them back to Spain, or turning them over to Aguinaldo, or simply +running away from them. Whoever thinks that any one of these things +could be done, or is still open to profitable debate, takes his +observations--will you pardon me the liberty of saying it?--takes his +observations too closely within the horizon of Boston Bay to know the +American people. + +They have not been persuaded and they cannot be persuaded that this is +an inferior Government, incapable of any duty Providence (through the +acts of a wicked Administration, if you choose) may send its +way--duties which other nations could discharge, but we cannot. They do +not and will not believe that it was any such maimed, imperfect, +misshapen cripple from birth for which our forefathers made a place in +the family of nations. Nor are they misled by the cry that, in a +populous region, thronged by the ships and traders of all countries, +where their own prosecution of a just war broke down whatever +guaranties for order had previously existed, they are violating the +natural rights of man by enforcing order. Just as little are they +misled by the other cry that they are violating the right of +self-government, and the Declaration of Independence, and the +Constitution of the United States by preparing for the distracted, +warring tribes of that region such local government as they may be +found capable of conducting, in their various stages of development +from pure barbarism toward civilization. The American people know they +are thus proceeding to do just what Jefferson did in the vast region he +bought from France--without the consent, by the way, either of its +sovereign or its inhabitants. They know they are following in the exact +path of all the constructive statesmen of the Republic, from the days +of the man who wrote the Declaration, and of those who made the +Constitution, down to the days of the men who conquered California, +bought Alaska, and denied the right of self-government to Jefferson +Davis. They simply do not believe that a new light has been given to +Mr. Bryan, or to the better men who are aiding him, greater and purer +than was given to Washington, or to Jefferson, or to Lincoln. + +And so I venture to repeat, without qualification or reserve, that what +is past cannot be changed. Candid and dispassionate minds, knowing the +American people of all political shades and in all sections of the +country, can see no possibility that any party in power, whether the +present one or its opponent, would or could, now or soon, if ever, +abandon or give back one foot of the territory gained in the late war, +and ours now by the supreme law of the land and with the assent of the +civilized world. As well may you look to see California, which your own +Daniel Webster, quite in a certain modern Massachusetts style, once +declared in the Senate to be not worth a dollar, now abandoned to +Mexico. + +[Sidenote: No Abstractions or Apologies or Attacks.] + +It seems to me, then, idle to thresh over old straw when the grain is +not only winnowed, but gone to the mill. And so I am not here to +discuss abstract questions: as, for example, whether in the year 1898 +the United States was wise in going to war with Spain, though on that I +might not greatly disagree with the malcontents; or as to the wisdom of +expansion; or as to the possibility of a republic's maintaining its +authority over a people without their consent. Nor am I here to +apologize for my part in making the nation that was in the wrong and +beaten in the late war pay for it in territory. I have never thought of +denying or evading my own full share of responsibility in that matter. +Conscious of a duty done, I am happily independent enough to be +measurably indifferent as to a mere present and temporary effect. +Whatever the verdict of the men of Massachusetts to-day, I contentedly +await the verdict of their sons. + +But, on the other hand, I am not here either to launch charges of +treason against any opponent of these policies, who nevertheless loves +the institutions founded on these shores by your ancestors, and wishes +to perpetuate what they created. Least of all would it occur to me to +utter a word in disparagement of your senior Senator, of whom it may be +said with respectful and almost affectionate regard that he bears a +warrant as authentic as that of the most distinguished of his +predecessors to speak for the conscience and the culture of +Massachusetts. Nor shall any reproach be uttered by me against another +eminent son of the commonwealth and servant of the Republic, who was +expected, as one of the officers of your club told me, to make this +occasion distinguished by his presence. He has been represented as +resenting the unchangeable past so sternly that he now hopes to aid in +defeating the party he has helped to lead through former trials to +present glory. If so, and if from the young and unremembering reproach +should come, be it ours, silent and walking backward, merely to cast +over him the mantle of his own honored service. + +[Sidenote: Common Duty and a Common Danger.] + +No, no! Let us have a truce to profitless disputes about what cannot be +reversed. Censure us if you must. Even strike at your old associates +and your own party if you will and when you can, without harming causes +you hold dear. But for the duty of this hour, consider if there is not +a common meeting-ground and instant necessity for union in a rational +effort to avert present perils. This, then, is my appeal. Disagree as +we may about the past, let us to-day at least see straight--see things +as they are. Let us suspend disputes about what is done and cannot be +undone, long enough to rally all the forces of good will, all the +undoubted courage and zeal and patriotism that are now at odds, in a +devoted effort to meet the greater dangers that are upon us. + +For the enemy is at the gates. More than that, there is some reason to +fear that, through dissensions from within, he may gain the citadel. In +their eagerness to embarrass the advocates of what has been done, and +with the vain hope of in some way undoing it, and so lifting this +Nation of seventy-five millions bodily backward two years on its path, +there are many who are still putting forth all their energies in +straining our Constitution and defying our history, to show that we +have no possessions whose people are not entitled to citizenship and +ultimately to Statehood. Grant that, and instead of reversing engines +safely in mid-career, as they vainly hope, they must simply plunge us +over the precipice. The movement began in the demand that our Dingley +tariff--as a matter of right, not of policy, for most of these people +denounce the tariff itself as barbarous--that our Dingley tariff should +of necessity be extended over Porto Rico as an integral part of the +United States. Following an assent to this must have come inevitably +all the other rights and privileges belonging to citizenship, and then +no power could prevent the admission of the State of Porto Rico. + +Some may think that in itself would be no great thing, though it is for +you to say how Massachusetts would relish having this mixed population, +a little more than half colonial Spanish, the rest negro and +half-breed, illiterate, alien in language, alien in ideas of right, +interests, and government, send in from the mid-Atlantic, nearly a +third of the way over to Africa, two Senators to balance the votes of +Mr. Hoar and Mr. Lodge; for you to say how Massachusetts would regard +the spectacle of her senatorial vote nullified, and one third of her +representation in the House offset on questions, for instance, of +sectional and purely Northern interest, in the government of this +continent, and in the administration of this precious heritage of our +fathers. + +Or, suppose Massachusetts to be so little Yankee (in the best sense +still) that she could bear all this without murmur or objection--is it +to be imagined that she can lift other States in this generation to her +altruistic level? How would Kansas, for example, enjoy being balanced +in the Senate, and nearly balanced in the House, on questions relating +to the irrigation of her arid plains, or the protection of her +beet-root industry, or on any others affecting the great central +regions of this continent, by these voices from the watery waste of the +ocean? Or how would West Virginia or Oregon or Connecticut, or half a +dozen others of similar population, regard it to be actually outvoted +in their own home, on their own continent, by this Spanish and negro +waif from the mid-Atlantic? + +All this, in itself, may seem to some unimportant, negligible, even +trivial. At any rate, it would be inevitable; since no one is wild +enough to believe that Porto Rico can be turned back to Spain, or +bartered away, or abandoned by the generation that took it. But make +its people citizens now, and you have already made it, potentially, a +State. Then behind Porto Rico stands Cuba, and behind Cuba, in time, +stand the whole of the West Indies, on whom that law of political +gravitation which John Quincy Adams described will be perpetually +acting with redoubled force. And behind them--no, far ahead of them, +abreast of Porto Rico itself--stand the Philippines! The Constitution +which our fathers reverently ordained for the United States of +_America_ is thus tortured by its professed friends into a crazy-quilt, +under whose dirty folds must huddle the United States of America, of +the West Indies, of the East Indies, and of Polynesia; and Pandemonium +is upon us. + +[Sidenote: The Degradation of the Republic.] + +I implore you, as thinking men, pause long enough to realize the +degradation of the Republic thus calmly contemplated by those who +proclaim this to be our constitutional duty toward our possessions. The +republican institutions I have been trained to believe in were +institutions founded, like those of New England, on the Church and the +school-house. They constitute a system only likely to endure among a +people of high virtue and high intelligence. The republican government +built up on this continent, while the most successful in the history of +the world, is also the most complicated, the most expensive, and often +the slowest. Such are its complications and checks and balances and +interdependencies, which tax the intelligence, the patience, and the +virtue of the highest Caucasian development, that it is a system +absolutely unworkable by a group of Oriental and tropical races, more +or less hostile to each other, whose highest type is a Chinese and +Malay half-breed, and among whom millions, a majority possibly, are far +below the level of the pure Malay. + +What holds a nation together, unless it be community of interests, +character, and language, and contiguous territory? What would more +thoroughly insure its speedily flying to pieces than the lack of every +one of these requisites? Over and over, the clearest-eyed students of +history have predicted our own downfall even as a continental republic, +in spite of our measurable enjoyment of all of them. How near we all +believed we came to it once or twice! How manifestly, under the +incongruous hodge-podge of additions to the Union thus proposed, we +should be organizing with Satanic skill the exact conditions which have +invariably led to such downfalls elsewhere! + +Before the advent of the United States, the history of the world's +efforts at republicanism was a monotonous record of failure. Your very +school-boys are taught the reason. It was because the average of +intelligence and morality was too low; because they lacked the +self-restrained, self-governing quality developed in the Anglo-Saxon +bone and fiber through all the centuries since Runnymede; because they +grew unwieldy and lost cohesion by reason of unrelated territory, alien +races and languages, and inevitable territorial and climatic conflicts +of interest. + +On questions vitally affecting the welfare of this continent it is +inconceivable, unthinkable, that even altruistic Massachusetts should +tolerate having her two Senators and thirteen Representatives +neutralized by as many from Mindanao. Yet Mindanao has a greater +population than Massachusetts, and its Mohammedan Malays are as keen +for the conduct of public affairs, can talk as much, and look as +shrewdly for the profit of it. + +There are cheerful, happy-go-lucky public men who assure us that the +national digestion has been proved equal to anything. Has it? Are we +content, for example, with the way we have dealt with the negro problem +in the Southern States? Do we think the suffrage question there is now +on a permanent basis which either we or our Southern friends can be +proud of, while we lack the courage either honestly to enforce the rule +of the majority, or honestly to sanction a limitation of suffrage +within lines of intelligence and thrift? How well would our famous +national digestion probably advance if we filled up our Senate with +twelve or fourteen more Senators, representing conditions incomparably +worse? + +Is it said this danger is imaginary? At this moment some of the purest +and most patriotic men in Massachusetts, along with a great many of the +very worst in the whole country, are vehemently declaring that our new +possessions are already a part of the United States; that in spite of +the treaty which reserved the question of citizenship and political +status for Congress, their people are already citizens of the United +States; and that no part of the United States can be arbitrarily and +permanently excluded from Statehood. + +The immediate contention, to be sure, is only about Porto Rico, and it +is only a very little island. But who believes he can stop the +avalanche? What wise man, at least, will take the risk of starting it? +Who imagines that we can take in Porto Rico and keep out nearer islands +when they come? Powerful elements are already pushing Cuba. Practically +everybody recognizes now that we must retain control of Cuba's foreign +relations. But beyond that, the same influences that came so near +hurrying us into a recognition of the Cuban Republic and the Cuban debt +are now sure that Cuba will very shortly be so "Americanized" (that is, +overrun with American speculators) that it cannot be denied +admission--that, in fact, it will be as American as Florida! And, after +Cuba, the deluge! Who fancies that we could then keep San Domingo and +Haiti out, or any West India island that applied, or our friends the +Kanakas? Or who fancies that after the baser sort have once tasted +blood, in the form of such rotten-borough States, and have learned to +form their larger combinations with them, we shall still be able to +admit as a matter of right a part of the territory exacted from Spain, +and yet deny admission as a matter of right to the rest? + +The Nation has lately been renewing its affectionate memories of a man +who died in his effort to hold on, with or without their consent, to +the States we already have on this continent, but who never dreamed of +casting a drag-net over the world's archipelagos for more. Do we +remember his birthday and forget his words? "This Government"--meaning +that under the Constitution ordained for the United States of +_America_--"this Government cannot permanently endure, half slave, half +free." Who disputes it now? Well, then, can it endure half civilized +and enlightened, half barbarous and pagan; half white, half black, +brown, yellow, and mixed; half Northern and Western, half tropical and +Oriental; one half a homogeneous continent, the rest in myriads of +islands scattered half-way around the globe, but all eager to +participate in ruling this continent which our fathers with fire and +sword redeemed from barbarism and subdued to the uses of the highest +civilization? + +[Sidenote: Clamor that Need not Disturb.] + +I will not insult your intelligence or your patriotism by imagining it +possible that in view of such considerations you could consent to the +madman's policy of taking these islands we control into full +partnership with the States of this Union. Nor need you be much +disturbed by the interested outcries as to the injustice you do by +refusing to admit them. + +When it is said you are denying the natural rights Mr. Jefferson +proclaimed, you can answer that you are giving these people, in their +distant islands, the identical form of government Mr. Jefferson himself +gave to the territories on this continent which he bought. When it is +said you are denying our own cardinal doctrine of self-government, you +can point to the arrangements for establishing every particle of +self-government with which these widely different tribes can be safely +trusted, consistently with your responsibility for the preservation of +order and the protection of life and property in that archipelago, and +the pledge of more the moment they are found capable of it. When you +are asked, as a leading champion[15] asked the other night at +Philadelphia, "Does your liberation of one people give you the right to +subjugate another?" you can answer him, "No; nor to allow and aid +Aguinaldo to subjugate them, either, as you proposed." When the idle +quibble that after Dewey's victory Spain had no sovereignty to cede is +repeated, it may be asked, "Why acknowledge, then, that she did cede it +in Porto Rico and relinquish it in Cuba, yet deny that she could cede +it in the Philippines?" Finally, when they tell you in mock heroics, +appropriated from the great days of the anti-slavery struggle for the +cause now of a pinchbeck Washington, that no results of the irrevocable +past two years are settled, that not even the title to our new +possessions is settled, and never will be until it is settled according +to their notions, you can answer that then the title to Massachusetts +is not settled, nor the title to a square mile of land in most of the +States from ocean to ocean. Over practically none of it did we assume +sovereignty by the consent of the inhabitants. + + [15] General Carl Schurz, at the Philadelphia Anti-Imperialist + Convention, February 22, 1900. + +[Sidenote: Where is your Real Interest?] + +Quite possibly these controversies may embarrass the Government and +threaten the security of the party in power. New and perplexing +responsibilities often do that. But is it to the interest of the +sincere and patriotic among the discontented to produce either result? +The one thing sure is that no party in power in this country will dare +abandon these new possessions. That being so, do those of you who +regret it prefer to lose all influence over the outcome? While you are +repining over what is beyond recall, events are moving on. If you do +not help shape them, others, without your high principle and purity of +motive, may. Can you wonder if, while you are harassing the +Administration with impracticable demands for an abandonment of +territory which the American people will not let go, less unselfish +influences are busy presenting candidates for all the offices in its +organization? If the friends of a proper civil service persist in +chasing the ignis fatuus of persuading Americans to throw away +territory, while the politicians are busy crowding their favorites into +the territorial offices, who will feel free from self-reproach at the +results? Grant that the situation is bad. Can there be a doubt of the +duty to make the best of it? Do you ask how? By being an active +patriot, not a passive one. By exerting, and exerting now when it is +needed, every form of influence, personal, social, political, +moral,--the influence of the clubs, the Chambers of Commerce, the +manufactories, the colleges, and the churches,--in favor of the purest, +the ablest, the most scientific, the most disinterested--in a word, the +best possible civil service for the new possessions that the conscience +and the capacity of America can produce, with the most liberal use of +all the material available from native sources. + + +I have done. I have no wish to argue, to defend, or to attack. I have +sought only to point out what I conceive to be the present danger and +the present duty. It is not to be doubted that all such considerations +will summon you to the high resolve that you will neither shame the +Republic by shirking the task its own victory entails, nor despoil the +Republic by abandoning its rightful possessions, nor degrade the +Republic by admissions of unfit elements to its Union; but that you +will honor it, enrich it, ennoble it, by doing your utmost to make the +administration of these possessions worthy of the Nation that +Washington founded and Lincoln preserved. My last word is an appeal to +stand firm and stand all together for the Continental Union and for a +pure civil service for the Islands. + + + + +X + +OUR NEW INTERESTS + +This address was delivered on Charter Day at the University of +California, on March 23, 1900. + + + + +OUR NEW INTERESTS + + +My subject has been variously stated in your different newspapers as +"Current National Questions," or "The Present National Question," or +"General Expositions; Not on Anything in Particular." When your +President honored me with his invitation to a duty so high and so +sudden that it might almost be dignified by the name of a draft, he +gave me nearly equal license. I was to speak "on anything growing out +of the late war with Spain." + +How that war resembles the grippe! You remember the medical definition +by an authority no less high than our present distinguished Secretary +of State. "The grippe," said Colonel Hay, "is that disease in which, +after you have been cured, you get steadily worse every day of your +convalescence"! There are people of so little faith as to say that this +exactly describes the late war with Spain. + +If one is to speak at all of its present aspects, on this high-day of +your University year, he should do so only as a patriot, not as a +partizan. But he cannot avoid treading on ground where the ashes are +yet warm, and discussing questions which, in spite of the present +intermingling of party lines and confusion of party ideas, will +presently be found the very battle-ground of campaign oratory and +hostile hosts. You will credit me, I hope, with sufficient respect for +the proprieties of this platform to avoid partizan arguments, under the +warrant of your distinguished President to discuss national questions +from any point of view that a patriot can take. It is profoundly to be +regretted that on these questions, which pure patriotism alone should +weigh and decide, mere partizanship is already grasping the scales. One +thing at least I may venture to promise before this audience of +scholars and gentlemen on this Charter Day of your great University: I +shall ask the Democrat of the present day to agree with me no farther +than Thomas Jefferson went, and the Republican of the day no farther +than Abraham Lincoln went. To adapt from a kindred situation a phrase +by the greatest popular orator of my native State, and, I still like to +think, one of the greatest of the country in this century,--a phrase +applied by him to the compromise measures of 1848, but equally fitting +to-day,--"If we are forced to part company with some here whom it has +been our pleasure and pride to follow in the past, let us console +ourselves by the reflection that we are following in the footsteps of +the fathers and saviors of the Republic, their garments dyed with the +blood of the Red Sea, through which they led us out of the land of +bondage, their locks still moist with the mists of the Jordan, across +which they brought us to this land of liberty."[16] + + [16] Thomas Corwin of Ohio, in United States Senate, 1848. + +[Sidenote: To be Taken for Granted now.] + +Yet, even with those from whom we must thus part company there are +elemental truths of the situation on which we must still agree. Some +things reasonable men may take for granted--some that surely have been +settled in the conflict of arms, of diplomacy, and of debate since the +spring of 1898. Regret them if you choose, but do not, like children, +seek to make them as though they were not, by shutting your eyes to +them. + +The new territories in the West Indies and the East are ours, to have +and to hold, by the supreme law of the land, and by a title which the +whole civilized world recognizes and respects. We shall not speedily +get rid of them--whoever may desire it. The American people are in no +mood to give them back to Spain, or to sell them, or to abandon them. +We have all the power we need to acquire and to govern them. Whatever +theories men may quote from Mr. Calhoun or from Mr. Chief Justice +Taney, the uniform conduct of the National Administration throughout a +century, under whatever party, justifies the triumphant declaration of +Daniel Webster to Mr. Calhoun, over half a century ago, and the +consenting opinions of the courts for a long term since, down to the +very latest in the line, by your own Judge Morrow, to the effect, in a +word, that this Government, like every other one in the world, has +power to acquire "territory and other property" anywhere, and govern it +as it pleases.[17] + + [17] Over a month after the above was delivered came the first + recent judicial expression of a contrary view. It was by Judge + William Lochren of the United States Circuit Court at St. Paul, + in the case of habeas corpus proceedings against Reeve, warden of + the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater, for the release of a + Porto Rican named Ortiz. He was held for the murder of a private + soldier of the United States, sentenced to death by a Military + Commission at San Juan, and, on commutation of the sentence by + the President of the United States, sent to this State Prison for + life. Judge Lochren denied the writ on the ground that the + conviction took place before the Treaty of Paris, by which Spain + ceded sovereignty in Porto Rico to the United States, had been + ratified by the Senate. The Judge went on, however, to argue that + Ortiz could not have been lawfully tried before the Military + Commission after the ratification of the treaty, because the + island of Porto Rico thereby became an integral part of the + United States, subject to the Constitution and privileged and + bound by its provisions. As this point was not involved in the + case he was deciding, this is, of course, merely a dictum--the + expression of opinion on an outside matter by a Democratic judge + who was recently transferred by Mr. Cleveland from a Washington + bureau to the bench. It clearly shows, however, what would be his + decision whenever the case might come before him. His argument + followed closely the lines taken by Mr. Calhoun in the Senate and + Mr. Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott decision. + +On these points I make bold to repeat what I felt warranted in saying a +fortnight ago within sight of Bunker Hill--that there is every evidence +that the American people have distinctly and definitely made up their +minds. They have not been persuaded and they cannot be persuaded that +this is an inferior government, incapable of any duty Providence may +send its way--duties which other nations could discharge, but we +cannot. So I venture to affirm the impossibility that any party in +power, whether the present one or its opponent, could soon, if ever, +abandon one foot of the territory gained in the late war. + +We are gathered on another old Spanish territory taken by our country +in war. It shows what Americans do with such acquisitions. Before you +expect to see Porto Rico given back to Spain or the Philippines +abandoned to Aguinaldo, wait till we are ready to declare, as Daniel +Webster did in the Senate, that this California of your pride and glory +is "not worth a dollar," and throw back the worthless thing on the +hands of unoffending Mexico. Till then, let us as practical and +sensible men recognize that what is past is settled. + +[Sidenote: Duty First; but then Interest also.] + +Thus far have we come in these strange courses and to these unexpected +and unwelcome tasks by following, at each succeeding emergency, the +path of clear, absolute, and unavoidable duty. The only point in the +whole national line of conduct, from the spring of 1898 on to this +March morning of 1900, at which our Government could have stopped with +honor, was at the outset. I, for one, would gladly have stopped there. +How was it then with some at the West who are discontented now? Shake +not your gory locks at me or at my fellow-citizens in the East. You +cannot say we did it. In 1898, just as a few years earlier in the +debate about Venezuela, the loudest calls for a belligerent policy came +not from the East, "the cowardly, commercial East," as we were +sometimes described, but from the patriotic and warlike West. The +farther West you came, the louder the cry for war, till it reached its +very climax on what we used to call the frontier, and was sent +thundering Eastward upon the National Capital in rolling reverberations +from the Sierras and the Rockies which few public men cared to defy. At +that moment, perhaps, if this popular and congressional demand had not +pushed us forward, we might have stopped with honor--certainly not +later. From the day war was flagrant down to this hour there has been +no forward step which a peremptory national or international obligation +did not require. To the mandate alone of Duty, stern daughter of the +voice of God, the American people have bowed, as, let us hope, they +always will. It is not true that, in the final decision as to any one +step in the great movement hitherto, our interests have been first or +chiefly considered. + +But in all these constitutional discussions to which we have referred, +one clause in the Constitution has been curiously thrust aside. The +framers placed it on the very forefront of the edifice they were +rearing, and there declared for our instruction and guidance that "the +people do ordain and establish this Constitution ... to promote the +general welfare." By what right do statesmen now venture to think that +they can leave our national interests out of the account? Who and where +is the sentimentalist who arraigns us for descending to too sordid a +level when we recognize our interest to hold what the discharge of duty +has placed in our hand? Since when has it been statesmanship to shut +our eyes to the interests of our own country, and patriotism to +consider only the interests or the wishes of others? For my own part, I +confess to a belief in standing up first for my own, and find it +difficult to cherish much respect for the man who won't: first for my +own family rather than some other man's; first for my own city and +State rather than for somebody else's; first for my own country--first, +please God! for the United States of America. And so, having in the +past, too fully, perhaps, and more than once, considered the question +of our new possessions in the light of our duty, I propose now to look +at them further, and unblushingly, in the light of our interests. + +[Sidenote: The Old Faith of Californians.] + +Which way do your interests lie? Which way do the interests of +California and the city of San Francisco lie? + +Three or four days ago, when your President honored me with the summons +I am now obeying, there came back to me a vague memory of the visions +cherished by the men you rate the highest in California, your +"Pioneers" and "Forty-Niners," as to the future of the empire they were +founding on this coast. There lingered in my mind the flavor at least +of an old response by a California public man to the compliment a +"tenderfoot" New-Yorker, in the innocence of his heart, had intended to +pay, when he said that with this splendid State, this glorious harbor, +and the Pacific Ocean, you have all the elements to build up here the +New York of the West. The substance of the Californian's reply was +that, through mere lack of knowledge of the country to which he +belonged, the well-meaning New-Yorker had greatly underrated the future +that awaited San Francisco--that long before Macaulay's New-Zealander +had transferred himself from the broken arches of London Bridge to +those of Brooklyn, it would be the pride and boast of the denizens of +those parts that New York had held its own so finely as still to be +fairly called the San Francisco of the East! + +While the human memory is the most tenacious and nearest immortal of +all things known to us, it is also at times the most elusive. Even with +the suggestions of Mr. Hittell and the friendly files of the Mechanics' +Library, I did not succeed in finding that splendid example of San +Francisco faith which my memory had treasured. Yet I found some things +not very unlike it to show what manner of men they were that laid the +foundations of this commonwealth on the Pacific, what high hopes +sustained them, and what radiant future they confidently anticipated. + +Here, for example, was Mr. William A. Howard, whom I found declaring, +not quite a third of a century ago, that San Francisco would yet be the +largest American city on the largest ocean in the world. At least, so +he is reported in "The Bulletin" and "The Call," though "The Alta" puts +it with an "if," its report reading: "If the development of commerce +require that the largest ocean shall have the largest city, then it +would follow that as the Atlantic is smaller than the Pacific, so in +the course of years New York will be smaller than San Francisco." + +And here, again, was Mr. Delos Lake, maintaining that the "United +States is now on a level with the most favored nations; that its +geographical position, its line of palatial steamers established on the +Pacific Ocean by American enterprise, and soon to be followed by ocean +telegraphs, must before long render this continent the proper avenue of +commerce between Europe and Asia, and raise this metropolis of the +Pacific to the loftiest height of monetary power." + +There was a reason, too, widely held by the great men of the day, whose +names have passed into history, for some such faith. Thus an old +Californian of high and happy fame, Major-General Henry W. Halleck, +speaking of San Francisco, said: "Standing here on the extreme Western +verge of the Republic, overlooking the coast of Asia and occupying the +future center of trade and commerce of the two worlds,... if that +civilization which so long has moved westward with the Star of Empire +is now, purified by the principles of true Christianity, to go on +around the world until it reaches the place of its origin and makes the +Orient blossom again with its benign influences, San Francisco must be +made the abutment, and International Law the bridge, by which it will +cross the Pacific Ocean. The enterprise of the merchants of California +has already laid the foundation of the abutments; diplomacy and steam +and telegraph companies are rapidly accumulating material for the +construction of the bridge." Thus far Halleck. But have the +Californians of this generation abandoned the bridge? Are we to believe +those men of to-day who tell us it is not worth crossing? + +Here, again, was Eugene Casserly, speaking of right for the California +Democracy of that date. Writing with deliberation more than a quarter +of a century ago, he said: "We expect to stand on equal grounds with +the most favored of nations. We ask no more in the contest for that +Eastern trade which has always heretofore been thought to carry with it +the commercial supremacy of the globe. America asks only a fair field, +even as against her oldest and most formidable rivals. Nature, and our +position as the nearest neighbors to eastern Asia, separated from her +only by the great highways of the ocean, have placed in our hands all +the advantages that we need.... Favored by vicinity, by soil and +climate on our own territory, with a people inferior to none in +enterprise and vigor, without any serious rivals anywhere, all this +Pacific coast is ours or is our tributary.... We hold as ours the great +ocean that so lately rolled in solitary grandeur from the equator to +the pole. In the changes certain to be effected in the currents of +finance, of exchange, and of trade, by the telegraph and the railroads, +bringing the financial centers of Europe and of the United States by +way of San Francisco within a few weeks of the ports of China and of +the East, San Francisco must become at no distant day the banker, the +factor, and the carrier of the trade of eastern Asia and the Pacific, +to an extent to which it is difficult to assign limits." Are the people +now lacking in the enterprise and vigor which Mr. Casserly claimed for +them? Have the limits he scorned been since assigned, and do the +Californians of to-day assent to the restriction? + +Take yet another name, treasured, I know, on the roll of California's +most worthy servants, another Democrat. Governor Haight, only a third +of a century ago, said: "I see in the near future a vast commerce +springing up between the Chinese Empire and the nations of the West; an +interchange of products and manufactures mutually beneficial; the +watchword of progress and the precepts of a pure religion uttered to +the ears of a third of the human race." And addressing some +representatives of that vast region, he added, with a burst of fine +confidence in the supremacy of San Francisco's position: "As Chief +Magistrate of this Western State of the Nation, I welcome you to the +territory of the Republic,... in no selfish or narrow spirit, either of +personal advantage or seeking exclusive privileges for our own over the +other nations; and so, in the name of commerce, of civilization, of +progress, of humanity, and of religion, on behalf not merely of +California or America, but of Europe and of mankind, I bid you and your +associates welcome and God-speed." + +Perhaps this may be thought merely an exuberant hospitality. Let me +quote, then, from the same man, speaking again as the Governor of the +State, at the Capitol of the State, in the most careful oration of his +life: "What shall be said of the future of California? Lift your eyes +and expand your conceptions to take in the magnitude of her destiny. An +empire in area, presenting advantages and attractions to the people of +the Eastern States and Europe far beyond those presented by any other +State or Territory--who shall set limits to her progress, or paint in +fitting colors the splendor of her future?... Mismanagement may at +times retard her progress, but if the people of California are true to +themselves, this State is destined to a high position, not only among +her sister States, but among the commonwealths of the world,... when +her ships visit every shore, and her merchant princes control the +commerce of the great ocean and the populous countries upon its +borders." + +Was Governor Haight alone, or was he in advance of his time? Go yet +farther back, to the day when Judge Nathaniel Bennett was assigned by +the people of San Francisco to the task of delivering the oration when +they celebrated the admission of California into the Union, on October +29, 1850: "Judging from the past, what have we not a right to expect in +the future? The world has never witnessed anything equal or similar to +our career hitherto.... Our State is a marvel to ourselves, and a +miracle to the rest of the world. Nor is the influence of California +confined within her own borders.... The islands nestled in the embrace +of the Pacific have felt the quickening breath of her enterprise.... +She has caused the hum of busy life to be heard in the wilderness where +rolls the Oregon, and where until recently was heard no sound save his +own dashings. Even the wall of Chinese exclusiveness has been broken +down, and the children of the Sun have come forth to view the splendors +of her achievements.... It is all but a foretaste of the future.... The +world's trade is destined soon to be changed.... The commerce of Asia +and the islands of the Pacific, instead of pursuing the ocean track by +the way of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, or even taking the +shorter route of the Isthmus of Darien or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, +will enter the Golden Gate of California and deposit its riches in the +lap of our city.... New York will then become what London now is--the +great central point of exchange, the heart of trade, the force of whose +contraction and expansion will be felt throughout every artery of the +commercial world; and San Francisco will then stand the second city of +America.... The responsibility rests upon us whether this first +American State of the Pacific shall in youth and ripe manhood realize +the promise of infancy. We may cramp her energies and distort her form, +or we may make her a rival even of the Empire State of the Atlantic. +The best wishes of Americans are with us. They expect that the +Herculean youth will grow to a Titan in his manhood." + +Nor was even Judge Bennett the pioneer of such ideas. Long before he +spoke, or before the Stars and Stripes had been raised over Yerbabuena, +as far back as in 1835, the English people and the British Government +had been advised by Alexander Forbes that "The situation of California +for intercourse with other countries and its capacity for +commerce--should it ever be possessed by a numerous and industrious +population--are most favorable. The port of San Francisco for size and +safety is hardly surpassed by any in the world; it is so situated as to +be made the center of the commercial relations which may take place +between Asia and the western coast of America.... The vessels of the +Spanish Philippines Company on their passage from Manila to San Blas +and Acapulco generally called at Monterey for refreshments and +orders.... Thus it appears as if California was designed by nature to +be the medium of connecting commercially Asia with America, and as the +depot of the trade between these two vast continents, which possess the +elements of unbounded commercial interchange; the one overflowing with +all the rich and luxurious commodities always characteristic of the +East, the other possessing a superabundance of the precious metals and +other valuable products to give in exchange.... If ever a route across +the Isthmus shall be opened, California will then be one of the most +interesting commercial situations in the world; it would in that case +be the rendezvous for all vessels engaged in the trade between Europe +and Asia by that route. It is nearly mid-voyage between these two +countries, and would furnish provisions and all naval supplies in the +most ample abundance, and most probably would become a mart for the +interchange of the commodities of the three continents." + +[Sidenote: Has the State Lost Heart and Shriveled?] + +Let no man fancy that these sometimes exuberant expressions of a noble +and far-seeing faith by your own predecessors and by a prescient +foreigner have been revived in derision or even in doubt. Those were +the days when, if some were for a party, at any rate all were for the +State. These were great men, far-seeing, courageous, patriotic, the men +of Forty-nine, who in such lofty spirit and with such high hope laid +the foundation of this empire on the Pacific. Distance did not disturb +them, nor difficulties discourage. There sits on your platform to-day a +man who started from New York to California by what he thought the +quickest route in December, 1848; went south from the Isthmus as the +only means of catching a ship for the north, and finally entered this +harbor, by the way of Chile, in June, 1849. He could go now to Manila +thrice over and back in less time. And yet there are Californians of +this day who profess to shrink in alarm from the remoteness and +inaccessibility of our new possessions! Has the race shriveled under +these summer skies? Has it grown old before its time; is its natural +strength abated? Are the old energy and the old courage gone? Has the +soul of this people shrunk within them? Or is it only that there are +strident voices from California, sounding across the Sierras and the +Rockies, that misrepresent and shame a State whose sons are not +unworthy of their fathers? + +The arm of the Californian has not been shortened, that he cannot reach +out. The salt has not left him, that he cannot occupy and possess the +great ocean that the Lord has given him. Nor has he forgotten the +lesson taught by the history of his own race (and of the greatest +nations of the world), that oceans no longer separate--they unite. +There are no protracted and painful struggles to build a Pacific +railroad for your next great step. The right of way is assured, the +grading is done, the rails are laid. You have but to buy your +rolling-stock at the Union Iron Works, draw up your time-table, and +begin business. Or do you think it better that your Pacific railroad +should end in the air? Is a six-thousand-mile extension to a through +line worthless? Can your Scott shipyards only turn out men-of-war? Can +your Senator Perkins only run ships that creep along the coast? Is the +broad ocean too deep for him or too wide? + +[Sidenote: New Fields and the Need for them.] + +Contiguous land gives a nation cohesion; but it is the water that +brings other nations near. The continent divides you from customers +beyond the mountains; but the ocean unites you with the whole +boundless, mysterious Orient. There you find a population of over six +hundred millions of souls, between one fourth and one third of the +inhabitants of the globe. You are not at a disadvantage in trading with +them because they have the start of you in manufactures or skill or +capital, as you would be in the countries to which the Atlantic leads. +They offer you the best of all commerce--that with people less +advanced, exchanging the products of different zones, a people +awakening to the complex wants of a civilization that is just stirring +them to a new life. + +Have you considered what urgent need there will be for those new +fields? It is no paltry question of an outlet for the surplus products +of a mere nation of seventy-five millions that confronts you. Your +mathematical professors will tell you that, at the ratio of increase +established in this Nation by the census returns for the century just +closing, its population would amount during the next century to the +bewildering and incomprehensible figure of twelve hundred millions. The +ratio, of course, will not be maintained, since the exceptional +circumstances that caused it cannot continue. But no one gives reasons +why it should not be half as great. Suppose it to turn out only one +fourth as great. Is it the part of statesmanship--is it even the part +of every-day, matter-of-fact common sense--to reject or despise these +Oriental openings for the products of this people of three hundred +million souls the Twentieth Century would need to nourish within our +borders? Our total annual trade with China now--with this customer whom +the friendly ocean is ready to bring to your very doors--is barely +twenty millions. That would be a commerce of the gross amount of six +and two third cents for each inhabitant of our country in the next +century, with that whole vast region adjoining you, wherein dwell one +fourth of the human race! + +Even the Spanish trade with the Philippines was thirty millions. They +are merely our stepping-stone. But would a wise man kick the +stepping-stone away? + +[Sidenote: The New Blood Felt.] + +San Francisco is exceptionally prosperous now. So is the State of +California. Why? Partly, no doubt, because you are sharing the +prosperity which blesses the whole country. But is that all? What is +this increase in the shipping at your wharves? What was the meaning of +those crowded columns of business statistics your newspapers proudly +printed last New Year's?--what the significance of the increase in +exports and imports, far beyond mere army requirements? Why is every +room taken in your big buildings? What has crowded your docks, filled +your streets, quickened your markets, rented your stores and dwellings, +sent all this new blood pulsing through your veins--made you like the +worn Richelieu when, in that moment, there entered his spent veins the +might of France? + +Was it the rage you have witnessed among some of your own leaders +against everything that has been done during the past two years--the +warning against everything that is about to be done? Was it the proof +of our unworthiness and misdeeds, to which we all penitentially +listened, as so eloquently set forth from the high places of light and +leading--the long lamentation over how on almost every field we had +shown our incapacity; how unfit we were to govern cities, unfit to +govern territories, unfit to govern Indians, unfit to govern +ourselves--how, in good old theological phrase, we were from head to +foot a mass of national wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, and +there was no health in us? Was it the demonstration that what we needed +was to sit under the live-oaks and "develop the individual man," nor +dare to look beyond? Was it the forgetfulness that muscles grow strong +only with exercise; that it is the duties of manhood that take the +acrid humors out of a youth's blood; that it is great responsibility, +manfully met, not cowardly evaded, that sobers and steadies and +ennobles? + +Some one has lately been quoting Lincoln's phrase, "We cannot escape +history." It is a noble and inspiring thought. Most of us dare not look +for a separate appearance at that greatest of human bars--may hope only +to be reckoned in bulk with the multitude. But even so, however it may +be with others on this coast, I, for one, want to be counted with those +who had faith in my countrymen; who did not think them incapable of +tasks which duty imposed and to which other nations had been equal; who +did not disparage their powers or distrust their honest intentions or +urge them to refuse their opportunities; to be counted with those who +at least had open eyes when they stood in the Golden Gate! + +[Sidenote: Wards or Full Partners.] + +I do not doubt--you do not doubt--they are the majority. They will +prevail. What Duty requires us to take, an enlightened regard for our +own interests will require us to hold. The islands will not be thrown +away. The American people have made up their minds on that point, if on +nothing else. + +Well, then, how shall the islands be treated? Are they to be our wards, +objects of our duty and our care; or are they to be our full partners? +We may as well look that question straight in the face. There is no way +around it, or over or under or out of it; and no way of aimlessly and +helplessly shuffling it off on the future, for it presses in the +legislation of Congress to-day. Wards, flung on our hands by the +shipwreck of Spain, helpless, needy, to be cared for and brought up and +taught to stand alone as far as they can; or full partners with us in +the government and administration of the priceless heritage of our +fathers, the peerless Republic of the world and of all the +centuries--that is the question! + +Men often say--I have even heard it within a week on this coast--that +all this is purely imaginary; that nobody favors their admission as +States. Let us see. An ounce of fact in a matter of such moment is +worth tons of random denial. Within the month a distinguished and +experienced United States Senator from the North has announced that he +sees no reason why Porto Rico should not be a State. Within the same +period one of the leading religious journals of the continent has +declared that it would be a selfish and brutal tyranny that would +exclude Porto Rico from Statehood. Only a few weeks earlier one of our +ablest generals, now commanding a department in one of our +dependencies, a laureled hero of two wars, has officially reported to +the Government in favor of steps for the admission of Cuba as a State. +On every hand rise cries that in any event they cannot and must not be +dependencies. Some of these are apparently for mere partizan effect, +but others are the obvious promptings of a sincere and high-minded, +however mistaken, conviction. + +I shall venture, then, to consider it as a real and not an abstract +question,--"academic," I think it is the fad of these later days to +say,--and I propose again (and again unblushingly) to consider it from +what has been called a low and sordid point of view--so low, in fact, +so unworthy the respect of latter-day altruistic philosophers, that it +merely concerns the interests of our country! + +For I take it that if there is one subject on which this Union has a +right to consult its own interests and inclinations, it is on the +question of admitting new States, or of putting territory in a position +where it can ever claim or expect admission; just as the one subject on +which nobody disputes the right of a mercantile firm to follow its own +inclinations is on that of taking in some unfortunate business man as a +partner; or the right of an individual to follow his own inclinations +about marrying some needy spinster he may have felt it a duty to +befriend. Because they are helpless and needy and on our hands, must we +take them into partnership? Because we are going to help them, are we +bound to marry them? + +[Sidenote: The Porto Rican Question.] + +Partly through mere inadvertence, but partly also through crafty +design, the wave of generous sympathy for the suffering little island +of Porto Rico which has been sweeping over the country has come very +near being perverted into the means of turning awry the policy and +permanent course of a great Nation. To relieve the temporary distress +by recognizing the Porto Ricans as citizens, and by an extension of the +Dingley tariff to Porto Rico as a matter of constitutional right, +foreclosed the whole question. + +I know it is said, plausibly enough, in some quarters, that Congress +cannot foreclose the question,--has nothing to do with it, in +fact,--but that it is a matter to be settled only by the Supreme Law of +the land, of which Congress is merely the servant. The point need not +be disputed. But it is an unquestioned part of the Supreme Law of the +land, as authoritative within its sphere and as binding as any clause +in the Constitution itself, which declares, in the duly ratified Treaty +of Paris, that the whole question of the civil rights and political +status of the inhabitants in this newly acquired property of ours shall +be reserved for the decision of Congress! Let those who invoke the +Supreme Law of the land learn and bow to it. + +As to the mere duty of prompt and ample relief for the distress in +Porto Rico, there is happily not a shade of difference of opinion among +the seventy-five millions of our inhabitants. Nor was the free-trade +remedy, so vehemently recommended, important enough in itself to +provoke serious objection or delay. Cynical observers might find, +indeed, a gentle amusement in noting how in the name of humanity the +blessings of free trade were invoked by means of the demand for an +immediate application of the highest protective tariff known to the +history of economics! The very men who denounce this tariff as a +Chinese wall are the men who demand its application. They say, "Give +Porto Rico free trade," but what their proposal means is, "Deprive +Porto Rico of free trade, and put her within the barbarous Chinese +wall." Their words sound like offering her the liberty of trade with +all the world, but mean forbidding her to trade with anybody except the +United States. + +[Sidenote: Importance of the Question.] + +The importance of the question from an economic point of view has been +ludicrously exaggerated on both sides. The original proposal would have +in itself done far less harm than its opponents imagined and far less +good than its supporters hoped. Yet to the extent of its influence it +would have been a step backward. It would have been the rejection of +the modern and scientific colonial method, and the adoption instead of +the method which has resulted in the most backward, the least +productive, and the least prosperous colonies in the world--the method, +in a word, of Spain herself. For the Spanish tariff, in fact, made with +some little reference to colonial interests, we should merely have +substituted our own tariff, made with sole reference to our own +interests. A more distinct piece of blacksmith work in economic +legislation for a helpless, lonely little island in the mid-Atlantic +could not well be imagined. What had poor Porto Rico done, that she +should be fenced in from all the Old World by an elaborate and highly +complicated system of duties upon imports, calculated to protect the +myriad varying manufactures and maintain the high wages of this vast +new continent, and as little adapted to Porto Rico's simple needs as is +a Jorgensen repeater for the uses of a kitchen clock? Why at the same +stroke must she be crushed, as she would have been if the Constitution +were extended to her, by a system of internal taxation, which we +ourselves prefer to regard as highly exceptional, on tobacco, on +tobacco-dealers, on bank-checks, on telegraph and telephone messages, +on bills of lading, bills of exchange, leases, mortgages, +life-insurance, passenger tickets, medicines, legacies, inheritances, +mixed flour, and so on and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam? Did she +deserve so badly of us that, even in a hurry, we should do this thing +to her in the name of humanity? + +All the English-speaking world, outside some members of the United +States Congress perhaps, long since found a more excellent way. It is +simplicity itself. It legislates for a community like Porto Rico with +reference to the situation and wants of that community--not with +reference to somebody else. It applies to Porto Rico a system devised +for Porto Rico--not one devised for a distant and vastly larger +country, with totally different situation and wants. It makes no effort +to exploit Porto Rico for the benefit of another country. It does make +a studied and scientific effort from the Porto Rico point of view (not +from that of temporary Spanish holders of the present stocks of Porto +Rican products) to see what system will impose the lightest burdens and +bring the greatest benefits on Porto Rico herself. The result of that +conscientious inquiry may be the discovery that the very best thing to +provide for the wants and promote the prosperity of that little +community out in the Atlantic Ocean is to bestow upon them the unmixed +boon of the high protective Dingley tariff devised for the United +States of America. If so, give them the Dingley tariff, and give it +straight. If, on the other hand, it should be found that a lower and +simpler revenue system, better adapted to a community which has +practically no manufactures to protect, with freedom to trade on equal +terms with all the world, would impose upon them lighter burdens and +bring them greater benefits, then give them that. If it should be +further found that, following this, such a system of reciprocal rebates +as both Cuba and the United States thought mutually advantageous in the +late years of Spanish rule, would be useful to Porto Rico, then give +them that. But, in any case, the starting-point should be the needs of +Porto Rico herself, intelligently studied and conscientiously met--not +the blacksmith's offhand attempt to fit on her head, like a rusty iron +pot, an old system made for other needs, other industries, a distant +land, and another people. + +And beyond and above all, give her the best system for her situation +and wants, whether it be our Dingley tariff or some other, because it +is the best for her and is therefore our duty--not because it is ours, +and therefore, under the Constitution of the United States, her right +and her fate. The admission of that ill-omened and unfounded claim +would be, at the bar of politics, a colossal blunder; at the bar of +patriotism, a colossal crime. + +[Sidenote: Political Aspect of the Constitutional Claim.] + +The politics of it need not greatly concern this audience or long +detain you. + +But the facts are interesting. If Porto Rico, instead of belonging to +us, is a part of us, so are the Philippines. Our title to each is +exactly the same. So are Guam and the Sandwich Islands, if not also +Samoa; and so will be Cuba if she comes, or any other West India +Island. + +First, then, you are proposing to open the ports of the United States +directly to the tropical products of the two greatest archipelagos of +the world, and indirectly, through the Open Door we have pledged in the +Philippines, to all the products of all the world! You guarantee +directly to the cheap labor of these tropical regions, and indirectly, +but none the less bindingly, to the cheap labor of the world, free +admission of their products to this continent, in unrestricted +competition with our own higher-paid labor. And as your whole tariff +system is thus plucked up by the roots, you must resort to direct +taxation for the expenses of the General Government. + +Secondly, as if this were not enough, you have made these tropical +laborers citizens,--Chinese, half-breeds, pagans, and all,--and have +given them the unquestionable and inalienable right to follow their +products across the ocean if they like, flood our labor market, and +compete in person on our own soil with our own workmen. + +Is that the feast to be set before the laboring men of this country? Is +that the real inwardness of the Trojan horse pushed forward against our +tariff wall, in the name of humanity, to suffering Porto Rico? What a +programme for the wise humanitarians who have been bewitching the world +with noble statesmanship at Washington to propose laying before the +organized labor of this country as their chosen platform for the +approaching Presidential campaign! They need have no fear the +intelligent workingmen of America will fail to appreciate the sweet +boon they offer. + +[Sidenote: The Patriotic Aspect of it.] + +But if the question thus raised at the bar of politics may seem to some +only food for laughter, that at the bar of patriotism is matter for +tears. If the islanders are already citizens, then they are entitled to +the future of citizens. If the territory is already an integral part of +the United States, then by all our practice and traditions it has the +right to admission in States of suitable size and population. Is it +said we could keep them out as we have kept out sparsely settled New +Mexico? How long do you expect to keep New Mexico out, or Oklahoma, or +Arizona? What luck did you have in keeping out others--even Utah, with +its bar sinister of the twin relic of barbarism? How long would it take +your politicians of the baser sort to combine for the admission of the +islands whose electoral votes they had reason to think they could +control? + +But it is said that Porto Rico deserves admission anyway, because we +are bound by the volunteered assurance of General Miles that they +should have the rights of American citizens. Perhaps; though there is +no evidence that he meant more, or that they thought he meant more, +than such rights as American citizens everywhere enjoy, even in the +District of Columbia--equal laws, security of life and property, +freedom from arbitrary arrests, local self-government, in a word, the +civil rights which the genius of our Government secures to all under +our control who are capable of exercising them. If he did mean more, or +if they thought he meant more, did that entitle him to anticipate his +chief and override in casual military proclamation the Supreme Law of +the land whose commission he bore? Or did it entitle them to suppose +that he could? + +But Porto Rico received the irresistible army of General Miles so +handsomely, and is so unfortunate and so little! Reasons all for +consideration, certainly, for care, for generosity--but not for +starting the avalanche, on the theory that after it has got under only +a little headway we can still stop it if we want to. Who thinks he can +lay his hand on the rugged edge of the Muir Glacier and compel it to +advance no farther? Who believes that we can admit this little island +from the mid-Atlantic, a third of the way over to Africa, and then +reject nearer and more valuable islands when they come? The famous law +of political gravitation which John Quincy Adams prophetically +announced three quarters of a century ago will then be acting with +ever-increasing force. And, at any rate, beside Porto Rico, and with +the same title, stand the Philippines! + +Regard, I beg of you, in the calm white light that befits these +cloistered retreats of sober thought, the degradation of the Republic +thus coolly anticipated by the men that assure us we have no +possessions whose people are not entitled under our Constitution to +citizenship and ultimately to Statehood! Surely to an audience of +scholars and patriots like this not one word need be added. Emboldened +by the approval you have so generously expressed, I venture to close by +assuming without hesitation that you will not dishonor your Government +by evading its duty, nor betray it by forcing unfit partners upon it, +nor rob it by blind and perverse neglect of its interests. + +May I not go further, and vouch for you, as Californians, that the +faith of the fathers has not forsaken the sons--that you still believe +in the possibilities of the good land the Lord has given you, and mean +to work them out; that you know what hour the national clock has +struck, and are not mistaking this for the Eighteenth Century; that you +will bid the men who have made that mistake, the men of little faith, +the shirkers, the doubters, the carpers, the grumblers, begone, like +Diogenes, to their tubs--aye, better his instruction and require these +his followers to get out of your light? For, lo! yet another century is +upon you, before which even the marvels of the Nineteenth are to grow +pale. As of old, light breaks from the east, but now also, for you, +from the farther East. It circles the world in both directions, like +the flag it is newly gilding now with its tropic beams. The dawn of the +Twentieth Century bursts upon you without needing to cross the Sierras, +and bathes at once in its golden splendors, with simultaneous +effulgence, the Narrows of Sandy Hook and the peerless portals of the +Golden Gate. + + + + +XI + +"UNOFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS" + +This speech was delivered at the Farewell Banquet given by over four +hundred citizens of San Francisco to the second Philippine Commission, +on the eve of their sailing for Manila, at the Palace Hotel, April 12, +1900. The title is adopted from the phrase used by the President of the +Commission in his response; to which a leading journal of the Pacific +coast, "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer," promptly added that the +address "spoke for the whole people of the United States," and was "the +concrete expression of a desire that animates nine tenths of all our +citizens." Judge Taft frankly stated his concurrence in the views +expressed (though he held some legal doubts as to whether the +Constitution of the United States did not extend, ex proprio vigore, to +the new possessions), and he pledged the Commission against the +influence of political considerations. + + + + +"UNOFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS" + + +The kindness of your call shall not be misinterpreted or taken +advantage of. Quite enough of my voice has been heard in the land, and +that very recently, as some of you can testify to your cost. There are +others here with far greater claims upon your attention, and I promise +to be as brief as heretofore I have been prolix. + +The occasion is understood to be primarily one of congratulation and +personal good will. It is evident that San Francisco thinks well of the +Pacific coast member of this Commission, and none the worse because he +seems to have been chosen for the post merely on account of his being +peculiarly fit for it. The city gladly takes the rest of you on faith, +believing that the same rule of selection must have been applied in the +cases with which it has not the happiness to be quite so familiar. + +But it is an occasion, I am authoritatively assured, of no political +significance whatever. It embraces in its comprehensive impulse of +greeting and good wishes Republicans and Democrats and Dewey men; men +who hold the offices, men who want the offices, and men who say, "A +plague on both your houses!"--men who indorse the course of the +Administration, and men who believe the acquisition of the Philippines +a mistake. I shall not attempt to disguise from you the fact that this +last is not an opinion that I individually hold. Still, I can respect +the convictions of those who do. + +But evidently we can have no concurrence to-night on our +extra-continental policy, since the differences are so wide on vital +points. Yet the organizers of this testimonial made no mistake. There +is a common ground for our meeting. We are all citizens of the +Republic, grateful for our high privilege and solicitous that the +Republic shall take no harm--all Americans, proud of the name and eager +that it shall never be stained by base or unworthy acts. There is no +one here, of whatever political faith or lack of faith, who is not a +patriot, anxious for our country on these new and untried paths it must +walk--most desirous that all its ways may prove ways of pleasantness +and all its paths lead to honorable peace. + +Well, then, gentlemen, what is it that a company thus divided in +opinion, and united only in patriotic aspirations, can agree in looking +to this Commission for? What do the American people in general, and +without distinction of party, look to them for? + +Did I hear a public opponent but personal friend over there murmur as +his reply, "Not much of anything"? Alas! we may as well recognize that +there are political augurs who are ready to give just that as their +horoscope, and even point to their useful predecessor, the last +Commission, for presumptive proof! In fact, there are occasional +grumblers who would look for more from them if they were fewer. These +skeptical critics recognize that sometimes in a multitude of counselors +there may be safety, but also recall the maxim that councils of war +never fight. If the truth must be whispered in the ear of the +Commissioners, there are here and there very sincere, capable people +who are growing a bit weary of a multiplicity of commissions. They +say--so cynical are they--that, in all ages and countries, the easiest +method of evading or postponing a difficult problem has been to appoint +a commission on it and thus prolong the circumlocution. + +For a first thing, then, on which we are all united, we look hopefully +to our guests to redeem the character of this mode of government by +commission. For we assume that they are sent out to the archipelago to +govern; and just at present we don't know of any part of the country's +possessions that seems more in need of government. + +We all unite in regarding them as setting sail, not only charged with +the national interests, but dignified and ennobled by a guardianship of +the national honor. Thus we are trying to put ourselves in Emerson's +state of mind about a certain notable young poet, and unite in hoping +that, to use his well-known phrase, we greet them at the beginning of a +great career. + +We certainly unite in earnestly wishing that they may make the best of +a situation which none of us wholly like, and many dislike with all +their hearts: the best of it for the country which, by good management +or bad, rightfully or wrongfully, is at any rate clearly and in the +eyes of the whole world now responsible for the outcome; and the best +of it, no less, for the distracted people thrown upon our hands. + +We cannot well help uniting in the further hope that their first +success will be the re-establishment of order throughout regions lately +filled with violence and bloodshed; and that they can then bring about +a system of just and swift punishment for future crimes of disorder, +since all experience in those regions and among those people shows that +the neglect to enforce such punishment is itself the gravest and +cruelest of crimes. + +Nor can any one here help uniting in the hope that their next and +crowning success will some way be attained in the preservation and +extension of those great civil rights whose growth is the distinction, +the world over, of Anglo-Saxon civilization; whose consummate flower +and fruitage are the glory of our own Government. + +I am even bold enough to believe that, however it might have been +twelve months ago, or but six months ago, there is no one here +to-night, recognizing the changed circumstances now, who would think +they could best secure those rights to all the people by calling back +the leader who is in hiding, and his forces, which are scattered and +disorganized, and by now abandoning to such revengeful rule the great +majority of the islanders who have remained peaceful and orderly during +our occupation. For the present, at least, we unite in recognizing that +they are forced to retain that care themselves; forced to act in the +common interest of all the people there, not in the sole interest of a +warring faction in a single tribe--in the interest of all the islands +for which we have accepted responsibility, not simply of the one, or of +a part of the population on the one, that has made the most trouble. + +There can be little disagreement in this company on the further +proposition that, in like manner, they must act in the interest of all +the people here. In the interest of the islanders, they will soon seek +to raise the needed revenue in the way least burdensome and most +beneficial to the islands; but in the interest of their country, we +cannot expect them to begin by assuming that the only way to help the +islanders is to throw products of tropic cheap labor into unrestricted +competition with similar products of our highly paid labor. In the +interest of the islanders, they will secure and guarantee the civil +rights which belong to the very genius of American institutions; but in +the interest of their country, they will not make haste to extend the +privilege of American citizenship, and so, on the one hand, enable +those peoples of the China Sea, Chinese or half-breed or what not, to +flood our labor market in advance of any readiness at home to change +our present laws of exclusion, while, on the other hand, opening the +door to them as States in the Union to take part in the government of +this continent. If, in the Providence of God, and in contempt of past +judicial rulings, the Supreme Court should finally command it, this +Commission, like every other branch of the Government, will obey. Till +then we may be sure it will not, in sheer eagerness and joyfulness of +heart, anticipate, or, as Wall Street speculators say, "discount," such +a decree for national degradation. But in their own land, and, as far +as may be, in accordance with their old customs and laws, the +Commission will secure to them, if it is to win the success we all wish +it, first every civil right we enjoy, and next the fullest measure of +political rights and local self-government they are found capable of +sustaining, with ordered liberty for all the people. + +There, then, is the doom we have reason to expect this Commission to +inflict on these temporarily turbulent wards of the Nation! First +order; then justice; then American civil rights, not for a class, or a +tribe, or a race, but for all the people; then local self-government. + +But if your guests begin this task with the notion that they are the +first officials of a free people ever given such work, and must +therefore, American fashion, discover from the foundation for +themselves,--if they fancy nobody ever dealt with semi-civilized +Orientals till we stumbled on them in the Philippines,--they will waste +precious time in costly experiments, if not fail outright. It isn't +worth while thus to invent over again everything down to the very +alphabet of work among such people. We can afford to abate the +self-sufficiency of the almighty Yankee Nation enough to profit a +little by the lessons other people have learned in going over the road +before us. + +From such lessons they will be sure to gather at once that if they now +show a trace of timidity or hesitation in their firm and just course, +because somebody has said something in Washington or on the stump, or +because there is an election coming on, they will fail. + +In fact, if they do not know now, as well as they know what soil they +still stand on and what countrymen are about them, and if they do not +act as if they knew, that, no matter what the politicians or the +platforms say, and no matter what party comes into power, the American +people have at present no notion of throwing these islands away, or +abandoning them, or neglecting the care of them, they have not mastered +the plainest part of their problem, and must fail. + +Above all, if there is a trace of politics in their work, or of seeking +for political effect at home, they will fail, and deserve to fail. In +this most delicate and difficult task before them there is no salvation +but in the scrupulous choice of the very best fitted agency available, +in each particular case, for the particular work in hand. If they +appoint one man, or encourage or silently submit to the appointment of +one man, to responsible place in their service among these islanders, +merely because he has been useful in politics at home, they will be +organizing failure and discredit in advance. + +But they will do no such things. Not so has this body of men been +selected. Not such is the high appreciation of the opportunity offered +that has led you, Mr. President of the Commission, to abandon your +well-earned and distinguished place at home to begin a new career at +the antipodes. Yet more--I, at least, can certify to this company that +not such is the sense of public duty you inherited from your honored +father, and have consistently illustrated throughout your own career. +You will not fail, because you know the peril and the prize. You will +not fail, because you have civilization and law and ordered freedom, +the honor of your land and the happiness of a new one, in your +care--because you know that, for uncounted peoples, the hopes of future +years hang breathless on your fate. And so, gentlemen of the +Commission, good-by, and God-speed! + + In spite of rock and tempest's roar, + In spite of false lights on the shore, + Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! + + + + +APPENDICES + + +1. POWER TO ACQUIRE AND GOVERN TERRITORY. + +2. THE TARIFF IN UNITED STATES TERRITORY. + +3. THE RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS AS TO CUBA. + +4. THE PROTOCOL OF WASHINGTON. + +5. THE PEACE OF PARIS. + + + + +1 + +POWER TO ACQUIRE AND GOVERN TERRITORY + + +_The United States has as much power as any other Government._ + +"The Constitution of the United States established a Government, and +not a league, compact, or partnership.... As a Government it was +invested with all the attributes of sovereignty.... It is not only a +Government, but it is a National Government, and the only Government in +this country that has the character of nationality.... Such being the +character of the General Government, it seems to be a self-evident +proposition that it is invested with all those inherent and implied +powers which, at the time of adopting the Constitution, were generally +considered to belong to every Government as such, and as being +essential to the exercise of its functions." (Mr. Justice Bradley, +United States Supreme Court, Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 554.) + + +_The United States can acquire territory by conquest or by treaty, as +a condition of peace or as indemnity._ + +"The United States ... may extend its boundaries by conquest or treaty, +and may demand the cession of territory as the condition of peace, in +order to indemnify its citizens for the injuries they have suffered, or +to reimburse the Government for the expenses of the war. But this can +only be done by the treaty-making power or the legislative authority." +(United States Supreme Court, Fleming _et al. v._ Page, 9 How. 614.) + + +_The United States can have a valid title by conquest to territory +not a part of the Union._ + +"By the laws and usages of nations, conquest is a valid title.... As +regarded by all other nations it [Tampico] was a part of the United +States, and belonged to them as exclusively as a Territory included in +our established boundaries, but yet it was not a part of the Union." +(United States Supreme Court, Fleming _et al. v._ Page, 9 How. +603-615.) + + +_A title so acquired by the United States cannot be questioned in its +courts._ + +"If those departments which are intrusted with the foreign intercourse +of the Nation ... have unequivocally asserted its rights of dominion +over a country of which it is in possession and which it claims under a +treaty, if the legislature has acted on the construction thus asserted, +it is not in its own courts that this construction is to be denied. A +question like this, respecting the boundaries of a nation, is ... more +a political than a legal question, and in its discussion the courts of +every country must respect the pronounced will of the legislature." +(Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, Foster _et al. v._ Neilson, 2 Peters 253, +309.) + + +_Yet such territory may be still outside the United States_ (meaning +thereby the American Union organized by the Constitution--the Nation), +_and cannot get in without action by the political authorities_. + +"The boundaries of the United States, as they existed when war was +declared against Mexico, were not extended by the conquest.... They +remained unchanged. And every place which was out of the limits of the +United States, as previously established by the political authorities +of the Government, was still foreign." (Fleming _et al. v._ Page, 9 +How. 616.) + + +_The United States can govern such territory as it pleases. Thus it +can withhold any power of local legislation._ + +"Possessing the power to erect a Territorial government for Alaska, +they could confer upon it such powers, judicial and executive, as they +deemed most suitable to the necessities of the inhabitants. It was +unquestionably within the constitutional power of Congress to withhold +from the inhabitants of Alaska the power to legislate and make laws. In +the absence, then, of any law-making power in the Territory, to what +source must the people look for the laws by which they are to be +governed? This question can admit of but one answer. Congress is the +only law-making power for Alaska." (United States _v._ Nelson, 29 Fed. +Rep. 202, 205, 206.) + + +_Mr. Jefferson even held that the United States could sell territory, +hold it as a colony, or regulate its commerce as it pleased._ + +"The Territory [Louisiana] was purchased by the United States in their +confederate capacity, and may be disposed of by them at their pleasure. +It is in the nature of a colony whose commerce may be regulated without +any reference to the Constitution." (And Louisiana was so governed for +years after the purchase, with different tariff requirements from those +of the United States, and without trial by jury in civil cases.) + + +_Again, the United States may even_ (as in the case of Consular Courts) +_withhold the right of trial by jury_. + +"By the Constitution a government is ordained and established 'for the +United States of America,' and not for countries outside of their +limits. The guaranties it affords against accusation of capital or +infamous crimes, except by indictment or presentment by a grand jury, +and for an impartial trial by a jury when thus accused, apply only to +citizens and others within the United States, or who are brought there +for trial for alleged offenses committed elsewhere, and not to +residents or temporary sojourners abroad. The Constitution can have no +operation in another country." (_In re_ Ross, 140 U.S. 463, 465.) (In +this case the prisoner insisted that the refusal to allow him a trial +by jury was a fatal defect in the jurisdiction exercised by the court, +and rendered its judgment absolutely void.) + + +_The United States can govern such territory through Congress._ + +"At the time the Constitution was formed the limits of the territory +over which it was to operate were generally defined and recognized. +These States, this territory, and future States to be admitted into the +Union, are _the sole objects of the Constitution_. There is no express +provision whatever made in the Constitution for the acquisition or +government of territories beyond those limits. The right, therefore, of +acquiring territory is altogether incidental to the treaty-making +power, and perhaps to the power of admitting new States into the Union; +and the government of such acquisitions is, of course, left to the +legislative power of the Union, as far as that power is controlled by +treaty." (Mr. Justice Johnson of the Supreme Court, sitting in the +Circuit, in Am. Ins. Co. _v._ Canter, 1 Pet. 517.) + + +Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, affirming the above decision, says: + +"Perhaps the power of governing a Territory belonging to the United +States which has not, by becoming a State, acquired the means of +self-government, may result necessarily from the facts that it is not +within the jurisdiction of any particular State, and is within the +power and jurisdiction of the United States. The right to govern may be +the inevitable consequence of the right to acquire territory. Whichever +may be the source whence the power is derived, the possession of it is +unquestioned." (1 Pet. 541, 542.) + + +_The General Government exercises a sovereignty independent of the +Constitution._ + +"Their people [in organized Territories] do not constitute a sovereign +power. All political authority exercised therein is derived [not from +the Constitution, but] from the General Government." (Snow _v._ United +States, 18 Wall. 317, 320.) + + +_The General Government is expected, however, to be controlled as to +personal and civil rights by the general principles of the Constitution._ + +"The personal and civil rights of the inhabitants of the Territories +are secured to them, as to other citizens, by the principles of +constitutional liberty which restrain all the agencies of government." +(Murphy _v._ Ramsay, 114 U.S. 15, 44, 45.) + +"Doubtless Congress, in legislating for the Territories, would be +subject to those fundamental limitations in favor of personal rights +which are formulated in the Constitution and its amendments; but these +limitations would exist rather by inference and the general spirit of +the Constitution, from which Congress derives all its powers, than by +any express and direct application of its provisions." (Mormon Church +_v._ United States, 136 U.S. 1, 44; Thompson _v._ Utah, 170 U.S. 343, +349.) + + + + +2 + +THE TARIFF IN UNITED STATES TERRITORY + + +The one point at which the opponents of the doctrine that Congress can +govern the Territories as it pleases are able to make a prima facie +case by quoting a decision of the Supreme Court, is as to the +application of the United States tariff to the Territories. When +California was acquired, but before Congress had acted or a Collection +District had been established, the Supreme Court sustained the demand +for duties under the United States tariff on goods landed at California +ports (Cross _v._ Harrison, 16 How. 164). Mr. Justice Wayne said: + +"By the ratifications of the treaty California became a part of the +United States. And as there is nothing differently stipulated in the +treaty with respect to commerce, it became instantly bound and +privileged by the laws which Congress had passed to raise a revenue +from duties on imports and tonnage.... The right claimed to land +foreign goods within the United States at any place out of a Collection +District, if allowed, would be a violation of that provision in the +Constitution which enjoins that all duties, imposts, and excises shall +be uniform throughout the United States." + +The court here bases its reasoning distinctly on the treaty by which +California was acquired. But that treaty gave the pledge that +California (an adjacent Territory) should be incorporated into the +American Union. The Treaty of Paris gave no such pledge as to the +Philippines (not adjacent territory, but nine thousand miles away), +could not in the nature of the case have given such a pledge, and did +provide, instead, that the whole question of the civil rights and +political status of the native inhabitants should be determined by the +Congress. Recalling Mr. Justice Story's remark that in a Constitution +"there ought to be a capacity to provide for future contingencies as +they may happen, and as these are ... illimitable in their nature, so +it is impossible safely to limit that capacity," it would seem that +there would certainly be elasticity enough in the Constitution, or +common sense enough in its interpretation, to permit the Supreme Court +to perceive some difference between a requirement of uniform tariff on +this continent over a territory specifically acquired in order to be +made a State, and such a requirement on the other side of the globe +over territory not so acquired. The case becomes stronger when the +treaty (also constitutionally a part of the Supreme Law of the land) +turns over the political status of the latter territory entirely to +Congress. + +The Constitution makes the same or similar requirements of uniformity +throughout the United States as to the tariff, internal taxes, courts, +and the right of trial by jury. But in every case the early practice +did not construe this to include the Territories. + +_As to uniformity in tariff._ It was not enforced rigidly in Louisiana +for years. So little, in fact, was it then held that Louisiana, as +soon as acquired, became an integral part of the United States +(notwithstanding the treaty provision that in time it should), that +though the directors of the United States Bank were empowered to +establish offices of discount and deposit "wheresoever they shall +think fit _within the United States_," they did not consider this a +warrant for establishing one in New Orleans, and actually secured from +the Congress for that purpose a bill, signed by Thomas Jefferson on +March 23, 1804, extending their authority, under the terms of their +original charter, to "any part of the Territories or dependencies of +the United States." + +_As to uniformity in internal taxes._ The very first levied in the +United States, that of March 3, 1791, omitted the Territories +altogether, dividing the United States into fourteen Collection +Districts, "each consisting of one State." It is not until 1798 that +any trace can be found of a collection of internal revenue in the +territory northwest of the Ohio. + +_As to the courts._ The Constitution requires that the judicial +officers of the United States shall hold office during good behavior. +For a century the judicial officers of Territories have been restricted +to fixed terms of office. + +_As to trial by jury._ The Constitution gives the right to it to every +criminal case in the United States, and to every civil case involving +over twenty dollars. Under Mr. Jefferson's government of Louisiana, +trial by jury was limited to capital cases in criminal prosecutions. It +has likewise been denied in Consular Courts. + + + + +3 + +THE RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS AS TO CUBA + +Adopted by Congress, April 19, 1898: by the Senate at 1:38 A.M., +42 to 35; by the House at 2:40 A.M., 311 to 6. + + +WHEREAS, The abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than +three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have +shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a +disgrace to Christian civilization,--culminating, as they have, in the +destruction of a United States battle-ship, with two hundred and sixty +of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of +Havana,--and cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the +President of the United States in his message to Congress of April 11, +1898, upon which the action of Congress was invited; therefore be it +resolved, + +_First_, That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought +to be, free and independent. + +_Second_, That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the +Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government +of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the island +of Cuba and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban +waters. + +_Third_, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, +directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the +United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States +the militia of the several States to such an extent as may be necessary +to carry these resolutions into effect. + +_Fourth_, That 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 is accomplished to leave the government and +control of the island to its people. + + + + +4 + +THE PROTOCOL OF WASHINGTON + + +William R. Day, Secretary of State of the United States, and His +Excellency Jules Cambon, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary +of the Republic of France at Washington, respectively possessing for +this purpose full authority from the Government of the United States +and the Government of Spain, have concluded and signed the following +articles, embodying the terms on which the two Governments have agreed +in respect to the matters hereinafter set forth, having in view the +establishment of peace between the two countries, that is to say: + + +ARTICLE I + +Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. + + +ARTICLE II + +Spain will cede to the United States the island of Porto Rico and other +islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and also an +island in the Ladrones to be selected by the United States. + + +ARTICLE III + +The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor of +Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which shall +determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines. + + +ARTICLE IV + +Spain will immediately evacuate Cuba, Porto Rico, and other islands now +under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies; and to this end each +Government will, within ten days after the signing of this protocol, +appoint Commissioners, and the Commissioners so appointed shall, within +thirty days after the signing of this protocol, meet at Havana for the +purpose of arranging and carrying out the details of the aforesaid +evacuation of Cuba and the adjacent Spanish islands; and each +Government will, within ten days after the signing of this protocol, +also appoint other Commissioners, who shall, within thirty days after +the signing of this protocol, meet at San Juan, in Porto Rico, for the +purpose of arranging and carrying out the details of the aforesaid +evacuation of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish +sovereignty in the West Indies. + + +ARTICLE V + +The United States and Spain will each appoint not more than five +Commissioners to treat of peace, and the Commissioners so appointed +shall meet at Paris not later than October 1, 1898, and proceed to the +negotiation and conclusion of a treaty of peace, which treaty shall be +subject to ratification according to the respective constitutional +forms of the two countries. + + +ARTICLE VI + +Upon the conclusion and signing of this protocol, hostilities between +the two countries shall be suspended, and notice to that effect shall +be given as soon as possible by each Government to the commanders of +its military and naval forces. + +Done at Washington in duplicate, in English and in French, by the +undersigned, who have hereunto set their hands and seals the twelfth +day of August, 1898. + + (Seal) WILLIAM R. DAY. + (Seal) JULES CAMBON. + + + + +5 + +THE PEACE OF PARIS + + Negotiations begun in Paris, October 1, 1898. Treaty signed in + Paris, 8:45 P.M., December 10. Delivered by United States + Commissioners to the President, December 24; transmitted to the + Senate with the official report of the negotiations, January 4, + 1899; ratified by Senate in executive session, February 6, by a + vote of 57 against 27. Formal exchange of ratifications at + Washington, April 11. Twenty millions paid through Jules Cambon, + May 1. Treaty ratified by Spanish Senate, July 3, 1899. + + +The United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, +in the name of her august son, Don Alfonso XIII, desiring to end the +state of war now existing between the two countries, have for that +purpose appointed as plenipotentiaries: + +_The President of the United States,_ + +William R. Day, Cushman K. Davis, William P. Frye, George Gray, and +Whitelaw Reid, citizens of the United States; + +_And Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain,_ + +Don Eugenio Montero Rios, President of the Senate; Don Buenaventura de +Abarzuza, Senator of the Kingdom and ex-Minister of the Crown; Don Jose +de Garnica, Deputy to the Cortes and Associate Justice of the Supreme +Court; Don Wenceslao Ramirez de Villa Urrutia, Envoy Extraordinary and +Minister Plenipotentiary at Brussels; and Don Rafael Cerero, General of +Division; + + * * * * * + +Who, having assembled in Paris and having exchanged their full powers, +which were found to be in due and proper form, have, after discussion +of the matters before them, agreed upon the following articles: + + * * * * * + +Article I. Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title +to Cuba. + +And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by +the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation +shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under +international law result from the fact of its occupation for the +protection of life and property. + +Article II. Spain cedes to the United States the island of Porto Rico +and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and +the island of Guam, in the Marianas or Ladrones. + +Article III. Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as +the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the +following lines: + +A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth parallel +of north latitude, and through the middle of the navigable channel of +Bachti, from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred +and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of +Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) +degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of four +degrees and forty-five minutes (4 deg. 45') north latitude, thence along +the parallel of four degrees and forty-five minutes (4 deg. 45') north +latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude one hundred +and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119 deg. 35') east of +Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude one hundred and +nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119 deg. 35') east of Greenwich +to the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7 deg. 40') +north, thence along the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty +minutes (7 deg. 40') north to its intersection with the one hundred and +sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, +thence by a direct line to the intersection of the tenth (10th) degree +parallel of north latitude with the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) +degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the +one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of +Greenwich to the point of beginning. + +The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars +($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the +ratifications of the present treaty. + +Article IV. The United States will for ten years from the date of +exchange of ratifications of the present treaty admit Spanish ships and +merchandise to the ports of the Philippine Islands on the same terms as +ships and merchandise of the United States. + +Article V. The United States will, upon the signature of the present +treaty, send back to Spain, at its own cost, the Spanish soldiers taken +as prisoners of war on the capture of Manila by the American forces. +The arms of the soldiers in question shall be restored to them. + +Spain will, upon the exchange of the ratifications of the present +treaty, proceed to evacuate the Philippines, as well as the island of +Guam, on terms similar to those agreed upon by the Commissioners +appointed to arrange for the evacuation of Porto Rico and other islands +in the West Indies under the protocol of August 12, 1898, which is to +continue in force till its provisions are completely executed. + +The time within which the evacuation of the Philippine Islands and Guam +shall be completed shall be fixed by the two Governments. Stands of +colors, uncaptured war-vessels, small arms, guns of all calibers, with +their carriages and accessories, powder, ammunition, live stock, and +materials and supplies of all kinds belonging to the land and naval +forces of Spain in the Philippines and Guam remain the property of +Spain. Pieces of heavy ordnance, exclusive of field artillery, in the +fortifications and coast defenses, shall remain in their emplacements +for the term of six months, to be reckoned from the exchange of +ratifications of the treaty; and the United States may in the meantime +purchase such material from Spain, if a satisfactory agreement between +the two Governments on the subject shall be reached. + +Article VI. Spain will, upon the signature of the present treaty, +release all prisoners of war and all persons detained or imprisoned for +political offenses in connection with the insurrections in Cuba and the +Philippines and the war with the United States. + +Reciprocally the United States will release all persons made prisoners +of war by the American forces, and will undertake to obtain the release +of all Spanish prisoners in the hands of the insurgents in Cuba and the +Philippines. + +The Government of the United States will at its own cost return to +Spain, and the Government of Spain will at its own cost return to the +United States, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, according to the +situation of their respective homes, prisoners released or caused to be +released by them, respectively, under this article. + +Article VII. The United States and Spain mutually relinquish all claims +for indemnity, national and individual, of every kind, of either +Government, or of its citizens or subjects, against the other +Government, which may have arisen since the beginning of the late +insurrection in Cuba, and prior to the exchange of ratifications of the +present treaty, including all claims for indemnity for the cost of the +war. The United States will adjudicate and settle the claims of its +citizens against Spain relinquished in this article. + +Article VIII. In conformity with the provisions of Articles I, II, and +III of this treaty, Spain relinquishes in Cuba and cedes in Porto Rico +and other islands in the West Indies, in the island of Guam, and in the +Philippine Archipelago all the buildings, wharves, barracks, forts, +structures, public highways, and other immovable property which in +conformity with law belong to the public domain and as such belong to +the Crown of Spain. + +And it is hereby declared that the relinquishment or cession, as the +case may be, to which the preceding paragraph refers, cannot in any +respect impair the property or rights which by law belong to the +peaceful possession of property of all kinds of provinces, +municipalities, public or private establishments, ecclesiastical or +civic bodies or any other associations having legal capacity to acquire +and possess property in the aforesaid territories renounced or ceded, +or of private individuals, of whatsoever nationality such individuals +may be. + +The aforesaid relinquishment or cession, as the case may be, includes +all documents exclusively referring to the sovereignty relinquished or +ceded that may exist in the archives of the Peninsula. Where any +document in such archives only in part relates to said sovereignty a +copy of such part will be furnished whenever it shall be requested. +Like rules shall be reciprocally observed in favor of Spain in respect +of documents in the archives of the islands above referred to. + +In the aforesaid relinquishment or cession, as the case may be, are +also included such rights as the Crown of Spain and its authorities +possess in respect of the official archives and records, executive as +well as judicial, in the islands above referred to, which relate to +said islands or the rights and property of their inhabitants. Such +archives and records shall be carefully preserved, and private persons +shall, without distinction, have the right to require, in accordance +with the law, authenticated copies of the contracts, wills, and other +instruments forming pact of notarial protocols or files, or which may +be contained in the executive or judicial archives, be the latter in +Spain or in the islands aforesaid. + +Article IX. Spanish subjects, natives of the Peninsula, residing in the +territory over which Spain by the present treaty relinquishes or cedes +her sovereignty, may remain in such territory or may remove therefrom, +retaining in either event all their rights of property, including the +right to sell or dispose of such property or of its proceeds; and they +shall also have the right to carry on their industry, commerce, and +professions, being subject in respect thereof to such laws as are +applicable to other foreigners. In case they remain in the territory +they may preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain by making, +before a court of record, within a year from the date of the exchange +of ratifications of this treaty, a declaration of their decision to +preserve such allegiance; in default of which declaration they shall be +held to have renounced it and to have adopted the nationality of the +territory in which they may reside. + +The civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the +territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by +the Congress. + +Article X. The inhabitants of the territories over which Spain +relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be secured in the free +exercise of their religion. + +Article XI. The Spaniards residing in the territories over which Spain +by this treaty cedes or relinquishes her sovereignty shall be subject +in matters civil as well as criminal to the jurisdiction of the courts +of the country wherein they reside, pursuant to the ordinary laws +governing the same; and they shall have the right to appear before such +courts and to pursue the same course as citizens of the country to +which the courts belong. + +Article XII. Judicial proceedings pending at the time of the exchange +of ratifications of this treaty in the territories over which Spain +relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be determined according to +the following rules: + +First. Judgments rendered either in civil suits between private +individuals or in criminal matters, before the date mentioned, and with +respect to which there is no recourse or right of review under the +Spanish law, shall be deemed to be final, and shall be executed in due +form by competent authority in the territory within which such +judgments should be carried out. + +Second. Civil suits between private individuals which may on the date +mentioned be undetermined shall be prosecuted to judgment before the +court in which they may then be pending, or in the court that may be +substituted therefor. + +Third. Criminal actions pending on the date mentioned before the +Supreme Court of Spain against citizens of the territory which by this +treaty ceases to be Spanish shall continue under its jurisdiction until +final judgment; but, such judgment having been rendered, the execution +thereof shall be committed to the competent authority of the place in +which the case arose. + +Article XIII. The rights of property secured by copyrights and patents +acquired by Spaniards in the island of Cuba, and in Porto Rico, the +Philippines, and other ceded territories, at the time of the exchange +of the ratifications of this treaty, shall continue to be respected. +Spanish scientific, literary, and artistic works not subversive of +public order in the territories in question shall continue to be +admitted free of duty into such territories for the period of ten +years, to be reckoned from the date of the exchange of the +ratifications of this treaty. + +Article XIV. Spain shall have the power to establish consular officers +in the ports and places of the territories the sovereignty over which +has either been relinquished or ceded by the present treaty. + +Article XV. The Government of each country will, for the term of ten +years, accord to the merchant-vessels of the other country the same +treatment in respect to all port charges, including entrance and +clearance dues, light dues and tonnage duties, as it accords to its own +merchant-vessels not engaged in the coastwise trade. + +This article may at any time be terminated on six months' notice given +by either Government to the other. + +Article XVI. It is understood that any obligations assumed in this +treaty by the United States with respect to Cuba are limited to the +time of its occupancy thereof; but it will, upon the termination of +such occupancy, advise any Government established in the island to +assume the same obligations. + +Article XVII. The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of +the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate +thereof, and by Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain; and the +ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington within six months from +the date hereof, or earlier if possible. + +In faith whereof we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this +treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals. + +Done in duplicate at Paris, the tenth day of December, in the year of +our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight. + + (Seal) WILLIAM R. DAY. + (Seal) CUSHMAN K. DAVIS. + (Seal) WILLIAM P. FRYE. + (Seal) GEORGE GRAY. + (Seal) WHITELAW REID. + (Seal) EUGENIO MONTERO RIOS. + (Seal) B. DE ABARZUZA. + (Seal) J. DE GARNICA. + (Seal) W. R. DE VILLA URRUTIA. + (Seal) RAFAEL CERERO. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Problems of Expansion, by Whitelaw Reid + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF EXPANSION *** + +***** This file should be named 26064.txt or 26064.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/0/6/26064/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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