The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-06
Distinguished Citizens Send Petition
to the Senate.
AN ANTI-EXPANSION PLEA
PROTEST AGAINST FoRCIBLE
ANNEXATION OF ISLANDS.
Petition Is Signed By Charles
Francis Adams, Andrew Carnegie,
Grover Cleveland, and Many
Other Famous Men-Spain Would
Consent to An Amended Treaty.

ton, signed by twenty-four citizens of
the United States. and addressed TO the
senate of the United States" was made
public tonight. The signers are Charles
Francis Adams, Boston; Felix Alder,
George 5. Boutwell,. ex-secretary of the
treasury; John C. Carlisle, ex-secretary
OF the treasury; Audrey Carnegie. Gro
Yer Cleveland. Theodore l.. Cuyler.
Charles H. Charles II. Eliot. president or
Harvard university; Samuel Gompers.
president of the American Federation OF
Labor; John y. Henderson, eX-United
Hornbiower. w. b. Palmer, president of
the Rio Grande Western railway; Whee-
Ter II. Peckham. Sherman S. Rogers,
Buffalo; Carl Schurz, eX-secretary OF the
interior; Edward Burritt Smith. Chicago;
Moorfield Story, Boston; William u. sum
ner. Yale university; Rev. Henry Van
Chicago; William l.. Wilson. eX-postmas-
ter general now president of Washington
and Lee university, Virginia: Theodore 5.
Woolsey, Yale university; Henry {. Pot
ter. bishop of New York.
TO the Senate of the United States:
The undersigned respectfully submit that
the treaty between the United States and
the kingdom of Spain, now before your
honorable body, ought not to be ratified
until provision shall be inserted, as part
of its text, to the effect that the united
States shall not annex the Philippine
islands or Porto Rico, or permit their
inhabitants to become citizens. or COM
pei them to become subjects of the
United States without their free consent
and the further and express authority of
congress. There seems to be no reason
to doubt the entire willingness of Spain
to modify the treaty in these respects.
or to suppose that the delay of its ratifi-
cation for this purpose involves the slight
est renewal of hostilities.
We submit that the treaty, unless
modified, will introduce changes of far
reaching character into both the foreign
and domestic policy of this republic. The
late war was undertaken with our dis
tinct assurance that we did not look to-
of territory. 1t was undertaken, and to
this we plighted the honor of the Amer
lean nation in the cause of humanity and
liberty and for no other purpose
SENTIMENT AGAINST IT.
1.-THE public sentiment of our country is
not ready to endure the concession of
American citizenship to the FilipinOS and
Porto Ricans. But the effort will. for the
time at least, no doubt, be to hold their
islands under revenue, tariff. navigation
and other laws very different from those
in the United States TEa Philippines
and Porto Rico would. at least at the
outset, be separate dependencies under
an extra-territoriaI and eXtra-constitu-
tional sovereignty not provided for in the
constitution of the United States, and
grossly inconsistent with its entire spirit
and intention. That this sovereignty In
the case of the Philippines is eXtra-terTi-
that the constitution was established for
the United States of America. and not
for the United States of America and
Asia. That the transfer proposed is
transfer of sovereignty is obvious from
the fact that the consent of the people of
the Philippines and Porto Rico is ignored
in their transfer from Spain TO the United
States, and is hereafter to be considered
only so far as the United States shall see
fit to give it consideration.
I'VE further submit that. in the history
of our nation. there is no precedent for
an acquisition of this sort-of the terri
tory of distant nationality. peopled by
other races and belonging to another con-
tinent.
1--WE respectfully submit that, accord
ing to the principles upon which our re-
public was founded. we are in duty bound
to recognize the rights of the inhabitants
of the Philippines and of Porto Rico to
independence and seif-government, pre-
cisely as we have recognized that right
in the case of the inhabitants of Cuba;
that if, as President Mckinley declared.
'forcible annexation cannot be thought OF
in the case of Cuba, because it would, by
our code of morals. be criminal aggreS-
SION then fOrcible annexation of the
Philippines will be no less criminal ag
gression, according to the code of morals.
I'VE submit. in conclusion, that the
sober second thought of the American
people will support your honorable body
in a refusal to ratify the Spanish treaty
until its text shall be so modified that it
will beyond constitutional doubt, assure
independence to the Philippines and
Porto Rico and protect our own republic
from any danger that they shall become
American states, or that their inhab-
itants shall become American citizens