CHAPTER XVII. ARE WE TO SPREAD THE CHRISTIAN RE- ISM WITH A SCIMITER? BY HON. BENJAMIN R. TILLMAN, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. I have listened to the long and able debate on the general proposition of annexation or expansion, and have never at any time intended to obtrude my views. I have never in my legislative experience in this body or in any other assemblage heard so many speeches giving the most cogent reasons why a man should not vote for a proposition followed by the acknowledgment that the speaker notwithstanding intended to give his vote in its support. So at least a great many votes that have gone to the treaty and have enabled it to become the law of the land have been cast by men who have been in great doubt as to their duty and have at last yielded rather to pressure than to any conscientious or calm consideration of the result. As far as my observation goes, and as I understand the present status of the American people, we have no Constitution left. The only rule which governs Congress now is the rule of the majority. We had an illustration of that when the Hawaiian treaty was rejected by the constitutional one-third, more than one-third refusing to ratify it, and the majority brought in its resolution of annexation by which the Constitution was overridden. I will qualify the statement I have just made as regards our having no Constitution left, which the majority are bound to respect, by saying that the twothirds vote to ratify a treaty is the only scintilla of the original instrument which now remains to hamper the majority. If the Senate joint Resolution should pass and be approved by the President it would mean nothing more than the cold-blooded enunciation of our power, and a declaration that we will deal with this question from the standpoint of our interests, regardless of the rights or the wishes of those 10,000,000 Asiatics who have come under our sway. And above all, notwithstanding the assertions which we heard here yesterday, that we could not take time to enter into negotiations with the men who had pistols at our breasts, or with those who had fired upon the flag, it appears to me that of all times in our history we could at this moment give forth a sound that would be generous and worthy of the great American people. What caused this last battle of Manila? The reports which we receive through our newspapers all come from American sources; they charge that the Filipinos wantonly attacked the American army, and that that army had a right to defend itself, which nobody assumes to deny. But when we recollect that the telegraph lines from those islands are in charge of the American commander there, or of those whom he designates to control them, it is natural for us to suppose that nothing would be let out under the censorship which has existed for the last three months. or more that would be in the slightest degree derogatory to the good faith or the honor of the American. army there. Time alone will tell whether this battle was provoked by the Filipinos for purposes of their own or by the Americans for the purpose of endeavoring to sway men in this Senate to ratify the treaty and change the status. I recall one of Esop's fables in which a painter had depicted a lion lying on his back prone beneath the heel of a man, and when he showed the painting to the lion the lion said, "Yes, you painted that; but if you will let me paint it, the situation will be just the opposite." I come now to make a statement, upon which I base what I have just said, to this effect: That I have seen in the last forty-eight hours an invalided officer of the American Army, one of the regulars, who has just reached this city from Manila. From what he told me of the situation before he left there, I dare to assert that the American Army has been in a state of siege in that city for three or four months; that the lines surrounding the city have been in the possession of the Filipino army outside; that no American was allowed to cross them; and that those Filipinos, while they had not been actively engaged in firing upon our troops, have preserved a strict recognition of the fact that they were in an attitude of antagonism, that they did not recognize this Government as having any rights outside of the city of Manila. If that be true, the question recurs as to who may be responsible or who was responsible for the battle of Saturday night last. As I understand the legal status the ratification of the treaty will bring about this result: That in the eye of the law the Philippine Islands are ours and the inhabitants thereof are to-day rebels; they are now ours by right of cession from Spain, ratified yesterday by this body, and to be ratified soon by the Spanish Government; they are Americans, and since they have fired upon the flag they are rebels. That is the law of the situation as we see it and possibly as the world sees it. Now, considering the fact, which can not be denied -for our consul reported the fact as far back as February, 1898, before Dewey sailed into Manila Baythat there was a rebellion against Spain; that the Filipino army was lying outside of the city of Manila and hostilities were active; considering the fact that they organized a government as far back as last June; considering the fact that they have been actively engaged in collecting munitions of war and have recruited their army until, as this officer told me, they have not less than 40,000 men outside of Manila today, we are brought face to face with the consideration as to whether it was not wise and proper and the best thing from their point of view for the Filipinos to make the attack which they did, or which it is said they did, on Saturday night last. If they went to war with the United States before the United States had a title to those islands in law, what is their legal status in international law? They can not be called rebels to us except from the extreme standpoint of legal technicality. We had no right in Manila so far as they were concerned; we only had rights there so far as Spain was concerned; and if, after they had their representative here pleading and begging for some word of comfort, some promise as to our policy, or some dim outline even as to the purpose of recognizing their right to local self-government, they grew desperate at last and fired upon our troops, the firing upon those troops before we had any legal title must give them the right of belligerents in war, although they are subjects of Spain, because by the cession to us we simply fall heir to Spain's residuary title in those islands. We may say they are rebels, and in strict legal interpretation they may be rebels, but let this war terminate how it will, history will declare that they are to-day patriots striving for what we fought for in our struggle with Great Britain in the last century; and we can not escape from the condition at least of doubt as to the course we ought to follow when we consider this fact. They were fighting for their freedom against Spanish tyranny two years ago, and they continued to fight up to the time when Aguinaldo left the islands and went to Singapore; they continued the fight, as our own consul said, after he left; they never did cease, some of them; there never was peace; and now the question which addresses itself to every American who loves his flag and loves his great country and loves the great principle upon which that flag rests and that country is founded is this: Are we to take the place of Spain as their taskmasters and tyrants? I have looked back down the vista of what history I have read, and I appeal to any Senator here who may be versed in history to correct me if I am wrong when I say there never has been in the history of time a precedent for the existing condition now at Manila between the United States and the Filipino insurgents. The transition or transfer of the legal title. to the islands during the period of their rebellion against one government and their effort to throw off the yoke and establish an independent government has never, so far as I recall, occurred before in the history of the world. I say the present situation in Manila is unique, |