The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1899-02-23
DARE NOT SHIRK OUR RESPONSE
BILITICS

Importance of great state paper. We
need not fear in the least to have it so
regarded for it is an utterance entirely
worthy the head of our Government.
Maj. Mckinley has no pretentions to
being regarded as a great orator. He
does not coin epigrams which electrify
the people, nor does he indulge in flights
of fascinating rhetoric. 1t is denied
him Lincoln's grand inspirations, which
read like the words of Israel's holy
prophets. But he is -unexcelled for
talking plain, com mon American sense
without any verbal frills or oratorical
furbelows, and his Boston speech over
flowed with this.
He said in the plainest, most straight
forward words just what every plain,
straightforward American has been
thinking on the subject of Expansion"
imperialism" colonial possessions"
or whatever the new phase of American
policy may be termed.
Firstly, as to the past:
The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto
Rico, were intrusted to our hands by the
war, and to that great trust, under the
providence of God and in the name of human
progress and civilization, we are committed
1t is a trust we have not sought; it it a trust
from which we will not finch.
Whatever variety of views there may be
on this phase Of the question, there is
agreement that the Philippines
shall not be turned back to Spain.
No true American consents to that Even
if unwilling to accept them ourselves, it
would have been a weak evasion Of manly
duty to require Spain to transfer them TO
some other power or powers, and thus shrk
our own responsibility. Even if we had had,
as we did not have, the power to compel
such transfer, it could not have been made
without the most serious international COM
plications
That is well, succinctly and unanswer
ably said. 1t answers months of labor
ious chop-logic in the Senate on the
limitations of the Constitution. :
Secondly, as 10 the present:
We were doing our duty by them with
the consent of our own conScienceS and with
the approval of civilization. Every present
obligation has been met and fulfilled in the
expulsion OF Spanish sovereignty from their
islands, and while the war that destroyed it
was in progress we could not ask their views.
Nor can we now ask their consent.
do not intrude upon the duties of Con-
gress or seek to anticipate or forestall its
action. / only say that the treaty of peace,
honorably secured, having been ratified by
the United States. and, as we confidently ex-
pect shortly to be ratified in Spain, Congress
will have the power, and, am sure, the pur-
pose to do what in good morals is right and
ust and humane for these peoples in distant
seas.
1t is sometimes hard to determine what
is best to do, and The best thing to do is
Dftentimes the hardest. The prophet of evil
would do nothing because he fiinches at sac
aud involves the least cost On those who
nave things to do there rests responsibility
which is not on those who have no obligations
IS doer.
That is all. The whole matter is
now in the hands of Congress. As
every American is eminently satisfied
with the record Congress has made in
The more than century that it has
ruled this country, as it has risen to the
level of emergencies a hundredfold |
greater than this, as its wisdom and
Justice in dealing with every problem is
unequaled in the history of the worlds
we have unlimited conf
1ence in its capacity to deal with this
question.
Thirdly, as to the future:
/ have no light or knowledge not COM
mon to my countrymen. / do not prophecy |
The present is all-absorbing to me, but | |
cannot bound my vision by the blood
stained trenches around Manila, where every
red drop, whether from the veins of an |
American soldier or misguided Filipino is |
anguish to my heart; but by the broad range |
Of future years when that group of islands, |
under the impulse Of the year just passed. |
shall have become the gems and glories Of |
those tropical seas a land of plenty and OF
increasing possibilities, a people redeemed |
from savage Incidence and habits, devoted TO |
the arts of peace, in touch with the COM
merce and trade of all Nations, enjoying the |
blessings of freedom, of civil and religious |
liberty, of education and Of homes and |
whose children and children's children shall /
for ages hence bless the American Republic |
because it emancipated and redeemed their |
and set them in the pathway of
The worlds best civilization.
That is simply, plainly, and concisely
what every American believes and con-
fidently hopes Nothing else, and moth
ing less seems possible or probable.
Let US, then, in the words Of the i'm
mortal Lincoln:
With malice toward none, with
charity for all, let US go forward in the
right as God gives us to see the right"
'TIrnr-(,rr he 4