against our new possessions is as empty as the cant about "militarism," and "imperialism" is devoid of sense and meaning.

Regard for a moment those who are loudest in shrieking that the American people are about to enter upon a career of oppression, and that the republic is in danger. Have they been in the past the guardians of freedom? Is safety for liberty now to be found most surely in the party which was the defender of domestic slavery?

Is true freedom to be secured by the ascendancy of the party which beneath our very eyes seeks to establish through infamous laws the despotic rule of a small and unscrupulous band of usurpers in Kentucky, who trample there not upon the rights of the black men only, but of the whites, and which seeks to extend the same system to North Carolina and Missouri?

Has it suddenly come to pass that the Democratic Party which to-day aims whenever it acquires power to continue in office by crushing out honest elections and popular rule; has it indeed come to pass, I say, that that party is the chosen protector of liberty? If it were so the outlook would be black indeed.

No. The party of Lincoln may best be trusted now, as in the past, to be true, even as he was true, to the rights of man to human freedom, whether within the borders of the United States or in the islands which have come beneath our flag. The liberators may be trusted to watch over the liberated. We who freed Cuba will keep the pledge we made to her and will guide her along the road to independence and stable government until she is ready to settle her own future by the free expression of her people's will. We will be faithful to the trust imposed upon us, and if among those to whom this

great work is confided in Cuba, or elsewhere, wrongdoers shall be found, men not only bad in morals, but dead to their duty as Americans and false to the honor of our name, we will punish these basest of criminals to the extent of the law.

For the islands of Hawaii and Porto Rico the political problem has been solved, and by Republican legislation they have been given self-government, and are peaceful and prosperous under the rule of the United States.

In the Philippines we were met by rebellion, fomented by a self-seeking adventurer and usurper. The duty of the President was to repress that rebellion, to see to it that the authority of the United States, as rightfully and as righteous in Manila as in Philadelphia, was acknowledged and obeyed. That harsh and painful duty President McKinley has performed firmly and justly, eager to resort to gentle measures wherever possible, unyielding when treachery and violence made force necessary. Unlike the opponents of expansion, we do not regard the soldiers of Otis and Lawton and Mc'Arthur as (6 an enemy's camp."

In our eyes they are the soldiers of the United States, they are our army, and we believe in them and will sustain them. Even now the Democrats are planning, if they get control of the House, to cut off appropriations for the army and thus compel the withdrawal of our troops from the Philippines. The result would be to force the retirement of such soldiers as would remain in Manila, and their retreat would be the signal for the massacre and plunder of the great body of the peaceful inhabitants of the islands who have trusted to us to protect and guard them.

Such an event would be an infamy. Is the government, is the House, to be given over to a party capable of such a policy? Shall they not rather be intrusted to the party

which will sustain the army and suppress the brigands and guerrillas who, under pretence of war, are now adding so freely to the list of crimes committed in the name of liberty by usurpers and pretenders, and who, buoyed up by the Democratic promises, keep up a highwayman warfare in hope of Democratic success in November? It is for the American people to decide this question.

Our position is plain. The restoration of peace and order now so nearly reached in the Philippines shall be completed. Civil government shall be established, and the people advanced as rapidly as possible along the road to entire freedom and to self-government under our flag. We will not abandon our task. We will neither surrender nor retreat. We will not write failure across this page of our history. We will do our duty, our full duty, to the people of the Philippines, and strive by every means to give them freedom, contentment and prosperity.

We have no belief in the old slaveholders' doctrine that the constitution of its own force marches into every newly acquired territory, and this doctrine, which we cast out in 1860, we still reject. We do not mean that the Philippines shall come within our tariff system or become part of our body politic. We do mean that they shall under our teaching learn to govern themselves and remain under our flag, with the largest possible measure of home rule. We make, no hypocritical pretence of being interested in the Philippines solely on account of others. While we regard the welfare of those people as a sacred trust, we regard the welfare of the American people first. We see our duty to ourselves as well as to others. We believe in trade expansion.

By every legitimate means within the province of government and legislation we mean to stimulate the expansion of

our trade and to open new markets. Greatest of all markets is China. Our trade there is growing by leaps and bounds.

Manila, the prize of war, gives us inestimable advantages in developing that trade. It is the corner-stone of our Eastern policy, and the brilliant diplomacy of John Hay in securing from all nations a guarantee of our treaty rights and of the open door in China rests upon it.

We ask the American people whether they will throw away these new markets and widening opportunities for trade and commerce by putting in power the Democratic Party, who seek under cover of a newly-discovered affection for the rights of man to give up these islands of the East and make Dewey's victory fruitless?

The choice lies between this Democratic policy of retreat and the Republican policy which would hold the islands, give them freedom and prosperity and enlarge those great opportunities for ourselves and our posterity.

The Democratic attitude toward the Philippines rests wholly upon the proposition that the American people have neither the capacity nor the honesty to deal rightly with these islands. They assume that we shall fail.

They fall down and worship a Chinese half-breed whose name they had never heard three years ago, and they slander and cry down and doubt the honor of American soldiers and sailors, of admirals and generals, and public men who have gone in and out before us during an entire lifetime.

We are true to our own. We have no distrust of the honor, the humanity, the capacity of the American people. To feel or do otherwise is to doubt ourselves, our government and our civilization.

We take issue with the Democrats who would cast off the Philippines because the American people cannot be trusted

with them, and we declare that the American people can be trusted to deal justly, wisely, and generously with these distant islands and will lift them up to a higher prosperity, a broader freedom, and a nobler civilization than they have ever known. We have not failed elsewhere. We shall not fail here.

Those are the questions we present to the American people in regard to the Philippines. Do they want such a humiliating change there as Democratic victory would bring? Do they want an even more radical change at home? Suppose the candidate of the Democrats, the Populists, the foes of expansion, the dissatisfied, and the envious should come into power, what kind of an administration would he give us? What would his cabinet be?

Think what an electric spark of confidence would run through every business interest in the country when such a cabinet was announced as we can readily imagine he would make. More important still, we ask the American people whether they will put in the White House the hero of uncounted platforms, the prodigal spendthrift of words, the champion of free silver, the opponent of expansion, the assailant of the courts; or whether they will retain in the Presidency the Union soldier, the leader of the House of Representatives, the trained statesman who has borne victoriously the heavy burdens of the last four years; the champion of protection and sound money, the fearless supporter of law and order wherever the flag floats? But there is one question we will put to the American people in this campaign which includes and outweighs all others.

We will say to them: You were in the depths of adversity under the last Democratic Administration; you are on the heights of prosperity to-day. Will that prosperity continue