Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1899-04-06
An Unanswerable Argument.


OF some Of our thought'ess contemporaries
who appear to believe that the endorse
ment Of colonial conquest tends to make
them solid with the administration, and
30 render them more welcome to the pie
counter. The letter WAS written in &C.
acknowledgement OF written endorsement
OF the actions Of the senator on this q,,es.
ton signed by over 100 Of the most
prominent citizens OF Boston:
II do not think there is any reason,
personal to me. for holding such public
meeting. Undoubtedly there should be
and there will he MANY public meetings
tue country over to protest against tram
ping under foot the rights Of a brave
people struggling for their liberties, the
violations Of the principles Of our con.
stitution and of the Declaration of indie
pendence, and the continuance by the
American people in the costly and ruinous
path which, has brought other republics
to ruin and shame, which will disl,onor
labor, place intolerable burdens upon
agriculture and fasten upon the republic
the shame OF what President Mckinley
has no lately and so truthfully declared to
be criminal aggressivcness. But think
it will be wiser to have meetings OF that
character y little later rather than just
now. We do not yet know whether the
present war for the subjugation Of the
people Of the Philippines is to continue
indefinitely or whether there is to be q
speedy submission to the overwhelming
power Of the United States. If the war
shall shortly he ended, We shall then he
able to discuss the question Of our ma.
tional duty free from the disturbing in
fiuences which exist always when the
country is vt war. II on the other hand
the war shall long and indefinitely con-
tinue the people will begin to feel the
burden Of increased debt and incre ased
taxation, the loss OF life and health OF
our youth and the derar cement Of trade
and peaceful industry"
Senator Hoar further says:
"rhe blood Of the slaughtered Filipinos.
the blood and wasted health and life of
our own soldiers, is upon the heads Of
those who have undertaken to buy the
people in the market like sheep. or to treat
them as lawful prize and booty Of war, to
impose government OH them without
their consent and to trample under foot
not only the people OF the Philippine isl.
ands, but the principles upon which the
American republic itself rests.
1.-THE law OF righteousness and justice on
which the great and free American people
should act, and in the end. am sure, will
act, depends not upon parallels Of latitude
and meridians OF longitude or points Of
the compass. 1t is the same yesterday,
today and forever. Il is AZ true now as
when our fathers declared it in 1915. 1t is
as binding upon William Mckinley today
as it was upon George Washington or
Abraham Lincoln. The only powers Of
government the American people can iec-
ognize are just powers, and those powers
rest upon the consent Of the governed.
mo man during this whole discussion
has successfully challenged, and no man
will successfully challenge:
"First-The affirmation that under the
constitution of the United States. the ac-
QUESTION OF territory, as Of other property,
is not a constitutional end, but only a
means to constitutional end, and that
while the making of new states and pro
viding a national defense are constitutional
ends, so that we may acquire and hold
territory for those purposes, the govern
ing OF subject peoples is not constitu-
tional end; that there is therefore no
constitutional warrant for acquiring and
holding territory for that purpose.
"Second--That to leave our own coun.
try to stand OH foreign soil is in violation
of the warnings OF our foreiathers, and of
the farewell address OF Washington.
"Third-That there was never a tropical
country governed with any tolerable sue
cess without a system of contract labor.
"Fourth-The trade advantages of the
Philippine islands, il there be any, must
be opened alike to all the world, and that
our share OF them will never begin to pay
the cost of subjugating them by war or
holding them in subjugation by peace.
"Fifth-That the military occupation
of these tropical regions must be kept at
an immense cost both to the souls and
the bodies OF our soldiers.
"Sixth-That the declaration as to
Cuba by the president and by congress
applies with stronger force to the case Of
the Philippine islands.
"Seventh-That Aguinaldo and his fol.
lowers, before we began to make war upon
them, had conquered their own territory
and independence from Spain, with the
exception Of single city and were getting
ready to establish free constitution.
"Eighth-That while they are fighting