Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-27
Mr.. DEPEWS SPEECH
The Right to Take and to Hold the
Philippines.
DISCUSSIONS llTHH ARE ACADEMIC
Actual Conditions That Must Be
. Faced.
EXPANSION IN THE PAST

While the Senate was considering joint
resolution Is. Ar declaring the purpose of
the United States with reference to the
Philippine Islands. and also the resolution
introduced by Senator Bacon of Georgia on
the same subject. Mr.. Depew of New York
spoke at length this afternoon. Mr.. Depew
said. in part:
There are wel1-meaning and honest peo-
pie who gather every year in London, and
did last year in Boston. to protest against
the beheading of Charles the First. But
Charles the First was beheaded two hun
dred and fifty years ago. BY his death the
chains which bound free people were
broken. Cromwell, with all his mistakes.
all his errors and all the injustice which
can be charged against him. created that
reign of individual Judgment and conscience
which has evoluted into civil and religious
liberty, which has created the commercial
spirit Of the English-Speaking peoples,
which has made them explorers, travellers,
masters upon the sea and land. as settlers
and colonizers. and has carried, with their
influence. self-government and representa-
tive institutions all over the world. 1t Is
still an academic discussion whether Presi-
dent Lincoln had the right to coerce SOW
ereign state, but the exercise of that right
saved and re-created this republic. and has
made 1t the foremost power Of the world.
There are constitutional lawyers and writ
ers upon public questions who still discuss
the power of Abraham Lincoln to issue the
emancipation proclamation but he did issue
it, slavery was abolished and the blessings
of the act are enjoyed by owner and bond
man equally, by the free states, and by
those that were once known as the slave
states.
We are in the Philippines; we are there
to stay by conquest and by treaty rights.
All which precedes the ratification of the
treaty by the Senate of the United States
Is an academic question. Still the presen-
tation of this ancient history, for the rapid
progress of events makes history speedily
ancient. has occupied much of the time
of the Senate that it is well briefly to re-
view the situation
Mr.. Depew rapidly sketched the circum-
stances eliminating in the establishment of
American power in the Philippines.
Our Territorial Expansion.
He continued:
''Territorially, constitutionally and by the
decisions Of the Supreme Court the United
States have been expanding for nearly a
century At the close of the administration
of Washington our country was bounded
by the Atlantic ocean and the Ohio river.
England on the north, and Spain and
France south and west blocked the posi-
blities of development and commercial
power. Jefferson was the author of the
Declaration of Independence of the strict
construction theory of the Constitution and
of the extreme dOctr of state rights. He
is claimed by the anti-expansion party to-
day as their example and guide. He saw
that the west must have an outlet or the
fairest portion of our country remain a will
derness He opened negotiations with Ma
poleon for harbor at the mouth of the
Mississippi and transit over its waters.
.Bonaparte had received the vast terri
tory called Louisiana from Spain for
gift to a Bourbon prince of the right to rule
a petty principally. He saw he could not
hold his acquisition against the power of
Great Britain on the ocean, and astonished
| the American " Offering tn ha
entire territory. 1t extended from the gulf
10 the Rocky mountains and the Pacific
and is the seat today of a large part of the
wealth, population and political strength
of the republic. Jefferson saw Immediately
d meaning and a sovereignty in the Consti-
tuition which opened his mind almost as
was that of Paul on his journey to Damas-
Gus. He eagerly said we WILL to the re-
mark of Talleyrand, Napoleon's famous
minister. Why not take it ALL? and for
$15, 900 900 the inhabit ants French Spanish
and Indian, and the territory became ours.
"MOnroe followed Jeffersons example,
and in 1919 bought Florida from Spain for
100000, and Pierce Arizona from Mexico
for $1,000 Go0 while Seward secured Alas
ka from Russia for $7,0OO,O00. Texas came
in by annexation, and we claimed and Great
Britain yielded Oregon to be ours by right
kee skipper had explored the Columbia
river Mexico lay at our feet crushed and
bleeding after the war. but by the treaty
of peace we gave her $1,000 600 for Cali
fornia and New Mexico. and assumed the
debt of S3390.oG0 which she owed to Ameri-
can citizens. Under the same broad gener-
GUS and wise policy of dealing with defeat
ed enemies, in confirming the title we had
by conquest to the Philippines, we have
conceded to Spain for her rights and soyer-
eighty S20,OOO.0OO.
Constitutional objection.
Constitutional objection and indiscrimi-
nate abuse preceded, attended and followed
each of these acquisitions. The grim spec
Ger of the ruined republic was each time
dragged out from the stage properties of
the spectacular drama of despair, only to
be laughed back into its crypt by prosperi-
ty, population, thriving industries. mutual
benefits to the old and new states, and the
blessings Of American law and liberty i'm
pressing the people with the wisdom Of the
expansion There have been tyrants and
usurpers, If President Mckinley is one. do
Ing these same things in the past as he
has DONE and they are Thomas jefferson
James Monroe, James K. Polk and Frank
lin Pierce.
Our country on this continent, and with
out Including the Spanish Islands. numbers
erned a republic of 1878 9S1 square miles
and 2.313 IA have been added from the
close of his administration to the beginning
of President McKiniey's.
Limitations of the Constitution.
"Our friends in South Carolina. Mssis-
sippi and Louisiana who stand shtyering
with fear lest the f1lpinos, by becoming
citizens, will have the constitutional right
to vote, or by being deprived of that vote
will become the victims Of a despotis1n more
autocratic than Russia, have found no
difficulty in excluding from the ballot a
large number of their citizens South Caro-
lima, by the new constitution of the state
| makes the requisite for voting the ability to
read understandingiy the Constitution of
the United States. and the possession of
$500 worth of property. If this test were
| imposed the Philippines it would eff
fectualy deprive the whole native pop,,la-
| ton of the suffrage They make for their
denial of-the consent of the governed the
| ingenious pea that neither by the DecIara-
| ton of Independence nor the Constitution did
| the negroes acquire rights or recognition:
| that the fathers never meant to include
| them. Certainly if9this be true, 1t applies
| with greater force to the alien races who
| inhabit the Philippine Islands, whose ex-
| istence was unknown to the signers of the
Declaration, the trainers of the Constitu-
| ton, or, in the Language of that instrument
| to We, the people Of the United States.
| who to secure he4blessings of liberty to
| ourselves and to OUR posterity do ordain
| and establish this Constitution for the
| United States tf America
by uniform legislation from the forma-
ton of the republic and by repeated and
| clear decisions of the Sunrema fNourt +hac,