territory by conquest. We shall never in any circumstances seek to make an independent people subject to our dominion; because we believe, we passionately believe, in the right of every people to choose their own allegiance and be free of masters altogether.

For ourselves we wish nothing but the full liberty of self-development; and with ourselves in this great matter we associate all the peoples of our own hemisphere. We wish not only for the United States, but for them the fullest freedom of independent growth and of action, for we know that throughout this hemisphere the same aspirations are everywhere being worked out, under diverse conditions, but with the same impulse and ultimate object.

From his Address to the Manhattan Club at New York, November 4, 1915.

There is another matter which seems to me to be very intimately associated with the question of national safety and preparation for defense. That is our policy toward the Philippines and the people of Porto Rico. Our treatment of them and their attitude toward us are manifestly of the first consequence in the development of our duties in the world and in getting a free hand to perform those duties. We must be free from every unnecessary burden or embarrassment; and there is no better way to be clear of embarrassment than to fulfil our promises and promote the interests of those dependent on us to the utmost. Bills for the alteration and reform of the government of the Philippines and for rendering fuller political justice to the people of Porto Rico were submitted to the Sixty-third Congress. They will be

submitted also to you. I need not particularize their details. You are most of you already familiar with them. But I do recommend them to your early adoption with the sincere conviction that there are few measures you could adopt which would more serviceably clear the way for the great policies by which we wish to make good, now and always, our right to lead in enterprises of peace and good will and economic and political freedom. From his Message to Congress, December 7, 1915.

APPENDIX G

THIRD PHILIPPINE LEGISLATURE
PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY

SECOND SESSION

RESOLUTION FORWARDING ΤΟ THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THROUGH THE GOVERNORGENERAL OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, A MESSAGE FROM THE PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY, IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

WHEREAS the President of the United States has, through the Governor-General, Honorable Francis Burton Harrison, sent a message to the people of the Philippine Islands, which message was duly communicated on the sixth day of October, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and reads as follows:

"We regard ourselves as trustees acting not for the advantage of the United States but for the benefit of the people of the Philippine Islands.

Every step we take will be taken with a view to the ultimate independence of the Islands and as a preparation for that independence, and we hope to move towards that end as rapidly as the safety and the permanent interests of the Islands will permit. After each step taken experience will guide as to the next.

"The administration will take one step at once and

will give to the native citizens of the Islands a majority in the appointive Commission and thus in the Upper as well as in the Lower House of the Legislature a majority representation will be secured to them.

"We do this in the confident hope and expectation that immediate proof will be given, in the action of the Commission under the new arrangement, of the political capacity of those native citizens who have already come forward to represent and to lead their people in affairs." Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Philippine Assembly, in the name of the people of the Philippine Islands, do, and hereby does, request the Chief Executive thereof to be pleased to transmit to the President of the United States the following Reply-Message:

"We, the Representatives of the Filipino people, constituting the Philippine Assembly, solemnly declare:

"That it is evident to us that the Filipino people has the right to be free and independent, so that, in advancing alone along the road of progress, it will on its own responsibility work out its prosperity and manage its own destinies for all the purposes of life. This was the aspiration of the people when it took up arms against Spain, and the presence of the American flag, first on Manila Bay, and then in the interior of the Archipelago, did not modify, but rather encourage and strengthen the aspiration, despite all the reverses suffered in war and difficulties encountered in peace. Being called to the ballot box, the people again and again ratified this aspiration, and since the inauguration of the Assembly, the national representative body has been acting in accordance with the popular will only. Thus, in the

midst of the most adverse circumstances, the ideal of the people never wavered and was respectfully and frankly brought before the powers of the sovereign country on every propitious occasion.

On the other hand, our faith in the justice of the American people was as great and persistent as our ideal. We have waited in patience, confident that sooner or later all errors and injustices would be redressed. The message of the President of the United States to the Filipino people is eloquent proof that we have not waited in vain.

"We accept said message with love and gratitude and consider it a categorical declaration of the purpose of the American nation to recognize the independence of the Islands. The immediate step of granting us a majority on the Commission places in our hands the instruments of power and responsibility for the establishment by ourselves of a stable Filipino Government. We fully appreciate and are deeply grateful for the confidence reposed in us by the Government of the United States. We look upon the appointment of the Honorable Francis Burton Harrison as governor-general as the unmistakable harbinger of the new era, in which we expect the attitude of the people to be one of decided coöperation and support. We believe that happily the experiments of imperialism have come to an end, and that colonial exploitation has passed into history. The epoch of mistrust has been closed, and the Filipinos, upon having thrown open to them the doors of opportunity, are required to assume the burden of responsibility, which it would be inexcusable cowardice on their part to avoid or decline. Owing to this, few days have sufficed to