The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-11

good title when they gave it their con-
stitutional assent, and the Congress
seems not to have doubted it's complete
ness when they appropriated twenty mil
lion dollars provided by the treaty. If
any who favored its ratification believed
it gave us a bad title, they were not sim
cere. Our title is practically identical
with that under which we hold our ter
ritory acquired since the beginning of
the government and under which we
have exercised full sovereignty and es
tablished government for the inhabitants.
1t is worthy of note that no one outside
of the United States disputed the full
ness and integrity of the occasion. What
then is the real issue on this subject?
Whether it is paramount to any other or
not, it is whether we shall be RESPONSE
BILE for the government Of the Philippines
with the sovereignty and authority which
enables us to guide them to regulated
liberty, law safety and progress, or
whether we shall be responsible for the
forcible and arbitrary government of d
minority without sovereignty and author
ity on our part, and with only the en-
barrassment of a protectorate which
draws us into their troubles without
the power of preventing them.
There were those who, two years ago
were rushing us on to war with Spain,
who are unwilling now to accept its clear
consequence, as there are those among us
who advocated the ratification of the
treaty of peace, but now protest against
its obligations Nations which go to war
must be prepared to accept its resultant
obligations, and when they make treaties
must keep them.
SAYS HE'S NOT AN IMPERIALISM. z
Those who profess to distrust the lib
eral and honorable purposes of the Adj
ministratiOn in its treatment of the
Philippines are not justified. Imperialism
has no place in its creed or conduct.
Freedom is a rock upon which the Re-
publican party was builded, and now
rests. Liberty is the great Republican
doctrine for which the people went to war,
and for which d million lives were offered
and billions of dollars expended to make
It a lawful legacy of all without the con-
sent of master or slave. There is strain
OF ll-concealed hypocrisy in the anxiety
TO extend the constitutional guarantees to
the people of the Philippines, while their
qualification is openly advocated at home.
but they have no right to discredit the
good faith and patriotism of the majority
of the people, who are opposed to them;
they may fear the worst form of imperial
ism with the helpless Filipinos in their
hands; but if they do, it is because they
have parted with the spirit and faith of
the fathers and have lost the virility OF
the founders of the party which they pro-
TESS to represent.
The Republican party doesn't have to
assert its devotion to the Declaration OF
Independence. That immortal instrument
of the fathers remained unexecuted until
the people under the lead of the Republic
can party in the awful clash Of battle
turned it's promises into fulfllment 1t
wrote into the Constitution the amend
ments guaranteeing political equality to
American citizenship, and it has never
broken them or counselled others in
breaking them. 1t will not be guided in
its conduct by one set of principles at
home, and another in the new territory
belonging to the United States.
If our opponents would only practice as
we'll as preach the doctrines of Abraham
Lincoln, there would be no fear for the
safety of our institutions at home or
their rightful influence in any territory
over which our flag floats
Empire has been expelled from Porto
Rico and the Philippines by American