"Che Conservative ,
"Liberty Enlightening the World. "
Are we engaged in that ennobling work
, , by rivaling the Romans in a policy of
conquest and dominion ?
The most cherished political princi
ples of the past all those contained in
the declaration of independence hold
by the democratic-republican parties of
the United States , for example , that all
men are born equal and endowed with
certain inalienable rights , among which
are life , liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness ; that all just government derives
its power from the consent of the gov
erned ; and the sacred doctrine of the
universal fatherhood of God and broth
erhood of man , are being trampled un
der foot in the sanguinary rush toward
' ' democ
glory expansion 'imperial
racy. "
Advocates of island expansion con
stantly refer to the acquisition by the
United States of Florida , the Louisiana
territory , Texas , Arizona , and Califor
nia as precedents for taking the Philip
pines. There is no analogy whatever
between these cases and the proposed
annexation of the Philippine or other
tropical islands. These were natural
acquisitions of simply unoccupied wilds
of contiguous territories suitable for
settlement by the Caucasian race. In
this vast stretch of wilderness there was
at no time an average of one man of any
race to every ten square miles , and now ,
! 500 yenrs after our first colonies were
founded , wo have in the whole United
States only .twenty-two people to the
square mile , while in the Philippines ,
7,000 miles distant , there are sixty-six
people to the square mile , and people too
who have occupied the land for count
less generations , aye , even for ages long
gone and forgotten.
The policy of the present United
States congress and the executive ad
ministration may be summed up as
having shown four stages of progres
sive development :
First Yellow journalism and hysteria.
Second Revenge and elemental ferocity.
Third Militarism and pride of power.
Fourth Ambition , greed and ignorance.
At the meeting of the International
Bar Association , a year or two ago ,
Judge Storey made some pertinent re
marks to the effect that while the
United States could endure short crops ,
depressed business , hard times and do
mestic friction , it would bo hardest for
it to bear success in a foreign war ; and
this has come true.
The good feeling between Great Brit
ain and the United States is something
I have always believed in and sought to
promote , and without doubt England
rendered the United States goverumeni
an important service last year ; yet il
does not appear to me that it is any part
of the duty or to the advantage of our
government to take a position in the
Orient that might require us to act as
her military ally in matters which are
of no interest to the mass of our pee
ple.
ple.I
I do not believe that wo are under any
responsibility whatever in respect to
; ho Philippines. Although technically
included in Oceanica , the Philippines
properly belong to Asia , and could
never bo naturally integrated with the
American republic. Because the neces
sities of war resulted in the destruction
of the Spanish fleets lying in Manila
Bay and at Santiago , does it follow , any
more than it would had they been in
one of Spain's home ports , and our flag
raised over Cadiz , that we should take
and hold Spain ? Shall we renounce our
professions and our hallowed traditions
and give vent to latent predatory in
stincts , or shall we be true to the princi
ples of our honored sires , as the defend
ers and upholders of the interests of hu
manity ? "We are not obligated to govern
the Filipinos in any manner or form.
Let them look out for themselves
work out their own salvation , in fear
and trembling if necessary. Give them
a chance to try to walk before saying
they cannot. The fact that we have
bargained for 10,000,000 people at $2
per head , with a seller who cannot de
liver the goods , is no valid and sufficient
reason for undermining and overthrow
ing our own form of government. A
despotism like that in Java , or the bald
exploitation of labor in the interests of
capital , as in Hawaii , would be a depart
ure from the spirit of our institutions so
radical that if successful it would mean
the overthrow of democracy in the
United States. Let the poor and all
men who earn their bread by the labor
of their hands pause and consider well
before they give their assent to a policy
so deliberately forgetfxil of the equality
of rights. As for so-called "imperial
democracy , " it is only a thinly dis
guised scheme to destroy American
democracy in the interests of what ?
Worse than nothing ! Merely to at
tract the notice of monarchical Europe
and the plaudits of the unthinking or ,
I repeat , to exploit Asiatic coolies in the
interest of capital at the expense of
American labor. I lack words to express
my scorn for it. In the language of
Bourke Cockrau , "it is an effort on the
part of this country to join in the grovel
ing , grabbing , degrading contest of the
family of nations , a contest that has
always filled the world with woe and
impeded human thought and human
progress. "
I realize that the United States can
adopt imperialism imperial liberty , as
it is jauntily called and engage in i
policy of conquering and to conquer for
a while ; but would it bo representative
government ? No ! The queen of the
Antilles , Porto Eico , Hawaii , the Phil
ippines. What an alluring seductive
vision of territorial expansion ! What
intoxicating suggestion of tropical felici
ties : the hula hula la media uoche
Taunhauser and pleasure ; from Ply
mouth Rock to Manila !
We know what has taken place in
darkest , South the Caroliuas , Missis
sippi , and Louisiana ; the colored vote
ms simply been suppressed ; that is the
plain English of it. What is worse the
republican organs of the country are
acquiescing in it , as being the only
practical way out of that perplexing and
jarassing problem of more than thirty
years' duration. Yet the negroes of
the South are only as one to ten of pop
ulation in the United States and have
enjoyed close relations with the whites
for four or five generations , one hun
dred and twenty to one hundred and
fifty years.
With a country that turns out thirty
criminals and suffers twenty violent
deaths ( an average of over 15,000
for three years past ) to one for Great
Britain , we certainly are not in a posi
tion to start out on propagandas of al
truism. And for outrages on public
highways land piracies wo out-rival
the whole world one hundred and
twenty-five trains dynamited in ten
years past ! As for administrative
plunderiugs , it costs five times as much
per capita for municipal administration
in San Francisco as it does in Birming
ham or Glasgow. This degeneration is
demoralizing the whole body politic , yet
seemingly is not enough. Wo scour the
seas for other distracting problems. I
believe that wo will do better for man
kind and for ourselves by cultivating
more peaceful methods , more Christian
characteristics at home.
"Righteousness oxaltetl a nation : hut sin is
a reproach to any people. "
To say nothing of the opinions of im
perialism expressed in the declaration of
the president of the United States that
"Territorial conquest would bo criminal
aggression , " and of the congress of the
United States that "Any disposition or
intention to exercise any sovereignty ,
jurisdiction or control over said islands
except for the pacification thereof , is
disclaimed , " the mere idea of conquest ,
race subjugation , and colonial responsi
bility should be abhorrent to an Ameri
can. Senator Gray , of Delaware , one
of the peace commissioners to Paris ,
pleaded zealously against the policy of
acquiring the Philippines as unpatriotic ,
un-American , and inconsistent with
probity and good statesmanship. The
supreme court of the United States ,
December , 1856 , declared , "There is
certainly no power given by the consti
tution to the federal government to es
tablish or maintain colonies bordering
on the United States , or at distances , to
be ruled and governed'at its own pleas
ure. No power is given to acquire a
territory to be held and governed per
manently in that character. " Now the
current laws of the United States will
not permit us to make citizens of the
ten millions of Asiatics in the Philippine
islands. In 1879 the vote of California on
