The San Francisco call., 1898-12-30

pines and the inhabitants thereof,
 while, in fact, we then had only one harbor with no land or military pos session of even one island or city and have advanced little beyond this even now, and doubtless thousands of the aforesaid inhabitants do not know to this day that we are in possession or Manila or that there is such country as these United States of which we as- sune they are truly loyaP' citizens or inhabitants. The heroic performance of Dewey and his brave men was sole
 ly a war measure to destroy neet that if left at large would menace and possibly destroy our Pacific commerce and Pacific Coast cities. If it could be destroyed it was indispensable in the prosecution of the war to destroy 1t at Eonce. It was therefore destroyed and with a celerity and dispatch calculated to add imperishable luster to American naval annals. Immediately thereafter it was proclaimed by the press, the pull pit and the campaign orator that American Valor had added many and populous islands to our dominionS, and that we were advance agents or nD- erty and prosperity to bring 10 these oppressed people freedom or thought freedom of conscience and were but an instrument in the hands of Divine Providence to accomplish these ana other miraculous results.
 We might remark in passing that the most unreliable specimen or the uncer- tain human race is the unpcensed pur- yeyor of advance information ot the wise providence and secret purposes or Almighty God. The fact is and we state if confidently that there is not and never was the slightest reason or au- thority for any Cf these claims or as- sertions We had a right until peace | decreed otherwise to stay as long as we wanted to and sail away whenever we chose We respectfully challenge history for a single example and inter- | national law for a single precedent to sustain such a contention; that by the conditions existing we were under any such responsibility or obligation or possessed any such assumed right to 1 rule these islands or these people eX- 1 cept the assumed right of the despot and l the arbitration of the sword. Accord 1 ing to the code of international law eS- tablished among those nations that for hundreds of years have assumed the right to rule any people they. could l conouer we could at will if we could l dispossess the ruler and subject the | subject, rule them if we chose, but that we were obligated to, whether consist ent with our constitution or best for our own people or not, is without shadow of force or precedent. According to our 1 aIIlOuUCSu 1 Spain ruling these people by force and without their consent was doing so wrongfully, yet by destroying that power and wrong we assume, not only | the right, but adding hypocrisy to the power and desire assume the duty and obligation to rule these people by force if need be. They have not only not ac- tually or technically or in any way asked us to rule, protect or enlighten | hut Q 1arOq them
 have undoubtedly neither the freedom, | information, intelligence norunderstand- 1 ing to do so, and those that have the intelligence are protesting against an neXation and demanding independence. If they had the freedom, intelligence | and opportunity to and did ask us to do these things, then and not until then we would have the right to assume the privilege and duty, but at the same time the undoubted right to refuse if we did not consider it agreeable, profit
 able or beneficial for our own people
 so to do. It is essential to national existence that every nation shall pur-
 sue a course of enlightened selfishness 1 The first and controlling aim and al-
 most exclusive purpose of each gov ernment is the preservation, protection
 advancement and well being of its oWr
 subjects or citizens. It is essential to
 national existence that such should he the conduct of each nation and it is
 so expected and any contrary assump-
 tion is not only unwise but usually | hypocritical As an illustration. but
 not as an example. when Emperor Will.
 liam of Germany, by the generalship o1
 Von Moltke and the iron hand of Bis.
 marck, camped in the capital of France
 and held the French people in his
 power, he assumed no obligations anC
 pretended none as to the future govern
 ment of France or the future wellbeins
 of the French people. He dictated hi.
 terms, took what he wanted for hi.
 people and left the rest to the empire
 the republic or the commune of France
 This pretense of obligation, this pre-
 tense of unselfish desire to rule, with
 out their will or consent, and to en tighten at our expense as a nation, f
 need be, lot of equatorial Malays, i.
 so unmanly, so false and unAmericar as America has hitherto stnod amnnE