Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-02-17

OLlS duu Lie UldtC MCu WuOM tACy
command will have the support of the
country in unfolding our flag where it
now floats, the symbol and assurance
of liberty and justice.
What nation was ever able to write
an accurate programme of the war
upon which it was entering, much less
decree in advance the scope Of its re-
suits? Congress a declare war, but
a higher power DEGREES its bounds and
fixes it's relation and responsibilities.
The President car direct the move
ments of soldiers on the field and fleets
upon the sea, but he cannot foresee
the close of such movements or pre-
scribe their limits. He cannot antici-
pate or avoid the consequences, but
he must meet them. No accurate map
of nations engaged in war can be
traced until the war is over, nor can
the measure of responsibility be fixed
till the last gun is fired and the ver-
dict embodied in the stipulations of
peace.
We hear no complaint of the rela-
tions created by the war between this
government and the Islands of Cuba
and Porto Rico. There are some, how
ever, who regard the Philippines as in
a different relation; out, whatever
variety of views there may be on this
phase of the question, there is univer-
sal agreement that the Philippines
shall not be turned back to Spain. No
true American consents to that. Even
If unwilling to accept them ourselves,
it would have been a weak evasion of
manly duty to require Spain to transfer
them to some other power or powers
and thus shirk Ii own response
bility. Even if we had, as we did
not have, the power to com
pei such a transfer, it could not
have been made without the most
serious international complications.
Such a course could not be thought of.
And yet had we refused to accept the
cession of them we should have had no
power owe them, even for their own
good. We could not discharge the re-
sponsibilities upon us until these ISL
ands became ours either by conquest
or treaty. There was but one alterna-
tive and that was either Spain or the
United States in the Philippines. The
other suggestion-first, that they
should be tossed into the arena of con-
tention for the strife of nations; or, Sec
ond. be left to the anarchy and chaos
of no protectorate at all were too
shameful to be considered. The treaty
gave them to the United States. Could
we have required less and done our
duty? Could we, after freeing the
F%ilipinos from the domination of Spain,
have left them without government
and without power to protect life and
property o to perform the interna-
tiOnal obligations essential to an indie
pendent state? Could we have left
them in a state of anarchy and justi-
fed ourselves in our conscience or be-
for the tribunal of mankind? Could
Wa have done that in the sight of God
and man?
Our concern was not for territory or
trade or empire, but for the people
whose interests and destiny, without
our willing it. had been put in our
from the first day to the last not one
word or line went from the executive
in Washington to our military and
naval commanders at Manila, or to our
peace commissioners at Paris that did
not put as the sole purpose to be kept
in mind, first after the success of our
arms and the maintenance of our own
honor, the welfare and happiness and
the rights of the inhabitants of the
Philippine islands. Did we need their
consent to perform a great act for hui
mainly? We had it in every aspira-
ton of their minds, in every hope of
their hearts. Was it necessary to ask
their consent to capture Manila, the
capitol of their islands? Did we ask
their consent to liberate them from
Spanish sovereignty OF to enter Mania
Bay and destroy the Spanish sea power
there? We did not ask these; we We're
obeying a higher moral obligation
which rested on us and which did not
require anybodys' consent. We were
doing our duty by them, with the con-
sent of our own cOnScienceS and with
the approval of civilization. Every
present obligation has been met and
fulfilled in the expulsion of Spanish
sovereignty from their islands, and
while the war that destroyed it was in
progress We could not ask their views.
Nor can we O ask their consent.
Indeed, can any one tell me in what
form it could be marshalIed and ascer-
tanned until peace and order, so neces-
sary to reign of reason shall be sucred
and established? A reign of terror is
not the kind of rule under which right
action and deliberate judgment are
possible. 1t is not a good time for the