The Portland daily press., 1899-01-05
c CONGRESSMAN eourslll's SPEECH
Plain Talk which IL Good Easy
Reading.

we reprint from the boeton deTaiu
substantially the full text Of Congressman
Boutelle's speech to the Boston Mer
chants Association:
The more have hoard, read or seen
about the whole question, the more
have come to the conclusion that there
has been q great deal Of highfalutin sen
timent and a great many high sounding
phrases expended on it But tonight !
have heard more Of concrete horse sense
on the question than ever l have found
in the public print hitherto. (Applause.
The truth is that the American people
have gotten themselves into frame OF
mind, and that is all there Is about It..
daughter. They have Just taken up
a notion, and they are riding hobby,
and they don't want even to know the
hobby's name, but they are dead sure, II
any body says anything against their hob
by. he is a bad fellow, and they make q
great rumpus and great deal Of pound
ing of tin pans In the public streets In
order 10 beat him down. More laughter.
Now, / want to know II ever there came
from any human being any suggestion
for the annexation of the Philippine is
lands. / have never heard anything of
one. Now cannot conceive of any man
telling me, ayear ago, with the map of the
world spread out before him, looking IL
over. that he would suggest that n grea
advantage was to come to the American
people in its trade and In the shifting Of
It's moral sentiment by the annexation OF
these islands. which very few schools
children knew were on the map ~ all.
II he did, we should laugh at him.
There Is nothing In it. (Applause.
1t is humbug. 1t Is political "fetich. "
{ Laughter } 1t is war cry OF the mo-
ment. 1t Is a newspaper sensation. ZAP
plause and laughter.) That's all there Is
10 1T More APPLAUSE
Now | want IL distinctly understood
that know newspaper sensation when
see 1t. and am Lot far from making a
through this business from the beginning
this great humanitarian uprising Of the
American people (lsughter)-th,s great
apotneosis of the overshadowing benevo-
lence Of my country. (More laughter.
We could not keep ourselves within the
ordinary bounds Of citizenship and duty,
but we wanted to get up and do some
thing at which all the world would get
up and admire our bene violence and phil
something we proposed to do by seizing
some islands over there in Asiastic
waters, daughter.
To what senator Perkins said there Is
no answer. (Applause.) His statement
closes the case. (kenewsd applause. II
closes the case because he has talked
sense, and all the nonsense that can be
81 f..r .sfn
swer 1t. (hsar, h.ar.) But what !
wanted to say Is this: / want to refer to
tn stress that exiRency puts upon peo-
pie to get up arguments to ut occasions.
have heard something new here to-
night. have heard here in the city Of
Boston, right under the shadow of the
dome of the capitol of the great common
Wealth. call 1t great for don't believe
in talking about states as small things,
and you have "a great big commonwealth
here (applause)- right under the
shadow of your capitol. l say, / have
beard your chief law officer OF this great
section of our country making state
ment, which, to my mind, suggests .
question, because II the United states OF
America have not any elements OF nation
ality or citizenship about them, what in
the fury have We TO do with talking
about annexing anything.
If our distinguished friends idea is the
true one-and l don't want to discuss
the question here-I'm going skirmish-
ing away up in the direction of Arkansas
10 see If We can get together convention
of states to consider the question whether
we can annex anything. (Great merri-
ment)
How does that theory fit in with the
grandiloquent lang uage u sd the other day
py a New England college president, who
said he was going in for the annexation
Of the Philippine island because he did
not want this to be little America, but
IA big America. (Applause.) And yet
we are not big enough to spell the name
of this country with big "A" cloud
laughter.
Well, we have no citizenship. and yet
want to introduce you TO citizen of the
United States Indicating himself Ire
newed laughter.) A full-hedged one at
that Applause
The speaker here alluded to the statute
framed by the Hon Henry Cabot Lodge,
declaring how citizenship in the United
States should be exercised, and said that
II we were not great deal bigger towards
than we were To be talking about annex
alton, we should have enforced the
statutes which denied citizenship and by
which the citizens of the United States
exercised the right Of suffrage.
1t seems to me, continued the speaker,
that it Is question in portion CT the
public mind whether we really have citi-
zenship here ht all, at time when State
after State in the AmeIi lean Union is tax
lug steps to disfranchise in some cases
majority Of the male population, on ao-
count of race, color or previous condition
of servitude. And 1t seems to be q
mighty curious period Tor US to be- talk
ing about taking in from 10000, COO 10
e, 200, 900 people to become full-hedged
A merican citizens the moment we annex
these islands. daughter
How does that strike the average Ameri-
can citizens 1t seems to me good deal
like a non -sequitur. have thought from
the beginning that there is a great deal
of hum bug in this whole business. But
If this question is settled, and by an au-
thority, of course l Am simply vexing
the air. daughter. II there is simply
under our constitution some
individual ortsome gentleman who, more
or less, has the power and the constitu-
tional right and privilege to de-
termine at q given moment that the
policy and destiny OF this great republic
shall be reversed the stiller l keep the
better. daughter
But l don't believe in any such non
sense. (Applause) i am one Of $50 who
have been elected by the people of the
Uni ted States TO legislate for them. be
lave I haya "a iuht IN laOisIata. | prOpOse