The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-06
AGAINST ANNEXATION.
Prominent Americans Petition for
Amendment to the Treaty.

prominent Americans fetitiOn for
Amendment to the Treaty.
New York, Feb. 5.The following pc
titior. signed by "a citizens of the Unit
ed States and addressed ITO the senate
of the United States" was made public
tonight. The signers are: Charles
Francis Adams Boston; Felix Adler,
George S. Boutwell,, ex-secretary of the
treasury; John G. Carlisle, ex-secretary
of the treasury; Andrew Carnegie,
Grover Cleveland. Theodore L. Cuyler,
Charles H. Eliot, president Harvard
university; Samuel Gompers, president
of the American Federation of Labor;
senator from Missouri; William T.
Hornblower, w. B. Palmer, president of
the Rio Grande Western railway;
Wheeler H. Peckham, Sherman S. Rog-
ers, Buffalo; Carl SchurZ, ex-secretary
of the interior; Edward Burritt Smith,
Chicago; Moorfield Storey, Boston;
William G. Sumner, Yale university:
Rev. Henry Van Dyke, Herman Won
Hoist, University of Chicago William
L. Wilson, ex-postmaster general. now
president of Washington and Lee uni
versity, Virginia; Theodore S. Woolsey,
Yale university; Henry c. Potter,
bishop Of New York:
TO the Senate of.the United States:
THE undersigned respectfully submit
that the treaty between the United
States and the kingdom of Spain. now
before your honorable body ought not
to be ratified until provision shall lie
inserted, as part of its text, to the effect
that the United States shall not annex
the Philippine islands or Porto Rico or
permit their inhabitants to become ci.i-
zens, or compel them to become subjects
Of the United States without their free
consent and the further and express au-
Il FF
no reason to doubt the entire willing
ness of Spain to modify the treaty in
these respects or to suppose that the
delay of it's ratification for this purpose
involves the slightest renewal of HOSTILE
ties. Na
We submit that the treaty, unless
modified, will inthaduce changes of
far-reaching character into both the
foreign and domestic policy of this re-
public. The late, war was undertaken
with our distinct assurance that We did
not look toward foreign conquest or the
acquisition of territory. 1t was under
taken and thus we plighted the honor
of the American nation in the cause of
humanity and liberty and for no other
reason.
THE public sentiment of our country
is not ready to endure the concession of
American citizenship to the Filipinos
and Porto Rieans But the effect will
for the time; at least. no doubt be to
hold their islands under revenue tariff
navigation and other laws very differ
ent from those in the United States
The Philippines and Porto Rico would,
at least at the outset be separate de-
tendencies under an extra-territorial
and extra-constitutional sovereignty
not provided for in the constitution of
the United States and grossly incon-
sistent with its entire spirit and inten-
tion. That this sovereignty in the case
of the Philippines is extra territorial is
the more apparent from the fact that
the constitution was established for the
United States of America and not for
the United States of America and Asia
That the transfer proposed is transfer
of sovereignty is obvious from the fact
that the. consent of the people of the
Philippines and Porto Rico is ignored
in their transfer from Spain to the
United States and is here
after to be considered only as far as
the United States shall see fit to give
it consideration.
I'VE further submit that in the his
tory of our nation there is no preced-
ent for an acquisition of this snrt-of
the territory of a distant nationality,
peopled by other races and belonging to
another continent.
I'VE respectfully submit that, accord
ing to the principles upon which our
republic was founded, we are in duty
bound to recognize the rights of the
inhabitants of the Philippines and of
Porto Rico to independence and self
government. precisely as we have recog-
nized that right in the case of the in
habitants of Cuba: that If. as President
Mckinley declared. 'forcible annexa-
ton cannot be thought of in the case
of Cuba, because it would. by our code
of morals. be criminal aggression
Then forcible annexation of the Phil
ippines will be no less criminal agrees
sion, according to the code of morals.
We submit. in conclusion, that the
sober second thought of the American
people will supper. your honorable body
in refusal to ratify the Spanish
treaty"