The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-02-24
extracts from President McKinley's
Boston Address.
Extracts

Boston Address.
"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
sought, 1t is trust from which We will
not finch. The American people will hold
up the hands of their servants at home
to whom they commit its execution, while
they command will have the support of
the country In uphOlding our flag where it
now floats. the symbol and assurance Of
liberty and Justice"
"There was but one alternative and that
was either Spain or the United States In
the Philippines. The other suggestions
first, that they should be tossed into the
arena for the strife Of nations; or, second,
be lost to the anarchy and chaos of no
prOtectorate at all-were too shameful to be
considered"
trade or empire, but for the people whose
interests and destiny, without our willing
1t, had been put In our hands. 1t was with
this feeling that from the first day to the
last not one word or line went from the
executive In Washington to our military
and naval commanders at Manila or co our
peace commissions at Paris that did not put
as the sole purpose to be kept In mind first,
after the success of our arms and the
maintenance of our own honor. the welfare
and happiness and the rights of the in
habitants Of the Philippine islands,"
"A reign Of terror is not the kind of rule
under which right action and deliberate
judgment are possible. 1t is not q good
time for the liberatOr to submit important
questions concerning liberty and govern
ment to the liberated while they are en-
gagged In shooting down their rescuers."
"rhe future of the Philippine islands is
now In the hands of the American people,
Until the treaty was ratified or rejected the
executive department of this government
could only preserve the peace and protect
life and property. That treaty now COM
mits the free and enfranchised FIlipinOs to
the guiding hand and the liberalizing In.
fiuences, the generous sympathies, the up.
lifting education, not of their American
masters, but of their American emanci-
pators."
Until congress shall direct otherwise it
will be the duty of the executive to possess
and hold the Philippines, giving to the
people thereof peace and benefcent govern
ment, affOrding them every opportunity to
prosecute their lawful pursuits, encourag.
ing them in thrift and industry, making
them feel and know we are their friends,
not their enemies, that their good Is our
aim, that their welfare Is our welfare, but
that neither their aspirations nor ours can
be realized until our authority Is acknewl-
edged and unquestioned."
''No imperial designs lurk In the Ameri.
can mind. They are alien to American
sentiment, thought and purpose. Our
priceless principles undergo no change
under tropical sum-"
II have no light or knowledge not COM
mon to my cOuntrymen. do not prophesy.
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 the
group of islands, under the impulse of the
year just past, shall have become the gems
and gloIi les of those tropical seas, 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 commerce 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 1t
emancipated and redeemed their fatherland
and set them in the pathway of the worlds
best civilization