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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.

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