The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-09-14

eminent. As protectorate power we
could not initiate action, but would be
compelled to follow and uphold a people
with no capacity yet to be alone. In the
one case we can protect both ourselves
and the Filipinos from being involved
in dangerous complications, in the other
we could not protect even the Filipinos
until after their trouble had come Be
sides, if we cannot establish any govern
'ment of our own without the consent Of
the governed, as our opponents contend.
then we could not establish stable gov
eminent for them or make ours protecto-
rate without the like consent and neither
the majority of the people nor minority
Of the people have invited us to assume
it. We could not maintain protectorate
even with the consent of the governed
without giving provocation for conflicts
and possibly costly wars. Our rights in
the Philippines are now free from outside
interference and will continue so in our
present relation. They would not be thus
free in any other relation. We will not
give up our own to guarantee another
sovereignty.
Our title is good. Our peace commits
sioners believed they were receiving
good title when they concluded the treaty.
The executive believed it was good title
when he submitted it to the senate Of the
United States for its ratification. The
senate believed 1t was a good title when
they gave it their constitutional assent,
and the congress seems not to have doubt
ed its completeness when they appropri-
ated $20,000,000 provided by the treaty.
If any who favored its ratification be-
lieved it gave us bad title, they were
not sincere. Our title is practically iden-
teal with that under which we hold our
territory acquired since the beginning Of
the government and under which we have
exercised full sovereignty and establish
ed government for the inhabitants.
1t is worthy of note that no one out
side of the United States disputes the
fullness and integrity of the cession.
What, then, is the real issue on this sub
ject? Whether it is paramount to any
other or not it is whether we shall be
responsible 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 RESPONSE
BILE for the forcible and arbitrary gov
eminent on our part and with only the
embarrassment of a protectorate which
draws us into their troubles without the
power of preventing them.
Must Accept Obligations.
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 re-
sultant obligations and when they make
treaties must keep them.
Those who profess to distrust the lib
eral and honorable purposes of the ad-
ministration in its treatment Of the Phil
ippines are not justified Imperialism
has no place in its creed or conduct.
Freedom is a rock upon which the Re-
publican party was built and now rests.
Liberty is the great Republican doctrine
for which the people went to war and
for which a million lives were offered
and billions of dollars expended to make
it lawful legacy of all without the con-
sent of master or slave. There is a strain
of i'll concealed hypocrisy in the anxiety
to extend the constitutional guarantees to
the people of the Philippines while their
notification is openly advocated at home.
Our opponents may distrust themselves,
but they have no right to discredit the
good faith and patriotism of the ma
jority of the people who are opposing
them. They may fear the worst form
of Imperialism with the helpless Fill
pinos in their hands, but If they do 1t 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 profess to represent.
The Republican party does not have
to assert its devotion to the Declaration
of Independence That immortal instru-
ment of the fathers remained unexeeut-
ed until the people under the lead of the
Republican party In the awful clash of
battle turned its promises into fulfill
ment. 1t wrote into the constitution
the amendments guaranteeing political
equality to American citizenship, and it
has never broken them or counseled 9th
ers in breaking them. 1t will not be
guided in its conduct by one set of prin-
ciples at home and another set in the
new territory belonging to the United
States.
If our opponents would only practice
as we'll as preach the doctrines of Abra-
ham Lincoln, there would be no fear for
the safety of our institutions at home
or their rightful influence in any terri
tory over which our flag floats.
Empire has been expelled from Porto
Rico and the Philippines by American
freemen. The flag of the republic now
floats over these islands as an emblem
of rightful sovereignty. Will the repub-
lie stay and dispense to their inhabitants
the blessings of liberty, education and
free institutions or steal away, leaving
them TO anarchy or Imperialism?
The American question is between duty
and desertion. The American verdict
will be for duty and against desertion.
for the republic against both anarchy and
Imperialism.
The country has been fully advised of
the purposes of the United States in
China. and they will be faithfully ad-
hered to, as already defined.
The nation is filled with gratitude that
the little band, among them many of our
own blood, who for two months have
been subjected to privations and peril by
the attacks of pitiless hordes at the Chi
nese capital, exhibiting supreme courage
in the face of despair, have been enabled
by Gods favor to greet their rescuers
and find shelter under their own flag.
The people not alone of this land, but
of all lands, have watched and prayed
through the terrible stress and protracted
agony of the helpless sufferers in Picking
and while at times the dark tidings seem
ed to make all hope vain the rescuers
never faltered in the heroic fulfillment OF
their noble task.
| We are grateful to our own soldiers
and sailors and marines and to all the
brave men who though assembled under
many standards representing peoples ant