'Cbe Conservative *
Nf.ll IN TIIK NAMK OF LIISKKTY.
The Anti-Imperialist league was
formed at Boston in the month of No
vember , 1898. It was the first organ
ized protest against the imperialist-col
onial policy on which President McKinley -
loy was then entering.
From the tone of the press it was to
have been assumed that the country
was prepared to tolerate and , finally ,
that it would bo compelled or induced
to accept the new policy , and thus to
follow England and to cooperate with
England in the subjugation of the
world to what is called Anglo-Saxon
civilizatioj.
In the few months that have passed
great changes have taken place. Anti-
imperialist leagues have been formed in
Chicago , Cincinnati , Philadelphia , San
Francisco , Detroit , St. Louis , Portland ,
Ore. , New York , Washington , and in
4 _ other cities and towns in many parts of
I'll the country.
These organizations , as a whole , conr
tain an array of names such as has not
been brought together in support of a
common cause since the signing of the
declaration of independence. That
cause is the declaration of independence
and the preservation of the great truths
therein announced , with their applica
tion to the affairs of America and of the
world.
The issue is again made up. The
republicanism of our fathers is assailed
by the doctrines of imperialism as they
were maintained by George III. The
country is comprehending the issue. A
i vigorous and powerful portion of the
press , religious , secular , independent ,
and industrial , is giving full support to
the anti-imperialistic policy. It is not
known to us that the president's policy
has one supporter in the press devoted
to the interests of agriculture.
The war in the Philippines is not de
fended by anyone upon the ground of
wisdom or right or justice. Of bold and
manly defence on the basis of justice
\ve hear nothing. We are asked to ac
cent an exculpatory analotrv between
our conduct in the Philippines and our
treatment of the Indians on the chang
ing frontier from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. If the analogy must bo ac
cepted it may be said that our treat
ment of the Indians cannot be dignified
and made a precedent or a defence for
a like policy in foreign lands.
The league is now carrying on the
contest , and it will continue to carry on
the contest , upon the idea and in the
belief that the United States that the
president of the United States , espec
ially is responsible for the war , and
that President McKiuley , at any mo
V ment , or the United States , acting
through him or through a successor ,
can bring the war to an end. It is our
purpose to aid in bringing the war to
an end , and , in advance , wo reject nuy
and every scheme of compromise.
We are gratified , and well may the
country bo elated , by the fact that the
laboring populations , with singular un
animity , have resolved against the un-
American policy of the administration.
All that mon can have at stake they
now have at stake in the issue that is
before them. Their own right to self-
government is involved in the claim to
self-government now made by 10,000,000
artisans and land-workers in the Phil
ippine islands. The annexation of those
islands to the United States , in what
ever form it may come , whether as
states or as colonies , means free and
full competition by the American la
borer , of every trade and condition ,
with the underpaid and half-clad
workers of the tropics.
Henceforth the plain people , on whom
Lincoln relied American born many ;
others immigrants from Ireland , from
Germany , from the Scandinavian states
are to enter upon the task of saving
the republic. Of their disposition we
are already well informed , and of their
capacity we are not in doubt.
In presence of the evidence before us
our aim is not so much to secure a ver
dict against the administration as to
obtain a dominating judgment which
shall stand as a controlling precedent
for the guidance of the republic in all
time future.
In general , it may bo said that events
rather than men have been our teachers ;
and henceforth , even if the country
should disregard principles , events will
become our masters.
We have carried on a campaign of a
year , including the winter mouths , in
the Philippine islands , and a disastrous
campaign it has been. A force of 30- ,
000 men has been wasted as an army
for an aggressive movement , and the
remnant is now limited to the environs
of the six or ten cities and towns that
we are able to occupy :
The war goes on , the public debt in
creases rapidly , the tax gatherer de
mands daily contributions from every
household for the support of the war ,
and for the same purpose he collects a
per centage upon every business trans
action and upon every industry of the
country.
But , outweighing all other events is
the demand for an army of 80,000 or 40-
000 , or , as some friends of the adminis
tration say , of 100,000 men , to bo kept
constantly in the islands as an effective
force to meet the casualties of the field
and to countervail the ravages of dis
ease in the camps.
There is only a possibility that an
army of 50,000 can be raised by volun
tary enlistments and placed in Luzon by
November , and there is only a slight
probability that such an army would
remain an aggressive force beyond the
mouth of May next.
Is the country prepared for a con
script system that shall run through
years and decades of years ? And can a
congress be elected and continued in
power that will vote men and money for
the further prosecution of the war ?
Herein is a peril of which the country
and the public men of the country may
wisely take notice.
Our information and experience jus
tify the opinion that the body of anti-
imperialists , the country over , will dis
regard the claims of domestic questions ,
subordinating them one and all to a
single purpose of comprehensive public
policy the purpose to bring the army
of the United States out of the Philip
pine islands with the least possible de
lay , and without delay to recognize in
the inhabitants of the Philippines , of
Cuba , and of Porto Rico the right of
self-government agreeably to the princi
ples of the declaration of independence ,
and as a pledge of the permanent policy
of the United Statt-s.
Executive Committee of the Anti-Im
perialist League. By
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL ,
President.
August 25 , 1899.
CONSTITUTIONALISM.
The following words of "the father of
the revolution , " Sam Adams , on the
power of government over lives and
property , addressed to the Mohawk
chiefs , regarding the usurpations of the
government of England , should not fallen
on stony ground in relation to the usur
pations of McKinley and other war ex
pansionists :
"Brothers , " says Adams , "Our fath
ers in Great Britain tell us our land , our
houses , our cattle , and our money are
not our own ; that we , ourselves , are not
our own men , but their servants ; they
have taken away our money without
leave , and have sent their war vessels
and warriors for that purpose. "
As our government has assumed ab
solute authority over our lives and pro
perty and used and uses them to de
stroy or subject the Filipinos even as
the government of England did and
sought to do with our fathers.
What is usurpation ? What is treas
on ? Sam Adams and the fathers have
told us. Let the sons be true to the
declaration of their free and indepen
dent sires and not slaves to tyrannical
boss or usurping machine.
Commenting on the president's speech
in Pittsburg , the Dippatch ( rep. ) of
that city says : "It may be truthfully
said that what the president has said
will make no converts among those who
have all along opposed the annexation of
the Philippines. "