The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-11
PURE IMPERIALISM.

|
We found these people struggling
against the deepotlsm of foreign rule
emanating from Madrid. 1t would be
a despotnsm, whether it emanated from
| Washington, from London, or from
Paris. They are not rebels agansa our
authority, If exercised under the Con-
st1tutlon-they are rebels only against
those who are themselves febels against
American constitutional liberty. They
are not traitors against our government,
as understood and administered from
It's organization down to the ratifica-
! tion OF the Spanish treaty. They under
stood the distinction between Republi-
can government and the tyranny Of
| impartial rule; and long before our
commissioners visited Paris to formu-
| late the Spanish treaty of peace, the
military authorities at Manila had re-
ported to the President the willingness
OF the Philippine people to accept in
common the rule which we enjoy, but
their fixed determination to resist the
tyranny of colonial government. In
that report are the following words:
There is not a particle of doubt but
that Aguinaldo and his leaders will re-
sist any attempt of any government
the reorganize q colonial government
here. They are especially bitter toward
the Spaniards, but equally determined
not to submit any longer to being a
colony of any other government
In concentrating the treaty at Paris
the commissioners, as understand, re-
fused all conference or even intercourse
with the agents of these people, while
the executive authorities at Washing
ton contemptuously spurned their sup
plications
In all previous treaties, from the ces-
sion by Virginia of the Northwest Ter
ritory down to that with Russia in 1867,
by which Alaska was obtained, it was
substantially provided, ae specified in
the treaty with France by which the
Louisiana territory was acquired, that
the inhabitants of the ceded terri
tory shall be Incorporated in the Union
of the United States, and admitted as
soon as possible, according to the prin-
ciples of the federal Constitution. to
the enjoyment of all rights, advantages,
and immunities Of citizens of the United
States; and, in the meantime, they
shall be maintained and protected in
the free enjoyment of liberty, property
and the religion which they profess.
In the late treaty with Spain this pro-
vision, for some unexplained reason,
was omitted, and the doctrine Of I'M
modified Imperialism was inserted Ar
ticle 10 of this unfortunate convention
provides that the civil rights and
political status of the native inhabi-
tants of the territories hereby coded to
the United Statee shall be determined
by the Congress"
After this treaty was confirmed by
the Senate, that body passed a resolu-
tion evidently designed to stand as its
construction Of this extraordinary in
strument. In that resolution it is de-
cared that by the ratification of the
treaty of peace with Spain it is not
intended to incorporate the inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands into citizen
ship of the United Statos, nor is IL in
tended to permanently annex said
islands as an integral part of the terri
tory of the United States"
In the Presidents proclamations to
these people, nothing is offered them
this side Of unconditional surrender,
and beyond surrender nothing is pro-
missed but that which the conqueror
may consider suitable to the capaci- |
ties and condition of the conquered"
The Sshurman- DENLY commission, |
proclamations of "beneficent |
assimilation as so many decoy ducks, |
to bring the game under the quick-fir-
ing guns of Otis, when asked to formu-
late in words that benevolent govern |
ment of which American journals have
so often spoken to their deluded read
ers, offered them a governor nominated |
by the President and confirmed by the
Senate, a legislative council to be APP
pointed by the governor, and an cleo
tive House of Representatives over
whose acts the governor should exer-
Else IAN absolute and unlimited veto"
Therefore the government so far Of
Pered to these people is not akin to that
rule which gives dignity
and character to American citizenship.
It is not the government of the people,
oy the people, and for the people. 1t
lenies the theory of equal States 1t
ASSERTS the inequality of men, and de-
HES that governments derive their
uSI powers from the consent OIL the
governed
1t is pure and adulterated imperial
SIN. 1t is not expansion. Expansion
means equality of rights. Like the
relation imp liesconsent. I'M
)erialism means forcible subiugation to
mothers will. In the domestic rela-
ions of life imperialism is slavery. In
he domain of politics it is tyranny re-
distance to which, in the vocabulary of J
reemen, is obedience to God.
Imperialism is they government which
Rome gave to Sicily under Verres. The
anne which India received under War;
en- Hastings, and that which George
H. gave to the thirteen American col
mics II has it's root in the pharisaical I
TIERS 1t is the hypocritical spirit ,
hat tortures martyrs at the stake, not !
peacially for our pleasure, but for their /
aviation 1t asserts for ourselves SUI .
erior intelligence, superior capacities,
nd superior virtues over the rest of
1t sets up guardianship
yer weak nations and proceeds to
under their people while pretending
D teach them the lessons of peaceful
overnment. 1t seizes their temporal
ossessions and gives in return abund