The Case for the Filipinos

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1916. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... chapter ii the acquisition of the philippines the acquisition of the Philippines by the United States was the most unforeseen event in the history of American expansion. It is often suggested that God himself put the Islands in the care of the American people and therefore they should be regarded as a sacred trust. Yet, before Dewey's victory at Cavite, the majority of the American people did not even know that there was such a thing as the Philippine Archipelago. Senator Williams of Mississippi once remarked that as a member of the House Committee on Foreign Relations during the Spanish-American War it was one of his arduous tasks to climb upon a stool and point out the Islands on the map for the benefit of his colleagues. It would be interesting to know when American statesmen first conceived the probability and desirability of acquiring the Philippines. We should be unreasonable were we to believe that, with war with Spain imminent, no American public men ever thought of the Philippines, garrisoned, as they were, by Spanish soldiers. To military and naval experts, at least, must have occurred the idea of attacking the Spanish fleet and garrisons in the Islands. Admiral Dewey was then in the Gulf of California in command of the Narragansett, when he received the news of the possibility of the war, and the idea of taking the Philippines at once struck him. His officers felt gloomy at the prospect of being caught by the war while in the Gulf, but he at once said, " If war with Spain was declared, the Narragansett will take Manila." This was not said purely in a jocose spirit, for Dewey had really made up his mind to attack the Spaniards in Manila. "In command of an efficient force in the Far East," he said, "with a free hand to act, in consequence of being so f...