American Overseas Policies- Unit 2 Imperialism

President McKinley on the Philippines: When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them....I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance....And one night late it came to me this way....(1) that we could not give them back to Spain--that would be cowardly and dishonorable;(2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany--our commercial rivals in the Orient--that would be bad business and discreditable;(3) That we could not leave them to themselves--they were unfit for self-government--and they would soon have misrule worse than Spain's war;(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them….

Henry Cabot Lodge: Thus...duty and interest alike, duty of the highest kind and interest of the highest and best kind, impose upon us the retention of the Philippines, the development of the islands, and the expansion of our Eastern commerce.

Senator Albert J. Beveridge, 1900: The opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer, the rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government. We govern the Indians without their consent; we govern the territories without their consent; we govern our children without their consent. I answer, would not the natives of the Philippines prefer the just, humane, civilizing government of the Republic to the savage, bloody rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued them?

Emilio Aguinaldo: June 1900: Why do the Imperialists wish to subjugate us? What do they intend to do with us? Do they expect us to surrender -- to yield our inalienable rights, our homes, our properties, our lives, our future destinies, to the absolute control of the United States? What would you do with our nine millions of people? Would you permit us to take part in your elections? Would you concede to us the privilege of sending Senators and Representatives to your Congress? Would you allow us to erect one or more federal states? Or, would you tax us without representation? Would you change your tariff laws so as to admit our products free of duty and in competition with the products of our own soil?

Professor William Sumner (1898): We assume that what we like and practice, and what we think better, must come as a welcome blessing to…Filipinos.  This is grossly and obviously untrue. They hate our ways….If we believe in liberty, as an American principle, why do we not stand by it? Why are we going to throw it away to enter upon a Spanish policy of dominion and regulation?...

William Jennings Bryan (1901): How long will it take the imperialists to learn that we can never have peace in the Philippine Islands? That we can suppress open resistance is certain,…but that we can ever make the Filipinos love us or trust us while we rule them through a carpetbag government is absurd….