McKinley, William - Discorso sull'invasione delle Filippine, 1899

From Guam to Porto Rico: A Commitment to Peace and Progress

Santiago, from Guam to Porto Rico, met universal and hearty commendation. The protocol commanded the practically unanimous approval of the American people. It was welcomed by every lover of peace beneath the flag.

The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were entrusted to our hands by the war, and to that great trust, under the providence of God and in the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed. [Great applause.]

It is a trust we have not sought; it is a trust from which we will not flinch. The American people will hold up the hands of their servants at home whom they commit its execution, while Dewey and Otis and the brave men whom they command will have the support of the country in upholding our flag where it now floats, the symbol and assurance of liberty and justice. [Great applause.]

What nation was ever able to write an accurate program of the war upon which it was entering, much less decree in advance the scope of its results? Congress can declare war, but a higher power must shape the outcome.

Power decrees its bounds and fixes its relations and responsibilities. The President can direct the movements of soldiers in the field and fleets upon the sea, but he cannot foresee the close of such movements or prescribe their limits. He cannot anticipate or avoid the consequences, but he must meet them. No accurate map of nations engaged in war can be traced until the war is over, nor can the measure of responsibility be fixed till the last gun is fired and the verdict embodied in the stipulations of peace.

We hear no complaint of the relations created by the war between this government and the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. There are some, however, who regard the Philippines as in a different relation; but whatever variety of views there may be on this phase of the question, there is universal agreement that the Philippines shall not be turned back to Spain. [Great applause.]

No true American consents to that. Even if unwilling to accept them ourselves, it would have been weak evasion of

duty to require Spain to transfer them to some other power or powers, and thus shirk our own responsibility. Even if we had had, as we did not have, the power to compel such a transfer, it could not have been made without the most serious international complications. Such a course could not be althought of. And yet, had we refused to accept the cession of them, we should have had no power over them, even for their own good. We could not discharge the responsibilities upon us until these islands became ours either by conquest or treaty. There was but one alternative, and that was either Spain or the United States in the Philippines.

[Great applause]

The other suggestions first, that they should be tossed into the arena of contention for the strife of nations or, second, be left to the anarchy and chaos of no protectorate at all were too shameful to be considered. The treaty gave them to the United States. Could we have required less and done our duty? [Cries of "No!"] Could we, after

freeing the Filipinos from the domination of Spain, have left them without government and without power to protect life or property or to perform the international obligations essential to an independent state? Could we have left them in a state of anarchy and justified ourselves in our own consciences or before the tribunal of mankind? Could we have done that in the sight of God or man?

Our concern was not for territory or trade or empire, but for the people whose interests and destiny, without our willing it, had been put in our hands. [Great applause.] It was with this feeling that, from the first day to the last, not one word or line went from the Executive in Washington to our military and naval commanders at Manila, or to our peace commissioners at Paris, that did not put as the sole purpose to be kept in mind, first after the success of our arms and the maintenance of our own honor, the welfare and happiness and the rights of the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. [Great and

Did we need their consent to perform a great act for humanity? We had it in every aspiration of their minds, in every hope of their hearts. Was it necessary to ask their consent to capture Manila, the capital of their islands?

[Laugh]

Did we ask their consent to liberate them from Spanish sovereignty, or to enter Manila Bay and destroy the Spanish sea-power there? We did not ask these things; we were obeying a higher moral "Hight which rested on us and which did not require air body's consent,

[Great applause and cheering.]

We were doing our duty by them, as God gave us the light to seejour duty, with the consent of our own conscience and with the approval of civilization.

[Applause.]

Every present obligation has been met and fulfilled ii the expulsion of Spanish sovereignty from their islands and while the war that destroyed it was in progress could not ask their views. Nor can we now ask they consent. Indeed, can any one tell me in what form i could be

marshaled and ascertained until peace and order, so necessary to the reign of reason, shall be secured and established? [Applause.] A reign of terror is not the kind of rule under which right action and deliberate judgment are possible. It is not a good time for the liberator to submit important questions concerning liberty and government to the liberated while they are engaged in shooting down their rescuers. [Applause and cheering.]

We have now ended the war with Spain. The treaty has been ratified by the votes of more than two thirds of the Senate of the United States, and by the judgment of nine tenths of its people. [Applause.] No nation was ever more fortunate in war or more honorable in its negotiations in peace. Spain is now eliminated from the problem. It remains to ask what we shall now do.

I do not intrude upon the duties of Congress or seek to anticipate or forestall its action. I only say that the treaty of peace, honorably secured, having been ratified by the United States, and, as

We confidently expect, shortly to be ratified by Spain, Congress will have the power, and I am sure the purpose, to do what, in good morals, is right and just and humane for these peoples in distant seas.