The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-16
Standing By the President.

StaHuiHS by Ine IfeSluent
We take the following comment on
| Tuesdays elections from the Wash
ingtOn Post: eve think most people
will agree that Tuesdays elections
must be construed as an emphatic
popular Endorsement of the Presi-
dents conduct in respect to the Phil
| lppines. Leaving out of the question
Maryland and Kentucky, where the
issues were purely local and domestic,
it seems to us that the vote in Iowa,
Ohio, Massachusetts and New York
admits of but one construction. In
each one of these States the Demo
Gratis, very unwisely, in our opinion,
committed themselves to the so called
| anti-imperialism cause, and compress
| ed their campaign into an attack upon
the administration. AS we thought
at the time, and as events have album
dainty proven, the eXpedient was i'll
advised. No doubt there is a very
strong feeling throughout the country
on this subject. Thousands of the
most intelligent, patriotic and
thoughtful men in all the land are I'M
alterably opposed to the acquisition
of territory in the Orient, or any
where else outside of American wa
tiers, and upon any clearly defined is
sue involving that question they
would have voted and worked with
enthusiasm for their convictions. The
Democrats, however, seem to have
overlooked the fact that the issue was
not really before the country. No
policy respecting the Philippines had
been formulated. No explicit plan
had been declared. Congress had ad-
journed, leaving the question unde-
termined. The President had no op-
ton save that of maintaining the
status quo until such time as Congress
should reassemble and take up its du-
ty in the premises. He could not have
withdrawn our forces from the is
lands, thereby virtually canceling
treaty which the Senate had confirm
ed. He could not lower the American
flag and abandon United States terri
tory, acquired under the sanction of
the National Legislature. In other
words, he could not have played the
tyrant and the traitor. Why should
the President have been assailed in
this connection? We know that the
country is profoundly dissatisfied
with the administration of affairs in
the Philippines. We have shared this
feeling ourselves. But it does not
follow that those who find fault with
the futility of Otis must condemn the
situation of which Otis is mere detail.
If the whole country were agreed in
regarding Otis as failure-and the
fact is very much like that-the coun-
try would not be committed thereby
to an abandonment of the Philippines
and the acceptance of a national
humiliation. One is a question of
machinery. The other is a question
of principle and honor. Herein, we
think, the Democrats fell short as
strategists. 1t seems to us they might
have known that patriotic men, how
eyer violently they might condemn
the idea of worldwide expansion,
would not sanction or encourage an
attack upon the President, who was
simply discharging an obvious and
inevitable duty. The President did
nothing to bring on the war with
Spain. On the contrary, we feel safe
in saying that every instinct of his
nature revolted at the thought of
war. But war came, northumberland
ing, and our title to the Philippines,
followed as a logical consequence. 1t
was not Mr.. McKinley's act. We have
no right to suppose that the cunsum-
nation was to his private liking. But
Just how he could be held responsible
for the Philippines, or justly denounc-
ed because they came into our pos
session, or fairly censured on the
score of the embarrassments subse-
quently growing out of them, we con-
fess we cannot see. And it is quite
evident that large majority of the
voters in Iowa, Ohio, Massachusetts,
! and New York have encountered the