Index of Topic of Debates

• Three Stages of Debates

• Personalities Involved in the Debates

• Political Positions and Arguments

• Quotes from Both Political Camps

• Agoncillo's Memorial to the U.S. Senate on the Treaty of Paris

• Links to Jim Zwick's "The Anti-Imperialist League and the Origins of Filipino-American Oppositional Solidarity."

Focus of Three Stages of Debate

1]  Philippines as Spoil of War.  Debate on what to do with the Philippines as a spoil of war immediately after Commodore Dewey's historic naval victory at Manila Bay.

"A strong feeling spreading over the land in favor of colonial expansion [is] getting so strong that it will mean the political death of any man to oppose it pretty soon."

• Chauncey Depew, New York Central railroad tycoon,
addressing Republican stalwarts, May 17, 1898.

"The hardest, closest fight I have ever known, and probably we shall never see another like it in our time."

•  Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, February 6, 1899, after
 the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris in a tight
        vote that barely made the two-thirds required.

Mark Twain in the early 1900s. [Note: To link with Library of Congress  biography of Mark Twain, "click" the photo  of Mark Twain.

"But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but subjugate the people of the Philippines.  We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem." ________________________ "It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way.  And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land." Mark Twain, from the New York Herald, October 15, 1900

"Was it ever heard before that a civilized, humane, and Christian nation made war upon a people and refused to tell them what they wanted of them? You say you want them to submit. To submit to what? To mere military force? But for what purpose or for what end is that military force to be exerted? You decline to tell them. Not only do you decline to say what you want of them, except bare and abject surrender, but you will not even let them tell you what they ask of you!"

• Senator George Frisbee Hoar, questioning
Gen. Elwell Otis in a Senate hearing
________________________

• Thomas Brackett Reed, commenting on the
$20,000,000 U.S. indemnity to Spain

Political Positions and Arguments of the Imperialists

1. That loyalty to the flag and country demanded that the President should be supported.
2. That it had been a part of McKinley's policy to bring about an independent Philippines, and that "Aguinaldo's Revolt" had interfered in this policy;
3. That the first duty of the U.S. government was to suppress the "rebellion", and that no form of government, except the supremacy of American military authority, could be properly considered until the rebellion was put to an end.
4. Opposed to the fact that only three percent of the inhabitants of the islands could read and write; that the bulk of the population were savages and consequently unfit for self-government.
5. That an independent Philippines would set Aguinaldo as dictator and that opposition, revolt, anarchy would follow and that conditions would be worse than under the Spanish rule.
6. That commerce was the controlling factor in the government of nations and that through the expansion of American trade American civilization could best be spread and promoted.
7. That the United States needed the Philippine Islands as a way station on the great commercial highway of American-Asiatic commerce.
8. That no American government had seriously considered the wishes of the American Indians, French and Spanish settlers of Louisiana or the Eskimos of Alaska to be superior to that of the national interest of the country.

Political Positions and Arguments of the Anti-Imperialists

1. The forcible acquisition of a territory, especially away from the American continent, was in flagrant violation to the teachings of the founding fathers.
2. That it was a fundamental principle of the U.S. government that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
3. That by the going to war against the Filipinos, American lives were needlessly sacrificed to subjugate a people entitled to freedom.
4. That for the U.S. to guarantee freedom to Cuba through Congressional resolution, there is no reason why America cannot offer the same to the Philippines;
5. That inasmuch as the Monroe Doctrine declared that "America is for the Americans", it goes to say that the "Philippines for the Filipinos" is just fair for the Filipinos, if America were to be consistent in its foreign policy.

An editorial cartoon from 1901 issue of Puck depicts Uncle Sam as a giant cocky rooster protecting the little American chickens, and the European chickens complain: "You're not the only rooster in South America!", to which Uncle Sam retorts,  "I was aware of that when I cooped you up!"

Quotes from the Imperialists

"We have full power and are absolutely free to do with these islands as we please."

"We must on no account let the islands go...We hold the other side of the Pacific, and the value to this country is almost beyond imagination."

• Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr.
________________________

• Senator Alfred J. Beveridge, Excerpt from Speech, January 9, 1900, Congressional Record

"I believe it wise and proper to retain the Philippines. I think the government we enjoy in the United States is the best government for us in the Philippines."

• Cardinal James Gibbons
________________________

• Archbishop Placide Louis Chapelle

"that under the Constitution...no power is given to the Federal Government to acquire territory to be held and governed permanently as colonies."

• Senator George Vest (Missouri), first resolution submitted opposing the Treaty of Paris
________________________

• Senator George F. Hoar, the most vocal opponent of the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, in his resolution submitted to the U.S. Senate
              ________________________

Felipe Agoncillo, Philippine's  Extraordinary Plenipotentiary  during the Revolutionary days. Felipe Agoncillo's Memorial Urging  the U.S. Senate Not to Vote For the  Approval of the Treaty of Paris January 24, 1899  __________________________     To: The United States Secretary of State 1. I respectfully submit that the United States, not having received from the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands authority to pass laws affecting them, its legislation as to their welfare possesses no binding force upon my people. 2.  American authorities herein cited demonstrate that the Philippine Revolution was never more threatening that immediately before the breaking out of the Spanish-American War, five thousand revolutionists having been encamped near Manila three weeks before the American declaration of  war, this army acting under the direction of General Aguinaldo (though he was personally absent), in whom the consular representatives of the United States reposed the highest confidence. 3.   The purpose of the revolution was tosecure independence, and, understanding this, the United States encouraged the revolutionists to believe their desires would attain fruition. This is shown by citations from the archives of the State Department and by the incidents above related. 4.  The Philippine Republic was entitled to recognition from the United States as an independent nation before the signing of the protocol with Spain, that Government knowing that Philippine Independence had been proclaimed in June, a Government de facto and de jure established, laws promulgated, and Spain's further domination impossible, being acquainted with all these facts immediately upon their happening, through documents and written reports submitted to the United States by its officers. 5.  The American Government for months has had in its possession, as herein shown, evidence of the actual independence of the Filipinos. 6.  Spain could not deliver possession of the Philippines to the United States, she having been ousted by their people, and in fact at the present moment the United States holds only and entrenched camp, controlling one hundred and forty-three square miles, with 300,000 people, while the Philippine Republic represents the destinies of nearly 10,000,000 souls, scattered over an area approaching 200,000 square miles. 7.  Spain having no possession (except minor garrison posts), and no right of possession in the Philippines, could confer no right to control them. 8.  American purchase of public buildings, etc., in the Philippine Islands was ineffective , because the Islands, having been lost by Spain to the Philippine Republic, the last-named Government had already by conquest acquired public property. 9. Secretaries of State of your country (including Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Pinckney) have denied the right of an ally of America to acquire by conquest from Great Britain any American territory while America was struggling for independence.  The United States Supreme Court has sustained this view.  We deny similarly the right of the United States to acquire Philippine territory by cession from Spain while the Filipinos were yet at war with that power.  ________________________