Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-02

with the ideas under which during
century and a quarter we achieved
national greatness .lii~ WIZ siic az
miration of the world
Major Norton ought to know, and II
he does not know he should early ac-
quire the information, that it is a fun
damental idea of our government, older
even than the Constitution itself, that
the inhabitants of territory acquired
by the United States in the line OF le-'
Ultimate expansion, shall become cltl-'
zens of the United States, and the ter
rfsory SO acquired an integral porticns
of our common country. This policy
was first set forth in the ordinance pro-
viding for the government OF the
Northwest Territory, in 1887, and was
followed in the instance of the Louis
lana purchase, in the Florida purchase,
in the provisions for the territory ac-
ouired from Mexico, in the Gadsen
purchase, and, lastly, in the Alaskan
purchase In each treaty, act or ordl-
nance. the language is identical as
to meaning, and provides for citizen
ship and full rights and privileges I'M
der the Constitution. But the present
administration did something very
different in the case of Porto Rico and
again in the Philippines. 1t denied Por-
to Ricans the rights they were entitled
to, even after Mckinley had announced'
his plain duty" taxed them without
representation, and made them people
without a country. without standing and
without redress, and in the Philippines
the policy has been worse, although
Dewey reported that the natives were
more capable Of self-government than
the Cubans. In short, in the language
Of a contemporary:
st was left for the Administra-
ton of William Mckinley to pervert
the policy which is older than our re-
public itself The motives which
prompted this Administration were not
the same which suggested the expan-
sion of our republic to Jefferson, Mon
roe and other Presidents. The well-es-
tablished policy of our country was set
aside for the accomplishment OF ques-
tionable purposes. 1t was set aside 10
inaugurate a system of conquest, and
to make subjects rather than freemen.
There is not to-day freeman among
the ten million Filipinos. There never
will be free man among them until
the Government of the United States
returns to the policy established by the
Congress of the Confederated Colonies,
and practiced by all political parties
from 1887 to 1898. 1t is not true that
the Mckinley policy will bring peace
and liberty to the Philippine Islands. All
it can give them will be government
such as Verres gave Sicily 1000 years
ago. The prospect held out to those
islands may be illustrated by the per-
Torrance of Rathbone and his aids In
Cuba. The only thing which will be
sure to follow colonial government
will be pillage. There never was an
honest colonial government, and there
never will be one"
let MAUI NOlIOH SIahuo AOi 'ii"'
sort of thing commends it and defends
it. Perhaps in doing so he finds the
best sidetrack leading away from his
original monstrous proposition that
the Filipinos, figh,ing for liberty, are
rebels" and that those who sympa-
thize with them are traitors and all
the rest of it. Things have come to a
pretty pass in the United States OF
America when expressions of sympathy
for people DESTROYS of freedom are to
be set down as disloyal. When the gag
is fully applied to the lips of freemen
the end of the republic will have fully
come.