Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-30

HoulO utl nave Uttu COuHQSO
to the Democratic party.
Right royalty did the Democratic
leaders and the Democratic masses
sustain the government and uphold the
flag during the war, and no one knows
better than Colonel Hay that the rati-
fication Of the treaty of peace with
Spain was only made possible by the
iid and support given to it by the
,emocrat. Tor whom six and half
million voters gave their votes in 1886
in opposition to William Mckinley.
Our secretary of state will not ven
ture to say that war" now exists in
| the Philippines. There is no war.
which the administration will recog-
nize as such. They tell us that the
hostilities there are between the insur-
gents and the government Having
pobly rescued the Filipinos from the
tyranny of the Spanish crown, the
president dickere1 with Spain for the
right to play the tyrant in her stead.
Having conquered Spain in all her
ocean possessions, and wrested them
| from her, he waived our right of in
demnity. and meekly sued to Spain for
the privilege of buying, with 100000
900 of American gold. her quitclaim
deed to whatever she had been able to
possess in the Philippines. The heroic
administration which had been hero
ically pushed, by an irresistible wave
of public opinion. into war against
Spain, suddenly turned its guns
against the natives of the Philippines
because they had dared to aspire to in
dependence and had protested against
being seized and enslaved in their
homes.
Benevolent Assimilation Applied.
Never for a moment did this syn
dicate-ridden and trust-scarred admin
istration offer anything to the Fill
pinos but benevolent assimilation"
I'VE will swallow you," said our be-
nignant president. but we will do it
in obedience to our philanthropy. You
shall have as much to say about your
own affairs as We think you can stand
at some future time. We will decide
when to stop owning you. 1t would
be very injurious to you to be free and
Independent as we are Our benevo-
lent syndicates desire to 'assimilate'
your mines, your forests of hard wood,
your hemp fields, and your sugar and
tobacco plantations. We can best
manage them for you, and we can best
govern you. You shall never be citi-
zens until our trusts need votes of
Malay senators and representatives to
aid them in legislation for the benevo-
lent assimilation of what is yet left to
our citizens at home
These were the inducements held out
to the Filipinos to peacefully accept
the sovereignty nf the United States.
This was the temper in which the
president undertook to forestall con-
gress, and, if possible, to commit this
nation to an un-American and i'm
perial policy. which it might be diff
cult for congress to uproot in the pres
ence of the devastations of war un-
lawfully waged by the president of the
Init Cfofa IN hn of OF in
ing the political and civil status of the
islanders, which congress had the ex-
elusive power to do.
Colonel Hay tells us that the Phil
ippines are ours, and that we can not
shirk the vast responsibility thus i'm
posed without exhibiting a nerveless
pusillanimity. We have only the Span
ish title to the Philippines, and the
transfer has not yet the consent of the
inhabitants of those islands. Suppose
at the close of our revolutionary war,
while yet Great Britain claimed SOW
ereignty over the American colonies,
she had sold them to our ally, France.
The title might have been legal and
France might have offered us "benevo-
lent assimilation" but the colonies
would have done just what the Fill
pinos are doing now.
Colonel sHay compares those of our
citizens who demonstrate against the
attempt of Republican administra-
ton to enslave 100000 of colored
race in the Philippines, with those
who in 1861 opposed the war to sup
press rebellion which had been pre-
cipitated because Abraham Lincoln, an
opponent of slavery extension, had
been made president.
Colonel Hay can find no sentence
ever uttered by Mr.. Lincoln which can
bring the slightest satisfaction to the
mind of the present occupant Of the
White House in the useless and wicked
war he is now making for power, for
plunder and extended rule" against
10000, 900 of people fighting for their
own homes. If there is indeed an in
surrection in the Philippines, it was
caused by the menace of President Nc
Kinley of benevolent assimilation"
which meant remorseless conquest. |
When he made this threat ne usurped |
the power Of congress, which can alone |
determine what shall be the relations
between this nation and those natives
of group of islands we have wrested