The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-02-26
HOAR AND PLATT.

Not he of New York, but the Sen
ator from the Nutmeg State, and Mas
sachusetts' rattle Drained senior Sen
ator, The question was the course of
the nation in the Philippines. Mr.
Hoar had gone over again his absurd
ground in respect of Aguinaldo's ere
public and 1.-THE consent of the gov
erned, " mixing up Chatham famous
declarations of encouragement to King
Georges unruly American subjects,
Patrick Henry's speech in the Vir-
ginia house of burgesses, Warren's adj
dress at Bunker Hill, Halleck's Marco
Bozzaris, the Declaration of Independ-
ence, ETC., ETC., in crazy tumble,
and confounding the American col
onists and the situation that existed
on these shores in 1776, with the Fill
pinos and the conditions existing in
the Philippine islands. 1t was all the
conception of a statesman gone utterly
daft He sneered at the efforts of the
government of the United States to
establish schools in the Philippines,
and other civilizing agencies, and
brought up again the circumstance of
the petition he presented in the Sen
ate, year ago, of 1000 Filipinos of
Manila for independence
1t sometimes becomes necessary to
notice lunatic, and Senator Platt of
Connecticut took in hand this SEN
atorial lunatic from Massachusetts,.
The Senator's reply to his distraught
colleague would have quoted man
not utterly devoid of sense and reason
but it had ON Mr. Hear or,y the effect
to set him to ranting again. Sub
joined are some extracts from Mr..
Platt's speech, Respecting the ''peti-
ton" the Senator pertinently said:
From this petition of 1000 people in
the city of Manila, and from these
resolutions which were passed i'll the
town meetings, expressing desire fol
independence, the Senator considers
that the fact has been conclusively es
tablished that all the people of the
Philippine Islands are or were thel
earnestly DESTROYS of independence.
What is the fact Mr.. President
The city of Manila is city of 300, 00
inhabitants; l think more than tha
between 300, 900 and 400, 600 inhabit
ants. Here was petition which w
have right to suppose was signed b.
all the people who could be found t
sign it in the city of Manila; an
whether they were men or women o
children, who they were that signe
that petition, how it was obtained
we know nothing, but it is parade
here now, as it was then, as conclr
sive evidence which must not be que'
toned, that the people of Manila a
desire independence, and that we al
proceeding to stihe their desire fC
liberty and independence
Then we come TO the resolution
that were said to have been signed
town meetings. How they were pr
cured, by whom they were SUGGESTED
whether by the junta at Hong Kon
or in Boston, nobody knows. The
had suspicious similarity which il
dictated that they had been prepart
in some one source outside of tho
towns. They read and appeared We
much as that class of petitions whi'
we here in the Senate called MACH
petitions, which come to us ON prir
ed heads from all over the country
occasions.
But / insist that however honest
they might have been obtained, a
however honestly the petition of e
people in city of 300, 600 inhabital
or over might have been obtained,
is not, and was not then, to be regal
ed as conclusive evidence of deter
nation not to accept the governmC
of the United States in the Philip.
islands and its sway.
Then having thus established wi
the Senator supposes is the fact, hi
ing produced what he seems to thi
incontrovertible proof Of that fact,
asks what has happened since
change the minds of the people.