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8
Towne on Imperialism.
Senator Towno's speech is of such exceptional
merit that it would bo given in full if space per
mitted. Below will bo found somo of the
strongest passages:
Mit. Towne. Mr. President, I should like to have
the joint resolution introduced by me last Friday read
for the information of the senate. (The Secretary read:)
A Joint resolution (S. R. 155) In favor of recognition of Phllipplno
independence
Resolved by tho Sonnto and House of Representatives of tho
United States In Congress assembled That justice, tho public
wolfaro, and tho national honor demand tho immcdlato cessation
of hostilities In tho Phllipplno Islands upon torms recognizing tho
indopondonco of tho pcoplo and conserving and guaranteeing tho
interests of tho United States'.
Mr. President, tho presentation on tho 10th in
stant, by tho distinguished Senator from Colorado
Mr. Toller , of a petition signod by more than two
thousand inhabitants of tho city of Manila was an un
exampled and most remarkable circumstance. What
ever tho future has in store, this document is historic.
It is spread upon tho records of the Senate. There it
must remain as long as our archives arc preserved.
To all coming ages its mute eloquence will speak
"with most miraculous organ." Either it will have
proved a quickening appeal to tho ancient spirit of
tho Republic, or, in my opinion, its rejection must
dedicato tho twentieth century to a reaction prejudi
cial, if not fatal, to free institutions.
Who are the signers of this petition? They arc
peaceable tradesmen, merchants, lawyors, doctors,
toachors, mechanics, and artisans at Manila. Whom
do they represent? They claim to
The Filipino spoak the sentiments and aspira-
xPetition. tions of tho Philippine people. Of
what do they complain? Of the as
sertion over thoin by force of arms of an alien and ar
bitrary rule. What nation thus asserts its power
against them? Tho Republic of tho United States of
America. What is it they desire? Independence and
Bolf-govornment. To whom do thoy present their ap
peal? Let tho answer bo made in tho words of tho
petition itself:
Wo liavo not hosltatcd, thoroforo, to present this appeal to tho
United States Congress, 'trusting that tholattor may hotter un
dorstaud tho r,oul alms and aspirations of our pcoplo. Thcrcforo
tho Philippine nation, bearing In mind not only tho horolo history
of America, but also hor sacred traditions, hor humanitarian doc-
trlnos, and hor domooratio Institutions, aslts of Amorloa to ccaso
hor persecutions of mon struggling to bo f reo against groator odds
and greater wrongs than thoso whtoh inspired tho fathers of tho
Amorlcan Republic. Wo ask this of Amoricans in tho namoof
Washington, in tho namo of Jofforson, in tho namo of Lincoln, in
tho namo of justlco, and in tho namo of God otornal, Judge of tho
world.
Sir, I confess that this appeal moves me. What
American can remain insonsiblo to the unhappy plight
. of a small and relatively feeble people engaged in a
hopeless contest with a vastly stronger antagonist
for tho sacred privilege of self-government? Is not
' there something infinitely pathetic iu tho circum
stance that we should today be using tho very power
conferred upon us by our liberties to subjugate a
weaker nation invoking thoso very liberties against
us and whom our own glorious example inspires to
resist our aggression? Their summons in tho namo
of Washington, Jofforson and Lincoln to challenge
justice in tho court of heaven is a most solemn adjur
ation. Novor heretofore would tho United States
have hesitated to stake its causo on such an issue.
Do wo dareto do it now?
Tho first expeditionary land force of the United
States entered Manila Bay June 30, 1898, Brig. Gen.
Thomas M. Anderson commanding. In an article
published in the North American
Military Review for February, 1900, General
Morality. Anderson says: "I was tho first to
tell Admiral Dewey that there was
any disposition on the part of the American people to
hold the Philippines if they were captured." But
apparently it was to General Merritt, who relieved
Anderson about a month later, that the full plan had
been confided. In this same magazine article General
The Commoner.
Anderson states that his orders wore "to effect a
landing, establish a base, not to go beyond the zone
of naval cooperation, to consult Admiral Dewey and
to wait for Merritt."
A sample of our frankness and good faith in deal
ing with the Filipinos meantime is given by General
Anderson in an account of one of his conversations
with Aguinaldo. The latter, ho says, asked him "if
wo, tho North Americans (as ho called us), intended
to hold tho Philippines as dependencies." "I said I
could not answer that, but that in one hundred and
twonty years wo had established no colonies, lie
then made this remarkable statement: 'I have studied
attentively the Constitution of the United States, and
I find in it no authority for colonics; and I have no
four.'
"It may bo scon that my answer was somewhat
evasive, but I was at the time trying to contract with
the Filipinos for horses, carts, fuel and forage." Sir,
tho gospel of militarism could no farther go. What a
commentary is hero on tho moral consciousness of
this ago! While entertaining designs on this man's
liberty and that of his fellow-countrymen, the Amer
ican commander deliberately lulls him into false se
curity by an ambiguous observation, and boasts of it
afterwards because it procured us "horses, carts, fuel '
and forage.
I put it, therefore, Senators, to the candor of fair
minded men: When tho President of the United States,
their late ally in tho operations against Spain, having
negotiated at Paris a treaty, not yet
President's in force, which assumed to disjposo
Proclamation, of their country, although their
duly appointed representatives had
been denied a hearing at tho negotiations, solemnly
announces by proclamation to tho world that the vic
tory over tho Spaniards is to bo by us treated as
a victory over the Filipinos also; that tho military
government of the United States "is to bo extended
with all possible dispatch to the whole of the ceded
territory," and that all persons refusing to submit to
this assumption of power are to bo brought beneath
it "with firmness, if need be;" in short, that we pro
pose to take the islands for ourselves and to shoot
everybody that refuses to acquiesce in tho arrange
ment; had ho not in effect declared war against the
supporters of tho Filipino Republic? Thereafter were
not the precise time, place, and manner of the actual
outbreak of hostilities matters of comparative indif
ference so far as tho merits of the case are concerned?
If this is so, what becomos of the war power spe
cifically reposed by tho Constitution in Congress
alono? It cannot bo said that tho President was by
this act repelling invasion. Ho makes no such pre
tense in tho proclamation, and as a matter of fact
could not have done so with the slightest reason. Nor
can it be claimed that he was suppressing insurrec
tion. There had been no act of insurrection and his
proclamation alleges none; nor, be it remembered,
could there bo an insurrection or rebellion by thoso
who owed us no allegiance.
Tho treaty had not been ratified, and therefore
even if, for the sake of argument, it be admitted that
a nation may be purchased, along with its good will,
allegiance, and loyalty, for twenty millions of dol
lars, yet tho purchase had not teen consummated.
1 ho high contracting parties had not yet formally
struck tho bargain. The blood money had not been
paid. Iho Filipinos were their own men, at least un
til the ratification of that treaty. They therefore
wero not rebels when this proclamation was written.
I hey were not rebels when it was published. They
were not rebels during tho opening weeks of that
lamentable struggle for tho right to govern them
selves in the country that God gave them, which
still continues, and in which so much of our treasure
has been wasted and so many noble Americans have
been sacrificed.
They owed us no allegiance when tho war began.
Ihey have, never assumed any since. To call them
traitors because of a transaction in which they had
Thm Hum i.o npuf,fc ad which took effect long
They Owe US after they had beguu to shed their
NO Allegiance, blood in honorable war is, even if
... .. a?y technical standing be given it
in international ethics, conduct unworthy of a just
and chivalrous nation. Fight them if you will.
PhlldVne.stro .Wrifce laW the precepts of
Christian charity in their blood and ours upon the
tropic sands, and let the flames to which wo feed
their homes flash as new beacons of civilization
across the expanse of summer seas; but spare them
m mercy's name, tho imputed infamy of treason. If
wt are bent oa slaughter lt, it be m opcu truise If
We lust for this people's laud let uSSo
enterprise with false and sinister pretense Rather
let us boldly raise tho somber flag of international
piracy, whistle scruple down the wind, and then
close in upon our feeble victim to tho cry of "Loot
and glory!"
x .
If any evil-disposed person were inclined to sus
pect that this ill-starred conflict hail been desired, or
even perhaps connived at, by our officers, he could
certainly cite corroborative circumstances. He
might, for example, quote the following statement
in General Otis's report explaining the occasion for
his dispatch of February 8, 1899, commanding General
Miller to attack Iloilo:
" It was very important, for overmastering polit
ical reasons, to take possession of these southern
ports;" and it certainly could not be deemed a wildly
improbable guess that tho ocenr
Political rences at Manila on February 4
Reasons. might have been also associated
with "overmatering political rea
sons." lie perhaps would seo some relevancy in the
statement made by Gen. 0. McC. Reeve, of Minnesota,
a man I personally know to bo of unimpeachable
voracity, who was in command of tho police of Manila
at this time, and who reports that on tho day follow
ing this first shooting General Torres came with a
flag of truce from Aguinaldo to express the latter'a
regret that fighting had occurred, and to say that it
had begun accidentally and that Aguinaldo wanted it
stopped and desired tho establishment of a suitable
neutral zone between the two armies in tho interest
of peace; but that General Otis refused these over
tures, declaring that "the fighting having once begun
must go on to tho grim end." This alleged occur
rence General Otis has since qualified, though without
essential contradiction; but General Reeve's account
is quite harmonious with the following dispatch sent
by General Otis to the War Department February 8:
"Aguinaldo now applies for a cessation of hostilities
and conference. Have declined to answer."
t And this, sir, so far as I am advised, has been our
attitude oyer since. "No parley; surrender or exterm- s
ination," is the cry. Ah! sir, this seems to me strange
language for tho opening of the
Thirst for twentieth century, that halcyon era
Blood! of peace and the humanities of
which poets have sung and philoso
phers have dreamed during so many ages; an inexpli
cable motto for a people dedicated to liberty and
heretofore the champion of human brotherhood. Na
poleon said, "Scratch a Russian and you will find a
Tartar." I have sometimes thought as I have seen
this passion for slaughter inflame and distort the faces
of good men in whom the frenzied appeal of party
orators appeared to move the primal instincts of sav
agery,. that after all the original cave man may lurke
just under the modern skin. And now and then, even
within these storied walls, when I have looked on
crowded galleries stirred to applause by the easy trick
of arousing our inherited barbarism, the panorama of
the centuries seemed to roll back on itself, and one
might almost fancy that one stood in Ancient Rome
when the populace had assembled to see the gladiators
die "to make a Roman holiday." Hero were the same
eager faces, the same gleaming and pitiless eyes, the
same tense and horrible expectancy; and, except that
here the victim was present only in imagination, one
might uhink the next instant to hear the shrill cries
of "Habet," "Habet," as the catastrophe to the dread
drama came.
w
Sir, if what I have Baid conveys even an approx
imator correct idea of the present state of the sup
posed "balance" among tho coordinate branches of
the Government, is not the pro
Death Of posed policy of irresponsible and
a Republic. arbitrary rule in the Philippines a
matter of immediate and overwhelm
ing concern from the standpoint of our own consti
tutional liberties?
Senators may grow eloquent over the prospect of
a great commerce in tho East, which, I maintain, we
can more securely and more profitably develop throuffh
friendly arrangement with a Philippine republic than
through the forcible exploitation of an oriental de
pendency; and may please their fancy with dreams of
conquest and military glory which involve a depar
ture from every ideal of our history, but to me the
preservation of our constitutional system as the
framework of realized political freedom and the
pledge of the world's future progress is an obiect of
supreme importance. In tho language of Webster:
If dlsSroi2i?vSrthm,Mai(iS borno or H"ir effects overcome.
xl uibiibtrous war should sweep our commerco frnm thn nnn
yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fail fin.i
monn01 reco.n8tricb the fabrio of demolished govern
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