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- The news that G0,000 American sol
diers have crossed the Pacific; that, if
necessary, the American Congress will
make it 100,003 or 200,000 men; that, at
any cost, we will establish peace and
govern the islands, will do more to end
the war than the soldiers themselves.
But the report that we even discuss
the withdrawal of a single soldier at
the present time and that we even de
bate the possibility of not administer
ing government throughout the archi
pelago ourselves will be misunderstood
and misrepresented and will blow into
flame once more the fires our soldiers'
blood has almost quenched.
"the blood of our soldiers."
Mr. President, reluctantly and only
from a sense of duty am I forced to say
that American opposition to the war
has been the chief factor in prolonging
it. Had Aguinaldo not understood
that in America, even in the American
Congress, even here in the Senate, he
and his cause were supported; had he
not known that it was proclaimed on
the stump and in the press of a faction
in the United States that every shot
his misguided followers fired into the
breasts of American soldiers was like
the volleys fired by Washington's men
againsi the soldiers of King George his
insurrection would have dissolved be
fore it entirely crystalliezd.
The utterances of American oppon
ents of the war are read to the ignorant
soldiers of Aguinaldo and repeated in
exaggerated form among the common
people. Attempts have been made by
wretches claiming American citizen
ship to ship arms and ammunition
from Asiatic ports to the Filipinos, and
these acts of infamy were coupled by
the Malays with American assaults on
our Government at home. The Filipi
nos do not understand free speech, and
therefore our tolerance of American
assaults on the American President
and the American Government means
to them that our President is in the
minority or he would not permit what
appears to thein such treasonable criti
cism. It is believed and stated in Luzon.
Paney, and Cebu that the Filipinos have
only to fight, harass, retreat, break np
into small parties, if necessary, as they
are doing now, but by any means hold
out until the next Presidential election,
and our forces will be withdrawn.
All this has aided the enemy more
than climate, arms, and battle. Sena
tors, I have heard these reports my
self; I have talked with the people: I
have seen our mangled boys in the
hospital and field; 1 have stood on the
firing line and beheld our dead soldiers,
their faces turned to the pitiless south
ern sky, and in sorrow rather than
anger 1 say to those whose voices in
America have cheered these misguided
natives on to shoot our soldiers down,
that the blood of those dead and
wounded boys of ours is on their
hands, and the flood of all the years
can never wash that stain away. In
Borrow rather than anger I say these
words, for I earnestly believe that our
brothers knew not what thej did.
THE FILIPINOS ARK CHILDREN, UTTERLY
INCAPABLE OK SELF-GOVERNMENT.
But, Senators, it would be better to
abandon this combined garden and
Gibraltar of the Pacific, and count our
blcod and treasure already spent a pro
fitable loss, than to apply any acade
mic arrangement of seif-governinent
to these children. They are not capa
ble of self-government. How could
they be? They are not of a self-gov
erning race. 'I hey are Orientals, Ma
lays, instructed by Spaniards in the
latter's worst estate.
They know nothing of practical gov
ernment except as they have witnessed
the weak, corrupt, cruel, and capri
cious rule of Spain. What magic will
anyone employ to dissolve in their
minds and characters those impressions
of governors and governed which three
centuries of misrule has created?
What alchemy will change the oriental
quality of their" blood and set the self
governing currents of the American
pouring through their Malay veins?
How shall they, in the twinkling of an
eye, be exalted to the heights of self
governing peoples which required a
thousand years for us to reach, Anglo
Saxon though we are?
Let men beware how they cmploy
me term ''self-government." It is a
sacred term. It is the watchword at
he door of the inner temple of liberty,
for liberty does not always mean self
government. Self-government is a me
thod of liberty the highest, simplest,
best and it is acquired only after
centuries of study and struggle'and ex
periment and instruction and all the
elements of the progress of man. Self
government is no base and common
thing, to be bestowed on the merely
audacious. It is the degree which
rowns the graduate of liberty, not
the name of liberty's infant class, who
have not yet mastered the alphabet of
freedom. Savage blood, oriental blood.
Malay blood, Spanish example are
these the elements of self-government?
We must act on the situation as it
exists, not as we would wish it. I
have talked with hundreds of these
people, getting their views as to the
practical workings of self-government.
The great majority simply do not un
derstand any participation -in any gov
ernment wlfatever. The most enlight
ened among them declare that self
government will succeed because the
employers of labor will compel their em
ployees to vote as their employer wills
and that this will ensure intelligent
voting. I was assured that we could
depend upon good men always being
in office because the officials who con
stitute the government will nominate
their successors, choose those among
the people who will do the voting, and
determine determine how and where
elections will be held.
The most ardent advocate of self
governmcut that I met was anxious
that 1 should know that such a govern
ment would be tranquil because, as he
said, is anyone criticised it the gov
ernment would shoot the offender. A
few of them have a sort of verbal un
derstanding of the democratic theory,
but the above are the examples of the
ideas of the practical workings of self
government entertained by the aris
tocracy, the rich planters and traders,
and heavy employers of labor, the men
who would run the government.
PEOPLE INDOLENT NO COMPETITION
WITH OUR LABOR.
Example for decades will be neces
sary to instruct them in American ideas
and methods of administration. Ex
ample, example; always example this
alone will teach them. As a race their
general ability is not excellent. Edu
cators, both men and women, to whom
I have talked in Cebu and Luzon, were
unanimous in the opinion that in all
olid and useful education they are, as
a people, dull and stupid. In showy
things, like carving and painting or
embroidery or music, they nave appar
ent aptitude, but even this is super
Ccial and never thorough. They have
facility of speech, too.
The three best educators on the isl
and at different times made to me the
same comparison, that the common
people in their stupidity arc like their
caribou bulls. They aro not even good
agriculturists. Their waste of cane is
inexcusable. Their destruction of
hemp fiber is childish. They are incura
bly indolent. They "have no contin
uity or thoroughness of industry. They
will quit work without notice and
amuse themselves until the money they
have earned is spent. They are like
children playing at men's work.
No one need fear their competition
with our labor. No reward could be
guile, no force compel, these children
of indolence to leave their trifling
lives for the fierce and fervid industry
of high-wrought America. The very
reverse is the fact. One great problem
is the necessary labor to develop these
islands to build the roads, open the
mines, clear the wilderness, drain the
swamps, dredge the harbors. The na
tives will not supply it. A lingering
prejudice against the Chinese may pre
vent us from letting them supply it.
Ultimately' when the real truth of the
climate and human conditions is
known, it is barely possible that our
labor will go there. Even now young
men with the right moral fiber and a
little capital can make fortunes there
as planters.
But the natives will not come here.
Let all men dismiss that fear. The
Dutch have Java, and its population,
under Holland's rule, has increased
from 2,000,000 to more than 20,000,000
people; yet the Java laborer has never
competed with the laborer of Holland.
And this is true of England and Ger
many, of every colonizing, administer
ing power. The native has produced
luxuries for the laborer- of the govern
ing country and afforded a market for
what the 'laborer of the governing
country, in turn, produced.
In Pal nan the natives are primitive.
In Sulu and Mindanao the Moros are
vigorous and warlike, but have not the
most elementary notions of civilization.
For example, they do not understand
the utility of roads. Nothing exists
but paths through the jungle. I have
ridden for hours in Sulu over the most
primitive paths, barely discernable in
the rank grass. They have not grasped
the idea of private and permanent
property in land, and yet there is no
lovelier spot, no richer land, no better
military and naval base than the Sulu
group. In Paluan. Sulu, and Minda
nao the strictest military government
is necessary indefinitely. The inhabi
tants can never be made to work, can
never be civilized. Their destiny can
not be foretold. But whether they will
withstand civilization or disappear be
fore it, our duty is plain.
OUTLINE OF THE PLAN OF GOVERNMENT
NEEDED IN THE PHILIPPINES: '"SIMPLE
AND STRONG."
In all other islands our government
must be simple and strong. It must
be a uniform government. Different
forms for different islands will produce
perpetual disturbance, because the peo
ple of each island would think that the
people of -the other islands arc more
favored than they. In Panay I heard
murmurings that we were giving Ne
gros an American constitution. This
is a human quality, found even in
America, and we must never forget
that in dealing with the Filipinos we
deal with children. And so our gov
ernment must be simple and strong.
Simple and strong! The meaning of
those two words must be written in
every line of Philippine legislation,
realized in every act of Philippine ad
ministration. A Philippine office in
our Department of State: an American
governor-general in Manila, with pow
er to meet daily emergencies; possibly
an advisory council with no power ex
cept that of discussing measures with
the governor-general, which council
would be the germ for future legisla
tures, a school in practical government.
American lieutenant-governors in each
province, with a like council about
him; if possible, an American resident
in each district and a like council
grouped about him; frequent and un
announced visits of provincial govern
ors to the districts of their province;
periodical reports to the governor
general; an American board of visita
tion to make semi-annual trips to the
archipelago without power of sugges
tion or interference to officials or peo
ple, but only to report and recom
mend to the Philippine office of our
State Department; a Philippine civil
service, with promotion for efficiency;
the abolition of duties on exports from
the Philppines; the establishment of
import duties on a revenue basis, with
such discrimination in favor of Ameri
can imports as will prevent the cheaper
goods of other nations from destroying
American trade; a complete reform of
local taxation oh a just and scientific
basis, beginning with a tax on land ac
cording to its assessed value: the mint
ing of abundant money for Philppine
and Oriental use; the granting of
franchises and concessions upon the
the theory of developing the resources
of the archipelago, and therefore not
by sale, but upon participation in the
profits of the enterprise: the formation
of a system of public schools every
where with compulsory attendance
rigidly enforced; the establishment of
the English language throughout the
islands, teaching it exclusively in the
schools and using it through interpre
ters, exclusively in the courts: a simple
civil code and a still simpler criminal
code, and both common to all the isl
ands except Sulu. Mindanao, and Pa
luan: American judges for all but
smallest offenses; gradual, slow, and
careful introduction of the best Fili
pinos into the working machinery of
the government, no promise whatever
of the franchise until the people have
been prepared for it: all this backed
by the necessary force to execute it;
this outline of government the situa
tion demands as soou as tranquility is
established. Until then military gov
ernment is advisable.
ENGLISH OR PUTCH8 SYSTEM IMPOSSIBLE
PROTECTORATE IMPRACTICABLE.
We cannot adopt the Dutch method
in Java, nor the English method in the
Malay states, because both of these
systems rests rest on and operate
through the existing governments of
hereditary princes, with Dutch or Eng
lish residents as advisors. But in the
Philippines there are. no such heredi
tary rulers, no such established gov
ernments. There is no native ma
chinery of administration except that
of the Villages. The people have been
deprived of the advantages of heredit
ary native princes, and yet not in
structed in any form of regular, just,
and orderly government.
Neither is a protectorate practicable.
If a protectorate leaves the natives to
their own methods more than would
our direct administration of their gov
ernment, it would "permit the very
evils which it is our duty to prevent.
If, on the other hand, under a protec
torate, we interfere to prevent those
evils, we govern as much as if we di
r-vuvnVtX'AS' ?ftrf.-- eurat,
rectly administer the government, but
without system or constructive pur
pose. In either alternative we incur
all the responsibility of directly gov
erning them ourselves, without any of
the benefits to us, to them, or to the
archipelago, which our direct adminis
tration of government throughout the
islands would secure.
KIND OF AMERICAN OFFICIALS NECES
SARY. Even the elemental plan I have out
lined will fail in the hands of any but
ideal administrators. Spain did not
utterly fail in devising many of her
plans were excellent; she failed in ad
ministering. Her officials as a class
were corrupt, indolent, cruel, immoral.
They were selected to please a faction
in Spain, to placate members of the
Cortes, to bribe those whom the Gov
ernment feared. They were seldom
selected for their fitness..' They were
the spawn of Government favor and
Government fear, and therefore of
Government iniquity.
The men we send to administer civ
ilized government in the Philippines
must be themselves the h.ghest exam
ples of our civilization. I use the word
examples, for examples they must be
in 'that word's most absolute sense.
They must be men of the world and of
affairs, students of their fellow-men,
not theorists nor dreamers. They must
be brave men, physically as well as
morally. They must be as incorruptible
as honor, as stainless as purity, men
whom no force can frighten, no influ
ence coerce, no money buy. Such men
come high, eveu here in America. But
they must be had. Better pure mili
tary occupation for years than govern
ment by any other quality of adminis
tration. Better abandon this priceless
possession, admit ourselves incompe
tent to do our part in the world
redeeming work of our imperial race;
better now haul dowi. the flag of ar
duous deeds for civilization and run up
the flag of reaction and decay than to
apply academic notions of self-government
to these children or attempt
their government by any but the most
perfect administrators our country
can produce. I assert that such ad
ministrators can be found.
There is one in Cuba now who. with
the words "Money is not everything."
refused S30,000 a year as president of a
corporation that he might coutinc
the work of our race in the
regeneration of Santiago, and thus an
nounced and typified the new ideal of
the Republic, which pessimists declared
had become sordid and base. And
among our 80,000,000 we have thous
ands like him. Necessity will produce
them.
Ol'R ADMINISTRATORS MUST RE EXAMPLES.
I repeat that our Government and
our administrators must be examples.
You cannot teach the Filipino by pre
cept. An object lesson is the only les
son he comprehends. He has no con
ception of pure, orderly, equal, impar
tial government, under equal laws
justly administered, because he has
never seen such a government. He
must be shown the simplest results of
good government by actual example in
order that he may begin to understand
its most elementary principles.
Such a government will have its ef
fect upon us here in America, too.
Model administration there will be an
example created by ourselves for model
administration here; and our own ex
ample is the only one Americans ever
heed. It is not true that charity be
gins at home. Selfishness begins there;
but charity begins abroad and ends in
its full glory in the home. It is not
true that perfect government must be
achieved at home before administering
it abroad; its exercise abroad is a sug
gestion, an example, and a stimulus
for the best government at home. It
is as if we projected ourselves upon a
living screen and beheld ourselves at
work. England to-daj' is the home of
ideal municipal governments. Well,
England's administration of Bombay
did not divert attention from Glasgow,
and Glasgow is to-dav is the model for
all students of municipal problems.
England's sanitary regeneration of
filthy Calcutta made it clearer that
Isirmingham must be regenerated, too.
and to-day Birmingham is the munici
pal admiration of all instructed men.
England's miracle is Eg3'pt, surpassing
the ancient one of turning rods into
serpents because the modern miracle
turns serpents into men. deserts into
gardens, famine into plenty England's
work in the land of the sphinx has
solved its profound riddle, exaulted
not England only, but all the world,
by its noble example, and thrilled to
the very soul every citizen of Great Brit
ain with civic pride in the achievements
of the greatest civilizing empire of the
world. "Cast thy bread upon the
waters and after many days it shall re
turn unto you." "With what measure
ye mete, it shall be meted to you
again."
DOMINANT NOTES OF -OUR FIRST AND
SECOND CENTURIES.
Mr. President, self-government and
internat development have been
the dominant notes of our first century:
administration and the development of
other lands will be the dominant notes
of our second century. And' adminis
tration is as high and holy a function
as self-government, just as the care of
a trust estate is as sacred an obligation
as the management of our own con
cerns. Cain was the first to violate the
divine law of human society which'
makes of us our brother's keeper. And
administration of good government is
the first lesson in self-government,
that exalted estate toward which all
civilization tends.
Administration of good government
is not denial of liberty. For what is
liberty? It is not savagery. It is not
the exercise of individual will. It is
not dictatorship. It involves govern
ment, but not necessarily self-government.
It means law. First of all. it
is a common rule of action, applying
equally to all within its limits. Lib
erty means protection to property and
life without price, free speech without
intimidation, justice without purchase
or delay, government without favor or
favorites. What will best give all this to
the people of the Philippines Ameri
can administration, developing them
gradually toward self-government, or
self-govern went by a people before they
know what self-government means?
TRUE INTERPRETATION OF DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE.
The Declaration of Independence
does not forbid us to do our part in the
regeneration of the world. If it did.
the Declaration would be wrong, just
as the Articles of Confederation
drafted by the very same men who
signed the Declaration, was found to
be wrong. The Declaration has no ap
plication to the pretent situation. It
was written by self-governing men for
self-governing men.
It was written by men who, for a
century and a half," had been experi
menting in self-government on this
continent, and whose ancestors for
imiKiu mttxM ,.
hundreds of years before had been
gradually developing toward that high
and holy estate. The Declaration ap
plies only to people capable of self
government. How dare any man
prostitute this expression of the very
elect of self-governing people to a race
of Malay children of barbarism,
schooled in Spanish methods and ideas?
And you, who say the Declaration ap
plies to all men, how dare you deny its
application to the American Indian?
And if you deny it to the Indian at
home, how dare you grant it to the
Malay abroad?
PHRASE "CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED"
MISUNDERSTOOD.
The declaration docs not contem
plate that all government must have
the consent of the governed. It an
nounces that man's "inalienable rights
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights
governments are established among
men deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed; that when
any form of goverhment becomes de
structive of those rights, it is the right
of the people to alter or abolish it."
'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of haj
piness" are the important things;
"consent of the governed' is one of the
means to those ends.
If "any form of government becomes
destructive of those ends, it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish
it," says the Declaration. "Any forms"
includes all forms. Thus the Declara
tion itself recognizes other forms of
government than those resting on the
consent of the governed. The word "con
sent" itself recocrnizes other forms.for
"consent" means the understanding of
the thing to which the "consent" is
given: and there are people in the
world who do not understand any
form of government. And the sense
in which 'consent" is used in the
Declaration is broader than mere un
derstanding; for "consent"' in the
Declaration means participation in the
government "consented" to. And vet
these people who are not capable of
"consenting to any form of govern
ment must be governed.
And so the Declaration contemplates
all forms of government which secure
the fundamental rights of life, libertv.
and the pursuit of happiness. Self-
government, wnen mat will best se
cire these ends, as inthe ease of people
capable of self-government; other ap
propriate forms when people are
not capable of self-government. And
so the authors of the Declaration
themselves governed the Indian with
out his consent; the inhabitants of
Louisiana without their consent; and
ever since the sons of the makers of
the Declaration have been governing
not by theory, but by practice, after
the fashion of our governing race, now
by one form, now by another, but al
ways for the purpose of securing the
great eternal ends of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness, not in the
savage, but in the civilized meaning of
those terms life according to orderly
methods of civili7.ed society; libcrcy
regulated by law; pursuit of happiness
limited by the pursuit of happiness
by every other man.
CONSTITUTIONAL POWER TO GOVERN AS
WE PLEASE.
Senators in opposition are estopped
from denying our constitutional power
to govern the Philippines as circum
stances maj demand, for such power is
admitted in the case of Florida, Louis
iana, Alaska. How, then, is it denied
in the Philippines? Is there a geo
graphical interpretation to the Con
stitution? Do degrees of longitude fix
constitutional limitations? Does a
thousand miles of ocean diminish con
stitutional power more than a thousand
miles of land?
The ocean does not separate us from
our field of duty and endavor it joins
us, an established highway needing no
repair, and landing us at any point de
sired. The seas do not separate the
Philippine Islands from us or from
each other. The seas are highways
through the archipelago, which vpuld
cost hundreds of millions of dollars to
construct if they were land instead of
water. Land may separate men from
their desire, the ocean never. Russia
has been centuries in crossing Siberian
wastes; the Puritans crossed the At
lantic in brief and flying weeks.
If the Boers must have traveled by
land, they would never have reached
the Transvaal; but they sailed on liber
ty's ocean: they walked on civilizations
untaxed highway, the welcoming sea.
Our ships habitually sailed round the
cape and anchored in California's har
bors before a single trail had lined the
desert with the whitening bones of
those who made it. No! No! The
ocean unites us; steam unites us: elec
tricity unites us: all the elements of
nature unite us to the region where
duty and interest call us. There is in
the ocean no constitutional argument
against the march of the flag, for the
oceans, too. arc ours. With more ex
tended coast lines than any nation of
history; with a commerce vaster than
any other people ever dreamed of, and
that commerce as yet only in its be
ginnings; with naval traditions equal
ing those of England or of Greece, and
the work of our Navy only just begun;
with the air of the ocean in our nostrils
and the blood of a sailor ancestry in
our veins; with the shores of all the
continents calling us. the great Repub
lic bafore I die will be the acknowl
edged lord of the world's high seas.
And over them the Republic will hold
dominion, by virtue of the strength
God has given it. for the peace of the
world and the betterment of man.
WORDS OF EMPIRE EXPRESSLY IN CONSTI
Tl'TION.
No: the oceans are not limitations of
the power which the Constitution ex
pressly gives Congress to govern all
territory the nation may acquire. The
Constitution declares that "Congress
shall have power to dispose of and
make all needful rules and regulations
respecting the territorv belonging to
the United States." Not the North
west Territory only; not Louisiana or
Florida only: not territory on this con
tinent only, but any territory any where
belonging to the nation. The found
ers of the nation were not provincial.
Theirs was the geography of the world.
They were soldiers as well as landsmen,
and "they knew that where our ships
should go our flag might follow. They
had the logic of progress, and they
knew that the Republic they were
planting must, in obedience to the laws
of our expanding race, necessarily de
velop into the greater Republic which
the world beholds to-day. and into the
still mightier Republic which the world
will finally acknowledge as the arbiter,
under God, of the destinies of mankind.
And so our fathers wrote into the Con
stitution these words of growth, of ex
pansion, of empire, if you will, unlim
ited by geography or "climate or by
anything but the vitality and possibili
ties of the American people: "Congress
shall have power to dispose of and
make all needful rules and regulations
respecting the territory belonging to
the United States."
POWER IMPLIED TOGOVERN AS WE PLEASE
The power to govern all territory the
nation may acquire would have been in
Congress if the language affirming that
power had not been written inthe Con
stitution. For not all powers of the
National Government arc expressed.
Its principal powers are implied. The
written Constitution is but the index
of the living Constitution. Had this
not been true, the Constitution would
have failed. For the people in any
event would have developed and prog
ressed. And if the Constitution had
not had the capacity for growth corre
sponding with the growth of the na
tion, the Constitution would and should
have been abandoned as the Articles of
Confederation were abandoned. Tor
the Constitution is not immortal in it
self, is not useful even in itself. The
Constitution is immortal and even
useful only as it serves .the orderly de
velopment of the nation. The nation
alone is immortal. The nation alone
is sacred. The Army is its servant.
The Navy is its servant. The Presi
dent is its servant. This Senate is its
servant. Our laws are its methods
Our Constitution is its instrument.
This is the golden rule of constitu
tional interpretation: The Constitu
tion was made for the people, not the
people for the Constitution.
Hamilton recognized this golden
rule when he formulated the doctrine
of implied powers. Marshall recognized
it when he applied that doctrine to
constitutional interpretation in Mc
Cullough vs. Maryland. Congress rec
ognized it when it provided for inter
nal improvements. The Supreme
Court of the Republic recognized it
when it confirmed the act of Congress
in making the promissory note of the
Republic legal tender for debts. Wash
ington recognized it when he sent the
nation's soldiers to s'jppress local riot
in 1704; and Lincoln, the soul and sym
bol of the common people, recognized
the doctrine of implied powers in ev
ery effort he made to save the nation.
There is no power expressed in the
Constitution to charter a bank; and al
though the subject was familiar to the
trainers of the Constition. who still re
mained silent on it. Marshall said that
this power was implied. There is no
power expressed in the Constitution to
make internal improvements; and al
though it was a subject painfully be
fore the framers of the Constitution,
who j-et remained silent upon it, Con
gress said it is implied.
There is no power expressed in the
Constitution, but almost the reverse,
to make anything but gold and silver
legal tender for payment of debts; the
Supreme Court declared it is implied.
There is no power expressed in the
Constitution to maintain order in a
State with the nation's soldiers unless
the State first calls for aid; Washing
ton, Lincoln, and Cleveland said it is
implied. The legislative, the execu
tive, and the judicial departments of
our Government have recognized and
confirmed the doctrine of implied pow
ers, by which alone the Constitution
lives, the people make progress, and
the Republic marches forward to its
imperial destiny. "The letter killeth;
but the spirit giveth life."
By the same reasoning that Hamil
ton. Marshall, Washington, and Lincoln
employed we could infer our power to
do the work of administering govern
ment in the Philippines as the situation
may demand, even if that power
had not been affirmed in express
words. We could infer it from the
purpose of the Constitution to "pro
vide for the common defense and pro
mote the general welfare" of the na
tion and the power given Congress to
make laws to secure these ends.
For the archipelago is a base for the
commerce of the East. It is a base for
lui'itary and naval operations against
the onH powers with whom conflict is
possible; a fortress thrown up in the
Pacific, defending our western coast,
commanding the waters of the Orient,
and giving us a point from which we
can instantly strike and seize the pas
session of anj' possible foe.
MAY GOVERN UNDER ANY FORM WE
PLEASE.
The nation's power to make rules
and regulations for the government of
its possessions is not confined to any
given set of rules or regulations. It is
not confineg to any particular formu'a
of laws or kind of government or type
of administration. Where do Senators
find constitutional warrant for any spe
cial .kind of government in "territory
belonging to the United States." The
language affirming our power to gov
ern sucli territory is as broad as the
requirements of ail possible situations.
And there is nothing in the Constitu
tion to limit that comprehensive lan
guage. The verv reverse is true. For
power to administer government any
where and in any manner the situation
demands would have been in Congress
if the Constitution had been silent: not
merely because it is a power not re
served to the States or people; not
merel3' because it is a power inherent
in and an attribute of nationality: not
even because it might be inferred from
other specific provisions of the Consti
tution: but because it is the power
most necessary for the ruling tendency
of our race the tendency to explore,
expand, and grow, to sail new seas and
seek new lands, subdue the wilderness,
revitalize decaying peoples, and plant
civilized and "civilizing governments
over all the globe.
For the makers of the Constitution
were of the race that produced Haw
kins, and Drake, and Raleigh, and
Smith, and Winthrop, and Penn.
They were of the great
exploring,
pioneering, colonizing, and governing
race who went forth with trade or
gain or religious liberty as the imme
diate occasion for their voyages, but
really because they could not help it:
because the blood within them com
manded them; because their racial ten
dency is as resistless as the currents
of the sea or the process of the suns or
any other elemental movement of na
ture, of which that racial tendency its
self is the most majestic. And when
they wrote the Constitution they did
not mean to negative the most ele
mental characteristic of their race, of
which their own presence in America
was an expression and an example.
Yon cannot interpret a constitution
without understanding the race that
wrote it. And if our fathers had in
tended a reversal of the very nature
and being of their race, they would
have so declared in the most emphatic
words our language holds. But they
did not. and in the absence of such
words the power would remain which
is essential to the strongest tendency
of our practical race, to govern where
ever we are. and to govern by the me
thods best adapted to the situation.
But our fathers were not content with
silence, and they wrote in the Consti
tution the words which affirm this es
sential and imperial power.
THE WHOLE QUESTION ELEMENTAL.
Mr. President, this question is deep
er than any question of party politics;
deeper than any question of the isolat
ed policy of our country even: deeper
even than any question of constitute m.
al power. It is elemental. It is rao al.
God has not been preparing the English-speaking
and Teutonic peoples for
a thousand years for nothing but vain
and idle self-contemplation and self
admiration. No! He has made us the
master organizers of the world to
establish system where chaos reigns.
He has given us the spirit of progress
to overwhelm the forces cf reaction
throughout the earth. He has made
us adepts in government that we may
administer governments a:i:ong sav
age and senile peoples. Were it uot
for such a force as this the world would
relapse into barbarism aud night. And
of all our race He has marked the
American people as His chosen nation
to finally lead in the regeneration of
the world This is the divine mission
of America, and it holds for us all the
profit, all the gloiy, all the happiness
possible to man We are trustees of
the world's progress, guardian? of its
righteous peace' The judgment of the
Master is upon us. Ye have been
faithful over a few thin": I will make
yofi ruler over many things."
What shall history say of us? Shall
it say that we renounced that holy
trust, left the savage to his base con
dition, the wilderness to the reign of
waste, deserted duty, abandoned
glory, forget our sordid profit even, be
cause we feared our strength and read
the charter of our powers with the
doubter's ej'e and the quibbler's mind?
Shall it say that, called by events to
captain and command the proudest,
ablest, purest race of history in his
tory's noblest work, we declined that
great commission? Our fathers would
not have had it so. No! They found
ed no paralytic government, incapable
of the simplest acts of administration.
They planted no sluggard people, pass
ive while the world's work calls theui.
They established no reactionary na
tion. They unfurled no retreating
flag.
GOD'3 HAND IN ALL.
That flag has never paused in its on
ward march. Who dares halt it now
now. when history's largest events are
carrying it forward; now, when we are
at last one people, strong enough for
any task, great enough for any glory
destiny can bestow? How comes it
that our first century eloses with the
process of consolidating the American
people into a unit just accomplished,
and quick upon the stroke of that
great hour presses upon us our world
opportunity, world duty, and world
glory, which none but a people welded
into an indivisible nation can achieve
or perforin?
Blind indeed is he who sees not the
hand of God in events so vast, so har
monious, so benign. Reactionary in
deed is the mind that preceives not
that this vital people is the strongest
of the saving forces of the world: that
our place, therefore, is at the head of
the constructing and redeeming na
tions of the earth; and that to stand
aside while events march on is a sur
render of our interests, a betrayal of
our duty as blind as it is base. Craven
indeed is the heart that fears to per
form a work so golden and so noble;
that dares not win a glory so im
mortal. Do you tell me that it will cost us
money? When did Americans ever
measure duty by financial standards?
Do you tell ine of the tiemendous toil
required to overcome the vast diffi
culties of our task? What mighty
work for the world, for humanity, even
for ourselves, has ever been done with
rase? Even our bread mnt we eat by
the sweat of our faces. Why are we
charged with power such as no people
ever knew, if we are not to use it in a
work such as no people ever wrought?
Who will dispute the divine meaning
of the fable of the talents?
Do you remind me of the precious
blood that must be shed, the lives that
must be given, the broken hearts of
loved ones for their slain? And this
indeed is a heavier price than all com
bined. And yet as a nation every his
toric duty we have done, every achieve
ment we have accomplished, has been
by the sacrifice of our noblest sons.
Every holy memory that glorifies the
flag is of those heroes who have died
that its onward march might not be
stayed. It is the nation's clearest lives
yielded for the flag that makes it dear
to us; it is the nation's most precious
blood poured out for it that makes it
precious to us. That flag is woven of
heroijm and grief, of the bravery of
men and women's tears, of righteous
ness and battle, of sacrifice and
anguish, of triumph and of glory. It
is these which make our flag a holy
thinir. Who would tear from that
sacred banner the glorious legends of
a single battle where it has waveil on
land or sea? What son of a soldier of
the flag whose father fell beneath it
on any field would surrender that
proud record for the heraldry of a
king? In the cause of civilization, in
the service of the Republic anywhere
on earth. Americans consider wounds
the noblest decorations man can win,
and count thd giving of their lives a
glad and precious duty.
Pray God that spirit never fails.
Pray God the time may never come
when Mammon and the love of ease
shall so debase our blood that we will
fear to shed it for the flag anil its im
perial destiny. Pray God the time may
never come when American heroism is
but a legend like the story of the Cid,
American faith in our mission and our
might a dream dissolved, and the glory
of our mighty race departed.
And that time will never come. We
will renew our youth at the fountain
of new and glorious deeds. We will
exalt our reverence for the flag by
carrying it to a noble future a- well
as by rememliering its ineffable past.
Its immortality will not pass, because
everywhere and al'vays we will ac
knowledge and discharge the solemn
responsibilities our .sacred flag, in its
deepest meaning, put upon us. And
so. Senators, with reverent hearts,
where dwells the fear of God. the
American people move forward to the
future of their hope and the doing of
His work.
Mr. President and Senators, adopt
the resolution offered, that peace may
quickly come and that we may begin
our saving, regenerating, and uplift
ing work. Adopt it. anil this blood
shed will cease when these deluded
children of our islands learn that this
is the final word of the representa
tives of the American people in Con
gress assembled. Reject it, and the
world, history, and the American peo
ple will know where to forever fix the
awful responsibility for the conse
quences that will surely follow such
failure to do our manifest duty. How
dare we delay when our soldiers' blood
is flowing? Applause in the galleries.
