The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-08
JEFFERSONIAN ANNEXATION

Administration papers are fond of
citing the acquisition of Louisiana,
California and Florida under Demo-
cratic presidents as an excuse for their
present attempt to rule the Philippines
as a conquered province with their in
habitants as subjects of imperial
power
These apologists of the Mckinley
Hanna regime ignore history in their
statement of the case. Every white in
habitant of Louisiana, Florida and
California was given the right to be-
come an American citizen. and the In
dams were guaranteed title to their
landed interests. The treaty by which
Mckinley bought the Philippines was
the first treaty ever made by the Unit
ed States which expressly denies the
right of citizenship to the inhabitants
Of acquired territory. jefferson dwelt
on the advantages of the Louisiana pur-
chase as offering IAN ample provision
for our posterity and a wide spread
for the blessings of freedom and equal
is apparently cherished by the admin
iscration as offering ample provision for
army contractors and wide spread
for the blessings of the American sa-
loon, with the suppression of desire for
self-government as a side issue.
Remembering the treatment accord
ed the Filioinos. it is worth while to
recall Jefferson's stipulation for the
protection of the inhabitants of Louis
lana They were to be given free choice
as to the country to which they should
render allegiance; they were to be pro-
tected In their homes and in all their
rights and property. If they continued
TO reside in the coded territory. they
were to have all the rights, privileges
and immunities accruing to citizens of
the United States under the constitu-
ton of our country. Thus there was
no possibility of wrong to accrue to
any one of those people. They were
not made citizens unless they elected
TO become so by their free consent. They
were not held as foreigners. as AfcKin-
ley's insular policy proposes to do with
the distrustful Tagals, as well as with
the trustful Porto Ricans.
Even toward the unciviliZed Indians
in the annexed territory Jefferson and
those who followed his counsel acted
as if the aborigines were holders of a
primary interest in the soil. They never
took from them one foot of that land
e HaA ;o.,f
certain as it was. without their consent
obtained by treaties regularly made
and ratified.
Had a Jeffersonian policy been out
lined to the Filipinos at the sutset of
relations with them there would fave
been no outbreak More important
still. if the administration had kept
the pledge made by the United States
senate, a party of the treaty-making
power, there would have been no
trouble. The senate. dominated by Re
publicans, declared that by the rati-
fication of the treaty of peace with
Spain it is not intended to incorporate
the inhabitants of the Philippines into
citizenship of the United States, nor
is it intended to permanently annex
said islands as an integral part of the
territory of the United States"
As soon as ratification had been Sc
cured, the administration proceeded to
break the promise to atoms. And still
there are people who are so ignorant
of history or so dishonest in method as
TO compare the peaceful. humane an
nexation of Louisiana with the bloody,
costly. imperial attempt at conquest of
the Tagals.
When a solemn pledge like that quot
ed is nullified by the chief executive. is
it any wonder if an alien people doubt
the good faith of the American ma
ton?