dBooks desire

The future government of the Philippines rests with the Congress of the
United States. Few graver responsibilities have ever been confided to
us. If we accept them in a spirit worthy of our race and our traditions,
a great opportunity comes with them. The islands lie under the shelter
of our flag. They are ours by every title of law and equity. They cannot
be abandoned. If we desert them we leave them at once to anarchy and
finally to barbarism. We fling them, a golden apple of discord, among
the rival powers, no one of which could permit another to seize them
unquestioned. Their rich plains and valleys would be the scene of
endless strife and bloodshed. The advent of Dewey's fleet in Manila Bay
instead of being, as we hope, the dawn of a new day of freedom and
progress, will have been the beginning of an era of misery and violence
worse than any which has darkened their unhappy past. The suggestion
has been made that we could renounce our authority over the islands
and, giving them independence, could retain a protectorate over them.


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