El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-19

stripe would be followed by more dis
| astrOus consequences than those which
followed the attempt to place the white
people of the south under the DONNA
ton of their former slaves.
This example is pregnant with mean
Ing, and it is to be hoped that our gov
ernment will not permit Aguinaldo to
bring the better classes of the islands
under his rule. The upper classes of
the Philippines, or people enjoying
higher degree of civilization. will
never submit to the domin alton of
Aguinaldo, and the governments to
which such people owe active or no
minal allegiance, will intervene to pre-
vent them from becoming enslaved by
the fanatical followers of Aguineldo.
In their blind zeal for liberty, and
the rigid application of the principles
termed Consent of the governed"
and majority rule,'' the people of
New England fail to make a proper
discrimination. There are certain
cases where these principles cannot be
made applicable, even under American
sovereignty. In the application of
these great principles we must take
into consideration not mere numbers,
but the character of the people,; not
mere matter, but the intelligence. Be-
cause the negroes of the Black Belt of
Alabama or Georgia outnumber the
whites in that district three to one,
that constitutes no reason why the
negroes should rule. Nor does the fact
that the ignorant natives of the Phil
ippines outnum Der the intelligent peo-
pie twenty to one, justify US in at
tempting to pla &c the latter under the
domination of the former. Quality and
fitness are the true criterions by
which to determine where the severe
ignty of q country should be vested,
and by whom exercised.
In their blind zeal for liberty, the
New England agitators have in this
con test,-as they did in the time of
slavery, over-shot the mark. But for
their Incorporate zeal, overpowering
energy, and ignorance OF true cOndit-
ions attending slavery, and the status
of the negroes, the great question
might have been settled without re-
course to arms. But for irrepressible
agitators, the Reconstruction of the
south might have proceeded on ration
al lines, not by brute force, and the
negro problem might have been settled
in a manner conformable to the en-
lightened spirit of the country, not by
Wholesale, indiscriminats en-
franchisement of great army of ex-
slaves. The creation of paper citi-
zens in the south, chiefly through
land agitators, was the monumental
folly of the age, as the results have
amply proved, and by that act the
process of true reconstruction in the
south was retarded hundred years.
Now the New England agitators ask
the country to commit sin the Phil
ippines, the monumental folly that it
attempted in the south,-of declaring
or recognizing As citizens, an army OF
low-bred, half civilized people, utterly
devoid OF the prime requisites, of citi-
zenship, and attempting to place them
in authority over Intelligent, and high
ly civilized people. Shall We repeat
| the folly of enfranchisinR the negroes,
or shall we profit by the bitter and
costly, yet instructive experiences Of
the past?
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.
In contending for the application of
the great principle 'Consens of the
Governed, In respect to the Philip
pines, the Anti-Imperielists of the
country assume that the islands like
the Thirteen Colonies of America are
prepared for the erection and mainten-
ance of an independent sovereignty.
But in their Incorporate zeal, they ut
terly overlook the Significant fact that
the Inhabitants of tho Thirteen Colon
les were Angle-Saxons, who we're i'm
bued with spirit of self-government
from the time of the migration of the
original tribes from Germany and
ed long years of practical experience
in the conduct of governments, and
that degree of individual liberty guar
anteed by the British Constitution,
and, in their new home in America had
prepared the ground for the erection of
a stable, independent government.
Such were the conditions attending the
foundation of the government for the
Thirteen Colonies, and the evolution of
the governed. But in the Philippines
we have conditions vastly divergent
from those which prevailed in the
Thirteen Colonies. The natives of the
Philippines have been governed by q
race which sought by every species of
oppression, from the inquisition and
the auto-da-fe, to the reconcentrado
policy of Gen Wyler in Cuba to repress
every species Of liberty, and to rivet
nal slavery. Such being the case,
these people, immeasurably below the
Inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies in
intelligence or progress, are ut
terly unified, both by op-
pressive governments and opprss-
sive ev1ronm euts. for the exalted and
highly difficult functions of self gov
erment. They will, therefore,
own form of government, drift
into state of anarchy just as certain
as they ESSAY the tack.
The application of the principle
Consent of the Governed" implies
mutual and cooperative relations, as
well rs adequate conception of the
duties and responsibilities between the
government and the citizens, and Q
proper COnCeptiOn hY the latter of tn If