The San Francisco call., 1898-07-30
THE TERMS OF PEACE.


 eration, however, is from the standpoint o mill tarism There are two courses which the United States may pursue, leading to the end, but by paths entirely different As the people and posterty are yitally concerned in the choice to be made
 is fair that each course should be fully and frankly stated, and that the consequences to follow be pointed out as far in the future legitimate foresight can go.
 Referring to the principles which actuated the peo pie of this country before and the beginning of the controversy the course of abstention from conquest has definite basis. Let that course be stated. The government of her island colonies by Spain had un- dergone no change Of methods for centuries. These methods became less toerable as aboriginal condi- tions disappeared and the colonists, touched and elevated by commercial contacts enabled to their situation with that of the people of the English, French and Dutch colonies within neigh borly distance of them.
 We made to compel change for the Spanish colonies. We have vigorously prosecuted 1t to sue cess. Projecting the declared purpose of the into the terms of peace can compel the independence of Cuba, and its future government by its people under such system they freely select with the shadowing understanding that we will no more per init the misgovernment of the island by Cubans than by Spaniards We may permanently coaling and naval stations in the American and Asiatic tropics. We may bind Spain in an agreement to be broken her peril, for Philippine government that will respect the rights of man, open ports to com merce and permit to the archipelago the penetration of modern enlightenment, religious toleration and civilized industrial methods. Then recall our armies and naves, pay the bill and go about own business The practical politician will call this an
 ideal policy. It is Let its strength be fairly
 ned Having demonstrated our power in war; and Of ing been exploited on land and water from Santiago to Manila Bay, the world will always know that be-
 hind this ideal policy there is physical force that nation, combination of, nations can resist. We will be known people willing, at cost, to inf1ict lesson useful to those who endure and those who nflict oppression. Thereafter throughout the world the yoke of government will rest lighter upon the shoulders of men, and this nation will be the strongest that has existed This strength will be ours without vast army magnificent navy. We create both whenever they needed. No one then of ulterior motives when we order lifted the hand of the oppressor and strike it off for refusal We will become the agent of the regener aton of the Spanish people We will not be stalk ing horse for Don Carlos and the means of the medieval reaction which the success of Carlism will in Spain. No nation will care to be our enemy, and all will compete for our friendship We need make no alliances for own sake. They will seek us, and be ours to choose refuse.
 It will be observed that this policy differs entirely from that of every imperial nation from the begin hing It not the policy of Babylon, nor Mace donia, of Rome nor Carthage, of Charlemagne of Philip II, Charles V, of Napoleon, nor of Ger many and Russia. It is the policy of absention, of self-contro1 of unselhshness It is novelty in its idealsm But our republic is ideal It was founded a novel view of the rights of man and dedicated +C In he of +c al it cannot become conquering nation More than century has passed since the idea which was the germ of its existence concerted in the consttu- tion People complain that have been a hermit nation. Recurring frequently to the advice of the fathers have not intruded upon the affairs of the world further than was necessary to protect people and secure by diplomacy the right of expa- triation in order that immigrants alien born, might be invested with citizenship and partake of our birthright Granting the hermit character of our past policy let consider the of entrance upon the worlds stage to take part thereon What shall be and our characters In the beginning of this Spanish war the in line with our ideal policy. Shall the character we play be that of re- pubcanism militarism? Shall stand with the nations not partaker in their policies but in main tenance of our own? The course herein stated puts that great stage, to take part in its complex dramas as still the republic of Washington and Jef- erson exert the influence which strength jus tihes, in line with professions and history; to humanize government, to impress upon those in authority the capacity o man to manage larger rather than less part of his affairs No other nation has stepped that stage in that character. If we do not we bring to 1t novel feature. If we go there to haggle conquests, to dispute the division of spells, to give and take blows in the n- terest of our imperial expansion and to repress the same ambition in others, will offer evidence that sovereignty shifted from to many, loses none of the virus with which has poisoned the waters of life from the beginning If go believers in the right of conquest that he may take who has the power and he may keep who can, go not in moral but in military right and until nation was ever so strong in its military power that it did not meet its conqueror.
 We have inscribed the keystone of the republics arch "Esto perpetua" Can it be perpetuated by ex- changing moral for military strength? That is the l f~eJ .IoI