Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-11-17

in public affairs, who has been the friend
and trusted counsellor of every
President from Lincoln to Nc
Kinley, and whose loyalty and
patriotism are beyond question. To
reject the counsel of such men as he, in
critical emergency like the present one,
is to say that wisdom, experience and
willingness to count the cost of untred
apartments in our national policy, are of
1924 Spruce Street,
Philadelphia, Nov. I, 1875.
My Dear Governor:
Yours of the ID inst. was duly received.
asking me to state what 1 think respect
ing the proposed acquisition of the Philip
pine Islands by the United States. AS you
know, that archipelago consists of one
thousand or twelve hundred islands, ON
bracing one hundred and fourteen thou
sand square miles. and extending over
large area of the Pacific and the China
Sea, in the heart of the tropics, 1t is sub
ject to, and frequently experiences. earth
quakes and hurricanes. 1t contains alto
gether about seven millions of inhabi-
tants, being about sixty to the square
mile and just about double the popula-
ton of Vermont to the square mile.
Before the war with Spain, l take it
that nine-tenths of the intelligent people
of the United States would have thought
1t bordering on madness to have taken
those islands into our domain Their pop
ulation is almost entirely what may fair
ly he called savage, and absolutely incap-
able of anything that civilization would
call self-government. And If their inhabi-
tants were as peaccable as the
Il best of other tropical countries,
they would still be las all eXper-
ing themselves. Our only motive for their
acquisition, therefore. must be the mater
ial advantages supposed by some to flow
from our controlling the products of the
islands and their trade. We get all the
products OF the islands now that we wish
for, and on the same terms that other
nations do, If we take them. the cost Will
be precisely the same, unless we adopt
the ancient colonial policy of Great Brit
ain and some other nations. in controlling
their trade exclusively, and allow il to be
carried on only in our own ships, In that
case, retaliation will certainly follow, and
our ships and goods will be excluded, in
like manner. from the colonial possessions
of the great manufacturing and trading
powers, which would leave the balance OF
disadvantages vastly against us. In a
business point of view we must take into
consideration the cost of governing the is
lands. This cost cannot, in all human
probability. be met by the taxation of the
inhabitants to any considerable extent
Nature supplies them with substantially
all the food and clothing they require and
they are. of course indisposed to labor
or thrift. II we take them we must gov.
orn them by external power, and not
through any autonomy of their own. This
means a large and expensive civil list
, governors, councillors, administrators, Of
iicers of justice. and so forth, and SC
forth, who must in the MAN, be paid GU
of the treasury of the United States. Th,
, climate Is, of course. very unwholesom,
for Americans, and the death rate of ou
officers there would be very large. 1t will
, also require an American army of de
Tense and for the preservation of peace
r and order, of many thousand men, and al
= American navy of six or more ships, an,
probably two thousand men; all exposed
, like the civilians, to the constant hostillt,
of the climate, to say nothing of that o
the inhabitants of most. If not all, of tn
islands Are we, under such circum
e stances, to force government upol
y them?
( The present condition between ourselve
0 and Spain in regard to the Islands is II
n the protocol of armistce distinctly shows
T that We have not obtained the islands, an
o that all our rights that were recognize
: there, were those of holding the bay an
8 city of Manila and their environment,
!. until peace should be established. VIVA
v was to be done with the whole group wa
: left for negotiations, which our commits
o sioners at Paris are now engaged in.
t then, we are to get them without the ces
f sion Of Spain, we must 90 1t by force q
further war against Spain, and probab
by force of arms against the vast major
.ty of the inhabitants. who, so far as
o know, have shown no disposition to be al
l. nexed 10 the United States Are w
@ then. to attempt to force civilization an
: Christian religion upon them, as NOLAN
d med made his proselytes? This, Of course
o would be expressly contrary to our det
n laration OF independence. and to the prir
h ciples upon which the government OF I'll
d United States rests. How many lives {
= their sons do Vermont and the othe
: States OF our solid and homogeneous unto
It wish to sacrifice to accomplish it, an
u how many more annually hereafter
t governing these islands? Our few months
$ experience at Manila. and in nearby Cub
}. and Porto Rico should make US awake I