The Irish standard., 1900-10-27
Address to Independent Voters.

| 4Ae uHuefSlSueu ClClZenS OF the
United States regard with profound
apprehension the course of the present
administration in Porto Rico and the
philippines. Our prior acquisitions
were of adjacent territory for the ex-
tension of the area of constitutional
government and the creation 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 it is now proposed
that the President and Congress shall
rule vast territories and millions of
men outside our constitutional system.
Officials sworn to support the consti-
tuition and deriving all their powers
therefrom have acquired colonies and
assumed arbitrary authority to govern
their inhabitants without consent and
to tax them without representation.
This policy offers to the people Of
Porto Rico and the Philippines no hope
of independence, no prospect of Amer
lean citizenship, no representation in
the Congress which taxes them. 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 disapproval doctrines so hostile
to liberty and dangerous to constitu-
tlonal government If they are to re-
main free and their government is to
continue representative, their servants
must not have or exercise any but
constitutional powers. Between the
claim of freedom that all men are ell
titled 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 sup
ported the candidacy of Mr.. Bryan.
We do not, now concur in certain of
his views on minor issues. Yet his
position on the supreme issue of the
present campaign is so sound, and his
advocacy Of it has been so able and
courageous that we now favor his cleo
ton as the most effective way of show
ing disapproval of Mr.. Mckinley S
course. Without claiming any special
political influence, we unite, for what
our example may be worth to our fell
low-citizens, in this statement of pro-
posed action in the presence of "a
greater danger than we have encoun-
tered since the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth-the danger that we are to
be transformed from republic, found
ed on the Declaration of Independ-
ence, guided by the counsels Of Wash
ingtOn, into vulgar, commonplace
empire, founded on physical force
We envite the cooperation of all indie.
pendent voters to avert this great and
impending danger.
George S. Boutwell,, Boston. (Ex-
Governor and Ex-Secretary of the
Treasury
Charles Gordon Ames, Boston.
Melville B. Anderson, Leland Stanford
University.
Francis Fisher Browne, Chicago ed.
itor of "The Dial.'O
John Beatty, Ohio. General in civil
war and Ex-Congressman.)
William Birney, Washington, D. g.
D. f. Bremner, Chicago.
Albert s. Cook, Yale University.
D. H. Chamberlain, Massachusetts,
Ex-Governor of South Carolina.)
Charles r. Goldman, Massachusetts,.
Henry B. Cabot, Boston.
Starr Willard Cutting, University of
Chicago.
Noah X. Davis, University of Virginia.
John Dewey, University of Chicago.
Dana Estes, Boston.
Louis r. Enrich, Colorado.
Joseph S. Fowler, Washington, D. G.
(Ex-United States Senator.)
Edwin L. Godkin, New York. (Former
Editor of "The Nation" and IN. Y.
Evening Post.'D
William Lloyd Garrison, Boston.
Judson Harmon, Cincinnati. Ex-At-
torney General U. S.
f. d. Huntington, Syracuse. Bishop
of p. e. Church.) .-
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Bos-
ton.
William Gardner Hale, University of
Chicago.
George Lincoln Hendrickson, Univer-
sity of Chicago.
Henry U. Johnson. Congress
man, Indiana.)
Edward Holton James, Seattle, Wash.
ington.
William r. Lord, Portland, Oregon.
Louis r. Larson, Minneapolis. Tx
Judge)
John V. LeMoyne, Baltimore. Ex-
Congressman
Charles f. Lnmmis, Los Angeles. ed
itor "Land of Sunshine"
Joseph Lee, Boston.
George Gluyas Mercer, Pennsylvania.
Thomas A. Moran, Chicago. ok
Judge.)