The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-22
FIRST Duty OF VOTERS
ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE SAYS
1T is TO SUSTAIN THE CON-
STITUTION
URGED TO VOTE FOR BRYAN
Signers So Advise, Though They Do
Not Agree With His Views
on Some Political
Beliefs

list league issued the following address to-
night to all independent voters in the
United States:
The undersigned citizens Of the United
States regard with profound apprehen-
sion the course of the present admins
tration in Porto Rico and the Philippines
Our prior acquisitions were of adjacent
territory for the extension of the area
Of constitutional government and the ere
alton of new states of the Union. We
made their few inhabitants citizens; our
people settled them; we there established
the institutions of freedom. For the first
time In our history ut is now proposed
that the president and congress shall rule
vast territories and millions of men out
side our constitutional system. Officials
sworn to support the constitution and de-
irving all their powers therefrom have
acquired colonies and assumed arbitrary
authority to govern their inhabitants
without consent and to tax them without
representation. The policy offers to the
people of Porto Rico and the Philippines
no hope of independence, no prospect Of
American citizenship, no representa- ton
in the congress which taxes chem. This
is the government of men by arbitrary
power; this is Imperialism.
We believe that it is the first duty of
the American people to stamp with their
dlsapproval doctrines so hostile to liberty
and dangerous to constitutional govern
ment If they are to remain free and
their government is to continue repre-
sentative, their servants must not have
or exercise any but constitutional pow
ers. Between the claim of freedom that
all men are entitled to equal political
rights and the dogma of tyranny that
might makes right, there is no middle
ground.
We have not prior to this year support
ed the candidacy of Mr. Bryan We do
not now concur in certain of his views on
minor issues. Yet his position on the su-
pren1e issues of the present campaign is
SO sound, his advocacy, of it has been so
able and courageous that we now favor
his election as the most effective way of
showing disapproval of Mr.. Mckinley s
course. Without claiming any special
example may be worth to our fellow
citizens, in this statement of proposed
action in the presence of "a greater dan
ger than we have encountered since the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth-the danger
| tina tive are to be transformed from a
republic, founded on the Declaration of
Washington, into a vulgar, commonplace
empire, founded on physical force We
invite the co operation Of al Independent
voters to avert this great and impending
danger
George S. Boutwell,, Boston. (Ex-gov-
ernor and ex-secretary of the treasury.l
. Charles Gordon, Ames, Boston.
Melville B. Anderson, Leland Stanford
Francis. Fisher Browne, Chicago. cd
itor Of The Dial.)
John Beatty, Ohio. General in Civil
War and ex-congressman)
William Birney, Washington, D. G.
D. F. Bremner, Chicago.
Albert S. Cook Yale university
ID. H. ChambeT.a n Mass chusett. (EX-
governor of South Carolina.)
Charles R. Goldman Massachusetts.
Henry B; Cabot, Boston.
Noah K. Davis, University of Virginia
John Dewey, University of Chicago.
Dana Estes, Boston:
Louis S. Fowler Washington, d. G..
(Ex-United States senator)
Edwin L. Godllin,. New York Former
editor The Nation and New York Even
ing Post)
William Lloyd Garrison, Boston .-
Judson Harmon, Cincinnati. EEK at
torney general u. 50
r D. huntington, Syracuse. Bishop OF
Thomas Wentworth Higglnson, Boston.
William Gardner Hale, University Of
Chicago.
George Lincoln Hendrickson, University
Of Chicago.
Henry. U. Johnson. Ex-congressnan,
1ndiana)
Edward Holton James, Seattle, Wash.
William r. Lord, Portland Or.
Louis R. Larson, Minneapolis
John V. LeMoyne, Baltimore. (Ex-con-
gIeSSInan.)
Charles F. Lummis, Los Angeles (Edi-
tor Land of Sunshine'')
Joseph Lee, Boston.
George Gluyas Mercer, Pennsylvania.
Thomas A. Moran, Chicago CEN
Judge)
Edwin p Mead. Boston. editor New
England Magazine.
Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard univer-
sity.
Henry Loonis Nelson. New York.
Warren Olney, San Francisco
William Morton Payne, Chicago
Franklin Pierce, New York city
Arthur Latham Perry, Williams Col
lege.
II. A Rattermann, Cincinnati.
=. NJ. Rose. Little Rock
superior court)
MoOrfield Storey, Boston. (Ex-Presi-
dent American bar association.)
Edwin Burritt Smith, Chicago.
Albert H. Tolman, university of Chi
cago.
Edwin F. Uhl. Grand Rapids. eek
Ambassador to Germany
John j. Valentine. president Wells
Fargo Express company
William Woke, Chicago.
c. E. S. Wood, Portland, Or
Lew Wallace Jr, Indianapolis.
Charles B. Wildly, Cincinnati
George L. Wellington. Gu. S. Senator,
Maryland)
dH!erbert, Welsh, Philadelphia. editor
John Dewitt Warner. New York city.
(EX-Congressman
Sigmund zeisler Chicago
Charles Zueblin, university of Chicago