The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-10-18
Address By Carl Schurz
Last Evening.
j. Sterling Morton The Presiding
Officer.

OF the anti expansionists to the subjuga-
ton OF the Filipinos took tangible form
today In the meeting OF about 100 dele
gates from different parts of the country
to launch a crusade against the policy OF
the administration in the Philippines.
The meeting was called to order in Gem
trail Music hall By Temporary Chairman
Edwin Burritt Smith Of Chicago.
Owing to the Illness of his wife, Gecr-e
II. Boutwell, could not be present but a
letter from him was read.
]. Sterling Morton presiiei at til e
evening session and introd uced Carl
Schurz, who delivered the address of t he
evening.
Mr.. Schurz spoke as follows:
Now last word to those OF our fellow
citizs nsswho feel and recognise as we do
that the Philippine war of subiugation
| Is wrong and cruel, and that we ought 20
recognize the Independence of those
people, but who insist that, having begun
that war, we must continue it until the
submission of the Eilipinos is complete.
l detest but l can understand, the lingo
whose moral sense is obsoursd by iDt0xi-
| eating dreams of wild adventure and con-
quest, and to whom bloodshed and deVas.
=
detsst even more, but still can under
stadd the cruel logic OF those to whom
everything ts matter Of dollars and
| cents and whose greed OF gain will walk
| coolly over slaughtered populations. But
must confess cannot understand the
| reasoning of those who have moral ssnse
enough to recognize that this war is
criminal aRgreE sion-who must say to
themselves that every drop of blood shed
in 1t by friend or fos IL blood wautonly
and wickediy shea, and that ev,ry act of
devastation Is barbarous cruelty inflicted
upon an innocent peopls-but who still
maintain that we must 20 on killing, and
devastating, and driving our brave SOL
disrs Into fight which they themselves
are oursing, because We have once begun
1t. This / cannot understand. Do they
not consider that In such war, which
they themselves condemn as wanton and
iniq uitous, the more complete our sue
cess, the greater will be our disuraceY
What do they fear for the republic &C.
before having fully contaminated this
| criminal aggression, We stop to give a
people struggling for their freedom what
POWERFUL 1t win be as strong as ever,
nay, stronger. for it will have saved the
resources OF It's power from useless squan-
dsring and transformed vindictiVe enc
| mics Into friends. VIII 1t be less respect
cdr Nay, more, for 1t will have demon
pridef Is this the first time that pow
erful nation desisted from the subjuga-
tlon Of weaker adversary? Have we not
| the example Of England before us, who,
| after seven yeals' war az ainst the
American colonists, recognized their IN
dependences Indeed. the example of
England tsaches US q double lesson. Eng
land did not, by recognizing American
independence, lose her position in tbs
! world, and her chances of future great
| ness; on the contrary she grew in
strength. - And secondly, England would
ship OF tie Americans, Il she had rsoog-
| ntzed American independence more
promptly. before appearing to have been
| forced to do so by huIniliating defeats.
Will our friends who are for Philippine
inder endence, but also Tor continuing to
kill those who fight for it, take these two
lessons to heart?
Some of them say that we have here to
| fulfil some of the dissgrecable duties of
patriotism. Patriotismi Who were the
| trus patriots of England at the time of
| the American Revo lution-King George
| and Lord North. who -insit ted upon sub
Jugation; or Lord Chatham and Edmund
Burke. who stco I up for American rights
and American libertys
Who were the true patriots of France
when, recently, that CHASTITY farce of
| military trial was enacted to sacrifice an
lnuUCcnt Alhn IOI Ju6 nOUOt OF Iu6
French army and the prestige of the
French hepublic--who were the true
French patriots, those who insisted that
the hideous crime of an unjust condem-
nation must be persisted in, or those who
bravely defied the cry of traitor, and
struggled to undo the wrong, and thus
TO restore the French republic to the path
Of justice ard tn the esteem Of the worldf
Who are tbs true patriots In America
today-those who drag our republic. once
30 proud or its high principles and ideals
through the mire of broken pledges. vul-
gar ambitions, and vanitiss, and orimi-
nal sggrs ssions--those who do violencs to
their own moral sense by insisting that,
Ike the Dreyfus iniquity, criminal
course once begun must be- persisted in,
or thoss who. fearless Of the demagogue
ciamor, strive to make the flag of the
republic onoe more what 1t once was-the
nag OF justice, liberty, and true civiliza-
ton, and to lift up the American people
among ire nations of the earth to the
proud position of the people that have
conscience and obey Ii?
The couRtry has these days highly and
deseryedly honorea Admiral Dewey as q
national zero. Who are his true friends
those who would desscratef Dewey's
splendid achievement at Manila by max
Ing u the starting-point of criminal ag-
erosion. and thus the opening of q most
dtsgTaceful and inevitably disastrous
chapter OF American history, Co be re-
memb ered with sorrow. or those who
strive SO TO shape the results of that brill
liant feat of arms, that II may stand in
history not as a part of a treacherous
conquest. but as a true victory of Ameri-
can good faith In an honest war Of liberia
tion and humanity--to be proud of for
all time, as Dewey himself no doubt
meant 1t TO be?
know the impsriAlIsts will sayI.that
have tesn pleading here for Aguinaldo
and his Etlipinos against our republic.
Monet for the kilipinos merely, al
though. as one OF those who have grown
gray In the struggle for fres and honest
cvernment, would revsE be- sshane1
TO pi md for the cause Of freed ON and In
dnnandpuea avian ruhan Ifa hanu a.. il aar-