The Philipsburg mail., 1899-11-03
The Stalwart Democrat Presents a
Flag to the 32d Regiment.
A HIGH AND SACRED TRUST
"Liberty With Law and Government With
out oppression''-Destroy the Re-
belliOn and DO Justice to the
Misguided Rebels.

the Kansas City Star, will be read with
interest. The judge is prominent
Democrat, well known throughout the
middle west, but he is also loyal and
patriotic citizen. In presenting a flag
to the soldiers of the Thirty second
regiment, he referred as follows to the
Philippine question:
And every drum beat and tramp of
these soldier boys attests the fact that
our flag has gone to the Orient to stay.
1t has gone there, it will go there not
as a symbol of oppression or aggression.
or of foreign conquest or pillage, but of
American rightful sovereignty. and all
that is hopeful and desirable in a higher
civilization.
Even had this government (Which it
never did given AguiGaldo any assur-
ance OF independence, of turning over
to pillage aud plnnder the capital of
Luzon and to butchery the Spanish
army and Spanish residents, yet when
but for Dewey having sunk the Spanish
fleet and our soldiers investing Manila,
he could not have set his sect upon Phil
ippine soil, during the armistice pend
ing the treaty or surrender between
America and Spain he tainted bulied
and insulted our soldiers, and finally
forced the picket lines of the army. He
proved himself to be an outlaw under
international law, and selfish migrate,
who recognized no law but his savage
instinct and personal ambitions. The
shot Of the Nebraska boy that awOke
from his lair the tiger Funston and the
brave boys OF the west, and called them
forth into that dark night carnage, was
directed by he hand of Eternal Justice
God pity the American citizen who
would say there is the blood Of man
in the right upon the laurel wreath that
crowns ne brow OF that Nebraska SOL
dier! Rather do prefer to say of his
deed:
There was something of pride in
the perilous ho.r,
Whateer be the shape in which
death might lower;
For fame was there to tell who
oleeds,
And honors eye was on daring
deeds.
To say that AguinaldO Is in the right
is to say that Dewey has been and is in
the wrong When iJewey Cd bled that
he had sunk the Spanish fleet and asked
for soldiers TO invest Manila, he de-
clared to the wor d that his government
ought to hold the territory whose capl-
tai lay under his guns; and there was
not a senator, or IA congressman a pub
lie man, or respectd ole newspaper in
this land that did not exclaim: All hail
to George Dewey! And when the flower
of our American youth responded to
that call and defended themselves
against the night ass .ult Of Aguinaldos
miniOns. Dewey Was there, ana his deep
MOuthed cannon thundered forth his as
sistance ard his approval and he stood
at his guns until the rebels were driven
out of range and from that day to this
ne has approved the war: and like a
patriot as he Is, he has stood by his own
government and by his own soldiers,
and would feel rebuiied aud dishonored
to-day if the flag he hoioted on the
ruined walls of the armory on Cavite
Island We're hauled down.
When the treaty of peace between
the United States and Spain was con-
clnded, the soverei Inty OF the United
States was extended oyer the group of
Philippine Islands, and the president of
the United States could not, ii he so
desired OF his own motion, withdraw
or surrender the sovereignty to the
Fllipinos. The sovereignty by this
treaty, is vested in the United States
and is not i'll the executive branch of
the government. 1t would require the
action of the executive and legislative
branches of the government to do that.
The United States Owls the Philippine
Islands by the same right and by the
same law of nations that it does the
territory that Thomas Jefferson ac-
quired from France; and just as it owns
New Mexico, Arizona and Southern
California, acquired from Mexico and
Alaska from Russia; Hawaii from it's
own people, and Porto Rico from Spain.
And You soldiers are just us much in
the line OF duty and patriotism and law
in Carrying this flag to the Philippines
as you wodld be in carrying it to Mex
leo, Arizona or Alaska, were the greas-
ers and Indians there trying to drive
out of those territories American insti-
tntions and establish independent gov
ernmentS.
|, therefore, have a right TO say to
YOU that after you have unfarled this
banner to the Oriental b eezes if any
rebel hand should undertake to pull it
down, shoot him on the spot and if
You miss that be sure to hit him In
some other vital place
| believe it is. in fulfllment of the
destiny Of Christian civilization that
we should hold and keep what this war
with rotten despOtism has laid at our
feet. 1t comes as a part of the white
mans burden. We should hold il not
as imperial Rome did the territory
which its cOnQuering armies Overran,
for the sake of glory and min n0ar hut