Cbe Conservative *
afterward surrendered by the Spanish
to him. The fact is that up to last Sun
day American authority hardly ex
tended beyond the walls of Manila city ,
the whole of the rest of Luzon , as well
as some of the other islands being in the
hands of the native government. This
government sent an embassy to the
Paris peace conference , setting forth
that it embraced fifteen provinces and
that in all of them good order and tran
quillity prevailed. An acknowledged
authority on the Philippines , long a resi
dent there , writes in a recent review
that ho has before him a list of the
township presidents throughout Luzon ,
many of whom ho has personally known
for years. * Since the government has
obtained possession of Iloilo , law and
order have equally prevailed there accord
ing to the testimony of our own observers.
The Philippine government sent a repre
sentative to Washington , whom our
government refused to receive , though
personally , and as he has conducted him
self , no one has taken exception to him.
Vote of Confidence.
But a short time since the congress at
Malolos passed a fresh vote of confi
dence in Aguiualdo and empowered him
to declare war on America whenever he
should deem it desirable. Grant that
this government may not be an
ideal government , grant that it may not
act wisely , grant that it does not repre
sent the whole people of the Philippines
but only the more enterprising and pro
gressive classes , none the less it is some
thing , and I should think any lover of
freedom , any old-fashioned American ,
would welcome it as a beginning and as
prophetic of greater things that may
some time come.
Desire Iiiberty.
I started out by saying that the Filip
inos wanted freedom and I have stated
all these things to show what manner of
people they were. And now the ques
tion is , Spain having transferred to las
whatever title to the islands she pos
sessed ( and I am not sorry for it ) , no
other nation having the right to inter
fere , what shall we do ? Shall we
proceed to enforce our title after
the Spanish fashion , or shall we re
spect the instincts and aspirations for
freedom of those dusky tribes , do all in
our power to help perfect the indepen
dent political institutions that are al
ready in their infancy , and defend them
against any possible assault from with
out ? It will not do to say that the
Philippines are ours in the sense in
which the territory between the Atlan
tic and the Pacific is ours. All we have
is a quitclaim deed to them from Spain.
Wo have whatever title Spain had. But
what in the light of American ideas was
that title worth ? There is an old no
tion lying at the foundation of our po-
* Jolm Foreman , National Review , November
1808 , po go 808.
litical system that government derives
its just powers from the consent of the
governed. Without insisting on the
literal and pedantic interpretation of
that notion , its general meaning is plain.
It is the charter of our liberty , the spir
itual bnsis of American institutions. In
the name of that idea and under its
sacred sanction we flung ourselves into
the Cuban war. Despite all low mot
ives that intermingled , there was a note
of idealism in our first pronouncement.
We have not sinned against that idea
( unless in the war with Mexico ) till
now ; the constraining motive in our
declaration to England about Venezuela
was of this character wo will not have
political freedom trenched upon on this
continent , that was the meaning of it.
Are wo ready , is the American people
ready to forget that idea now ? Circum
stances do alter cases ; does it alter
this case , or is it a principle of the na
tional life ? The Monroe doctrine may
be abandoned , though I think it has
been rather extended than abandoned in
the recent war ( for the root principle of
it is nothing else than concern for lib
erty ) ; the wise counsels of the fathers ,
of even great Washington , may no
longer be applicable ; but is the declar
ation of independence simply a counsel
or is it rather America's life blood ? For
my own part , I am in this case a conservative
vative , for when the past is so fortun
ate as to have enunciated a principle , I
know nothing else than to cling to it.
Idealism and conservatism blend in one.
Happy is that country that can look
back as well as forward to something
great. Many countries are glad to
cover up their beginnings ; thank the
blessed fates , we in America are in
luckier stead.
Bogus Kill of Siile.
Now , if the Filipinos wished to be
come a part of us , wo should not sin
against our great principle in incorpor
ating them , however undesirable and
politically inexpedient such a result
might be , and the ratified treaty would
leave the world nothing to say against
it. We might have cherished this idea
at the start , we might have thought
that any subject people would be glad
to come under the protection our flag ;
but apparently wo are mistaken , we are
waking up to see that other peoples ,
even so-called inferior peoples , may have
a desire to have their own political exis
tence as truly as we did , now a hundred
and more years ago. Wo are confronted
with a situation in which we have a
paper title to a people that after all does
not wish to belong to us. If they were
our own people as the South was , we
might hold them oven against their con
sent ; but they are foreigners and out
siders to start with. We have abso
lutely no claim on them at all save the
quitclaim title which Spain has given
us , and what , after all , does that title
amount to in the light of the facts of
the past week , save permission to make
a conquest of them ? Wo hear much of
expansion , of inevitable expansion , of
the instinct to live and grow and ex
pand itself which every great people
feels. Americans talk in this way as
well as Englishmen and I will not deny
that there is some truth in it ; all I can
say is that according to the American
idea there are rightful limitations to the
process and these limitations are set in
the terms of the declaration of indepen
dence , and if wo forget those limita
tions we become no better than the
Roman empire of old , and our republic
is but a name. These limitations hold
against a weak people as truly as against
a strong one. The test of justice is in
respecting the weak , and if justice is
laid low it will lay us low in time.
There is only one thing stronger than
man or the strongest and most expansive
nation , and that is the immortal laws ,
God.
No New Master Wanted.
This nation has had full warning of
the dire events that have happened
this past week. Ever since Dewey en
tered Manila bay we could , if we had
our ears to the ground , hear the mur
murs and resolves of certain dark-
skinned people that they would throw
off a hated oppressor's yoke and would
not bow meekly to a new master. There
has been apparently much holding the
ears to the ground to know what our
people really wanted , but there has not
been apparently much heeding of what
even came over the wires from the dis
tant East. We knew or could have
known that conditions were ripe for a
fresh insurrection , we knew or could
have known that after Dowoy's victory
it began , we ourselves aiding and abet
ting , and in turn profiting by it. We
supplied the insurgents with arms and
ammunition ; through our agent at
Hong Kong we encouraged Aguiualdo
to go back to Luzon , we even allowed
them , to think that we should favor Phil
ippine independence ; they innocently
believed that we sympathized with
them , that having set out to free the
Cubans , we could not be indifferent to
their own aspirations. They did not
wish German aid and refused it when it
was offered to them , but they were
willing to be beholden to us we the
great liberty-loving power of the West.
They would not seriously oppose a tem
porary American protectorate. All this
appeared in their formal statement to
the American people , brought to this
country by Agoncillo in September.
Yes , as late as two months ago they
recognized that such a protectorate
would be necessary to them , as other
wise they would , with whatever govern
ment they might set up for themselves
sooner or later become the prey of some
greedy power. But gradually they
have become skeptical of our intentions.
They have been led to suspect that wo