The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, February 07, 1900, Image 1

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; m - lu ? mmwmwmTmmTTmrnmwmafwmmr?w mii i_j__j_m^immmmKmmmmmmmmmm ^ MvaBliaH*}nMM^^^HHHBHHH^|^H9^^^^^^^^9flHB| The Abbeville Press and BanmB * BY HUGH WILSON. ABBEVILLE, S. C., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1900. ESTABLISHED 1844 j *v? the Ra And Annexation < Can Our Republic Stand Wh< ism in the Spanish Island Constitution and Con tion of Ind "With what measure ye mete, it shall be Speech of Hon. B. R. Tillman, of the United States, Mr. TILLMAN. Mr. President, in order I to refresh Senators' minds, because I know [ from my own experience that these tilings pass from our memories very quickly, I ask to have read senate bill 2355. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Secretary will read as directed. The Secretary read the bill (S. 2355) in I relation to the suppression of insurrection in, and to the government of, the Philip-) Sine Islands, ceded by Spain to the United tates by the treaty concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, introduced by Mr. SPOONER on the 11th instant, as follows: That when all insurrection against the sovereignty and authority of the United Suites In the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty concluded at Paris on the 10th diiy of December, 1898, shall have been completely suppressed by the military and naval forces of the United States, all military, civil, and Judicial powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, untu oinerwise pruvmcu uj Congress, be vested In such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of ' said islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. Mr. TILLMAN. I should like to have Senate joint resolution 53 read. The joint resolution (8. R. '58) defining the policy of the United States relative to the Philippine Islands, introduced by Mr. Bevehidge on the 4th instant, was read, as follows: Resolved, etc., That the Philippine Islands are territory belonging to the United States; that it is the intention of the United States to retain them as such and to establish and maintain such governmental control throughout the archipelago as the situation may demand/ Mr. TILLMAN. Now I should like- to' have Senate resolution. No. 34 .read, which I had the honor to introduce myself, and upon which I will speak. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Secretary will read the resolution.1 . v';.. The Secretary read the resolution SUtP mitted by Mr. Tillman December 18,"1899; as follows: Resolved, First. That, in the wof&kof tbe Declaration of Independence. "We hold these, truths to be sell-evident, that all< men, are. created equal, that they are endowed by treaiur oiui >.auii? tp- - , _ . _ - among these are life, liberty, and the puwultOf . happiness. That to secure these rights govern Clients are instituted anions men, derivfq? their Just powers from the confeh&'f of- tlW; governed. That wlienever any farm ofgoiE eminent becomes destructive of these enda lftffl the right of the people to alter or to aboUchffl and to institute new government, layinx^B? foundation on such principles and oiganUn? Its powers in such form as to them shaft ??? most .likely to eilect their safety andyflHMH Second. That under the Qrostitnilo&^inti United States the Federal Government hjfii po power to rule over colonial dependencies, baft is restricted In its operation#,'lb 8tat^>to integral parts of the ITnjoa and to TQrHtorfcs^ intended for future States. ' i '^iy. f Thi rd. That the expansion oronr commflnai has not been, and can not be, depend^fl^ra^f' As^ticL^^T tho hidependence of the ?lil plhoil s a stable government shall be established by them; and toward the prompt establishment of such government we pledge our friendly assistance. i. . Mr. TILLMAN. Mr. President, ject-matter of the y&ridos resalt]rtion8 which have been read lias $eeo msoussea very extensively throughout the'TOnitfed .-* Stutes and quite exhaustively in this-body. There is a wide dlfferenoe pf opinion ni regard to the policy that the Ubited States ought to pursue. It ishot a party question, because there are men who are'e&rnest advocates of the polioy outlined and followed up to this time by the President who would hate to be considered other than the most loyal Democrats, and thtre are others belonging to the party of thi^:President?able, influential men in the: councils of that party?who are just as pronounced in opposition to his policy as anybody IRissibly can be. * ' V* It is contended by those whom we term imperialists that they are not imperialists: that there is no danger In this policy'; that the people of the United States are capable of grappling with and solving any problem of government without regard to the old ideals Or principles which have hitherto controlled in our affairs. They say there is nothing to menace the Bepublie In this matter, and that we will move forward luiifiiv. h ravel v. seizincr the onr>ort unities that have come' to us, and that it WGpUiy& nothing but cowardice to follow Very few students of history will deft# that we now have strange and unacbouaS* able, almost inexplicable, utterances by men who have been trained to lock upon the Declaration of Independence as asin almost to the Sermon on the Mount in its sacred character, in its office of guiding the destinies of this country and of offering hope and inspirations to the downtrodden millions of the earth. Mr. President, I propose to speak with a great deal of candor in discussing this Juestion, because, as the Senator from ndiana [Mr. Beveuidge) declared in his remarkable speech the other day, the times call for candor. While I shall hew to the line and let the chips fall where they may, I disclaim in the outset any purpose other than that of discharging my duty !is I see and understand it. Before I begin to discuss the main issue that I shall present to the Senate, I wish to call attention to the pro[iositions laid down in the resolution which I have introduced. I feel like apologizing to those who have come to regard the Declaration of Independence as an academic utterance, or the principles and motives which prompted that declaration as such, for having introAt,s^u\ a rociMlnt.inn PTtiltrn/'inrr jinv nf that immortal instrument in It. &o doubt there are a groat many men in this Chamber and outside of it who have eomc to regard Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Adams and the other fathers of the Republic as old fogies, tus men who had U deal with conditions which confronted them, and which they solved to their sat isfaction, and who in this day and tim? would be far behind the men of our daj and unfit to bo loaders. There are men on this floor who feel thai in statecraft they are far superior to .Jeffer son, and thex-e are men outside of this Chamber who consider that in directing the affairs of a great government th< {>rinclples which he laid down should n< onger control. We have to-day nev doctrines brought forward here and ad vanced with solemnity and with all th< earnestness and ability that men can giv< ice Issue of the Philippines. in It Erects a Military Dcspots and Governs Outside the trary to the Declaraependence ? . measured to you again,"?Matthew vii:2. South Carolina, in the Senate oi January 29, J 900. to them which even fifteen years ape would have caused this country to b? shocked from one end to the other. Anc yet, Mr. President, we hear nothing in th< newspapers except praise for tins new evangel. We find the pres? of tin* countrj controlled by the new influences whier i dominate our affairs, yelping in chourus ir favor of these ney? doctrines, and there is no longer, any pretense that the Declara tion of Independence is a governing foil* j in our affairs, or that the Constitution itsel! can apply to all people under our jurisdic tion. ' The resolution, as I said, embraces r rehearsal of the famous beginning to tin Declaration "Of Independence in regard ti the equality of men, the inalienable righl to life, liberty, and happiness; that gov erMnents derive their just powers fron the1 consent of the governed, and so forth These" ideas are stale and outworn, il seems, and I shall not discuss them, excep incidentally. I shall illustrate some of mj argument*! by reference to this immorta declaration, but I will go on to the nex proposition, which is that this Government can not hold territories for the purpose o governing them as colonies only, and thai there is no power under our Constitution 01 under our laws to govern people and torri tory with other pur|)ose than to create That is a legal proposition about whiel men will differ. Men who are lawyers always differ. It is their business to differ If all lawyers agreed, there would be m attorney on the other siilo and one fe< would not be earned. I lay down this broad proposition, whioli I will not undertake to argue out from t legal standpoint, but which rests on the basis of common sense, thatr the Unitei States can not govern any country thai does, not belong to the United States, ani that if we have any territory anywhere above which our Hag floats there t h< Declaration of Independence and tin ? together mstitutior ' the Con ependenc< , if we bj lave othei loaning, it opinion oi on I hav< and thai Prized in B said: mnf tn nh tain 08&'hold colonies and dependent terri ioftee over which they (the Congress) mlghi lejpslaie without, restriction would be ineonsis X&rii with Jta own existence In Its present form ,(Scott v# Sanford, 19 How., 397.) ' In another case that court has said: The power of Congress over the Territories i> limited by the obvious purposes for which ii was conferred, and those purposes are satisfied bv measures which prepare! the people of tlx Territories to become States in the Union (Murphy vs. Ramsey, 114 U. S. Hep., 15.) In still another case it said: The Territories acquired by Congress, wheth er by deeds of cession from the original State.' or by treaty with a foreign country, are held iwith the object, as soon as their population and condition lustily it,' of being admitted lnt< the Union as States upon an equal footing with the original States In all'respects (Shively r.v. Bowlby, 152 U. S., ' In still another case it said:/?? \V The Constitution was madwiimtfatfbieneflt o; every citizen of the United States, aim there' Is no citizen, whatever his condition^* where ever he may be within the tertjfe)ry ofth< United States, who has not a rightf.to Its pro tection. (United States vi. Moopi^S Cranch And in defining the rights ofc^fifcohabitiints of Territories it said: The personal and civil riKhtsjjBfiHhhabi tants of the Territories are at to other citizens, by the prinelptw&^bpnstitu tional liberty, which restrain alRtti# agenciei of government, State and national (Murph} vs. Ramsey, 111 I'. S. Hep., 15. See also Mor men Church m. United States, 13Jj U. S. Hep. 1.) The fourteenth amendment to th( Constitution of the United States provides that "all persons born or naturalized in th( United States and subject to the jurisdic . tion thereof are citizens of the Unitec statee." ^Cblef Justice Marshall, for the entire ( CTJuxtj^deflned the term "United States' jfifpbes this term designate the whole oranj pa>ti<3Ular portion of the American empire' Certainly this question can admit of but om WuBmr. It is tlie name given to our grea Republic, which is composed of States aut Territories. The District of Columbia or tin territory west of the Missouri Is not less witiiii the United States than Maryland or IVnn sylvania. (Loughborough tvr. Blake, Wheaton, 137. j Judge Cooley, whose commentaries an universally accepted as conclusive inter pretatiofis of our constitutional law, sum marizes the doctrine as follows: V And when territory is acquired the right t< gaffer States to he formed therefrom and ti receive them into tin- Union must, follow o 1 course, not only because the Constitution con fersthe power to admit new suites wlthou restriction, hut also because it would I) inconsistent with institutions founded on th fundamental idea of self-government that th Federal Government should retuin t^rrltor; ! under its own imperial rule and deny th' 1 people the customary local institution} i (Coolev's Principles of Constitutional Law , I""-) Having given these opinions of ou court of last resort, I will leave this par uf my subject and pass on. i The next proposition which is invoty? - in the resolution is that our eonuij|a| ' does not depend upon the acqulsitfrjjpi - Asiatic territory, and I will only > attention of Senators, without > statistics, to the fact, which can not b , disputed, that of the exports of the^meri f can people at least 90 per cent at this tim > go to Europe. Our commerce In the Pac 1 lie is comparatively small. -! While visions of greatness, of empir< ami of untold wealth which-is to flo' ' I therefrom. which so dazzled the eyes c | the Senator |from Indiana the other daj t'are in the air, and every man imagine -1 that a new Aladdin's palace is tfoing t ?| spring up in that quarter of the glol: r which we are to inaivli forward In :iinl ii 3 habit, I say to him thatif 1 know anythin > about it?and I at least am untitled to m 7 opinion, if nothing else?(lie nations < - Europe, which has a comparatively sum 3 area and is densely populated, will call o s us in future as they have in the past f< our surplus agricultural products to food their teeming millions, and that our manufactured products, if we shall become possessors of this eastern empire, will only go there if we can sell those people the best goods at the lowest price, we need not establish in that territory a despotism which win ijjiroin uv our uiriu laws the products of other nationalities, and we are reaching after a shadow while we can get the substance without any army, without any risk to our Constitution," without straining our power as a Congress, without going contrary to or . being false to the traditions of our people; and 1 say that the flag is not necessary to be backed by bayonets in order to sell "our calico and our other manufactures in that market. Our t rade with the Philippine Islands, which is the immediate subject of discussion. is comparatively trilling. The trade of tne whole Philippine Islands is so small that it can cut no liguro in this discussion. 1 think the exports and imports of the whole- islands amount to something less than $30,000,000. V . Of course, we arc told that with the l enlivening influences of American genius and money, and with the granting of franchises to certain people to exploit and to develop those islands, that commerce will double and treble'and quintuple, and all that. It may be that it will: I presume it could. But if it does, it mil be at the expense of one of two great principles: We must ignore the rights and interests of the people of those islands and allow capitalists to exploit those islands as England has done in India?in other words, rob the people; or we shall have a part of the territory of the United States, a people, a land, under our flag against which 1 \vc must discriminate by having their products barred from our shores while we force on them our manufactures. Either \ wo must admit them, if the Supreme ' Court's dictum is right, and have their , products come here w competition with ours, or we must exclude them against all " the principles and opinions of that court lijtherto. If that be true, if we come to that, if we can discriminate against the . Philippines after they have been annexed , lawfully or unlawfully and become a part of the territory of this country, then we , can discriminate as between MassachuI setts and South Carolina or any other part f. of our domain if Congress says so. ! But, Mr. President, to come down to the milk in the cocoanut, the real subject of 1 my speech, have we got a legal title to the [ Philippines? Upon the decision pf that ' question in the minds of the American people and of Congress will turnJthe ques' tion as to what action we shall take. ' * v??. om <Iia IW-f-cV T Ahfl.ll trflfi ; p;iss iipon the time of the Senate'*fcq re' facts proven by the (locamifflvjM^^L ud by the President of the 1 from General Otis's report, B,T>flfiWWwW8 1 that in the briefest possible>Vir8j"ir'!?M ;; ! Nobody denies thatj.fche Fill pin oefweffif nienced their insurrection agalnefc^HSTri f in 1896; that they wefeat war -wffctf'flpan, J and that after successes more or lessin; dicative of Spain's Inability to conquer the ; islands and hold them, or rather retain them, Spain made a treaty December, 1897, ? with Aguinaldo and his lieutenants by 1 which certain reforms were to be granted, ' and these lieutenants and chiefs wore to ; leave the islands and receive $400,000 jib 7 compensation for deserting or leaving r their own property. The people of the Philippine Islands did not cease their war, . however. Aguinaldo departed, the $400,E 000 was paid, but the insurrection went on, r and nobody denies it, because our consul " said so. It went on because Spain, over : treacherous, failed to grant the reforms J promised, \ Dewey went to Manila the 1st of May. [ Fifteen days later Aguinaldo followed, ' brought there in an American ship; he c landed; issued his proclamation; Dewey gave him arms, rifles, and artillery with ' which to light the Spaniards. He acted in the capacity of an ally, under the direction . of Dewey, and with his full knowledge and - consent," and Dewey encouraged it. He k -?? ^ uttmncjk c-fmn ^ JJluvuu lui nam, \;a};i/uuii^ ui/uiuoit ouvuh hold after stronghold until ho had cooped up tho last Spaniard in Luzon in the city of Manila. He did that before any of our troops got there. 5 In tho meantime ho had issued .hlfi prot clamation calling upon the Filipinos to i elect delegates to a congress; Imt con; gress assembled; a provisional govern ment was formed, of which he "was given the dictatorship. His army participated in the siege of Manila, after General' JHer ritt had reached there with some Amerif can soldiers. When the city surrendered ; he occupied part of it with his troops, and , was recognized by Merritt as an ally. \ The Spaniards later ou abandoned the . onlv other place they had in the islands, Iloilo, and it was occupied by the Filipinos. They had a little garrison at Zamboanga r and one or two other small towns on the j seacoast. The Filipino republic establish ed its authority over every foot of the ter' ritory in those islands, with the exception of the Sulu group and of the four towns I ' have mentioned. Its authority was recognized everywhere as supreme. Evcry' where law and order prevailed, according ' to the statement of our naval officers who ' went on a tour of inspection through Lu'lifcon; and the Filipino government was as jfflrtftly established in the control or tnose - Islands Al though there wore no Spaniards . ori* th&n. There was no looting and uo , fighting. " There Is no doubt that Aguiiialdo colild have captured Manila, if > Dewey had permitted it, before Merritt s got there.! > Well, what are the legal points involved - here? That Spain's colonists revolted 1 against her before we declared war; that they drove her troops into Manila and 5 established a government of their own, ' and all before the United States had even thought of claiming the islands; because r if we read the report of General Otis, wo > will find that those people had been cnt couraged to hope for self-government, t They had been assured that the Govern* nientof the United States ha<| no selfish J or sinister purposes; that the war had . been begun because we loved liumanity 5 and liberty; and the only friction that arose between A&uinaldo and General 3 Men itt's successor, General Otis, was from I the suspicion Atfuinuldo had that we . might leave the islands in the possession of Spain when the treaty was made, and thereby they would lie endangered by the , possession of fortified places which were r held bv Americans and surrendered when i- the Spaniards returned to try and reestabt lish their authority. e I will read here a very brief extract from e the first letter that General Otis ever wrot< f; to Aguinaldo. The city of Manila surrene dered on the 12thof August. Merritt was i. relieved in a very few days later, and Otis , took his place. He found an unanswered letter from Aguinaldo making some in r quiries as to the purpose of this Govern t ment and protesting against yielding uj , positions whicli his army held. After Oti.< iiad hud time to familiarize himself witt r jkponditions, Ifrill read what he said ii f Sclfcttor. September 8. Now, Sena e tore,;-li8ten ^ro : i I 2 Permit''to assure vou that ? fully appreciate tyie difficulties under whlct l- you labor in'yoUr endeavors to carry out tb e desires and demands of your people. A.s i- have already expressed myself In former com munlcatlons. I am fully oonvlaccd of you 4 wish to maintain harmonious relatlons/ Wlti '* the United States forces and' government o Manila, and that you deplore, -with- jne,'ail' )f proceeding which may distort. tbai -iantlflm' f, and friendly feeling. I have been'tolly>g that all unpleasant incident* wWcH^nav^pc 0 curred, and to which I alluded forme ? letter, were due entirely to Irresponsible an< ' _ unwarrataed aetion of subordinates, and I an - | n'li^iuim* Iiumiujniii IU CUITCCl- IlllKCUIlCl'l g : tions entertained by my troops and to punisl v i otletises which they have wantonly commit ;r: ??i. II I mutU'a mistake in getting hohl of th hi wrong letter. That is one I intended t >r road later on, hut it shows that Otis fel y / < i that Aguinaldo at heart had 110 purpose to bring about any conflct anil that he was not complaining captiously. ! Here is the letter I intended to read in I regard to Otis's pledges or promises to i to this man in his first official communication, and remember, Senators, that Otis I was there as the Governor-General of the of the United States, our representative [ with full authority to do as he pleased or as in his judgment was best for this country. Here is what I10 wrote to this man September 8,1898: Rather than sec the ships of the Navy of the United States controlling ttie navigable waters of these islands and its Army devastating their territory, I would greatly prefer to advise my Government, that there is no longer need to send more of its troops to this section of the country and that those whom it holds waiting 011 its Pacific slope can be remanded to their homes or employed eleswhere, as it may determine. People will say that Otis had no authority to bind the United States. Mind you, ne had disclaimed any authority, but here he was expressing that feeling as one which actuated him and the American people. He did not know the President was going to change his mind. Rut-. T will cm hank without further touch in# the point as. to our ba<l faith. Without adding to the mountain of evidence produced by the Senator from Washington [Mr. Turner] la his speech on that subject, without amtefUing to the equities in this case, we mil come down to the legal principles of International law. First, the Filipinos had revolted and were fighting for, their liberty before we declared war with Spain. Second, they had conquered the archipelago and had possession of it, and1 Aguinaldo's authority was recognized throughout it except in the Mohammedan islands in the south. I might?but I will come .to that later if I do not forget it; I believe I will do it now for fear I may forget it?I might ask the question why, In dealing with those people, we selected the barbarians, the savages, the Mohammedans, who practice polygamy, to treat with pacifically and to bribe or buy their allegiance, and took the Christians, who acknowledge the same God as we do and the Same Christ, as the targets for our bullets, under the plea that they must submit abjectly and absolutely to whatever we told them? If, as some people.proclaim, and I have grown a little nauseated at the continued reiteration of* the sentiment, we have gone into a partnership (with God in this business, why did we not recognize those who acknowledge HtevSon and treat with them as one Christian.people should treat with another zither than present to their bpeoms our 'bayonets and say, "Get; on vr>Mi? Irnrisar aurrrender vour liberties. ypurihos; your property, and a1' ^"i Hold i dti^tbithe dictation of uur pec uout any guaranties, or we will shwt . to P&ignlnaldo sent his representative, Agon' cillo, here in October, 1898,1 think it was. He begged and pleaded with the President for some recognition, some indication as to what the purpose of the President was. Aguinaldo himseif, being the representative of his people and having their confidence and love, their dictator, if you please, with absolute autocratic power, as this correspondence shows, was forced to do certain things and to maintain an attitude of resistance, because his own soldiers would have shot him to death if they had felt that he was willing to have the United States authority substituted for that of Spain. No autonomy or recognition of the aspirations of the Filipinos for self-government was allowed. But to get back to the proposition; these people had conquered their liberties from Spain before we conquered Manila. We helped them. Well and good. That did not give us any more title to their property or to their land than it did the French when they helped us in the Eevolutionary war. The legal status was that the Filipinos had a government of their own, and we had only Manila, The treaty of peace came! we made a demand. The President went West; he held hi9 ear to the ground, so the newspapers stated; ho was applauded everywhere on his way in Iowa, Illinois, and other .Western States when he spoke about the flag having been planted on lands watered by the blood of our soldiers and asked who would "tear it down." He thought he was doing a popular thing. I can not believe he thought he was doing a right thing. So he demanded that the islands should be bought, giving $20,000,000 for something that Spain did not possess, which Spain could not deliver. Spain's right, title, and interest, whatever that was, passed to us. That is the legal status. Now, what is tho legal result? Did we get any title? 16ay no. I could not get any property in this city or in any other place on such conditions. I have pot to go into court; I have got to have delivery follow the deed; I have got to prove that the property belonged to the man who sold it. we can not prove Spain's title. We therefore simply bought what Spain did not have?the legal title to the Philippine Islands?and we have conquered those islands at the point of the bayonet. So whatever title we now possess rests upon conquest and conquest only. Here is an undoubted authority as to the law of the case. Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries, volume 1, page 178. referring to territories added or acquired, said: Full sovereignty can not be held to have passed by the mere words of the treaty without actual Unlivery. To complete the right of property, the right to the thing and the possession of the thing must be united. This 1b a necessary principle in the law of property In all systems of jurisprudence. ****** The general law of property applies to the right or territory no less tnan to omer ngnis. The practice of nations has been conformable to this principle, and the conventional law of nations is full or instances of this kind. In a treatise on international law by Sir Shurston Baker, just published, at Boston, by Little, Brown it Co., at page 01, that author says: In modern times sales and transfers of national territory to another power can only be made by treaty or some solemn act of the soverign authority of the State. And such transfers of territory do not Include the allegiance of its inhabitants without their consent, express or Implied. At page 355 the same author says: The rule of public law with respect to the allegiance of the Inhabitants of a conquered territory is, therefore, uo longer to be interpreted [ as meaning that it. is absolutely and unconditionally acquired by conquest, or transferred and handed over by treaty as a tiling assignable by contract and without the assent of the subject. i On the contrary, the express or implied as> sent of the subject Is now regarded as essential [ to a complete new allegiance. i AVe have only got the color of a claim, i but no title. Are those people, then re[ belsV I have not noticed that word being - used so much in the dispatches recently, . They are now called insurgents. But ii > they were insurgents, against whom did 5 they rise? Spain. They never rose 1 against uo. iiu UV^uii ?<?i ww i shooting down ono of their men. The - President issued his proclamation in December, six weeks before the ratification of the treaty of peace, proclaiming his pur[ pose to annex and control those islands B absolutely. He had no law for it; he had f no authority for it, for the treaty had uoi - been ratified. r Congress was in session and had no! ? told.bim to do it; yet men contend that we f. Save a perfect title to tho Philippines 5s that there ia.npthing in the contention o] \ the Filipinosthey had won theii s- liberty and tBK&ntrol of $heir countrj r with their anM^pbSs contended that w< 1 are rightfafiJ?Mping our; authority ir force and esripiiayStg it avert- those peopl( , and those islands because. the 'tTnitec St ates does not treat with rebels. It oi^j buys allegiance from savages^J^ i polygamous Mohammedans! ? the mark! "* *. _ -jr ? ****** t Mr. 1 -fit, ^sap^poge we-acknowledge for th<; sake of argument, that we own the Philippine Islands; that our title is good; that whether it is good or not, we have made it good by force j that we have a de facto if not a de jure title that nobody disputes except the guerrillas who are now out there killing an occasional American soldier and still struggling for liberty. Senators, do not forget, when you come to consider this question and determine it, that we brought Spain, the mistress of those people, to her knees in sixty days after the declaration of war with the use of only 15,000 of our troops and of our Navy, but that this Filipino war has cost us the lives of 2,000 American soldiers, $'200,000,000 in money, and the use of 60,000 men for over a year, and those men who are lighting there for the love of liberty, who have forced us to display this power and spend this money, have proved that TrmnfKtr r\t HVmr4tf vKofkAP TTD WiC/ CLLXJ uui VUJ ui uijwiuj, nuwuvi ??v give It to them or not. The distinguished Senator from Indiana [Mr. Bevebidge] expressed some very queer ideas ahout liberty. He said that self-government is a sacred thing. I shall not quote his exact language now, because I am going to read just what he said directly. 1 have some arguments here, put into words which I have selected, where I have said exactly what I want to say, no more and no less, and I will come to it directly. I wish to allude in passing to the proposition that self-government, as understood by historians and all the peoples who have fought for that inestimable blessing, is a government of your own people?not a republic, not a government by ballot, not any special form of government, but a government of Germans by Germans, of Frenchmen by Frenchmen, and so on. That is self-government. A people who want to have and empire or a dictatorship or a limited monorchy or an autocracy have a perfect right to live under it. It does not gall like a foreign yoke. Mr. BEVERIDGE. Will the Senator allow me a question? Mr. TILLMAN. With pleasure. Mr. BEVERIDGE. Does the Senator think that the government of the Czar of Russia is self-government? Mr. TILLMAN. It is Russian Govern Ill 1*11 u Mr. BEVERIDGE. But is it self-gevernment? Mr. TILLMAN. It is self-government to the extent that it is satisfactory to the Russian people. No one else has any right to complain. Mr. BEVERIDGE. I fear the Senator has misread my speech. The Senator has said that hie interpretation of self-government was a government which was by Mr. TILLMAN. By one's own people, one's own kindred. Mr. BEVERIDGE. Is the government of the Czar of Russia self-government? Mr. TILLMAN. It is not, according to our standard. Mr. BEVERIDGE. Very well. Mr. TILLMAN. And there is no selfgovernment in Europe, according to our standard, outside of England. France has not got it, although she has the form of a republic, because she is really an oligarchy. Switzerland has it. I beg pardon; I should have said that Switzerland and England were the only two self-governing nations in Europe, judged by our standards. I want to direct the Senator's attention to one tiling in his speech. He said that Agulnaldo was capable and honorable, and I do not know how many other good adjectives the Senator applied to him, but he concluded by saying he was a Malay Sylla, not a Filipino Washington. I will quote him accurately when I come to make up the record, but I now direct his attention, and the attention of the country and of the Senate to the fact that the scheme of government which the Senator would have set up and which he stands for, which the Senator from Wisconsin stands for, and which the President of the United States stands for?unless you all repudiate it?is one which Agulnaldo could have carried out to perfection, because he has in his own person the very attributes uf the kind of autocrat that you would put there under our ilag. Here is the description given by the Senator from Indiana of the Filipino leader: Agulnaldo Is the highest type of subtlety and the most constructive mind that race has yet produced. Agulnaldo Is a clever, popular leader, able, brave, resourceful, cunning, ambitious, unscrupulous. and masterful. He Is full of decision, initiative, and authority, and had the contidence of the masses. He in a natural dictator. His Ideas of government are absolute orders, Implicit obedience, or Immediate death. He understands the character of his countrymeu. He is a Malay Sylla; not a Filipino Washington. I will show later how well he would have fitted in the Senator's scheme when I oome to that. Mr. President, for sake of comparison, look at Mexico. For fifty years she was ljuiffhlncBtock of the nations because of the inability of her people to realize what it was to elect anybody to govern them. One military chieftain after another seized upon power, revolution followed revolution, until, under the benign rule of a dictator?Diaz?peace, good order, prosperity, happiness have come to those people, because he possessed in himself the capacity to restore law and order and to maintain a government which was equal in its application to all and free from tyranny and just what was needed. He alone has given his people what Aguinaldo would, I believe, give to the Filipinos if ho had an opportunity. Therefore I deny, I repudiate?and I love our institutions as much as any man?the pretension that we must have a Procrustean bed and cause all people to lie on it, whether they are long enough to fill it out or too long and have to be cut off. And with this stench of dirty, low, roguish politics we have in two of our largest American cities?one under Democratic and the other under Republican rule?I want to ask the Senator if we am in any condition to stand up and boast of our institutions as alone worthy of imitation and that they must bo adopted by everybody who comes in contact with us ? But we had a great dream of profit, of wealth, and of the inestimable blessings which would flow to the American people by the possession of the Philippine Archipelago as the doorway to the East. If you take the money we have spent and put it out at interest, it would yield a far larger sum than any possible profit that will ever , come to us as a people. But I do not hesitate to assert that the expense of holding the Philippine Islands will be tenfold any sum possible to obtain from them as revenue. Some franchises may be grantod to sugar planters, tobacco growers, cotton growers, or rice growers; some contract laborers may be imported from China who ' will work?for the Senator from Indiana says the Filipinos will not?who will be ; driven by the whip, as the slaves were in , the South before tne war, and as they are | now driven in Hawaii, to (jevelop the rich ; lands of which we have*heard; and there , may be teeming imports coming to our ' country from such labor thus employed and protected by our bayonets, and the 1 few will reap the benefits. Those bayonets ' must be supported by taxation, and the taxation will be paid by the laboring class ! cs of the United States, the common, ovorv day citizens. The benefit of the wealth l will flow into the coffers of the capitalists ' or corporations who go out there and . invest their capital, but the everyday tax5 payer of the United States will never see . one dollar's profit from the Philippine Islands. Then, their products will come in ; competition with the pmriucts of | the Southern peopler=fotton, tobacco, I rice, sugar. They must be admit' ted free or wa shall establish a barrier be4 "hfeen tWo parts of the United States. If M they, are admitted free, those States where Wtboeerpifoducte are raised are to suffer and be rhmedfor the benefit of the capitalists - who will Import those products from their plantations in the Philippine Islands. We must compete with '-pauper labor." There is one other,'aspect of this question which must appeal to any thinking man, and that is the question as to whether we can maintain the Monroe doctrine in thoi Western Hemisphere, warn off trespassers and light and beat off any nationality in , Europe, or any combination of nation. !ities, who'dare to come "on this continent and establish any of their despotisms or governments, whatever they may be. Can we maintain that doctrine after we have invaded the other hemisphere, have occupied territory, and stand ready to participate?for it is no use to deny it, it is the purpose fully outlined in this Chamber in more ways than one and at_more times 4-Vio" norflrtinofo In fho'nftrf.iHAn r\f China, whenever that comes. We have become ka "world [power." We are to create a big navy. I am in favor of navy enough to warn all people off from thlB continent andlkeep them off of4it; but if we are going to undertake to warn others outside of our preserves, and then claim i the right to Invade their area of jurisdic- < tion and territory, the beginning of the i wars In which we shall be involved and the i cost of those wars In life and treasure, the i probable consequences of surrendering a i tenable position for one full of danger and ] always inviting attack, should at least i give Senators pause and make them stop ] and think and consider calmly whether the | game is worth the candle; whether we i have a title to the Philippines! whether we 1 have made a mistake, and if so, what we < ought to do. ' 1 Mr. President, I now approach a phase of ] this question which is very unpleasant 1 because it deals with the personality of 1 men, and I would not willingly wound the sensibilities of any of those *who, like I myself, are charged here with governmen- 1 tal responsibility. Those of us who from 1 the very beginning have opposed this poii- 1 cy have appealed and argued for what we l conceived to be right, that our Government < should pursue the only course which to 1 our minds was honorable and just, have 1 been met with accusations of treason, have i been charged with lack of patriotism, and 1 the Senator from Indiana has not even i hesitated to tell us to our faces that we are 1 responsible for the war and its conse- ] quences. His ignorance of the facts may < explain affrontery and in part excuse it. 1 He said: ' American opposition to war has been the } chief factor ln_ prolonging It. Had Aguinaldo I not unuersioou inai in Ainerii'u, vyvu iu uie i American Congress, even here In the Senate, j he and his cause were supported; had he not. { known that it was proclaimed on the stump and in the press of a taction In the Ifnited States that every shot that his misguided' followers tired Into the breasts oH American i BOldiers was like the volleys flred by gashing- 1 ton's men against the soldiers of King George,' ] his insurrection would have dissolved before,it entirely crystalized. I Then again he said: ' i I have stood on the firing line and beheld c our dead soldiers, their faces turned to the piti- ? less Southern sky, and in sorrow rather than 1 anger I say to those whose-voices in America 1 have cheered those misguided natives on to * shoot our soldiers down that the blood of those ( dead and wouuded boys of ours Is on their J hands, and the flood of all the years can never 1 wash that stain a way. I Mr. President, if Senators on this floor and patriotic Americans throughout the 1 country?thposands of them belonging to > the- party which elected Mr. McKinley 1 President?have felt it their duty to I protest against inhuman and dishonorable S conuuct 01 our wuveriimen, a uiuy iiuve > believed that the Stars and Stripes were being disgraced and that the United States was waging a war of conquest upon a liberty-loving people, I ask that Senator in God's name would he have us remain silent? He has his opinions on this subject. So have we. He has a right to speak those opinions without question anywhere. So have we. Are Senators and citizens to be afraid to speak the truth? Must we close our eyes and shut our mouths to all the grave dangers to our institutions by reason of this policy? Must we be acused of disloyalty to the flag because we declare our belief that in prosecuting this war it is in disloyalalty to the Declaration of Independence? I repel with scorn the charge coming from any source whatever that I am not as loyal to the flag as any man on this floor, and if it is sought to locate the responsibility for the blood that has been spilled I am ready in this presence to speak what I belivo and to declare the truth as I see it. There are three classes of men in the United States Congress, those who are honest and independent, those who are corrupt, and those who are merely weak. When I first came to this Capitol I thought there were as many of the one class as nf thp other. A closer view and fuller S acquaintance has taught me that the real- i ly corrupt men are few in number, but the weak ones are in a large majority. I < speak now from personal knowledge and t inquiry and investigation. I do not hesi- < tate to assert that when it was lirst propos- I ed to annex the Philippines a majority in 1 both Houses of Congress were opposed < to it. ' 1 After the President went on his Western 1 tour his own misgivings and doubts were . pushed aside, and he felt that he was doing < a popular thing in demanding that Spain should cede us the islands. Then, by the ' instrumentalities that are so well under- I stood in this Chamber and in the other 1 Chamber, in the use of which he is not alone, because they were alike characteris- i tic of his predecessor, Executive influence < was brought to b?.ar; the party whip was i cracked; the men who thought*the Filipin- ! os ought to be let alone, we exercising some i kind of a protectorate over them and getting such advantages as we might need in our business as a naval power and as a commercial power?those men, I say, surrendered their independence as Senators and the treaty was ratified. Party was everything; principle was i nothing; everything for Republicanism, i nothing for America. There were some honorable exceptions among tlie aiinerenis of the President; and. Mr. President, if there are any men in this Chamber whom I honor, it is those Republicans here who, in spite of all the threatening lightnings that were Hashing around their heads, stood steadfast as the advocates of that fiolicy which was alone honorable, patriotc, and in accordance with fairness and iustice. But with-those Republicans all lined up and some Democrats who, from purity of motive orfrom honesty of belief. ! had joined with them, there, was still lacking the two-thirds vote necessary; the President's hands were tied unless the treaty was ratified, and his proclamation of annexation would have no authority and would have died. Where did lie get the < votes, and how? If you want my opinion .is to whose hands are red with the blood of American soldiers, and of tens of thousand of Filipin- < os?men, women, and children?who have < been slaughtered like cattle, look around and call to mind the men who made those ; strong and eloquent pleas, those earnest protests on this lloor in opposition to the \ treaty, and even gave personal pledges to their'fellows as to how thev would vote. Those are the men who, whether from corruption or from weakness or both, gave the President the legal excuse which he needed to prosecute the war. I impugn no man's motives; I haveji?-proofs of corruption and I wan-, none; 'but; whether the President be most to blame or whether the crime rests on nis v'.upes autt .subservient party dependents I say, nil the emphasis of my nature, that- IJaaa none of those who voted against the treaty are responsible for the the spilling of one drop of this innocent blood ithat has been shed, and I will not enduretpatlently apd without resentment any sucn accusation. With the ratification of the treaty Spain's rights, whatever they were, passed to us, and as the President had determined'six weeks before that the islands should be brought under the rule ol' our Government and issued his proclamation to that efYect without any authority of law. the iinpar rsKgm tial historian will declare that he is primarily responsible for the war, responsible for the loss of the lives of our soldiers, responsible for the the inhuman and devastating conflict that hus followed, and that he obtained the permission which was necessary through the cowardice, venality, or weakness of men in this Chamber. Therefore I say to the Senator from Indiana: Thou canst not say I did it; never shako Thy gory locks at me. I stand bv the record as it has been presented in this Senate, the documents sent us by the President himself, and the i report of General Otis. The record of speeches made in this Chamber will sustain every assertion I have made, and the American people can not be deceived any longer unless they want to be. I have left to the last discussion of that phase of this subject which is most important and vital?the race question. It is well understood that the people 'who inhabit the Philippines belong to what we sail tho colored races, ami the most perplexing and disturbing factor in the whole ques Lion arises iroin mis lacc. xne numoer 01 those people is variously estimated at from six to ten millions, and the Senator from Indiana, who has spent some time in personal investigation, asserts in the most positive manner that they are unfit forselfijovemmont, and ho gives us some very strange and unaccountable reasons as to f why this is so. I say unaccountable because the Senator comes from a State and belongs to a party that in the very recent past held very different views in regard to the capabilities of the blackest and lowest type of the colored peoples. 1 pause here to state the necessity I feel for speaking with absolute candor and frankness. It is not pleasant to open old wounds or to stir the embers?I prefer to think that they are ashes?of those dead passions which brought on our great civil jonflict, but Mr. President, coming as I do from a State where this race question has been the cause of untold misery and woe, and where," for thirty-two years, it lias been and is now the paramount issue; remembering the wrongs that has been heaped upon my people, the sons of Revolutionary sired, who suffered more and jndured more in the cause of liberty in' ihat struggle than those or any other v >> State, and feeling the race question in its ) ?^ xroadest sense, as we know it, may be ; ' ' ikened to the "worm that dieth not;" that r & a new "irrepressible conflict" that can lot bo shunned, but presents ever growing ind ever formidable dangers?I must speak ^ ny thoughts though I die for it. < I will not join the Senator from Alabama, vho is not in the Chamber, in the asscr;ions made in his speech on the Pritchard resolution: I was a soldier of the Confederacy, and while f hftvr? qIwuvc iwrppttpH t.hp fliwsslt.v that. tint ne under arms in open hostility to the flag of >ur common country, I feel as every Confederite sbldler feels, thiit it Is a peculiar honor hat we were the only white men ever called jpon as soldiers to defend the white race igainst a fanatical attack of so-called reformsrs and the deliberate organization of amblious politicians, who forced us into war by .' heir cruel design to put negro slaves on a jolitlca.1 and social footing of equality with us. I do not believe uny such thing. The war lad no such origin. The condition in re- ' V, yard to slavery and the ceaseless agitation tad embittered the South against the (forth and the North against the South, secession and l>elief in State's rights, for vhich the South has always contended, jrecipitated the conflict. The North 'ought to preserve the Union and to free he slaves, and the South fought for selfgovernment and the inherited belief In the . . j ustico of holding slaves as property. The Declaration of Independence was the "?j slogan of both sections. The North eon- \3s ;ended that the Declaration embraced the - . ! Negroes, while the South, remembering hat Jefferson had been a slaveholder, con;ended that it did not. I was only a boy of thirteen when the great struggle began; jut who can forget, even though a child, ;he angry outbursts, the battle cries that lad led up to the bloody contest? Amid ;he storm of passion, who was the man ;he embodiment of all that was best'and loblest in Northern civilization, and even n American civilization, who stood as the ;reat apostle of liberty? Whose words of 'ervid eloquence niarsfiuled the Northern losts? Whose high moral purpose, whose grandeur of character and greatness of soul, sustained those hosts in adversity iiul defeat? Who stood like a colossus ;owering above the smaller, meaner men ,vho surrounded him, and who must ever itand above them, commanding the admi^~A ation and love of all true .men everywhere? j ' IVho? Abraham Lincoln; and I from/ jouth Carolina tell you so and fefrl honored V n doing it. Whatever motives may bo attribWu to (tliers, whatever of selfishness or ambi;ion that entered into the calculations of )thers, I here declare it is my belief that le never had a thought in connection with ' v' ;he whole subject nor uttered a word that * lid not have its inspiration in the purest patriotism and the noblest aspiration for humanity. He did not consider the Declaration of Independence an academic juestion. It was to him a religion. Now, after ail the bloodshed, what have we as a people gained? What has the conllict left to us? Although this city is filled t with monuments erected to the brave men who bared their bosoms to the storms of shot and shell from Confederate rifles and L-annon, although the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were declared to be necessary to secure tin' fruits of this victory for liberty in the Union, and were said to be the fmit, the gathering in, the perfecting and solidifying of the structure of liberty; although no honest man will deny that the words of Webster, "Liberty and union, one anil in- , separable, now and forever," had been the inspiration which tilled the Northern urmies and under Lincoln's leadership won the light; although we now have a nation whose States are cemented together with lilood, it is a Union only; the spirit, the vitalizing essence, love of liberty, appears to have died and little remains of Webster's and Lincoln's ideas. We have come, within forty years from the beginning of that great struggle, to have a leading Senator on the floor of this Chamber, a man who stands high in the councils of the dominant party?the party of Lincoln, of Sumner, of Phillips, of Seward?declare that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of some of the governed." Another Senator, he from Indiana, whose brilliant speech has been heralded by the imperialist press as the slogan of twentieth-century iiepublii-anism, makes this declaration: Lot men beware how thev employ the term fco1fimv.mii " l?i?? c,...i-.,l It Is the watcliwuril at the door of the inner temple uf liberty, for liberty does not ahvuys mean self-government. Self government is'a method of liberty-the highest, simplest, best?and it is acquired only after centuries of study and struggle and experiment nnd instruction ami !ill the elements of the progress of man. Selfgovernment is no base and common thing, to be bestowed on tlie merely audacious. It the degree which crowns the graduate of liberty, not the name of liberty's Infant class who have not yet mastered the alphr.be;of freedom. Ah. Mr. President, has it come to this? If we attacked the Filipino leaders and ^ fcheir followers, those men of affairs, men go strong in the faith of the right of men to govern themselves after our great example that, although illy armed and without artillery, it has required (50,000 American troops over a year to drive them from the Held, and even yet they have not surrendered, but have adopted a guerrilla warfare?if these are not lit for self-government under our kindly tutelage, let me ask of those Republicans here who in part are responsible for it, and who were and are now in absolute sympathy with it, how dared they j?ive the control of the Southern States into the hands of negroes as Iwing lit not only to govern themselves but also to (Continued i?n la.it phko.) A