E 713 .H676 Copy 1 before Everything — Liberty** Our Duty to the Philippines A LETTER BY THE HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR JANUARY n, J900 " Before Everything — Liberty Our Duty to tlie Philippines A LETTER THE HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR Reprinted from the "Springfield Republican,*' January II, 1900 PUBLISHED BY THE NEW ENGLAND ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE I 9 o o 10 K>'-' r' r 55529 A LETTER BY THE HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR. At a meeting of the Essex Club, last Saturday, Mr. Quiirg, lately a Republican member of Congress from New York, after some undeserved compliment, made this statement, referring to me : " What he wants us to do I can define in no other words than these : He wants us to skulk from our duty." I wish to put against this statement my emphatic denial. What I wanted the American people to do in the beo:innino^, what I have wanted them to do all along, what I want them to do now, is to do in the Philippines exactly what we have done, are doing, and expect to do in Cuba. If we have skulked in Cuba, then Mr. Quigg may be justified in saying that I would skulk in the Philippines. We have liberated both from Spain, and we have had no thought — at least I have had no thought — of giving either back to Spain. I should as soon give back a redeemed soul to Satan as give back the people of the Philippine islands to the cruelty and tyranny of Spain. In- deed, since they got arms, an army, and an organi- zation, I do not believe it would have been in the power of Spain to subdue them again. But the United States never, in my judgment, should have allowed her to make the attempt. Having delivered them from Spain, we were bound in all honor to protect their newly acquired liberty against the am- bition or greed of any other nation on earth. And we were equally bound to protect them against our own. We were bound to stand by them, a defender and protector, until their new governments were established in freedom and in honor ; until they had made treaties with the powers of the earth and were as secure in their national independence as Switzer- land is secure, as Denmark is secure, as Belgium is secure, as San Domingo or Venezuela is secure. Now, if this be a policy of skulking from duty I fail to see it. Perhaps I am not so familiar with the history or the vocabulary of liberty as Mr. Quigg. Perhaps they understand these things better in New York City than we do in Massachusetts. Perhaps Mr. Ouiorsf is a better counsellor than I am to the representatives of the county of George Cabot, of Glover, of Whittier, of Nathan Dane, and of Robert Rantoul. But, at any rate, the policy which I have stated seems to me the true American policy ; the counsel which I have feebly recited is the best I have to give. We based our policy in regard to Cuba, did we not, on the ground that it Avas the policy of right- eousness and liberty ? We did not tempt the cupidity of any millionaire or even the honest desire for em- ployment of any workman, by the argument that if we reduced the people of Cuba to our dominion we could make money out of her and she could not help herself. In those days we were appealing to the great, noble heart of America, and not to the breeches pocket. I differ from Mr. Quigg both as to principles and as to facts. If we were bound in honor and in righteousness, bound by the history of our own past, bound by the principles and pledges of our people, to abstain from depriving Cuba of the liberty we bad given her because it was right, we are, in my judg- ment, all the more bound to abstain from depriving the people of the Philippine islands of their liberties because it is right. If I am right in affirming this as a matter of prin- ciple (and I am a little curious to see who will stand up and dispute it on Massachusetts soil, or who will speak any other doctrine to the sons of Essex), then the question becomes a question of fact. Are the people of the Philippine islands as w^ell entitled to their freedom and independence as the people of Cuba? Had they contributed as much to achieving their independence as had the people of Cuba ? Do they desire their independence as do the people of Cuba ? Are they fit to govern themselves as are the people of Cuba? Have they forfeited their right to their independence by any misconduct, such as attacking the army of the United States wantonly and without provoca- tion? Now, the facts which enable us to answer all these questions, about which the people have been so much misled during the last summer, come to us at length from the reports of the commanders of our army and navy in the Philippine islands. I have two witnesses to call, General Otis and Admiral Dewey. While I may not adopt all their conclusions as to policy (and it is not the special business of soldiers and sailors to determine the policies of the country), I have no 6 desire to go beyond them and the men for whom they vouch in the matter of fact. But before citing the evidence let me state what I would do to-day, as I have stated what I desired to do before the war broke out. The Philippine armies are scattered. General Lawton said they were the bravest men he had ever seen. But they have been beaten in every battle. Aguinaldo is a fugitive and in concealment. They are in the condition that Spain was in after Napoleon had overthrown her navies and driven out her king at the beginning of the Peninsular War with a " Host as huge and strong as e'er defied Their God and placed their trust in human pride." Whether they will repeat the history of Spain, dispersing like foam when they are attacked, coming too^ether at>ain like the thunder-cloud, and in the end wear out the patience of the conqueror, it is not worth while to speculate. It is not from any fear of any foeman, powerful or insignificant, that the American people are to determine their duty. If the thing be right they mean to do it. If it be wrong they will not do it. I would send General Wood or General Miles or Admiral Dewey to Luzon. I would have him gather about him a cabinet of the best men among the Filipinos, who have the confidence of the people and desire nothing but their welfai-e. In all provinces and municipalities where civil government is now established possessing the confidence of the people, I would consult with their rulers and representatives. I would lend the aid of the army of the United States only to keep order. I Avould permit the people to make laws and to administer la^vs, subject to some supervision or inspection, till the disturbed times are over and peace has settled down again upon that country, insuring the security of the people against avarice, ambition, or peculation. So soon as it seems that government can maintain itself peacefully and in order, I would by degrees withdraw the authority of the United States, making a treaty with them that we would protect them against the cupidity of any other nation and Avould lend our aid for a reasonable time to maintain order and law. I would not hesitate, if it were needful, althousfh I have not the slightest belief that it would be needful, to vote to make them a loan of a moderate sum to replenish their wasted treasury. Now, if this be skulking, if this be ignoble, if this be unworthy of an American citizen or a Massachu- setts senator, then I must plead guilty to Mr. Quigg's charge. But these are the things I would have done, and this is the thing I would do now. If this coun- sel had been followed not a man would have died on either side ; not a drop of blood would have been spilt ; not a recruit would have been needed by army or navy since the day when Manila capitulated to Otis. Nearly all of the thirty-six war vessels, with their 5,000 or 6,000 men, could have been ordered home more than a year ago. Our army there, greater than that with which Lee defended his lines so lons", greater than that which Sherman led to the sea, greater than our armies of the Revolution or of the war of 1812, would all have come home, except a small ojarrison. I have carefully read Admiral Dewey's despatches, including the testimony of two naval officers whom 8 he sent on a two-months' tour through Luzon, before the conflict between our troops and those of Agui- naldo, which, under his own signature, he declares to be the best statement of the condition of things there that has been made. I have read many of the despatches of General Otis. A few of these have been published. Some of them have, so far, been withheld from public knowledge. They establish beyond reasonable doubt, clearly, — 1. That Aguinaldo is an honest, patriotic, and brave man. Indeed, that is the express testimony of Mr. Schurman, president of Cornell University, and president of the commission appointed by our government to investigate matters there. 2. That Aouinaldo was the chosen leader of the people of the Philippine islands. 3. That that people have from the beginning desired independence, and desire it now. 4. That this desire was communicated to our commanders when they gave them arms, accepted their aid, and brought Aguinaldo from his exile, when he was put in command of 30,000 Filipino soldiers, who were already in arms and organized. 5. That the people of the Philippine islands, before we fired upon their troops, had delivered their own land from Spain, with the single exception of the town of Manila, and that they hemmed in the Spanish troops on land by a line extending from water to water. 6. That we could not have captured the Spanish garrison, which was done by an arrangement before- hand, upon a mere show of resistance, but for the fact that they were so hemmed in by Aguinaldo's forces and could not retreat beyond the range and fire of the sfuns of our fleet. 7. That during all this period, from the beginning to the tinal conflict, the Filipinos were repeatedly informing our government, not only by communica- tions addressed to the commanders on land and sea, but ])y those addressed to the President of the United States, that they desired their freedom, and that they were never informed of any purpose on our part to subdue them. 8. That they were fit for independence. They had churches, libraries, works of art, and education. They were better educated than many American communities within the memory of some of us. They Avere eager and amlntious to learn. They were governing their entire island, except Manila, in order and quiet, with municipal governments, courts of justice, schools, and a complete constitution rest- ing upon the consent of the people. They were better fitted for self-government than any country on the American continent south of us, from the Eio Grande to Cape Horn ; or than San Domingo or Hayti when these countries, respectively, achieved their independence ; and are fitter for self-govern- ment than some of them are now. They are now as fit for self-government as was Japan when she was welcomed into the family of nations. 9. That the outbreak of hostilities was not their fault, but ours. A patrol, not a hostile military force, approached a small village between the lines of the two armies ; a village on the American side of the line of demarkation, to which some of our soldiers had been moved in disregard of the rule applicable to all cases of truce. When this patrol approached this town it was challenged. How far the Filipinos understood our language, or how far our pickets 10 understood the reply that the}' made in their own language, does not appear. But we fired upon them first. The fire was returned from their lines. There- upon it was returned again from us, and several Filipinos were killed. As soon as Aguinaldo heard of it he sent a message to General Otis saying that the firing was without his knowledge and against his will ; that he deplored it, and that he desired hostili- ties to cease, and would withdraw^ his troops to any distance General Otis should desire. To which the American general replied that, as the firing had begun, it must go on. Now, how^ absurd for the persons who could have stopped it at any time from the beofinnino- with a sin2:le word of assurance that they meant to respect the liberties of the people of the Philippine islands, to charge the men who have been constantly begging them to say that word with being responsible for the continuance of the war ! 10. That on the 28th of December, 1898, the two sides being at peace, although great uneasiness and irritation had already manifested itself on the part of the Filipinos, who were afraid we meant to sub- jugate them. President McKinley sent to General Otis a proclamation. Remember that a dozen times during the spring and summer and autumn Aguinaldo had proclaimed that his people w-ere seeking their independence, and had implored the " great American people, by all their great history and traditions," with which he appears to have been quite familiar, not to interfere with it. Now, on the 28th of December, 1898, the Presi- dent of the United States sent to General Otis a proclamation which he commanded him to issue. General Otis, on reading it, to use the language of his report, said : 11 " After fully considering the President's proclama- tion and the temper of the Tagalos, with whom I was in daily discussion of poHtical problems and the friendly intentions of the United States government toward them, I concluded that certain words and ex- pressions therein, such as 'sovereignty,' 'right of cession,' and those which directed immediate occu- pation, etc., though most admirably employed and tersely expressive of actual conditions, might be ad- vantageously used by the Tagalo war party to incite widespread hostilities among the natives. The igno- rant classes had been taught to believe that certain words, such as 'sovereignty,' 'protection,' etc., had peculiar meaning, disastrous to their w^elfare and significant of future political domination." The ignorant people of America have been taught to believe just such things. I have seen such things in the writings of Washington and Adams and Jef- ferson, of Whittier and Garrison and Nathan Dane and Rantoul, and others of the men of Essex. Now General Otis goes on to say : J "It was my opinion, therefore, that I w^ould be iustified in so amending the paper that the beneficent object of the United States government would be brought clearly Avithin the comprehension of the people." Whereupon General Otis proceeds to amend the President's proclamation by striking out everything in it which contains a purpose to assume sovereignty or protection, and which was significant of future political domination ; and, instead thereof, he issued, on the 4th day of January, 1899, — less than eight wrecks before the outbreak of hostilities, — a procla- mation, which he gives in a report, in which he sup- 12 pressed all these utterances, and assured them that it is the purpose of the people of the United States to give them, " in every possible way, the full meas- ure of individual rights and liberty which is the heri- tage of a free people." And he adds : " I am convinced that it is the intention of the United States government to seek the establishment of a most liberal government for the islands, in which the people themselves shall have as full representa- tion as the maintenance of law and order will permit, and which shall be susceptible of development, on the lines of increased representation and the bestowal of increased powers, into a government as free and independent as is enjoyed by the most ftivored prov- inces of the world." That assurance which General Otis gave to the people of Manila is just what I have always wanted and all I have always wanted to give them. But, un- happily, General Otis's proclamation was frustrated. In the meantime he had sent a copy of the Presi- dent's proclamation to General Miller, who was lying opposite Iloilo, burning for a fight, and who, much to General Otis's distress, as his despatches show, pul)lished it. So you had the commanding general denying all purpose of domination or of interfering with their independence on the one hand, and the President of the United States on the other assert- ing that purpose ; and the Filipinos were naturally alarmed and shocked. General Otis goes on to tell how Aguinaldo appealed to his people to stand by their indepen- dence, how the Filipino newspapers took it up in ansry articles, and how the people, who were begin- ning- to be pacified and hopeful, Avere excited again, and justly. 13 Xow put yourselves, men of Essex, in the places of these people. What would your fathers have done if General Gage and Lord North had been the actors ? What would any people on the face of the earth, whose bosoms are capable of holding the senti- ment of liberty have done ? Is it not infamous for anybody to turn around and tell you that the men who believe that the Filipinos should have been assured just what General Otis tried to assure them of are responsible for the outbreak of the war? General Otis says that the proclamation Avhich actually came out, through General Miller's depart- ure from his intentions, was calculated to cause, and did cause, the hostilities, and excite alarm and indicrnation in the bosoms of that freedom-seekino- people. I do not know what other men may think or what other men may say. But there is not a drop of ])lood in my veins, there is not a feeling in my heart that does not respect a weak people struggling with a strong one. Some of our friends tell us that the Filipinos are not a people. President McKinley says they are, and that he desires " in every possible way to insure them the full measure of individual rights and liberty which is the heritage of a free people." General Otis says they are, and that it is the intention of the United States government to appoint the representative men of the Philippine islands to civil positions of trust in a government " as free and independent as is en- joyed by the most favored provinces of the earth." When Patrick Henry was making his great speech in the old court-house in Virginia, ending with the words, ^'' Give me liberty or give me death," he was u interrupted by somebody with a shout of " Treason ! '* He finished his sentence, and replied, as every Essex schoolboy knows, "If this be treason, make the most of it ! " I am unworthy to loose the latchet of the shoes of Patrick Henry, but I claim to love human liberty as well as he did, and I believe the love of human liberty will never be held to be treason by Massachusetts. There were five of my name and blood who stood in arms at Concord brids^e in the mornino^ of the Kevolution, on the 19th of April, 1775. My grand- father stood with John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- son and Benjamin Franklin when they presented to the Continental Congress that great paper, the bring- ing^ in of which was the foremost action of human history, which declares that the just powers of government rest upon the consent of the people, and that, when a people desire it, the laws of nature and the laws of God entitle them to take a separate and equal station among the nations of the earth. And these Filipinos, as President McKinley says, and as General Otis says, "are a people," and so entitled to be independent. I have no right to feel any peculiar pride in the action of any ancestor of my own in those great days which tried men's souls and when all true Americans thought in that way, although I should be disgraced, and ought to hide my head from the gaze of men, if I were to depart from those principles. But I have a right to feel a just pride in and to boast of some- thing much higher than any personal kindred. lam a son of Massachusetts. For more than three-score years and ten I have sat at her dear feet. I have seen the light from her beautiful eyes, I have heard 15 high counsel from her lips. She has taught me to love liberty ; to stand by the weak against the strong, when the rights of the weak are in peril ; she has led me to believe that if I do this, however humbly, however imperfectly, and whatever other men may say, I shall have her approbation, and shall be deemed not unworthy of her love. Other men will do as they please. But as for me, God helping me, I can do no otherwise. LIBKHKY Uh ^UNUKtj>b 010 457 084 7 ^