Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-05-29
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THE CRY OF TREASON"

The Intelligencer, in common with
other INSTRUMENTATION newspapers,
persists in the cry of treason" against
those who deplore the present costly
and bootless war in the Philippine ISL
ands, and who dissent from the policy
of the administration which brought
about an armed conflict with a peo-
pie as much entitled to self-govern-
ment as the Cubans. The Filipinos war
red against Spain for freedom, just as
Cubans did, and against them We, as a
nation, had no enmity and no cause
for quarrel. If to denounce this unnec-
essary and profitless subjugation of the
Tagals be treason" then the support
er5 of the administration must be pre-
pared to make the most of it, for the
commendatory opinion of American
citizens can never be secured to the i'm
rerial policy now being carried out at
the point of the bayonet and the muz-
Zle of the cannon.
The Filipinos are fighting for indie
pendence against our forces just as
they fought the Spanish for years be-
fore America was interjected into the
situation. What American citizen, re-
Numbering our own struggle for indie
pendencey, and recalling sympathy for
Cuba, will deny them the right to lib
erty? And upon what grounds? Our
business in the Philippines was at first
Spanish power there. That accom-
plished, as it speedily was, we had no
further concern with the affairs of the
Islands. But instead of recalling our
forces, after an amicable arrangement
with the native government, then in
absolute authority outside the fortifi-
cations of Manila the administration
bargained with Spain for the sale of
what she no longer possessed, paid over
twenty millions of gold, and plunged
headlong into war which has cost us
now more in blood and cash than the
war with Spain.
In discussing this unhappy, but pure
ly administration war, the Baltimore
Sun uses the following 'treasonable"
language:
"Only few days ago there appeared in
the independence Beige one of the best
known and most widely circulated jour
mails of Europe an interview with the cell
ebrated Prof Rudolph Birchow. of Berlin.
the leader of German liberalism. upon the
subject of the peace conference at The
Hague, in which he said, in speaking of
this country: Nations are led astray by
a deceptive idea of glory and honor. The
United States has lately offered pitiabie
example of this. A civilized land has been
plunged into war by the criminal agitation
of brainless demagogues and the incapac-
ity of rulers. The United States has SIN
ned against humanity and civilization.
Let US hope that the Americans have at
last recovered from their bout of intoxi-
cation and will redeem the errors of their
country.
I'VE do not know whether the Filipino
patriots whom leading lingo and imper
matizing as rebels upon the ground that
Mr.. Mckinley. having bought for twenty
millions of dollars all Spanish rights and
jurisdiction over them, any resistance on
their part TO his authority IS sheer rebel
lion and punishable with death, have ac-
cess to such a document as the American
Declaration of Independence. If so they
would read there with surprise such lam
guage as this: We hold these truths to
be Self-eNldent, that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness That, to secure
these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed They
might further read in the Declaration of
Rights of the people of Maryland. and to
the same effect in the declaration of
rights or constitution of every State in
the American Union. such language as
this: That all government of right origi-
mates from the people, is founded in COM
pact only. and instituted solely for the
good of the whole. = and that the
doctrine of non-resistanc- against arbi-
trary powers and oppression is absurd.
slavish and destructive of the good and
happiness of mankind
"Of course 1T is not to be supposed that
transmission through the mails to Manila
would now be allowed to documents con-
tanning language so highly Seditious' and
REASONABLE 1t is questionable IT, while
President Mckinley holds sway and the
present Postmaster General controls the
mails and the present Attorney General
is the. legal adviser of the government
free circulation ever would be allowed to
the Declaration of Independence-the
work of that arch-traitor and rebel.
Thomas Jefferson, and calculated to do
much more mischief than the most .sedi-
tons writings of Edward Atkinson. If
there % any room for doarbt IN the mind