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April 3, 1900 House v. 33 (4) p. 3717-3718 3718 Mr. THOMAS of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, by an interesting coincidence the ceremony of the final annexation of the Hawaiian Islands took place on August 12, 1898, the very day upon which the protocol of peace with Spain was signed. The year 1898, therefore, witnessed the acquisition by the Government of the United States of a vast extent of new territory. The Hawaiian Islands, by annexation pursuant to joint resolution of Congress, and Porto Rico and the Philippines by cession, pursuant to the treaty of peace with Spain, in that year became a part of the United States. I believe they are part and parcel of the United States, though the Republican party seems to have some doubt upon that point since its attitude in this Congress on the Porto Rican tariff. These new possessions have necessarily involved our Government in much new legislation relating to their disposition, control, and management. . It was the ambition of Sancho Panza to govern one island, but in the past two years the United States has suddenly become the governor of islands without number, containing populations of such number and such character as the founders of the Republic never dreamed could or would become a part of our territory. Cervantes says, in his celebrated history of the renowned Don Quixote, that the faithful squire, Sancho Panza, exclaimed at the termination of his governorship of the island of Barataria: Since I became a governor and mounted upon the towers of ambition and pride a thousand miseries, a thousand toils, and four thousand disquiets have entered my soul. I sincerely trust that the people of the United States, having acquired by annexation and cession not only the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico, but the numerous Islands of the Philippine Archipelago, the island of Guam, and part of the Samoan Islands, may not in the future find these possessions a source of so much disquietude as did Sancho the possession of one island. It is, indeed, Mr. Chairman, a serious condition which confronts the American people in the possession of this new territory. How we shall govern, how control, how legislate for the people of these islands, as well as for the best interests of the American people, presents to the Congress of the United States and to the Executive grave problems demanding the most careful thought and wisest statesmanship now and in the future. If the present policy of imperialism of the present Administration is to be continued, I am convinced the solution of these problems will be of many years' duration, and perhaps they may be solved only by a material departure from the principles of our republican institutions, or may lead finally to their complete overthrow and destruction. April 3, 1900 House T. 33 (4) p. 3719- 3720 THE POLICY OF THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION. The policy of the present Administration is clearly outlined to be not a policy of legitimate expansion, but one imperial or colonial in its nature, as evidenced by the Administration resolution in regard to the Philippine Islands known as the McEnery resolution, which passed the Senate of the United States on February 14, 1899. by the vote of the Administration party. This resolution is as follows: Resolved, That by the ratification of the treaty of peace with Spain it is not intended to Incorporate the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands into citizenship of the United States, nor is it intended to permanently annex said islands as an integral part of the territory of the United States. The policy of the Democratic party has been to acquire all territory for the purpose of making the same States and the inhabitants thereof citizens. But the policy of the Republican party, as outlined in the McEnery resolution, is not to make States or citizens; and if not to make States or citizens, what does that policy mean except a colonial system such as exists under the English Government to-day? I do not believe, Mr. Chairman, we should embark upon any such policy. I do not believe either that we want these people as citizens of this government, or that they will be valuable to us even from a commercial standpoint held as colonies, even if I were in favor of a colonial system. An exaggerated impression has been created as to the benefit to American commerce, and the business of the country to be derived from the acquisition and retention of our island territory. Let us for a few moments, and very briefly, form some conception from history and the most authentic sources of what sort of territory we have acquired in Hawaii and the Philippines.