The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-06-04
is always a chance for cruelty to show

e, is always chance for cruelty to sho
,r itself.
c. Our soldiers conquer; and what
M the object for hich they conquer9 L
establish military government? NJ
rs The laws we are now endeavoring
% enact for the government of the PhiliI
% pines are TO increase the power an
domain of the civil at the expense c
If the military authorities, and to rende
70 even more difficult than in the past tn
h the chance of oppression. The mil
g tary power is used to secure peace, i
}, order that it may itself be supplante
o by the civil government. The pre-
: gress of the American arms means tn
3 abolition of cruelty, the bringing O
g peace, and the rule of law and Orde
u under the civil government. Othe
y nations have conquered " create IRE
t sponsible military rule. We conque
!. to bring just and responsible civil gov
l ernment to the conquered.
0 But our armies do more than brin,
1 peace, do more than bring order. The,
: bring freedom. Remember al fay
Z that the independence of tribe or
community may, and often does, have
nothing whatever to do with the free
! dom of the individual in that tribe OF
community. There are now in Asis
and Africa scores of despotic monar.
: chies, each of which is independent
!, and in no one of which is there the
slightest vestige of freedom for the in
dividual man. Scant indeed is the
gain to mankind from the lpdepen.
dence" of bloo,l-stained tyrant who
rules over abjoct and brutalized slaves.
But great is the gam to humanity
which follows the steady though slow
introduction of the orderly liberty, the
law-abiding freedom of the individual,
which is the only sure foundation upon
which national independence can be
built. Wherever in the Philippines
the insurrection has been definitely and
finally put down there the individual
Filipino already enjoys such freedom,
such PERSONAL liberty, under our rule,
as he could never even dream of under
the rule of an "lndependent" Agulnal-
dian oligarchy.
| The slowly-learned and difficult art
OF government, and art which our
people have taught themselves by the
labor OF thousand years, cannot be
grasped i'll day by people only just
emerging from conditions of life which
our ancestors left behind them in the
dim ears before history dawned. We
believe that we can rapidly teach the
people OF The Philippine Islands not
only how to enjoy, but how to make
good use of their freedom; and with
their growing knowledge their growth
in self-government shall keep steady
pace. When they have thus shown
their capacity for real freedom by their
power and self-government, then, and
not till then, will il be possible to de-
eide whether they are to exist inde-
pendently of us or be knit TO us by ties
of common friendship and interest.
When that day will come il is not in
human wisdom to foretell. All that
we can say with certainty is that it
would be put back an immeasurable
distance if we should yield to the
counsels of unmanly weakness and turn
loose the Islands to SEQ our victorious
foes butcher with revolving cruelty our
betrayed friends, and shed the blood
of the most humane, the most enlight-
ened, the most peaceful, the wisest and
the best of their own number-for these
are the classes who have already learn.
ed to welcome our rule.
Nor, while fully acknowledging our
duties TO others, need we forget our
duty to our own country. The Pacific
seaboard is as much to us as the At
lantic; as we grow in power and pro-
that farthest west which is the i'm
nof NI,o
destiny has already reached to the
shores of Asia. The might of our peo-
pie already looms large against the
world.hOiizon; and it will loom ever
larger as the years go by. No states
man has right To- neglect the interests
of our people in the Pacific; interests
which are important to ali our people,
hut which are of most importance to
those of our people who have built pop
ulous and thriving States on the
Western slope of our continent.
This should no more be party
question than the war for the Union
should have been party question.
At this moment the man in the high
est Office in the Philippine Islands is
the Vice Governor, Gen. Luke
Wright, of Tennessee, who gallantly
wore the gray in the civil war, and
who Is now working hand in hand
with The head of our army in The Phil
ippines, Adna Chaffee, who in the
civil war gallantly wore the blue.
Those two, and the men under them,
from the North and from the South,
in civil life and IN military life, as
teachers, as administrators, as soldiers,
are laboring nightly for us who live
at home. Here and there black sheep
are to be found among them; but
taken as whole they represent as
high standard of public service as
this country has ever seen. They are
doing great work for civilization, q
great work for the honor and the inter
est of this nation, and above all for the
welfare of the inhabitants of the Phil.
ippine Islands. ALI honor TO them
and shame, thrice shame, to us, il we
fail to uphold their hands.
The applause accorded the President
as he concluded was long and continu.
GUS, and as he took his seat some one
cried out: "Three cheers for our brave
: President" whereupon might,
shout went up from the throats Of
: thousands who had crowded into every
available spot to hear him.
--s~--s.-Un.s---
Harley amith a wealtbu forn,a, H.,