The Portland daily press., 1899-01-05

newspaper pre- OF Uouey - soa voHy
respectfully for have hAd more ssponsi-
bility for some Of this course than I want
always TO speak of-ths neWgpaper pres
of today, and the public speakers Of the
street corner, and the takers, are all
sounding the same song-thst someening
has been done by somebody somewhere
that has rendered 1t impossible for us
hereafter to exercise any sense (Laugneer
don't believe ANY such nonsense. I
won't submit to 1t for q minute. IL seems
to me that IL IL unworthy OF American
citizenship to trent question OF this kind
In the manner In which IL Is being as
cussed today.
saw In newspaper that some COM
missioner had. said-well, was not edu-
Gated TO the idea that this government
was run by commissioners, or that II
90 mmissionsr said something everybody
should close his mouth for evermore.
daughter } Well, read that the CON-
mis- sioner said all We had got 10 do was
to put up the money or 60 out OF bust
moss. Now, Is that good sense-Republi-
know bssser shsn shs. n the Philippine
islands. don't believe It. / don't be-
live anything has occurred since the
declaration OF war against Spain that has
in the sligbtcst degree foreclosed the
American people from governing their
country in their own way: SApplause:l
tary, after we had declared war, which
meant fighting, ordered the admiral OF
our fleet in static waters to 60 where
there was q Spanish feet and capture or
destroy 1t. That was absolutely essential
TO the scheme of war, dictated by every
idea Of military wisdom. He went, but
did any body suggest at that time that he
was going to capture Manila, Luzon AND
the Philippine state or municipality.
(Applause.) OF course not. The capture
of the islands, the capture Of Manila, were
incidents Of the bubbling over Of the
enthusiasm of the American people, who
had started In to lick somethfng, ana
didn't know when to stop. (Laughter.)
don't hazard n single iota Of reputa-
ton when / say that when Admiral
Dewey had sunk the last ship and spiked
the last gun Of the Spanish fleet In
Manila hArbor every bit of United states
business he had to do was transacted and
finished there. loud and prolonged APP
plauss.) And. while 10 IL long stretch
Of the Imagination will say that, II l
had been In any position where had au.
thority. should have ordered him out OF
that bay as soon as he could have rented
his ships. More applause
We wanted to beat the Spanish ships
SO that they could not come down TO
gress of the United States never gave the
President Of the United States authority
to go into the harbor Of Manila and CAP
ture the Philippine islands. (Applause.
We were not making war for thas purpose.
We were making war for Cuba. was
not over enthusiastic even about that,
for was one of the old-fashtoned, old
fogy kind Of people who thought 1t would
have been better at the time when the
question was settled without war to
have had peace. (Applause.)
am not speaking unad visedly. am
eohoing the statements made by the min
lister to Spain, by Gen. Woodforo. not
half q mile from where / stnnd, only
few weeks ago, when he reported to the
merchants OF Boston that when he was In
Madrid oondr citing the negotiations he
had progressed to the point whore We had
settled every controversy we had wien
Spain Ia voice: "Hear! Hear ~ That's
what We want to hear that we had
proceeded with our negotiations alonR6the
line to the point at which Spain had con-
coded every demand we made, and that
when the COVE of spain drafted
the scheme of autonomy to be put in force
in Cuba II oompreh9nded all We had de-
manded, and that II the Congress OF the
United States had let the question alone,
he believed we would have established
stable government in the isle OF Cuba,
and that within from three to six months
the flag OF Spain would ,hAve peaoeably
come down. (Applause.)
Now ..whatever may have been true
about that-whether It may have been
over sanguine or not-I do not know, but
do know that no man In Congress ever
made q speech in behalf Of the seizing OF
the Philippine islands: that no declara-
ton was ever made In Congress for war
. - e..
lands, and that M human Icing within
the limits of our country was ever heard
even to suggest, during the early period
of this war that we had such an idea
within the rangs Of our COZ sideration.
Yet now we are suddenly confronted
with the statement that We have got TO
take these islands; that there Is no way
to get out of it; that we have done some
thing at some time, somewhere. which
u absolutely foreeioses the possibility OF our
avoiding the including of group OF
Asiatic islands among the citizenship of
this country. That Is what your attorney
general tells us Do you believe thatf
situated today. by the act of any body.
whether Con. Merritt, Admiral Dewey or
any Of our commissioners at Paris-that
are absolutely committed SO that We can
not avoid it-cannot avoid reversing the
whole policy of our country, and fmperill-
ing the Wnole uestiuy oi tuis preeat uation
by acquiring or entering upon the initis-
tory stages OF acquiring dependencies all
around the g,obes daughter and ap-
plause.)
AS said before, do not tell any man
l know l avn right upon this thing. do
not try to force my Judgment upon any
citizen. l may be all wrong. The fore
fathers may have blunderea from the
beginning, and the success We are achisv.
ing may have been but the accidental
OVERLOOKING of superabundancs of pros
perity which might have been very much
greater # we had taken another course.
(Applause.)
believe it was wise policy. believe
in the policy of isolation. (More ap-
plause.) 1t is this policy which has made
us grand. great and prosperous cloud
cheering.)
/ believe as much as believe in my ex-
istence that the line of difference between
the peopls of the United States, with the
waters of the Pacific guarding their west
ern shore and the waters ct the Atlantic
guarding our eastern shore. and relieving
us from that terrific burden OF military
power and expenditure that has been
.3A-n and urindin o into lnsf the