JACKSON DAY SPEECH AT CHICAGO.

"Those who advocate the annexation of the Philippines call themselves expansionists, but they are really imperialists. The word expansion would describe the acquisition of territory to be populated by homogeneous people and to be carved into states like those now in existence. An empire suggests variety in race. and diversity in government. The Imperialists do not desire to clothe the Filipinos with all the rights and privileges of American citizenship; they want to exercise sovereignty over an alien race and they expect to rule the new subjects upon a theory entirely at variance with constitutional government. Victoria is Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India; shall we change the title of our executive and call him the President of the United States and Emperor of the Philippines?

"The Democratic party stood for the money of the Constitution in 1896; it stands for the government of the Constitution now.

"It opposed an English financial policy in 1896; it opposes an English colonial policy now. Those who in 1896 were in favor of turning the American people over to the greed of foreign financiers and domestic. trusts may now be willing to turn the Filipinos over to the tender mercies of military governors and carpetbag officials.

"Those who in 1896 thought the people of the United States too weak to attend to their own business may now think them strong enough to attend to the business of remote and alien races; but those who, in 1896, fought for independence for the American people will not now withhold independence from those who desire it elsewhere.

"We are told that the Filipinos are not capable of

self-government; that has a familiar ring. Only two years ago I heard the same argument made against a very respectable minority of the people of this country. The money loaners, who coerced borrowers, did it upon that theory; the employers who coerced their employes did it for the same reason. Self-government is a constant education; the capacity for self-government increases with participation in government. The Filipinos are not far enough advanced to share in the government of the people of the United States, but they are competent to govern themselves. It is not fair to compare them with our own citizens, because the American people have been educating themselves in the science of government for nearly three centuries and, while we have much to learn, we have already made great improvement. The Filipinos will not establish a perfect government, but they will establish a government as nearly perfect as they are competent to enjoy and the United States can protect them from molestation from without.

"Give the Filipinos time and opportunity, and while they never will catch up with us, unless we cease to improve, yet they may some day stand where we stand.

now.

"What excuse can be given for the adoption of a colonial policy? Secretary Gage disclosed the secret in his Savannah speech. I think we might be justified in calling Mr. Gage the key-hole of the administration, because we look through him to learn what is going on within the executive council chamber. He suggested that 'philanthropy and five per cent' would go hand in hand in the new venture. These are the two arguments which are always used in favor of conquest. 'Philanthropy and five per cent.' The one chloroforms the conscience of the conqueror and the other picks the pocket of the conquered,

"Some assert that we must hold the islands because of the pecuniary profit to be derived from them, while others say that it is our duty to govern the Filipinos for their own good. I deny the soundness of both arguments. Forcible annexation will not only be 'criminal aggression' (to borrow Mr. McKinley's language of a year ago), but it will cost more than it is worth, and the whole people will pay the cost, while a few will reap all the benefits.

"Still weaker is the argument based upon religious duty. The Christian religion rests upon the doctrine of vicarious suffering; the colonial policy rests upon the doctrine of vicarious enjoyment.

"When the desire to steal becomes uncontrollable in an individual he is declared to be a kleptomaniac and is sent to an asylum; when the desire to grab land becomes uncontrollable in a nation we are told that the currents of destiny are flowing through the hearts of men' and that the American people are entering upon 'a manifest mission.'

"Shame upon a logic which locks up the petty offender and enthrones grand larceny. Have the people returned to the worship of the Golden Calf? Have they made unto themselves a new commandment consistent with the spirit of conquest and the lust for empire? Is 'thou shalt not steal upon a small scale' to be substituted for the law of Moses?

"Awake O ancient Law-Giver, awake! Break forth from thine unmarked sepulchre and speed thee back. to cloud-crowned Sinai; commune once more with the God of our fathers and proclaim again the words. engraven upon the tables of stone-the law that was, the law that is to-day-the law that neither individual nor nation can violate with impunity."

[Extract from speech delivered at banquet of Bryan League, Chicago, Ill., January 7, 1899.]