The American Empire Part 7

The Queen, who had 500 soldiers in the Barracks, was inclined to fight, but on the advice of her counselors, she yielded "to the superior force of the United States of America" until the facts could be presented at Washington, and the wrong righted.

Two weeks later, on the first of February, Minister Stevens issued a proclamation declaring a protectorate over the islands. This action was later repudiated by the authorities at Washington, but on February 15, President Harrison submitted a treaty of annexation to the Senate. The treaty failed of pa.s.sage, and President Cleveland, as one of his first official acts, ordered a complete investigation of the whole affair.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations submitted a report on the matter February 26, 1894. Four members referred to the acts of Minister Stevens as "active, officious and unbecoming partic.i.p.ation in the events which led to the revolution." All members of the committee agreed that his action in declaring a protectorate over the Islands was unjustified.

The same kind of a fight that developed over the annexation of Texas now took place over the annexation of Hawaii. A group of senators, of whom Senator R. F. Pettigrew was the most conspicuous figure, succeeded in preventing the ratification of the annexation treaty until July 7, 1898.

Then, ten weeks after the declaration of the Spanish-American War, under the stress of the war-hysteria, Hawaii was annexed by a joint resolution of Congress.

The Annexation of Hawaii marks a turning point in the history of the United States. For the first time, the American people secured possession of territory lying outside of the mainland of North America.

For the first time the United States acquired territory lying within the tropics. The annexation of Hawaii was the first imperialistic act after the annexation of Texas, more than fifty years before. It was the first imperialistic act since the capitalists of the North had succeeded the slave-owners of the South as the masters of American public life.

3. _The Spanish-American War_

The real test of the imperial intentions of the United States came with the Spanish-American War. An old, shattered world empire (Spain) held Porto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. Porto Rico and Cuba were of peculiar value to the sugar and tobacco interests of the United States.

They were close to the mainland, they were enormously productive and, furthermore, Cuba contained important deposits of iron ore.

Spain had only a feeble grip on her possessions. For years the natives of Cuba and of the Philippines had been in revolt against the Spanish power. At times the revolt was covert. Again it blazed in the open.

The situation in Cuba was rendered particularly critical because of the methods used by the Spanish authorities in dealing with the rebellious natives. The Spaniards were simply doing what any empire does to suppress rebellion and enforce obedience, but the brutalities of imperialism, as practiced in Cuba by the Spaniards, gave the American interventionists their opportunity. Day after day the newspapers carried front page stories of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. Day after day the ground was prepared for open intervention in the interests of the oppressed Cubans. There was more than grim humor in the instructions which a great newspaper publisher is reported to have sent his cartoonist in Cuba,--"You provide the pictures; we'll furnish the war."

The conflict was precipitated by the blowing up of the United States battleship _Maine_ as she lay in the harbor of Havana (February 15, 1898). It has not been settled to this day whether the _Maine_ was blown up from without or within. At the time it was a.s.sumed that the ship was blown up by the Spanish, although "there was no evidence whatever that any one connected with the exercise of Spanish authority in Cuba had had so much as guilty knowledge of the plans made to destroy the _Maine_"

(p. 270), and although "toward the last it had begun to look as if the Spanish Government were ready, rather than let the war feeling in the United States put things beyond all possibility of a peaceful solution, to make very substantial concessions to the Cuban insurgents and bring the troubles of the Island to an end" (p. 273-4).[35]

Congress, in a joint resolution pa.s.sed April 20, 1898, declared that "the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.... The United States hereby disclaims any intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said island except for the pacification thereof, and a.s.serts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people."

The war itself was of no great moment. There was little fighting on land, and the naval battles resulted in overwhelming victories for the American Navy. The treaty, ratified February 6, 1899, provided that Spain should cede to the United States Guam, Porto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines, and that the United States should pay to Spain twenty millions of dollars. As in the case of the Mexican War, the United States took possession of the territory and then paid a bonus for a clear t.i.tle.

The losses in the war were very small. The total number of men who were killed in action and who died of wounds was 289; while 3,949 died of accidents and disease. ("Historical Register," Vol. 2, p. 187.) The cost of the war was comparatively slight. Hostilities lasted from April 21, 1898 to August 12, 1898. The entire military and naval expense for the year 1898 was $443,368,000; for the year 1899, $605,071,000. Again the need for a larger place in the sun had been felt by the people of the United States and again the United States had won immense riches with a tiny outlay in men and money.

Now came the real issue,--What should the United States do with the booty?

There were many who held that the United States was bound to set the peoples of the conquered territory free. To be sure the specific pledge contained in the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, applied to Cuba alone, but, it was argued, since the people of the Philippines had also been fighting for liberty, and since they had come so near to winning their independence from the Spaniards, they were likewise ent.i.tled to it.

On the other hand, the advocates of annexation insisted that it was the duty of the United States to accept the responsibilities (the "white man's burden") that the acquisition of these islands involved.

As President McKinley put it:--"The Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, were entrusted to our hands by the providence of G.o.d." (President McKinley, Boston, February 16, 1899.) How was the country to avoid such a duty?

Thus was the issue drawn between the "imperialists" and the "anti-imperialists."

The imperialists had the machinery of government, the newspapers, and the prestige of a victorious and very popular war behind them. The anti-imperialists had half a century of unbroken tradition; the accepted principles of self-government; the sayings of men who had organized the Revolution of 1776; written the Declaration of Independence; held exalted offices and piloted the nation through the Civil War.

The imperialists used their inside position. The anti-imperialists appealed to public opinion. They organized a league "to aid in holding the United States true to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It seeks the preservation of the rights of the people as guaranteed to them by the Const.i.tution. Its members hold self-government to be fundamental, and good government to be but incidental. It is its purpose to oppose by all proper means the extension of the sovereignty of the United States over subject peoples. It will contribute to the defeat of any candidate or party that stands for the forcible subjugation of any people." (From the declaration of principle printed on the literature in 1899 and 1900.) Anti-imperialist conferences were held in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Indianapolis, Boston and other large cities. The League claimed to have half a million members. An extensive pamphlet literature was published, and every effort was made to arouse the people of the country to the importance of the decision that lay before them.

The imperialists said a great deal less than their opponents, but they were more effective in their efforts. The President had said, in his message to Congress (April 1, 1898), "I speak not of forcible annexation, for that cannot be thought of. That, by our code of morals, would be criminal aggression." The phrase was seized eagerly by those who were opposing the annexation of the Spanish possessions. After the war with Spain had begun, the President changed front on the ground that destiny had placed a responsibility upon the American people that they could not shirk. Taking this view of the situation, the President had only one course open to him--to insist upon the annexation of the Philippines, Porto Rico and Guam. This was the course that was followed, and on April 11, 1899, these territories were officially incorporated into the United States.

Senator h.o.a.r, in a speech on January 9, 1899, put the issue squarely. He described it as "a greater danger than we have encountered since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth--the danger that we are to be transformed from a republic, founded on the Declaration of Independence, guided by the counsels of Washington, into a vulgar, commonplace empire, founded upon physical force."

Cuba remained to be disposed of. With the specific guarantee of independence contained in the joint resolution pa.s.sed at the outbreak of the war, it seemed impossible to do otherwise than to give the Cubans self-government. Many influential men lamented the necessity, but it was generally conceded. But how much independence should Cuba have? That question was answered by the pa.s.sage of the Cuban Treaty with the "Platt Amendment" attached. Under the treaty as ratified the United States does exercise "sovereignty, jurisdiction and control" over the island.

4. _The Philippines_

The territory acquired from Spain was now, in theory, disposed of.

Practically, the Philippines remained as a source of difficulty and even of political danger.

The people of Cuba were, apparently, satisfied. The Porto Ricans had accepted the authority of the United States without question. But the Filipinos were not content. If the Cubans were to have self-government, why not they?

The situation was complicated by the peculiar relations existing between the Filipinos and the United States Government. Immediately after the declaration of war with Spain the United States Consul-General at Singapore had cabled to Admiral Dewey at Hong Kong that Aguinaldo, leader of the insurgent forces in the Philippines, was then at Singapore, and was ready to go to Hong Kong. Commodore Dewey cabled back asking Aguinaldo to come at once to Hong Kong. Aguinaldo left Singapore on April 26, 1898, and, with seventeen other revolutionary Filipino chiefs, was taken from Hong Kong to Manila in the United States naval vessel _McCulloch_. Upon his arrival in Manila, he at once took charge of the insurgents.

For three hundred years the inhabitants of the Philippines had been engaged in almost incessant warfare with the Spanish authorities. In the spring of 1898 they were in a fair way to win their independence. They had a large number of men under arms--from 20,000 to 30,000; they had fought the Spanish garrisons to a stand-still, and were in practical control of the situation.

Aguinaldo was furnished with 4,000 or 5,000 stands of arms by the American officials, he took additional arms from the Spaniards and he and his people cooperated actively with the Americans in driving the Spanish out of Luzon. The Filipino army captured Iloilo, the second largest city in the Philippines, without the a.s.sistance of the Americans. On the day of the surrender of Manila, 15 miles of the surrounding line was occupied by the Filipinos and 600 yards by the American troops. Throughout the early summer, the relations between the Filipinos and the Americans continued to be friendly. General Anderson, in command of the American Army, wrote a letter to the commander of the Filipinos (July 4, 1898) in which he said,--"I desire to have the most amicable relations with you and to have you and your people cooperate with us in military operations against the Spanish forces." During the summer the American officers called upon the Filipinos for supplies and information and accepted their cooperation. Aguinaldo, on his part, treated the Americans as deliverers, and in his proclamations referred to them as "liberators" and "redeemers."

The Filipinos, at the earliest possible moment, organized a government.

On June 18 a republic was proclaimed; on the 23rd the cabinet was announced; on the 27th a decree was published providing for elections, and on August 6th an address was issued to foreign governments, announcing that the revolutionary government was in operation, and was in control of fifteen provinces.

The real intent of the Americans was foreshadowed in the instructions handed by President McKinley to General Wesley Merritt on May 19, 1898.

General Merritt was directed to inform the Filipinos that "we come not to make war upon the people of the Philippines, nor upon any party or faction among them, but to protect them in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights. Any persons who, either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate with the United States in its effort to give effect to this beneficent purpose, will receive the reward of its support and protection."

The Filipinos sent a delegation to Paris to lay their claims for independence before the Peace Commission. Meeting with no success, they visited Washington, with no different result. They were not to be free!

On September 8, 1898, General Otis, commander of the American forces in the Philippines, notified Aguinaldo that unless he withdrew his forces from Manila and its suburbs by the 15th "I shall be obliged to resort to forcible action." On January 5, 1899, by Presidential Proclamation, McKinley ordered that "The Military Government heretofore maintained by the United States in the city, harbor, and bay of Manila is to be extended with all possible dispatch to the whole of the ceded territory." On February 4, 1899, General Otis reported "Firing upon the Filipinos and the killing of one of them by the Americans, leading to return fire." (Report up to April 6, 1899.) Then followed the Philippine War during which 1,037 Americans were killed in action or died of wounds; 2,818 were wounded, and 2,748 died of disease. ("Historical Register," Vol. II, p. 293.)

The Philippines were conquered twice--once in a contest with Spain (in cooperation with the Filipinos, who regarded themselves as our allies), and once in a contest with the Filipinos, the native inhabitants, who were made subjects of the American Empire by this conquest.[36]

5. _Imperialism Accepted_

The Philippine War was the last political episode in the life of the American Republic. From February 4, 1899, the United States accepted the political status of an Empire. Hawaii had been annexed at the behest of the Hawaiian Government; Porto Rico had been occupied as a part of the war strategy and without any protest from the Porto Ricans. The Philippines were taken against the determined opposition of the natives, who continued the struggle for independence during three bitter years.

The Filipinos were fighting for independence--fighting to drive invaders from their soil. The United States authorities had no status in the Philippines other than that of military conquerors.

Continental North America was occupied by the whites after a long struggle with the Indian tribes. This territory was "conquered"--but it was contiguous--it formed a part of a geographic unity. The Philippines were separated from San Francis...o...b.. 8,000 miles of water; geographically they were a part of Asia. They were tropical in character, and were inhabited by tribes having nothing in common with the American people except their common humanity. Nevertheless, despite non-contiguity; despite distance; despite dissimilarity in languages and customs, the soldiers of the United States conquered the Filipinos and the United States Government took control of the islands, acting in the same way that any other empire, under like circ.u.mstances, unquestionably would have acted.

There was no strategic reason that demanded the Philippines unless the United States desired to have an operating base near to the vast resources and the developing markets of China. As a vantage point from which to wage commercial and military aggression in the Far East, the Philippines may possess certain advantages. There is no other excuse for their conquest and retention by the United States save the economic excuse of advantages to be gained from the possession of the islands themselves.

The end of the nineteenth century saw the end of the Republic about which men like Jefferson and Lincoln wrote and dreamed. The New Century marked the opening of a new epoch--the beginning of world dominion for the United States.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] "A History of the American People," Woodrow Wilson. New York, Harpers, 1902, Vol. V, pp. 273-4.

[36] For further details on the Philippine problem see Senate Doc.u.ment 62, Part I, 55th Congress, Third Session.