The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-10
TERRITORIAL EXPANSION.
Our Duty Toward Our New Possessions
and Our Ability to Discharge 1t.

Our Duty Toward Our New Possessions
and Our Ability to Discharge 1t.
Hon. William Dudley Foulke, in an adj
dress before the Tuesday Club, of Rich
mond, took for his topic what shall we
Do with. Our New Acquisitions Mr..
Foulke said that the progress of events had
changed greatly our point of view; that Ha-
wall, Porto Rico and the Ladrones were
virtually annexed and the protectorate over
Cuba assumed Washngtons policy of iso-
lation had been abandoned. What else was
to be done? Cuba was sure at some time to
demand annexation. We could not permit
anarchy forever, nor permit any other
power to take the island against the will
OF its inhabitants. We might as we'll fight
against the courses of the stars as seek to
resist for all time the certain demand OF
Cuba for annexation. The problem now was
TO determine what was to be done with the
Philippines. 1t was said that when the war
began we promised not to acquire any terri
tory by conquest, and the resolution of Con-
tertion to annex Cuba. The fact that Cuba
alone was mentioned indicated that the 9TH
er possessions of Spain were to follow the
usual fortunes of war. In war as we'll as in
litigation the costs go with the Judgment
But the question was not what we had the
right to do. but what it was our duty to do.
Our duty, first to the people of the islands,
next to ourselves and third to the world
and to civilization. Our duty to the people
of the islands was to give them the best
government possible. We could not return
them to Spain, and thus consign them to a
future without hope, to a sovereign against
whom they were Justly in revolt on account
of generations of misgovernment. We could
not deliver them to the half civilized insur-
gents, nor accept joint sovereignty with
Spain or with other powers. England could
govern the Philippines well. But even if we
were to give them to England we must first
take them ourselves. England and America
were the only two countries where civil lib
eTtV thoroughly understood.
Mr.. Foulke believes that America had in
herited the Anglo-SaXon ability to colonize
and rule with wisdom, and that Yankee in
genuity would find some means of doing
the thing which England had done so well
elsewhere. 1t was said that colonial do
minion was inconsistent with our principles
of self-government, and would have an in
furious influence upon our own Republic.
England had not found 1t so. We had al
ways been practically inconsistent in regard
to the fundamental doctrine of the equality
of all mankind. The Territories and the
power of Congress. New Mexico had been
for fifty years under a territorial govern
ment and the Philippines might be held in
the same way. Among the blessings of
the war was the Strengthening of the ties
between England and America. Now was
the golden moment TO see that these ties
ible. If, after our acquisition of the Phil
ippines, England would take them and give
all parts of the world where our commerce.
extends, such an arrangement might be
mutually advantageous. But there was no
essential difficulty in governing these ISL
ands as colonies ourselves. Humanity would
be the gamer by the largest possible ex-
tension Of American influence and power
and by the closest possible union of these
with the influence and power of England
The final supremacy of our form of CIV
ilization and of liberty itself was seriously
menaced by the growth of the power of
Russia. Napoleon said that the future
world would be Cossack or republican. Mr.
Foulke here reviewed the growth of Rus
sian power and the coming conflict between
Russia and England for the supremacy of
the Eastern continent and of the world.
He set forth the steps already taken by
Russia for the conquest of China. He next
considered what would be the consequences
Of the universal dominion Of Russia-the
tyranny. the cruelty and the repression of
Individual life exercised by the Russian
government the press censorship, the sti-
fling of education. the horrors OF the exile
systen-and he contrasted these things with
the liberal institutions Of England and
America. In the coming contest America
and England should stand side by side
Now was the golden opportunity TO bind
permanently the ties which unite US to the
mother country. Now was the time to pass
the treaty of arbitration with England and
10 bury all past 'prejudices and resentments
which tend to keep apart the destinies of
these two great apostles of liberty.