[Speech of William McKinley at the eleventh annual banquet of the Home
Market Club, Boston, Mass., February 16, 1899. William B. Plunkett,
President of the Club, said in introducing the President of the United
States: "Not the Home Market Club, not the city of Boston, not
Massachusetts only, but all New England give you greeting of welcome,
Mr. President. In our retrospective of the year past we would give
full meed of honor and praise to the President who so nobly met and so
faithfully discharged the grave responsibilities of that great office,
and thanksgiving to the Divine Providence that sustained him. In such
hands, under such guidance, we may safely trust the future of our
Republic. I have the great honor to present to you the beloved
President of the United States, William McKinley." The enthusiasm
displayed when the President was introduced was tremendous. In it all
he remained to all appearances calm and collected, as he stood and
silently acknowledged the reception.]
MR. TOAST-MASTER AND GENTLEMEN:--I have been deeply and
profoundly moved by this manifestation of your good-will and confidence
and impressed by the expressions of good-will from the Governor of your
great Commonwealth [Roger Wolcott] as well as from the chief executive
[Josiah Quincy] of the capital city of your State. No one stands in this
magnificent presence, listening to the patriotic strains from choir and
band, without knowing what this great audience was thinking about. It
was thinking, it is thinking this moment, of country, because they love
it and have faith in themselves and in its future. I thank the Governor
of Massachusetts, I thank the Mayor of the city of Boston, for their
warm and generous words of welcome, offered in behalf of this people to
me in your presence to-night.
The years go quickly. It seems not so long, but it is in fact six years
since it was my honor to be a guest of the Home Market Club. Much has
happened in the intervening time. Issues which were then engaging us
have been settled or put aside for larger and more absorbing ones.
Domestic conditions have improved and are generally satisfactory.
We have made progress in industry and have realized the prosperity for
which we have been striving. We had four long years of adversity, which
taught us some lessons which will never be unlearned and which will be
valuable in guiding our future action. We have not only been successful
in our financial and business affairs, but have been successful in a war
with a foreign power, which has added great glory to American arms and a
new chapter to American history.
I do not know why in the year 1899 this republic has unexpectedly had
placed before it mighty problems which it must face and meet. They have
come and are here and they could not be kept away. Many who were
impatient for the conflict a year ago, apparently heedless of its larger
results, are the first to cry out against the far-reaching consequences
of their own act. Those of us who dreaded war most and whose every
effort was directed to prevent it, had fears of new and grave problems
which might follow its inauguration.
The evolution of events which no man could control has brought these
problems upon us. Certain it is that they have not come through any
fault on our own part, but as a high obligation, and we meet them with
clear conscience and unselfish purpose, and with good heart resolve to
undertake their solution.
War was declared in April, 1898, with practical unanimity by the
Congress, and, once upon us, was sustained by like unanimity among the
people. There had been many who had tried to avert it, as, on the other
hand, there were many who would have precipitated it at an earlier date.
In its prosecution and conclusion the great majority of our countrymen
of every section believed they were fighting in a just cause, and at
home or at sea or in the field they had part in its glorious triumphs.
It was the war of an undivided nation. Every great act in its progress,
from Manila to Santiago, from Guam to Porto Rico, met universal and
hearty commendation. The protocol commanded the practically unanimous
approval of the American people. It was welcomed by every lover of peace
beneath the flag. [Applause.]
The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were intrusted to our hands
by the war, and to that great trust, under the providence of God and in
the name of human progress and civilization, we are committed. It is a
trust we have not sought; it is a trust from which we will not flinch.
The American people will hold up the hands of their servants at home to
whom they commit its execution, while Dewey and Otis and the brave men
whom they command will have the support of the country in upholding our
flag where it now floats, the symbol and assurance of liberty and
justice. [Applause.]
What nation was ever able to write an accurate programme of the war upon
which it was entering, much less decree in advance the scope of its
results? Congress can declare war, but a higher power decrees its bounds
and fixes its relations and responsibilities. The President can direct
the movements of soldiers on the field and fleets upon the sea, but he
cannot foresee the close of such movements or prescribe their limits. He
cannot anticipate or avoid the consequences, but he must meet them. No
accurate map of nations engaged in war can be traced until the war is
over, nor can the measure of responsibility be fixed till the last gun
is fired and the verdict embodied in the stipulations of peace.
We hear no complaint of the relations created by the war between this
Government and the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. There are some,
however, who regard the Philippines as in a different relation; but
whatever variety of views there maybe on this phase of the question,
there is universal agreement that the Philippines shall not be turned
back to Spain. No true American consents to that. Even if unwilling to
accept them ourselves, it would have been a weak evasion of manly duty
to require Spain to transfer them to some other Power or Powers, and
thus shirk our own responsibility. Even if we had had, as we did not
have, the power to compel such a transfer, it could not have been made
without the most serious international complications. Such a course
could not be thought of. And yet had we refused to accept the cession of
them we should have had no power over them, even for their own good. We
could not discharge the responsibilities upon us until these islands
became ours, either by conquest or treaty. There was but one
alternative, and that was either Spain or the United States in the
Philippines. The other suggestions--first, that they should be tossed
into the arena of contention for the strife of nations; or, second, be
left to the anarchy and chaos of no protectorate at all--were too
shameful to be considered. [Applause.]
The treaty gave them to the United States. Could we have required less
and done our duty?
Could we, after freeing the Filipinos from the domination of Spain, have
left them without government and without power to protect life or
property or to perform the international obligations essential to an
independent State? Could we have left them in a state of anarchy and
justified ourselves in our own consciences or before the tribunal of
mankind? Could we have done that in the sight of God or man?
Our concern was not for territory or trade or empire, but for the people
whose interests and destiny, without our willing it, had been put in our
hands. It was with this feeling that from the first day to the last not
one word or line went from the Executive in Washington to our military
and naval commanders at Manila or to our Peace Commissioners at Paris,
that did not put as the sole purpose to be kept in mind, first after the
success of our arms and the maintenance of our own honor, the welfare
and happiness and the rights of the inhabitants of the Philippine
islands. Did we need their consent to perform a great act for humanity?
We had it in every aspiration of their minds, in every hope of their
hearts. Was it necessary to ask their consent to capture Manila, the
capital of their islands? Did we ask their consent to liberate them from
Spanish sovereignty or to enter Manila Bay and destroy the Spanish
sea-power there? We did not ask these; we were obeying a higher moral
obligation which rested on us and which did not require anybody's
consent. We were doing our duty by them, as God gave us the light to see
our duty, with the consent of our own consciences and with the approval
of civilization. Every present obligation has been met and fulfilled in
the expulsion of Spanish sovereignty from their islands, and while the
war that destroyed it was in progress we could not ask their views. Nor
can we now ask their consent. Indeed, can any one tell me in what form
it could be marshaled and ascertained until peace and order, so
necessary to the reign of reason, shall be secured and established? A
reign of terror is not the kind of rule under which right action and
deliberate judgment are possible. It is not a good time for the
liberator to submit important questions concerning liberty and
government to the liberated while they are engaged in shooting down
their rescuers.
We have now ended the war with Spain. The treaty has been ratified by
the votes of more than two-thirds of the Senate of the United States and
by the judgment of nine-tenths of its people. No nation was ever more
fortunate in war or more honorable in its negotiations in peace. Spain
is now eliminated from the problem. It remains to ask what we shall now
do. I do not intrude upon the duties of Congress or seek to anticipate
or forestall its action. I only say that the treaty of peace, honorably
secured, having been ratified by the United States, and, as we
confidently expect, shortly to be ratified in Spain, Congress will have
the power, and I am sure the purpose, to do what in good morals is right
and just and humane for these peoples in distant seas.
It is sometimes hard to determine what is best to do, and the best thing
to do is oftentimes the hardest. The prophet of evil would do nothing
because he flinches at sacrifice and effort, and to do nothing is
easiest and involves the least cost. On those who have things to do
there rests a responsibility which is not on those who have no
obligations as doers. If the doubters were in a majority, there would,
it is true, be no labor, no sacrifice, no anxiety, and no burden raised
or carried; no contribution from our ease and purse and comfort to the
welfare of others, or even to the extension of our resources to the
welfare of ourselves. There would be ease, but alas! there would be
nothing done.
But grave problems come in the life of a nation, however much men may
seek to avoid them. They come without our seeking; why, we do not know,
and it is not always given us to know; but the generation on which they
are forced cannot avoid the responsibility of honestly striving for
their solution. We may not know precisely how to solve them, but we can
make an honest effort to that end, and if made in conscience, justice,
and honor, it will not be in vain.
The future of the Philippine Islands is now in the hands of the American
people. Until the treaty was ratified or rejected the Executive
department of this government could only preserve the peace and protect
life and property. That treaty now commits the free and enfranchised
Filipinos to the guiding hand and the liberalizing influences, the
generous sympathies, the uplifting education, not of their American
masters, but of their American emancipators. No one can tell to-day what
is best for them or for us. I know no one at this hour who is wise
enough or sufficiently informed to determine what form of government
will best subserve their interests and our interests, their and our
well-being.
If we knew everything by intuition--and I sometimes think that there are
those who believe that if we do not, they do--we should not need
information; but, unfortunately, most of us are not in that happy state.
This whole subject is now with Congress; and Congress is the voice, the
conscience and the judgment of the American people. Upon their judgment
and conscience can we not rely? I believe in them. I trust them. I know
of no better or safer human tribunal than the people. [Applause.]
Until Congress shall direct otherwise, it will be the duty of the
Executive to possess and hold the Philippines, giving to the people
thereof peace and order and beneficent government, affording them every
opportunity to prosecute their lawful pursuits, encouraging them in
thrift and industry, making them feel and know that we are their
friends, not their enemies, that their good is our aim, that their
welfare is our welfare, but that neither their aspirations nor ours can
be realized until our authority is acknowledged and unquestioned.
That the inhabitants of the Philippines will be benefited by this
Republic is my unshaken belief. That they will have a kindlier
government under our guidance, and that they will be aided in every
possible way to be a self-respecting and self-governing people is as
true as that the American people love liberty and have an abiding faith
in their own government and in their own institutions. No imperial
designs lurk in the American mind. They are alien to American sentiment,
thought and purpose. Our priceless principles undergo no change under a
tropical sun. They go with the flag. They are wrought in every one of
its sacred folds and are inextinguishable in its shining stars.
"Why read ye not the changeless truth,
The free can conquer but to save."
If we can benefit these remote peoples, who will object? If in the years
of the future they are established in government under law and liberty,
who will regret our perils and sacrifices? Who will not rejoice in our
heroism and humanity? Always perils, and always after them safety;
always darkness and clouds, but always shining through them the light
and the sunshine; always cost and sacrifice, but always after them the
fruition of liberty, education and civilization.
I have no light or knowledge not common to my countrymen. I do not
prophesy. The present is all-absorbing to me, but I cannot bound my
vision by the blood-stained trenches around Manila, where every red
drop, whether from the veins of an American soldier or a misguided
Filipino, is anguish to my heart; but by the broad range of future
years, when that group of islands, under the impulse of the year just
passed, shall have become the gems and glories of those tropical seas; a
land of plenty and of increasing possibilities; a people redeemed from
savage indolence and habits, devoted to the arts of peace, in touch with
the commerce and trade of all nations, enjoying the blessings of
freedom, of civil and religious liberty, of education and of homes, and
whose children and children's children shall for ages hence bless the
American Republic because it emancipated and redeemed their fatherland
and set them in the pathway of the world's best civilization.
[Long-continued applause and cheers.]