The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-05-15
M'COMAS ADDRESSES SENATE.
He Defends the Philippine Policy of This
Government.

bill. The Senator made stirring
speech in defense of the Governments
policy and in defense of the Ameri-
can soldiers fighting their country's
battles in the Philippines.
After declaring that the war with
Spain had been forced upon the
United States by the Democrats, and
that the Philippines had come to this
country through that war, Mr.. Nc
Comas asserted that in the debates
on the Philippine question the Dem
ocrats ignored all history and ignored
the treaty which they helped to ratify.
He said they proposed to undo the
glorious work of the past four years;
to denounce our treaty; to disgrace
the Army and Navy; to throw away
the sovereignty over the islands; to
defy the verdict of the people; to re-
verse the Supreme Court, and to
scuttle, amid the fiouts and ieers of
all the nations of the world.
The benefit providedin the pending
bill, he said, was being obstructed by
the minority of the Senate, the mem
bers of which confined their speeches
to denunciations of the army. He
said that all humane men deplored
the administration of the water cure
by Americans, but he insisted that it
was not patriotic to clutch at every
charge made against our army. He
made a warm defense of General
Funston and paid high tribute to
his courage and patriotism.
In dwelling upon the benefits that
were to be bestowed upon the Filipinos
by the Americans Mr. McComas said
THE minority seek to draw away
the public mind from the dawning of
peace in the archipelago. They shrink
from discussion of the provisions of
this bill, and for days denounce cruel
ties perpetrated by American soldiers
in those islands. They do not de-
nounce barbarities and savagery of
the instructors and Ladrones. In
stead they indict our army-the whole
army-gallant youths; sons of Union
soldiers; sons of Confederate soldiers;
our volunteer soldiers in arms: our
fellow-Americans from the North and
from the South.
SIS it patriotic for American Sena-
tors to denationalize themselves for
the sake of a partisan advantage? Is
it patriotic to assume that Americans
are guilty? To deny the justice of
cOurts-martial? To denounce the
judgments of the courts without hear
ing the facts or considering the law
upon which these judgments are
based? Senators cannot gather any
laurels from patriotic people by a
I crusade against our whole army.
Let us not forget that in our pros
porous land, blessed with peace, dur
ing 16 years more than $500 lynchings
have occurred, and that 81 of the
victims were women; that only one
fourth of these executions by mob
were melted by the most fiendish
crime which so strongly tempts men
to inflict summary punishment with
out authority of law. Let us not for
get that nearly thousand of the vic
Tins were white men, Indians, Chi
nese or Mexicans. Let us not forget
that ourlsoldiers who have been gull
ty have been and will be punished,
while the thousands of citizens at
home who have abetted this barbar-
GUS custom or shared in the horrible
practice of lynching have not been
and never will be punished"
Mr.. McComas paid a glowing trib-
ute to President Mckinley, President
Roosevelt and Secretary Root. He
said:
Blind partisans abuse them, pessi-
mists decry their work, cynics sneer,
idealists revile, and timid souls de-
nounce them as untrue to liberty.
But all of them are forceful and mas
terful men of whom the nation has
reason!to.b be proud"
Discussing the alleged cruelties,
said to be practiced by American
troops in the Philippines, Mr.. Nc
Comas adverted to many such in
stances during the Civil War-instan-
ces furnished by both the Union and
Confederate forces. He referred to
Sherman's march to the sea, lighted
by the burning of bridges and ham,
let's" and to the horrors of the An
Jacksonville and Libby Prisons. He
urged, as to those prisons, that the
Confederate soldiers, as body, were
not to be charged with the acts of q
few.
He spoke, he said, in defense of the
soldiers of both the North and the
South. The army in the Philippines,
he commended, was no more Justly to
be charged with approving of isolated
instances of cruelty than were the
armies Of the North and the South
during the Civil War. He paid a
tribute to the humanity of tho Amor-