The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-02-24
MANKATC FREE PRESS,


! who have asserted that we had no bust
ness to take the Philippines by saying:
| What nation was ever able to write
an accurate program of the war it was
entering, much less decree in advance
the scope of its results?
Congress can declare war, but a
higher power DEGREES it bounds and
fixes it's relations and responsibilities.
The president can direct the movements
of soldiers in the field, and fleets on the
sea- but he cannot forecast the close of
such movements or prescribe their
limits. He cannot anticipate or avoid
the consequences but he must meet
them No accurate map of nations en-
gagged in war can be traced unit the
war is over, nor can the measure of re-
sponsibility be fixed till the last gun is
fred and the verdict embodied in the
stipulations of peace"
Referring to the fact that'the Philip
pines could not have been turned back
to Spain as no true Americanwould have
consented to such move, he said:
Even if unwilling to accept Them
ourselves, it wouldshave been a weak
evasion of manly duty to require Spain
to transfer them to some other power
or powers and thus shirk our own re-
sponsibility. Even if we had, as we did
not have the power to compel such a
transfer, it could not have been done
without the most serious international
complications
| Such course could not be thought
Of And yet, had we refused to accept
the cession of them, we should have had
no power over them, even for their own
good. We could not discharge the re-
sponsibilities upon us until these islands
became ours, either by conquest or
treaty. There was but.one alternative,
and that was either Spain or the United
States in the Philippines. The other
suggestions eys.should be tossed
into the arena for the.strife of nations
OF to be lost to the anarchy and chaos of
no protectorate at all-were too shame
full to be considered"
Again he said:
Cur concern was not for territory
or trade, or empire, but for the people
whose interests and destinies, without
our willing it, had been put in our
hands X x x x Did we
need their consent to perform great
act of humanity? We had it in every
act of their hands, in every hope of
their hearts. Was it necessary to ask
their consent to capture Manila, the
capital of their islands? Did we ask
their consent to hberate them from
Spanish sovereignty, or ito enter Ma
nilla bay and destroy the Spanish sea
power there? We did'not ask these; we
were obeying higher moral obligation
which rested on us, and which did not
require anybody's consent. We were
doing our duty by them with the con-
sent 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 con-
sent
Indeed, can any one tell me in what
form it could be marshalled and ascer-
tanned until peace and order, 80 neces-
sary to reign of reason, shall be secured
and established?'
Here is an unswerable argument to
the feeble whine of Senator Hoar and
others that we cannot do anything in
the Philippines until we have asked
their consent.
Turning to the future of the islands
he said mo one can tell today what is
best for them or for us. | know not at
this hour who is wise enough or suf-
! ficiently informed to determine what
form Of government will best subserve
their interests and our interests" Who
can successfully deny this statement
He declared that he believed that the
matter could be safely trusted to the
consciencd and judgment of the Ameri-
can people as he knew of no better nor
safer human tribunal than the people
In closing he declared he had no i'm
perial designs, and said:
81 have no light or knowledge not
common to my countrymen. do not
prophesy. The present is all absorbing
to me, but cannot bound my vision by
the blood stained trenches around Ma
nilla, where every red drop, whether
from the veins of the American soldier
or misguidee 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 pas
cod Sbo1 hauQ haoono tho ooppc upd