Part 9 (1/2)

The future of Cuba, however, trembled in the balance but for a moment. Before ”the sh.e.l.l-burred cables” had had time to quit vibrating with the question thus propounded, there came back this splendidly clean-cut answer from the President:

We must carry out the spirit and letter of the resolution of Congress [declaring war].

In characterizing Judge Gray's position, above indicated, as ”surprising,” no reflection upon him is intended. On the contrary, such a position, a.s.sumed by a man of such conceded intellectual probity, is illuminating as to the att.i.tude subsequently taken concerning the Philippines by the Democratic Senators who voted for the treaty. This att.i.tude is stated by Senator Lodge, in his History of the War with Spain, with all the incisive forcefulness to which the country has so long been accustomed in the public utterances of that distinguished man, and, seeing that no promise had been made, as in the case of Cuba, Senator Lodge's statement of the position of those who voted for the treaty should forever set at rest the stale injustice, still occasionally repeated, that Mr. Bryan, ”played politics” in 1898-9 in urging his friends in the Senate to vote for its ratification. Says Senator Lodge (History of the War with Spain, p. 231):

The friends of ratification took the very simple ground that the treaty committed the United States to no policy, but left them free to do exactly as seemed best with all the islands; that the American people could be safely entrusted with this grave responsibility, and that patriotism and common sense alike demanded the end of the war and the re-establishment of peace, which could only be effected by the adoption of the treaty.

October 14th, Was.h.i.+ngton wires the commission that Admiral Dewey has just cabled:

It is important that the disposition of the Philippine Islands should be decided as soon as possible. * * * General anarchy prevails without the limits of the city and bay of Manila. Natives appear unable to govern.

In this cablegram the Admiral most unfortunately repeated as true some wild rumors then currently accepted by the Europeans and Americans at Manila which of course were impossible of verification. I say ”unfortunately” with some earnestness, because it does not appear on the face of his message that they were mere rumors. And, that they were wholly erroneous, in point of fact, has already been cleared up in previous chapters, wherein the real state of peace, order and tranquillity which prevailed throughout Luzon at that time has been, it is believed, put beyond all doubt. But what manna in the wilderness to the McKinley Administration, now that it was bent on taking the islands, was that Dewey message of October 14th, ”The natives appear unable to govern”!

On October 17th, Mr. Day wires Mr. Hay that the Peace Commissioners feel the importance of preserving, so far as possible, the condition of things existing at the time of signing the protocol, to prevent any change in the status quo. He says:

Might not our government * * * take more active and positive measures than heretofore for preservation of order and protection of life and property in Philippine Islands?

How could we, when Aguinaldo and his people were in the saddle all over Luzon, had taken the status quo between their teeth and run away with it, and were prepared to fight if bidden to halt and dismount; and, which is more, were preserving order perfectly themselves?

On October 19th, Mr. Hay repeated by wire to Mr. Day a cablegram from General Otis which said: ”Do not antic.i.p.ate trouble with insurgents * * * Affairs progressing favorably.”

General Otis was making a desperate effort to humor Mr. McKinley's ”consent-of-the-governed” theory and programme. But it was a situation, not a theory, which confronted him.

The date of the high-water mark of the Paris peace negotiations is October 25th. On that day, Mr. Day wired Mr. Hay:

Differences of opinion among commissioners concerning Philippine Islands are set forth in statements transmitted (by cable also) herewith. On these we request early consideration and explicit instructions. Liable now to be confronted with this question in joint commission almost immediately.

Messrs. Davis, Frye, and Reid, sent a joint signed statement. They urged taking over the whole archipelago, saying that, as their instructions provided for the retention at least of Luzon, ”we do not consider the question of remaining in the Philippine Islands as at all now properly before us.” They also urged that as Spain governed and defended the islands from Manila, we became, with the destruction of her fleet and the surrender of her army, ”as complete masters of the whole group as she had been, with nothing needed to complete the conquest save to proceed with the ample forces we had at hand to take unopposed possession.” The vice of this proposition, from the strategic as well as the ethical point of view, is of course clear enough now.

Spain's government was already tottering in the Philippines when the Spanish-American war broke out. To be ”as complete masters as she had been” was like becoming the recipient of a quit-claim deed. Also, ours was not a case of taking ”unopposed possession.” An adverse claimant, relying on immemorial prescription, was in full possession; all the tenants on the land had attorned to him, and he and they were ready to defend their claim against all comers with their lives. They reminded one of the recurrent small farmer whom some great timber or other corporation seeks to oust, patrolling his land lines rifle in hand, on the lookout for the corporation's agent and the sheriff with the dispossessory warrant.

Messrs. Davis, Frye, and Reid go on to say:

Military and naval witnesses agree that it would be practically as easy to hold and defend the whole as a part.

Hardly any one can fail to read with interest the following accurate and vivid picture which they give of the physical strategic unity of the Philippine Islands:

There is hardly a single island in the group from which you cannot shoot across to one or more of the others--scarcely another archipelago in the world in which the islands are crowded so closely together and so interdependent.

This explains also why the Filipino people are a people. Whenever the American people understand that, they will give them their independence, unless they get an idea that government of their people by their people for their people would be distasteful to them.