There are also certain propositions which, if not admitted as self-evident, ought to receive at least some attention. A people capable of civilized government is capable of self-government. Fitness lies not so much in the ability of the few men deputed to make and administer the laws as in the nature of the people themselves, in their deference to properly constituted authority, and in their social, domestic, and personal virtues. The best administrators will never succeed in governing a bad people, but indifferent administrators may succeed in governing a good people. Colonial government, unless it be what is termed responsible government, has never proved a conspicuous success.
Representative government is the only sure means of securing purity in administration.
These propositions show that if the Filipinos are capable of being governed by America, they are capable of governing themselves, and that the American rule would be neither as good nor as suitable for the Filipinos as their own rule. It is necessary to approach the subject with at least an open mind upon this question of fitness, or, at any rate, it should not be concluded, a priori, that the Filipinos are unfit. With these tentative premises, and leaving out of the question for the moment all acts and utterances which have aroused resentment on both sides, let both parties approach the problem with a determination to be fair. The Filipinos are, and always have been, prepared to yield, under an understanding as to final independence, all that America can possibly gain by force of arms. The right and the means to fulfill all obligations to other nations.