The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-14
..reddy" Roosevelts speech.

THE State of New York" was responded
to by Governor Roosevelt.
mo sensible man will advocate our plung-
ing rashly into a course of international
knight errantry. and set deliberately to work
to build up a great colonial empire But
neither will any brave and patriotic man bid
us shrink from doing our duty, merely be-
cause the duty involves the certainty of
strenuous effort and the possibility of danger
Some men of high principle, from high mo-
tlves. have opposed the ratification of the
treaty just they had previously opposed
the war. just as some other men whose mo-
tives were equally high in 1861 opposed any
effort to restore the Union by force Of arms
The error was almost as great in the one
case as in the other, and will be so adiudged
by history and in one case as in the other
the two main impulses which gave. strength
to the opposition were ignoble in their very
essence-the impulse Of sloth and fear We
should not lightly court danger and difficulty
but neither should we shirk from facing
them when in some way or other they must
be met We arc a mighty nation and upon
us rests the responsibilities that belong to
all great nations We cannot avoid meeting
them. We can only decide whether we shall
meet them well or III.
We now have certain duties in populous
islands in the West and East Indies We
cannot with honor shirk these duties alto
gether. Neither on the one hand nor on the
other must we fail to perform these duties
in way that will rebound to the advantage
of the people of the islands as well as to the
honor of this Nation. II is, / am sure the
desire of every American that the people of
GdGn lSldlu DIS lHGy SllOA themselves Mt Tor
self-government, shall be given a larger
measure of self-government. But it would
be criminal folly TO sacrifice the real welfare
OF the islands and tc fail to do our own
manifest duty under the plea of carrying out
some dOctrinal idea which, If 1t had been
lived up to, would have left the entire
North American continent to this day a
hunting ground for saVages 1t is the idlest
chatter to speak of saVageS as being entitled
to govern themselves, and though it is occa-
sionally heard from well-meaning people
who believe in what they say, it usually
covers merely laZiness or fear.
IF we refrain from doing our own part
of the worlds work, then it will have to be
done by people stronger than we are. for
we will have shown ourselves weaklings.
We must give the Filipinos absolute Justice
and. above all else. 1t is essential that we
should treat them with entire frmness and
courage They must be made to realize 40
solutely that we are the masters. The in
surTection must be stamped out as carefully
as possible, but it must be stamped out. We
have put an end 10 the corrupt medieval
tyranny and by so doing we have bound
ourselves to provide against any outbreak Of
anarchy, savagery.
Let us not deceive ourselves. We have a
great duty to perform and we shall show
ourselves a weak and poor-sprited people
if we fail to set about doing ii. But if we
don't do II right the final record will be
made up even more in our disfavor. We are
no less bound to see that where the sword
wins the land the rule OF righteous law
shall follow We have taken upon ourselves
as In honor bound a great task. and every
honest and upright citizen of this Nation
should do his part in seeing TO ii that this
task is honorably and Well performed"