The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-02-07

Here is the letter INTENDED 10 reau III
regard to Otis's pledges or promises to
to this man i'm his first official cOmmunica-
ton, and remember, Senators, that Otis
was there as the Governor-Gencral OF the
of the United States, our representative
with full authority to do as he pleased or
rs in his judgment was best for this coun-
try. Here is what he wrote to this man
September 8, 1893:
Rather than see the ships of the Navy of the
United States controlling the naVigable wat
ers Of these Islands and It's Army devastating
their territory, 1 would greatly prefer to advise
my Government that there Is no longer need
TO send more of Its troops to this section OF the
country and that those whom 1t holds waiting
on its Pacific slope can be remanded 10 thelr
homes or employed elsewhere, as 1t may de-
terminc. ..'..'.-. "a 49,.
People will say that Otis had no author
ity to bind the United States. Mind you,
ne had disclamed any authority, but here
he was expressing that feeling as one
which actuated him and the American peo-
pie. He did not know the President was
going to change his mind.
But I will go back without further touch
ing the point as to our bad faith: Without
adding to the mountain of evidence pro-
duced by the Senator from Washington
ject, without appealing to the equities in
this case, we will come down to the legal
principles Of international law.
First, the Filipinos had revOted and
were fighting for, their liberty before we
declared war with Spain. Second, they
had conquered the archipelago and had
possession Of it, and Aguinaldos author
ity was recognized throughout it except III
the Mohammedan islands in the south: |
might-but will come to that later II l
do not forget it; believe / will do it now
60 foor r
Question why. in dealing with those peo-
ple, we selected the barbarians, the saw
ages, the Mohammedans, who practice
pOlygamy, to treat with pacitically and to
bribe or buy their allegiance, and took the
Christians, who acknowledge the same
God as we do and the same Christ, as the
targets for. our bullets, under the plea that
they must submit abjectly and absolutely
to whatever we told them?
II, as some people proclaim, and have
grown q little nauseated at the continued
into partnership with God in this busi-
ness why did we not recognize those who
acknowledge His,Son and treat with them
as one Christian should treat with
another rather than present to their
bpeomss our bayonets and say, Get. on
your knees, surrender your liberties,
your iiYasyyour property, and al yo'l hold
dear 70 the dictation Of our pee nout
any guarantees, or we will shu.t to
Hguinaldo sent his representative, Agon-
Fctllo, here in October, 1893, think it was.
He begged and pleaded with the President
for some recognition, some indication as
to what the purpose of the President was.
Aguinaldo himself, being the representa-
tive Of his people and having their conf
dence and love, their dictator, If you
please, with absolute autocratic power, as
this correspondence shows, was forced to
do certain things and to maintain an atti-
tude OF resistance, because his own SOL
diers would have shot him to death II they
had felt that he was willing to have the
United States authority substituted for
that Of Spain. No autonomy or recogni-
ton of the aspirations of the Filipinos for
sclf-governmcnt was allowed.
But to get back to the proposition; these
people had conquered their liberties from
Spain before we conquered Manila. We
helped them Well and good. That did not
give us any more title to their property or
to their land than it did the French when
they helped us in the Revolutionary war:
The legal status was that the Filipinos had
a government of their own, and we had
only Manila, The treaty OF peace came!
we'made demand.
The President went West; he held his
ear to the ground, so the newspapers
stated; he was applauded everywhere on
his way in Iowa. Illinois, and other West
ern States when he spoke about the flag
having been planted on lands watered by
the blood Of our soldiers and asked who
would "tear it down." He thought he was
doing popular thing. l can not believe
he thought he was doing a right thing.
So he demanded that the islands should be
bought, giving S20,0OO,000 for something
that Spain did not possess, which Spain
could not deliver. Spain's ri ght, title, and
interest, whatever that was, passed to us.
That is the legal status.
Now, what is the legal result? Did we
get any title? / say no. / could not get
any property in this city or in any other
place on such conditions. l have got to go
into court; I have got to have delivery fol-
low the deed; have got to prove that the
property belonged to the man who sold it.
We can not prove Spains title. We there
fore simply bought what Spain did not
have-the legal title to the Philippine
islands at the point Of the bayonet. So
whatever title we now possess rests upon
conquest and conquest only. Here is an
undOubted authority as to the law OF the
case.
Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries,
volume l, page 17s. referring to territories
added or acquired, said:
Full sovereignty can not be held to have
passed by the mere words of the treaty with
out actual delivery. To complete the right OF
property, the right to the thing and the posses
sion of the thing must be united. This Is q
necessary principle In the law OF property IN
all SYSTEMS ofjurisprudence. y
The general law of property applies to the
right Of territory no less than to other rights
Ia of NJ ha
to this principle, and the conventional law OF
nations is full of instances of this kind.
In treatise on international law by Sir
Shurston Baker, just published, at Boston,
by Little, Brown Il Co., Mt page 81, that
author says:
In modern times sales and transfers of ma
tional territory To another power can only be
made by treaty or some solemn act OF tne
sovereign authority of the State. And such
transfers of territory do not include the al
lcgancc of its inhabitants without their con-
sent, express or implied.
At page 355 the same author says:
The rule of public law with respect to the al
legiance Of the inhabitants of Il conquered ter.
rtory Is, therefore, no longer to be interpreted
as meaning that II Is absolutely y ana tncondl,
tionally acquired by conquest, or transferred
and handed over by treaty aS a thing assign
able by contract and without the assent OF the
subject.
On tne contrary, inc eNpTcss oT llllpilcu as,
sent of the subject is now regarded as essential
to q complete new allegiance.
We have only got the color OF a claim,
but no title. Are those people, then re-
bells? have not noticed that word being
used so much in the dispatches recently.
They are now called Insurgents: But il
they were insurgents, against whom did
they rise? Spain. They never rose
against us. We began war on them by
shooting down one of their men, The
President issued his proclamation in De-
cembcr, six weeks before the ratification
of the treaty of peace, proclaiming his puIr-
pose to annex and control those islands
| ahSolutelY. He had no lazy for it: he had