The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-13
TAFT ACCORDS HONOR
 TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

dWelt upon the postulate set forth in that instrument that all men are ere ated equal and he insisted that in so far as the constitution recognized slavery, and in so far as slavery was an institution of our government, 1t was departure from the declaration of inpendence and it is possible to quote from his writings and speeches, which taken from their text and made appli- able to the republican policy in the Philippines would seem to be at vari- ance with it. But when we under stand what it was that MT. Lincoln was attacking and compare it with what it is that we have done and are doing in the Philippines, it will be seen that the two things are so diff ferent that 1t is utterly unsafe to as- sume that his attitude toward he policy of expansion and our Philippines policy would be the same as his attitude to- ward the institution of human slavery. He maintained that the words all men are created free and equal included the colored as well as the white man, but affirmed with great emphasis that he did not mean that men who were thus declared equal, were necessarily fitted at once to be voters or take equal part in the government. What he con tended was that they were at once en- titled to the bread they earned and should be given the right of life and the pursuit of happiness.
 Not Dogmatic.
 Lincoln was not a man stiffly dog matic. He was a man who allowed the application of his principles to be controlled by the fitness of things. Had he been in the seat occupied by Me r--r II xr.1 to him after the Spanish war as to what should be done with respect to the Philippines, there is nothing in his career, nothing in any of his speeches properly understood, which would have prevented him from taking exactly the same course which Mckinley did"
 Ut is true that MT. Lincoln opposed the course of MT. Folks administra- tion in beginning the Mexican war, and that he regarded it mere quest for military glory and acquisition of ter ritory that did not belong to us. We can all remember the reluctance with which McKinly was finally brought ;o the necessity of taking up arms in be- half of the Cubans against Spain. The self denying resolution of Senator Tel Ter attached to the declaration of war relieved Congress and the country from any imputation of having as motive in beginning that war of territorial aggrandizement. Lincoln would have done exactly the same.
 The Philippines.
 "The Philippine Islands came to us with ont our design The destruction of the Spanish fleet put the Philippines at our mercy. We had no troops, however, and as a reasonable war measure, we invoked the assistance of Aguinaldo and his fel- low insurrectionsts against the power of Spain to assist us in establishing con- trol on the land until our army could traverse the TOGO miles between our ports and the Philippines. With the assistance of Aguinaldos army we took the city of Manila, and then the peace came. The question was, what course lay open to us. "Should we turn our Philippine allies hack to the government of Spain, and the oppression against which they had re- yolted? Would Abraham Lincoln ad- wise that course? I do not think so. They themselves in the nine months in- tervening tried to establish civil govern ment: and tyrannes and the insufficient cies of that government in trying to maln- tain order would have made it crime against the whole people of the islands for us thus to dodge responsibility and seek to escape the burden which Provi- dence seemed to have thrust upon us. It is true that the declaration recites that all just government must rely upon the consent of the governed; but that is to be interpreted as meaning a consent of the governed, who have intelligence sufficient | to enable them to discriminate as to what l js government in their own interest. Lin coin in his debates with Douglas did not insist that the colored men, as they were. should take part in the government as voters, but he treated the postulate, the | Declaration of Independence. as the idea ] toward which all government eahouso l work I affirm that the policy adopted l by William Mckinley and embraced bS | the republican party under which 1t is \ proposed by a gradual extending of sell