The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-11-09
HOAR HAS FAITH.
That the People Will Do Right In the
Philippine Matter.

Philippine Matter.
New York, Nov Ex-senator George F.
Hoar, of Massachusetts, has contri-
buted an article on "Our Duty to the
Philippines to the Independent, which
will appear today. He begins with a
review of the circumstances leading up
to the war with Spain, of which he
says:
ct think it might have been averted
and that Cuba could have been Hber-
ated by peacea1bIe means if the counsel
CT Grant and Fish had been followed
and if our public men in the senate
had remembered that they were a part
OF the diplomatic power Of this country
and that it was unbecOming in them to
indulge in bitter and singing invec-
tivcS against Spain, whether such in
vectiVeS were just or unjust. But
do not feel inclined to judge these ut
terances severely. Something, as Burke
said, must be pardoned to the spirit of
liberty and those utterances, though in
my judgment unfortunate, came from
brave humane and liberty loving souls
Continuing, the senator says that
down to January I, 1899, the American
people and the Republican party were
committed to the doctrine that just gov
eminent rests upon the consent of the
governed, and that every people has
the right to dissolve at will the pOliti-
cal connection that binds it TO another
people. In dealing with Cuba" says
the writer, I'VE acted upon those prin-
ciples, but the treaty of peace disclosed
a different purpose as to the Philip
pines, the inhabitants of which were
much nearer independence when the
treaty of peace was signed than ever
had been the people of Cuba"
Their leader" writes Senator HOar,
had been brought over to the islands
in a United States ship by the United
States authorities and was in arms at
the head of his forces with our full con
fp7I rafl nor ion sta
ment attributed to a high official in
one Of our departments, who is some
times called upon to sit in the cabinet
with the president, were actually made,
their leader had been offered by Presi-
dent Mckinley the high office of colo
mel IN the regular army of the United
States, an offer which itself is a suffi-
clent reputation of all the charges
| against him. They had framed a pro-
| visional constitution, a model of its
! kind and establishing a dictatorship
| like those established by Bolivar in
! South America to give place to a repub-
| lie as soon as the military condition
| should make it possible.
| Looking back can any sane man
| doubt the wisdom of those who desired
| to amend the treaty and to deal with
| the Philippine islands as we did with
] Cuba; to compel Spain to renOunce her
! sovereignty; to keep off all foreign ma
( lions, and to aid the islanders in es-
| tablishing their own government, ac-
| cOrding to their own desires?"
| Inc senator refers TO the eDltlet
traitor" and other harsh words, APP
| piled to those who voted against the
| peace treaty and asks:
| when the president said that forci-
bic annexation, according to cur Amer
| lean code of morals would he criminal
aggression, was he a cOpperh cad? Was
he dislOyal to the flag? Was not he a
Republican, Was there ever an utter
| ance so calculated to give courage to
| AguinaldO and his people as that?''
As to our future attitude toward the
! Philippines, Senator Hoar writes:
| THE time has come to make up YOUR
| minds. If you are to declare that YOU
| do not mean to subjugate them or to
! enslaVe them, that you viii act toward
them on the principles and spirit of
| your own declaration of independence,
| the war can be ended in an hour The
refusal to make this declaration in the
! beginning brought on this war and your
| refusal now to declare yourselves is
| what is alone responsible for it's con
| tinuance.
Now we have got to settle the ques-
| ton, which the president has reDeated-
| ~ declared is for congress or for the
| people whether we will complete the
| subsection of the FiIipinos. Whether
! we will undertake to govern them as
| subjects or serfs; or whether we will
| aid them to become a f-gOverning
| nation, either as a republic, as they
| seem to desire, or as a limited mon
| archy like Japan, or whether they shall
| exist hereafter as an absolute mon
! archy after the fashion in which we are
tanning IN power today the sultan
| of Sulu with his slaves and his harern. -
Senator HOar then writes that this
| great question has been discussed with
i a leVity, with an intolerance and with
| an appeal to low motives and to cheap
| passions rarely paralleled in political
| history.
A notable exception, he says, is Gov
| ernOr Roosevelt whose late address in
| which he maintains that suppression is
| the way to peace was a thoughtful
| and able argument worthy of serious
| consideration"
In conclusion, the senator says:
| The American people, the brave and
! just people, who made the immortal
! declaration and who maintained with
! life and fOrtitude their sacred honor,
| who established our wonderful cOnsti-
| tuition to whose Monroe doctrine is due
| the freedom of the American continent
/ from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn have
! not changed their character or their
| principles in the tWinkling of an eye
under the temptation of any base mo-
tive or personal ADVANTAGE, or under
| the excitement of war. They are sub
| ject, doubtless, as all masses of men
are subject, however intelligent or how
ever upright, to great waves of pas
sion
But their sober second thought is to
be trusted. Their deliberate action will
| be wise and just. The great passions
| by which they are stirred and by which
| their judgment is now clOuded are gen
erous, noble and humane. Reason will
resume its rightful sway and the great
| republic viii remain republic STILL
"
Wouldn't Take the Chances