Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 3, 1899 Page: 2 of 16
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THE SOUTHERN MERCURY.
August 3, 1899.
the Secretary of War is proceeding to these islands? A people had, for a long
divide up Cuba among stock specula- tnme, indeed through many genera-
tors and corporate interests. We have tions, struggled for liberty. We found
driven out mediaeval tyranny, and a patriotic leader who stands high in
American exploitation has taken its the estimation of Europe, leading a
place. And no one can read the news- people who had almost secured their
papers that in any sense represent liberties, and practically had the pos-
what is officially going on, without session of the Island of Luzon, except
knowing that there is not the slightest Manila. The exiled Filipino patriots
intention on the part of the adminis- we invited to return. They recurae <
tration to set Cuba free. Jt is a fore- and helped us to conquer the Span-
gone conclusion, so far as the existing iard. We invited them to renew their
order of things is concerned, that Cuba struggle upon the expectation that we
shall be annexed, and, if necessary, civ- could gain for them their liberty,
il strife induced in order that we may Their congress met. We have been
have excuse for annexation. Annexa- talking much about their inability to
tion is the purpose and the craft of the govern themselves; but in their con-
present moment. To keep what we can gress were seventeen graduates of Eu-
get and all we can is the policy of the ropean universities, and men of the
government. highest skill and diplomacy. The con-
Now. it is absolutely certain that this gress adopted a provisional govern-
administration never had any policy or ment that was far in advance of the
principles beyond pleasing its masters, congress which was in session at the
Notwithstanding all the pious political beginning of the Revolutionary
cant of our Chief Executive, notwith- War in America. They were
standing the pronunciamentoes which as politically developed, relative-
are all inconsistent with each other ]y speaking, as our fathers
the policy of the administration rises their struggles through the Revolution-
and falls with the interests of private ary war. The Filipinos are not savages,
corporations. I do not for one moment on the whole, but a worthy people,
doubt that the President II a sincere simple, truthful and easy governed; a
man—a man who piously thinks that people who have shown the beginnings
the well-being of this nation consists 0f a worthy national life.
in the government being administered Now, what have we done? First of
for private wealth. But the most dan- all, we have shamefully and persistent-
gerous man in any crisis of the world ]y misrepresented the Filipinos to the
is the well-meaning man without prin- people of America, as man after man
ciples—the weak man in the place of who has independently gone among
power. The most dangerous man, in them and studied their character has
any national situation, is the well- testified. The press reports and the
meaning man who becomes character- government censors of the news, in
less putty in the hands of his masters, every possible way, give the worst and
The administration that tolerates the most untruthful impression that can
monstrous spectacle of the present Sec- be given to the world.
retary of War, that appoints partisan Second. After having taken them
boards to protect him, that appoints In- into our confidence, after having
vestigating committees to conceal his sought their co-operation in the expec-
mismanagement and wrong, that ap- tation of their liberty, we outrageously
points investigating committees to sa- denied their commissioners a hearing
credly protect Chicago packing houses. at Paris; we treated their commission-
that treats them with a reverence that er In America in such a manner that
would signify that they are holy places he had practically to flee for his life,
in American civilization, that adminis- The commissioners of the Filipinos
terB punishment of the sort given to have been refused any hearing as to
Gen. Egan, that looks on these ghastli- their future. The attitude of this gov-
est scandals only to hide them from the ernment toward the envoys of a people
people—that administration cannot es- struggling for liberty is as outrageous
cape the stigma of disgrace and shame an(j infamous, as tyrannical, as treason-
that the future will put upon it. There able t0 human life, as anything in mod-
will some day come, in this nation, an ern political history. In other words,
avalanche of retributive opinion that we gained the confidence of this people
will show forth in all its hideousness either upon absolutely false pretenses,
the duplicity of the present govern- 0r else we have been most ignobly
ment. false to the confidence we invited. We
I have here in my hand a letter from have utterly, so far as our government
a prominent English lady, I think I relations go, betrayed the people of the
will read to you upon this subject. She Philippine Islands.
say8: What more? We are killing them
Neither the public nor the press here now R lg gald that we have killed
represent the best thought of the peo- more Filipinos in three months than
pie in America or understand the gpani8h killed in three centuries,
thought of England. Any one who re- Whether that be true or not, it cer-
flects must see through this Iniquitous tainly i{J true that we have been guIlty
war and its consequences. American- Qf bj.utalltie8 that will probably not
ism instead of being honored in Eng- com*to llght very soon. In the battle
land, is really a stench in the nostrils o£ Manila 8Cores of women, with bows
of every man of decent standing in and am)W8 ,n thelr hands were fouml
Europe. A baby could see through the dead beside their husbands, fathers,
hypocrisy of England in seeking to in- brothers and sons. We in America-
crease American imperialism, when so- The America of Jefrerson and Un-
cial England never despised America —are 0fljCiany rejoicing over a vie-
so much at heart as now, because of tory gained ln part through shooting
America's submission to this hypoc- down women who were seeking for
risy.'
nothing except the chance to be free
But It is to the Philippine Islands we Here is a private who writes:
must turn when the question of Impe- "The slaughter was Just awful. Dew-
rlalism is raised. What did we find In ey was throwing shells Into the lnsur
gent camp, killing hundreds at a time.
Our boys stood there ten hours straight
shooting before they could move the
natives an inch; finally we got them
on the run and kept them going. There
were regiments whose officers could do
nothing with the men; they couldn't
stop when they got the insurgents on
the run; our men burned and destroy-
ed everything they came across. The
Utah battery and the 14th regulars had
dead Filipinos piled up so high that
they used bodies for breastworks. The
Minnesota men are just crazy to get out
on the firing line. We have them so
scared in the city that they are afraid
to come out of their houses. For a
time they would brush up against you,
but now they get off the walk. We are
searching most all of them, and when
we tell them to stop they at once throw
up their hands, for if they make the
least move, we shoot them down like
dogs." The march through the Philip-
pines, the correspondents of European
papers tell us, has been one of merci-
less devastation; as our armies march-
ed through Luzon island they left a wil-
derness behind them. A manager and
nurse of the Red Cross Society writes
as follows:
"I never saw such an execution in my
life, and hope never to see such sights
as met me on all sides as our little
corps passed over the field, dressing
wounded—legs and arms nearly demol-
ished, total decapitation, horrible
wounds in chests and abdoens show-
ing the determination of our soldiers to
kill every native in sight.The Filipinos
did stand their ground heroically, con-
testing every inch, but proved them-
selves unable to stand the deadly fire
of our well-trained and eager boys in
blue. I counted seventy-nine dead na-
tives in one small field, and learn that
on the other side of the river their
bodies were stacked up for breast-
works."
Well may Senator Hoard say:
"The blood of the slaughterer Fili-
pinos, the blood and the wasted health
and life of our own soldiers are upon
the heads of those who have undertak-
en to buy a people in the market like
sheep, or to treat them as lawful prize
and booty of war; to impose a govern-
ment on them without their consent,
and to trample under foot not only the
people of the Philippine Islands, but
the principle upon which the American
Republic istelf rests."
But the mere matter of being kill-
ed is nothing. There is something im-
measurably worse than ten million
deaths by murder; and this is, to have
one's liberty destroyed. The American
government is remorselessly enlisted in
destroying the sacredest thing that can
ever be touched upon this earth—the
liberty of a people seeking to express
themselves in freedom and self-govern-
ment. The America of Lincoln and
Jefferson, of Phillips and Garrison,
moved by gigantic commercial Interests
is striking at the heart of a people who
are in the first dawn of national liber-
ty.
We have raised the question of self-
government. We say the Filipinos are
incapable of self-government, and that
we are ordained to establish govern-
ment for them and over them. Let us
think of that in several lights. Here
is a statement of the Rev. Herbert
Bigelow of Cincinnati, which emphsi-
zes what I have to say further on.
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joy life. Most troubles origi-
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Built up- " Was tired out, had no
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It built me right up and I can eat heartily."
Etta M. Hager, Athol, Mass.
H i 'rt's 1'ilfs cure liver ills; the non-irriiutijip and
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"Our right to control over the Fili-
pinos is no better than Spain's right,
unless might makes right. If Spain
committed a crime in shooting Rizal,
then, before God, we are criminals.
The fact that we believe ourselves to be
able to govern the islands better than
Spain, or better than the people them-
selves, does not change the moral stat-
us of the question a hair's breadth. If
the conqueror is justified in conquer-
ing because he has implicit faith in
himself, then there never was an un-
righteous war. If national conceit,
backed up by superior force, is suffi-
cient justifications for a war of con-
quest, then there is no such thing as
right in this world and no safety what-
ever for any man's liberty who has not
the power to defend it by brute
strength. If our right to shoot down
Filipinos is to be sustained by the ne-
cessities of trade and our own good
opinion of ourselves, then our patriot-
ism is only a maudlin sentiment, and
our Christian professions are a shae-
less mockery." And there is something
more I want to read to you, from Prof.
James, of Harvard University .
"We are now openly engaged ln
crushing out the sacredest thing in
this great human world—the attempt of
a people long enslaved to attain the
possession of itself, to organise its laws
and government, to be free to follow
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Park, Milton. Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 3, 1899, newspaper, August 3, 1899; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185814/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .