Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-05-28

brilliant soldier, Chaffee, who carried
the flag Of the United States to- Tien-
tsin and into the very heart OF the
sacred city Of Pekin and planted 1t
upon the walls OF that Heretofore Inn
pregnable capital, and displayed with
his men and officers the true gallahtry
of American soldiers and the attrib-
utes of a gentleman and worthy repre-
sentative OF the American flag. Our
people will not soon forget that when
all the world is applauding our army
and applaudlng our achievements, this
political party is hurling Its bitter
invectives against every man connect
ed with the army for the pitiful and
contemplate purpose Of winning polit-
ical advantage. The Philippines are
ours. They are ours by the conquest
Of Dewey and the army; they are ours
by the terms of the treaty with Spain;
they are ours by every principle OF
law, national and international; and
the American people will never con-
sent to the introduction into political
power of party that would play the
old piratical game of "scuttle" and
run away from responsibility even as
great as 1t is.
In the fear Of God and in the name
Of American civilization, we Will con-
troll and govern and benefit those
islands and we will repeat in the Phil
ippines on a larger scale, what we have
accomplished so brilliantly in the is
land Of Porto Rico. The American
flag has never been pulled down from
any territory that 1t ever claimed jur-
isdiction Of; 1t never will be pulled
down while a Republican President
is in the White House. Let political
dastards howl. The American people
will hold the honor of our flag and
our army and navy sacred and invio-
| late.
Let us see what we have accom-
plished in the matter OF the control and
government and beneficial conduct to-
ward the insular dependencies which
have come to us as the result of the
Spanish war. How lis it with Cuba?
We freed her from the despotism
which had crushed her life and en-
slaved her people and obliterated her
manhood for three hundred years. We
cleared up her harbors, waged an al
most entirely successful battle with the
dread disease of yellow fever. We
have made her harbors the home of
of commerce instead of disease. We
cleansed her cities. We inspired her
own people to an effort at self-govern-
ment and we handed over to her the
island of Cuba to be organized into a
republic with free popular government
by her own people, under her own con-
stitutlon, and her own flag. And in
all this we have incurred certain OBJ
legations to her and placed certain OBJ
legations upon her. By the terms Of
her constitution and the amendments
thereto which were dictated by us and
insisted upon by us, and made a con-
dition by us of releasing her from our
control, we stipulated that she have
not the freedom of trade with other
countries that Is usually incident to
sovereignty; she must not burden
herself with unnecessary debt without
our consent, SO that 1t shall be impos-
sible for other nations, to secure foot
hold in the island by, reason of bonds,
mortgages or pecuniary obligations,
and we compelled her to stipulate that
we have power to intervene to pre-
serve order and save her government
from chaos and her people from the
ravages of civil war. We promised to
preserve order there and we demanded
that we have foothold for our naval
stations, and other important conces-
sions were demanded and conceded.
And for all this and growing out of
all this and to compensate Cuba for
the limitations put upon her right of
contract with other countries, we are
under certain obligations which in
good faith must be carried out. We
have not tarnished the American char.
acter nor polluted the American flag
and by our treatment of the people of
Cuba we will not do so. AS has been
well said recently by one of our most
distinguished statesmen, 1--WE have be-
come in one sense her guardian and it
is our duty in simple justice to see to
it that she has our markets for her
products in the United States" This
brings me to question which l will
discuss farther on and in it's proper
relation to the other topics of my re-
marks.
1t Is pertinent at this point to re-
mark that our opponents during all
these bitter experiences with the re-
construction of Cuba, the enfranchise-
ment of Porto Rico and the struggle
for the civilization of the Philippines,
have been more unpatriotic than it is
possible for me to describe in words.
From the moment that, through the in
, strumentalty Of Democratic votes in
the Senate, the treaty Of Paris was
ratified and thereby the obligations of
this government were assumed and be-
came perpetual and irrevocable, our
opponents have done nothing that was
patriotic and everything that was I'M
worthy. Tell me when by word or
vote Democratic Senator or Con-
gressman or a Democrat in high Off
cial position spoke or wrote one word
or did one act to aid the government
in these hours of its greatest effort.
On the contrary, nothing has been
left uudone or unsaid which was On l.