The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-21
some Large NIisstatement ts.

To the Editor of the Journal and Courier: MT. Whitelaw Reid, in his late address to the students of Miami college, makes
 the following statements in reply to the proposition that the subjugation and
 government control of the Filipinos
 without their consent is contrary to
 American principles as laid down in the Declaration of Independence: "Jeffer-
 ceeded to govern them without the con-
 sent of the governed. Monroe bought the Floridians without their consent. Polk conquered the Californians Pierce
 bought the New Mexicans. Seward
 bought the Russians and Alaskans, and we have governed them ever since with
 out their consent. Is it easy in face of such facts to preserve your respect for a criticism so obviously captious as that based on the phrase from the Declara- tion of Independence"
 It is amazing that MT. Reid should have made. and other advocates of ex-
 pansion should have repeatedly reitera-
 ted, the above assertions, which are pal pably false. Tn every case which he re- fers to the people affected did give their consent to the transfer of their allegi- ance from their former sovereignties to the United States as fully as it was pos sible for them to do so and in every form of which they were capable. Their consent was given at the time of the
 transfer in the only way in which sub
 ject communities can consent to any ac-
 tion affecting themselves, through
 their constituted rulers as their repre-
 sentatives acting within the scope of
 their rightful and acknowledged powers, without remonstrance by the people af-
 fected. The Spaniards and Frenchmen in Louisiana and Florida, the Mexicans in California and New Mexico, and the Russians and natives in Alaska all rec ognzed the lawful right of their re- spective governments to transfer their territory and their allegiance to the Uni- ted States, and accepted such transfer
 without word of protest. Their con- sent was given after the transfer and has ever since been continuously ex- pressed by their cheerful acceptance of American citizenship and their submis- sion to American laws. Even the saw ages who inha bited the regions trans- ferred immediately recognized the new power in possession, and made their treaties thereafter with the United States. Will MT. Reid inform us in what way the people in any of these re-
 gions have ever indicated a dissent to American rule, or in what way they could have more fully expressed their acceptance of it?
 As parallel cases therefore with that of the Filipinos these illustrations sig nally fail. That people at the time of our advent to their islands were in re- bellion against Spain in a contest for in dependence We recognized them as belligerents and supplied them with arms "to be used,' as Admiral Dewey says, "against the common enemy" When the treaty was made between the
 United States and Spain they denied the
 right of Spain to transfer their country or their allegiance, and have ever since resisted our attempts to compel them to submit to that same Spanish authority in us which we gave them arms to over
 throw No doubt they are all wrong in thus opposing our attempts to civilize and elevate them. No doubt it is a part of four new duties" to c1astise them into better appreciation of the freedom
 and blessings which we intend to offer them when we have formulated in our own minds the particular shape in which
 that freedom and those blessings are to be rendered. But in our Zeal to vindi- cate our righteous policy toward the be- nighted Filipinos. let us at least refrain from falsifying American history and vilifying the Declaration of Indepen- dence. B.