The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-15
The Wessenger.
THE TwO-FACED M,KINLEY.

w hNS OA NAAC hA6h LII LII dDOuL
yea he has taken opposite ground as
to the Philippines and how our country
came to be in possession of them, or
ever had a claim to ownership. On 10th
December 1898. in his annual message
to the United States congress, he said:
"By this the conquest of the Philip
pine Islands, virtually accomplished
when the Spanish capacity for resist
ance was destroyed by Admira Dew
ey's victory of the LIST of May, was for
maIly sealed" This was the presi-
dents version then of how we came
by the Philippines. 1t was a simple
case Of conquest" Forgetting all this
or deliberately ignoring it he makes a
change in his message last week, Of
5th December, 1899, and tells the people
as well as the ongre a very different
story. His new version Of the Philip
pine ownership or claim begin when
1.-The treaty of peace between the Unit
ed states and Spain was signed. 1t
provided among other things, that
Spain should cede to the United States
the archipelago known as the Philip
pine Islands; that the United States
snould pay Spain the sum of $2O, OOO, 900,
and thai the civil rights as political
status of the native inhabitants of the
territories thus coded to the United
States should be determined by con-
gress. The treaty vas ratified by the
senate On February 6, 1899, and by the
government of Spain on the 18th OF
March following. The notifications
were exchanged on the 18th of April,
and the treaty publicly proclaimed.
On the I'd of March the congress voted
the sum contemplated by the treaty
and the amount was paid over to the
Spanish government on the 1st of May.
'In this manner the Philippines came
to the United States. The Stands were
ceded by the government of Spain,
which had been in ~undisputed posses
sion of them for centuries. They were
accepted, not merely by our authorized
commissioners in Paris. under the di-
rection of the executive, but by the
constitutional and we'll considered &C
ton of the representatives of the peo-
pie of the United States in both houses
of congress-"
I'm this manner" says the President
1.-The Philippines came to -"
Now in view of these contradictory,
opposing statements one may be JUS
titled in asking, what does Mckinley
know about it any way?' He was
either supremacy ignorant or false in
his statement in his message or 1898,
or he is supremacy ignorant and false
in what he writes to the American con-
gress in 1899.
The comment upon his regeneration
and ignorance by the able editor OF the
Baltimore Sun may be copied in part
in this connection. He says:
Anything more and crook
ed and d"isingenuous than the workings
of McKinley's mind it is difficult TO
conceive. In this his latest version or
''how the Philippines came to US, the
reader will note the substitution by tine
President of the word accepted in
stead of the word Ihe
islands, he says, were accepted by
our commissioners" which conveys and
is doubtless intended to convey an ut
terly false impression. One would sup
pose that Mr.. Mckinley never wanted
the Philippines-that u commission
-ers made no demand upon Spain for
their cession; but, apparently, reluct-
antly "acceptsd' the islands, under
the direction of the Executive" agree
ing at the same time to the further on
erous condition of paying Spain $780,
900, 900. One woul suppose that Spain
and not the United States, had die
tated the terms of the treaty. That
Spain worsed i nthe war, got the pest
of it in the treaty; that she unloaded
upon us possessions which a ceased
to be valuable, and were simply a bur
den to her, and that she pocketed a
cool 500, 900, 900 by the transaction, may
be perfectly true. But that is not what
is in Mr.. McKinley's mind nor upon his
lips. He simply nno look the Amer
lean people in the face and tell them
the truth. 1t would seem thai it is not
in his nature to do it,
And still there are people all about
who write and speak of Mckinley as a
good man, an honorable, upright, mer-
ciful man. They are blind and will not
see. They either forget his record for
ten or fifteen years as a politician or
they are so willfully blind that they
can not see his acrobatic performances
in the political arena, and are so hyn-
Noticed by the artful manipulation that
a seems good and falsehood appears
to be truth. The whole story is so dis
torted that those who are not we'll IN
formed are misled and bamboozled by
the sly and artful president. The SUI
says that Judge Day and Judge Gray
can turn On important and NEEDED light
to what did occur, and make places
plain that Mckinley would darken. 1t
says:
Judge Gray, then Senator, another
Commissioner, whom the President has
since rewarded with a seat upon the
who is one of the best of
if he were disposed, let
in still more light. He has admitted
an earnest appeal from Paris,
urging the President not ITO insist upon
the surrender Of the Philippines. Judge
Gray, who was then neither an impe-
nor an e~xpansioniSt, can tell
whether the Philippines became ours
in of our demand for their
cession, under threat of renewal of the
and of sending SIMPSONS fleet to
blockade and ravage the coast of
Spain, Or whether, as n President
suggests, we merely accepted"
the islands-juSt to oblige Spain and
an excus for making her a
of $50, 000, 000."