Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-08-11
1.-THE TERMS OF PEACE"
what An Englih journal said Before
They We're Fully Known.
(Isrorn the London "Suprtator'

We prefer. like most civilized persons.
peace to war. but some of the arguments
Just now employed to induce America 10
make Il quick peace with Spain strike US
as not only unfounded but profoundly
immoral. What did America go to war
for? First of all, 20 terminate SPANS
authority over her colonies which Amer
leans believed to he tyrannical, dcstruc-
tive Of human happiness and in all ways
bad Whether their evidence in support
oi that belief was good. as we believe it
to have been, or as bad as average Span
iards assert. or as accidental ana tenn
porary rs many thoughtful Spaniards
maintain. has little to do with our present
subject. Tie Americans believed tine
charge heartily, and SO believing went
into a war when, to all human appeal
ancc. will end in giving them the power
to terminate the misrulc which SO af-
frOnted their cOnscicnccs.
A moraist would say. one would think.
that, having begun so great Il work, they
We're bound to carry il through, that
they had contracted weighty, even ter
rihlc obligations towards the colonists of
Spain and We're bound To discharge those
obligations without thinking too much of
the consequences to themselves. They can.
If they like, being Anglo-SaNous. give the
Culonists firm and lenient government,
and, as the historian will say. in the
for their own self-rcspeCt, they ougnt To
do it.
That, however, Is not the opinion of
most of our contemporaries either IN
Great Britain or in Europe. They are
crying aloud To Washington to be gem
orous in the hour of victory" to restore
to Spain, If not Porto Rico-the value OF
which as a naval station they understand
at all events, the Philippines We will
tell them what generosity" under such
circumstances means. 1t means that Spain
should recover full authority over eight
millions of dark persons whom she ma.
for three hundred years so governed that
as Mr. Foreman testilies, the children fly
with shricks If they see "Castililn.'
and should recover it at the very moment
when every virtue as well as every vice
i'm n Spuniard will incline him towards
severity i'm punishment. He will he fun II
loyalty to his country and fun OF Vengc
hncc against rebels who have inSulted her
ana IN the strength of both feelings h,
Will strike AZ Spaniards struck I'm Peru.
Z II means that Americans, having on
couragcd them to revolt, are to hand owe,
the two millions of Tagals to II nation
which regards their revolt not only as
crimc--that is uSual-but as an un
parallclcd insoence calling aloud fol
chastscment 1t means that the UniteC
States, which of all powers should keel
! engagements because of her relations t
the two continents in which she claim,
hcgemony, are to betray Aguinaldo an,
the whole tribe of Tagals, two millions
of dark people who have accepted Chris
tianity and display many considerable
qualities though mercy, we fear, attracts
them as little as II attracts some Span
iards-into those Spaniards' hands. Amer
lea may be compelled by a Continental
coalition to do this thing and yet b,
hlampless, for there can he no sin Wh,r,
there Is no Will; but to do 1t voluntaril,
undor the false plea of generosity
would be nothing less than Il basencss
she had better even partition the island
among the great powers, though. as w
maintain, she Is bound, having upset
bad civilization, to provide good one
and not to shlrk responsibilities which
from the moment Admiral Dewey brol.
into the harbor of Manila, she took upoi
herself