The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-09-18
PRESIDENT McKINLEY's LETTER OF AC.
CEPTANCE.

In6 l0BJoI III WulCh ICSl1CLU MIC
Kinley formally accepts the nomina-
ton of the Republican party was
given to the public on Monday of
this week. 1t is an extremely long
document, and includes an elaborate,
careful and detailed account of the
principal events connected with the
history of the last four years adj
m~inistration. AS has been said, it
might, with few notifications, serve
very we'll as a Presidents Message,
if one were to be issued at this time.
Not far from four ffths of the entire
letter is occupied with a discussion
of the events growing out of the wal
with Spain and our relations with
Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philip
pines. In this discussion President
Mckinley reviews, step by step, the
action of the United States Govern
ment in framing the treaty with
Spain, in claiming sovereignty over
Porto Rico and the Philippines, in
establishing a form of government
for Porto Rico, and in carrying ON
war to establish it's authority in the
Philippines. AS to Cuba, the Presi-
dent says:
I'VE have'restored order and estab-
lished tranquility. We have fed the
starving, clothed the naked, and
ministered to the sick. We have i'm
proved the sanitary condition of the
island. We have stimulated indus
try, introduced public education,
and taken a full and comprehensive
enumeration of the inhabitants. The
qualification of electors has been set
tied, and under it officers have been
chosen for all the municipalities of
Cuba. These local governments are
now in operation, administered by
the people. Our military establish
ment has been reduced from 43, 900
soldiers to less than 5000. An cleo
ton has been ordered to be held on
the 18th of September, under a fair
election law already tried in the mu-
nicipal elections, to choose members
of a Constitutional Convention, and
the convention, by the same order,
is to assemble on the first Monday in
November to frame a Constitution
upon which an independent govern
ment for the island will rest. All
this is Il long step in the fultillment
of our sacred guarantees to the PEG
pie of Cuba"
The government established in
Porto Rico is described as one in
which the inhabitants elect their
own legislature, provide their own
system of taxation, and in these re-
spects have 1.-The same power and
priviles enjoyed by other Territories
belonging to the United States, and
a much larger measure of self-gOv-I
eminent than was given to the in
habitants of Louisiana under Jeffer-
SON." The history of the fight for
American supremacy in the Philip
pines is told very largely by extracts
from the instructions to the two
Commissions, the proclamatiOns
issued by the Government, and the
reports of the Commissions and of
General Otis. The President sums
up the problem, as he views it, in the
following paragraphs:
There has been no time since the
destruction of the enemy's feet
when we could or should have left
the Philippine Archigelago. After
the treaty of peace was ratified, no
power but Congress could surrender
our sovereignty Or ALLEVIATE "a foot Of
the territory thus acquired. The
Congress has not seen fit to do the
one or the other, and the President
had no authority to do either if he
had been SO inclined, which he was
not. So long as the sovereignty re
mains in US, it is the duty of the
Executive, whoever he may be, to
uphold that sovereignty, and if it be
attacked to suppress its assailants.
Would u political adversaries do
less?
1.-The American people are asked by
our opponents to yield the sovereign
ty of the United States in the Philip
pines to a small fraction of the popu-
lation, a single tribe out of eighty or
more .inhabiting the archipelago, a
faction which w~antonly attacked the
American troops in Manila while in
rightful possession under the proto-
col with Spain, awaiting the ratifca-