Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1900 — ROOSEVELT’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROOSEVELT’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

sto Hon. Edward O. Wolcott, Chairman Committee on Notification of Vice President: Sir—l accept the nomination as vice president of the United States, tendered me by the Republican national convention, with a deep sense of the honor conferred upon me and with an infinitely deeper sense of the vital importance to the whole country of securing the re-election of President McKinley. The nation’s welfare is at Stake. We must continue the work which has been so well begun during the present administration. We must show in fashion incapable of being misunderstood that the American people, at the beginning of the 20th century, face their duties in a calm and serious spirit; that they have no intention of permitting folly or lawlessness to mar the extraordinary material well-being which they have attained at home, nor yet permitting their Hag to be dishonored abroad. The Nation'll Honor. I feel that the-contest is by no means one merely between Republicans and Democrats. We have a right to appeal to all good citizens who are far-sighted enough to see what the honor and the interest of the nation demand. To put into practice the principles embodied in the Kansas City platform would

mean grave disaster to the nation; for that platform stands for reaction and disorder; for an upsetting of our financial system which would mean not only great suffering but the abandonment of the nation's good faith; and for a policy abroad which would imply the dishonor of the flag and an unworthy surrender of our national rights. Its success would mean unspeakable humiliation to men proud of their country, jealous of their counI try’s good name, and desirous of securing the welfare of their fellow citizens. Therefore we have a right to appeal to all good men. north and south, east and west, whatever their politics may have been in the past,, to stand with us, because we stand for the prosperity of the country and for the renown of. the American flag. The most important of all problems is, of course, that of securing good government and moral and material well being within our own borders. Great though the need is that the nation should do its work well abroad, even this comes second to the thorough performance of duty at home. Under the administration of President McKinley this country has been blessed with a degree of prosperity absolutely unparalleled, even in its previous prosperous history. While it is, of course, true that no legislation and no administration can bring success to those who are not stout of heart, cool of head and ready of hand, yet It is no less tnie that* the individual capacity of each man to get good results for himself can be absolutely destroyed by bad legislation or bad administration, while under the reverse conditions the power of the individual to do good work Is assured and stimulated. This is what has been done under the administration of President McKinley Thanks to his ac*'ons and to the wise legislation of cougr ss on the tariff and finance, the conditions of our Industrial life have been rendered more favorable than ever before, and they have been taken advanta ."•> of to the full by American thrift, industry and enterprise. Order has been observed, the courts upheld, and the fullest liberty secured to all citizens. The merchant and manufacturer, but above all the farmer and. the wage-worker, have profited by this state of things. It Means the Untold Misery. Fundamentally and primarily the present contest is a contest for the continuance of the conditions which have t»ld in ffcvor of our material welfare and of our civil and political integrity. If this nation Is to retain either its well-being or its self-respect, it cannot afford to plunge into financial and economic chaos; ft cannot afford to indorse governmental theories which would unsettle the standard of national honesty and destroy the integrity of our system of justice. The policy of the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 Is a policy fraught with destruction to every home in the land. ’* means untold misery to the bead of ry household, and, above all, to the

■. ■ ..... : - ■ Z women and children of every home. When our opponents champion froe silver at 16 to 1 they are either insincere or sincere in their attitude. If Insincere in their championship they, of course, forfeit all right to belief or support on any ground. If sincere, then they ane* a menace to libe~ welfare of the country. Whether they shout their sinister purpose or merely whisper it makes but little difference, save as it reflects their own honesty. No issue can be paramount to the issue they thus make, for the paramountcy of such an issue is to be determined, not by the dictum of any one man or body of men, but by the fact that it vitally affects the well-being of every home in the land. The financial question is always of such far-reaching and tremendous importance to the national welfare that It can never be raised in good faith unless this tremendous Importance is not merely conceded but Insisted on. Men who are not willing to make such an issue paramount have no possible justification for- raising it at all. for under such circumstances their act cannot under any conceivable circumstances do might but grave harm.

The success of the party representing the principles embodied in the Kansas City platform would bring about the destruction of all the conditions necessary to the continuance of our prosperity. If would also unsettle our wlufle governmental system, and would therefore disarrange all„.tho vast and delicate machinery of our complex industrial life. Above all, the effect would be ruinous to our finances. If we are to prosper, thd currency of this country must be based.upon the gold dollar worth 100 cents. The stability of our currency has been greatly .increased by the excellent financial act passed by the last congress. But no law can secure our finances against the effect of unwise and disastrous management in the hands of unfriendly administrators. No party can safely be intrusted with the management of our national affairs unlessTF”accepts as axiomatic the truths recognized in all progressive countries as essential to a sound and proper system of finance. In their essence these must be the same for all great civilized peoples. In different stages of development, different countries face varying economic conditions, but at every stage and under all circumstances the most important element in securing their economic well-being is sound finance, honest money. So intimate is the connection between industrial proseprity and a sound currency that the former is jeopardized, not merely by unsound finance, but by the very threat of unsound finance. The business man and the farmer are vitally interested in this question; but no man’s interest is so great as that of the wage-worker. A depreciated currency means loss and disaster to the business man; but it means grim suffering to the wageworker. The capitalist will lose much of his capital and will stiffer wearing anxiety and the loss of many comforts; but the wage-worker who loses his wages must suffer, and see his wife and children suffer, for the actual necessities of life. The one absolutely vital need of our whole industrial financial system is sound money-.

A Serious Problem. One of the serious problems with which we are confronted under the conditions of our modern industrial civilization is that presented, by the great business combimttions. which are generally known under the mime of .trusts. The problem is an exceedingly difficult one and the difficulty is immensely aggravated both by honest but wrong-headed attacks on our whole industrial system in the effort to remove some of tile evils connected with it, and by the mischievous advice of men who either think crookedly or who advance remedies knowing them to be ineffective, but deeming that they may, by darkening counsel, achieve for themselves a spurious reputation for wisdom. No good whatever is subserved by indiscriminate 'denunciation of corporations generally, and of all forms of industrial combination in particular: and when this public denunciation is accompanied by private membership in the great corporations denounced, the effect is, of course, to give an air of insincerity to the whole movement. Nevertheless, there are real abuses, and there is ample reason for striving to remedy these abuses. A crude or ill considered effort to remedy them would be either absolutely without effect or else would simply do damage.

The first thing to do is to find out the facts; and for this purpose publicity as to capitalization, profits and all else of Importance to the public is the most useful measure. The mere fact of this publicity would in itself remedy certain evils, and, as to the others, it would in some cases point out the remedies, and would'at least enable us to tell whether or not certain proposed remedies would be useful. The state acting in its collective capacity would thus first find out the facts and then be able to take such measures as wisdom dictated. Much can be done by taxation. Even more can be done by regulation, by close supervision and the unsparing excision of all unhealthy, destructive and anti-social elements. The separate state governments can do a great deal; and where they decline tojco-operate the national government must step in. Present Day Duties. While paying heed to the necessity of keeping our house in order at home, the American people cannot, if they wish to retain their self-respect, refrain from doing their duty ns a great nation In the world. .The history of the nation Is In large part the history

cl the nation’s expansion. When the firet continental congress met in Liberty hall and the 13 original states declared themselves a nation, the westward limit of the country was marked by the Alleghany mountains. Even during the Revolutionary war the work of expansion w r ent on. Kentucky, Tennessee and the great northwest, then known as the Illinois country, were conquered from our white and Indian foes during the Revolutionary struggle and were confirmed to us by the treaty of peace in 1783. Yet the land thus confirmed was not then given to us. It was held by an alien foe until the army under General Anthony Wayne freed Ohio from the red man. while the treaties of Jay and Pinckney secured from the Spanish and British Natchez and Detroit.

In , 1803. tinder President Jefferson, the greatest single stride in expansion That we ever took was taken by the purchase of the Louisiana territory. This so-called Louisiana, which inlluded what are now the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, lowa. Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North and Souui Dakota, Idaho, Montana and a large part of Colorado and Utah, was acquired by treaty and purchase under President Jefferson exactly and pre- , eisely as the Philippines have been acquired by treaty and purchase under President McKinley. The doctrine of “the consent of the “governed,” the doctrine previously enunciated by Jefferson in -The Declaration of Independence. was not held by him or by any other sane man to apply to the Indian tribes in the Louisiana territory which he thus acquired, and there was no vote taken even of the white inhabitants, not to speak of the negroes and Indians, as to whether they were willing that their territory should be annexed. The great majority of the inhabitants, white and colored alike, were bitterly opposed to the transfer. An armed force of I’nited States soldiers had to be hastily sent into the territory to prevent insurrection, President Jefferson sending these troops to Louisiana f<>f exrm'fly'tKesanie reasons and with exactly the same purpose that President McKinley has sent troops to the Philippines. Jefferson distinctly stated that the Louisianians were “not fit or ready for self-govern-mmt.” and years elapsed before they were given self-government, Jefferson appointing the governor and other officials without any consultation with the inhabitants of the newly acquired territory. The doctrine that the “constitution follows the flag” was not tin n even ered either by Jefferson or by any other serious party leader, for it never entered their heads that a new territory should be governed other than in the way in Which the territories Of Ohio and Illinois had already been governed under Washington and the elder Adams; the theory known by this utterly false and misleading phrase was only struck out in political controversy at a much later date, for the sole purpose of justifying the extension of slavery into the territories.

An Exact Parallel. The parallel between what Jefferson did with Louisiana and what is new being done in the Philippines is exact. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and of the “consent of the governed” doctrine, saw no incongruity between this and the establishment of a government on common sense grounds in the new territory: and he railed at the sticklers for an impossible application of his principle, saying, in language which at the present day applies to the situation in tlie Pinlippines without the change of a word, “though it is acknowledged that our new fellow citizens are as yet incapable of self-government as children, yet some tan not bring themselves to suspend its principles for a single moment.” He intended that ultimately self-government should be introduced throughout the territory, but only as the different parts became fit for It, no sooner. This is just the policy that lias been pursued. In no part of the Louisiana purchase was complete self-government introduced for a number of years; in one part of it, the Indian Territory, it has not yet been introduced, although nearly a century has elapsed. Over enormous tracts of it, including the various Indian reservations, with a territory in the aggregate as large as that of the Philippines, the constitution has never yet “followed the flag;” the army officer and civilian agent still exercise authority, without asking the “consent of the governed.” We must proceed in the Philippines with the same wise caution, taking each successive step as it becomes desirable, and accommodating the details of our policy to the peculiar needs of the situation. But as soon as the present revolt is put down and order established, it will undoubtedly be possible to give to the islands a kirger measure of self-gov-ernment than Jefferson originally gave Louisiana.

The next step in expansion was the acquisition of Florida. This was partly acquired by conquest and partly by purchase, Andrew Jackson being I Hie most prominent figure in the acquisition. It was takers under President Monroe, the aftertime President John Quincy Adams being active in securing the purchase. As In the case of tlio Philippines, Florida was acquired by purchase from Spain, and in Florida the Seininoles. who had not been consulted In the sale, rebelled and waged war exactly as some of the Tugals have rebelled and waged avar In tiie Philippines. The Seminole war lasted for many years, but Presidents Monroe, Adams and Jackson declined for*a moment to consider the question of abandoning Florida to the Semlnolcs, or to t treat their non-consent, to the government of the United States as a valid reason for turning over the territory to them.

Our next acquisition of territ. y was that of Texas, secured by treaty after it had been wrested from the Mexicans by the Texans themselves. Then came the acquisition of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and parts of Colorado and Utah as the result of the Mexican war, supplemented fiveyears later by the Gadsden purchase. The next acquisition was that of Alaska, secured from Russia by treaty and purchase. Alaska was full of natives, some of whom had advanced w’ell beyond the stage of savagery and were Christians. They were not consulted about the purchase* nor was their acquiesence required. The purchase was made by the men who had just put through a triumphant war to restore the Union and free the slave; but none of them deemed it necessary to push the doctrine of the “consent of the governed” to a conclusion so fantastic as to necessitate the turning over of Alaska to its original owners, the Indian and the Aleut. For 30 years the United States authorities, military and civil, exercised the supreme authority in a tract of land many times larger than the Philippines, in which it did not seem likely that there would ever be any considerable body of white inhabitants.

The Policy Extended. Nearly 30 years passed before tt.e next instance of expansion occurred, which was over the island of Hawaii. An effort was made at the end of President Harrison's administration to secure the annexation of Hawaii. The effort was unsuccessful. In the debate in congress on Feb. 2, 1894, one of the leaders in opposing the annexation of the islands, stated, “These islands are more than 2,000 miles distant from our extreme western boundary. We have a serious race problem now in our country and I am not in favor of adding to our domestic fabric it mongrel population (of this character). Our constitution makes no provisions for a colonial establishment. Any territorial government we might establish would necessarily, because of the population, be an oligarchy, which would have to be supported by armed soldiers.” Yet Hawaii has now been annexed and her delegates have sat in the national conventions of the two great parties. The fears then expressed in relation to an “oligarchy*’ and “armed soldiers” are not now seriously entertained by any human being; yet they are precisely the objections urged against the acquisition of the Philippines at this very moment. We are making no new departure. We are not taking a single step which in any way effects our in--stitutions or our traditional policies. From the beginning we have given widely varying degress of self-govern-ment to the different territories, according to their needs. f The simple truth is that there is nothing even remotely resembling “Imperialism” or “Militarism” involved in the present development of that policy of expansion which has been part of the history of America from the day when she became a nation. The word means absolutely nothing as applied to our present policy in the Philippines; for this policy is only imperialistic in the sense that Jefferson’s policy in Louisiana was Imperialistic; only military in the sense that Jackson’s policy toward the Seminoles or Custer’s toward the Sioux embodied militarism; and there Is no more danger of Its producing evil results at liome now than there was of its interfering with freedom under Jefferson or Jackson, or in the days of the Indian wars on the plains. Our army is relatively not as large as it was in the days of Wayne; we have not one regular for every thousand inhabitants. There Is no more danger of a draft than there is of the re-introduction of slavery. When we expanded over New Mexico and California we secured free government to these territories and prevented their falling under the “militarism” of a dictatorship like that of Santa Anna, or the “imperialism” of a real empire in the days of Maximilllan. We put a stop to imperialism in Mexico as soon as the civil war closed. We made a great anti-imperialistic stride when we drove the Spaniards from Porto Rico and the Philippines and thereby made ready the ground in t hese Islands for that gradually increasing measure of self-government for which their populations are severally fitted. Cuba is being helped along the path to Independence as rapidly as her own citizens are content that she should go. Of course the presence of troops in the Philippines during the Tagal insurrection has no more to do with militarism or imperialism than had their presence in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wyoming during the many years which elapsed before the final outbreaks of the Sioux were definitely put down. There is no more militarism or imperialism in-garrisoning Luzon jintll order is restored than there was imperialism in sending soldiers to South Dakota in 1890, during the Ogallalla outbreak. The reasoning which justifies our having made war against Sitting Bull also justifies our having checked the outbreaks of Agulnaldo and his followers, directed, as they were, against Philippine and American alike. Whole Argument Beconiei AbsOrd. The only Certain way of rendering it : necessary for our republic to enter on ' a career of “militarism” woqjd be to abandon tlje Philippines to their own tribes, and at the same time either to guarantee a stable government aifiong these tribes or to guarantee theln against outside interference. A far , larger army would be required to carry out any such policy than will be required to secure order under the American flag: while the presence of this flag on the islands is really the only possible security against outside aggression. The whole argument against President McKinley’s policy in the Philippines becomes absurd when it is conceded that we should, to quote the

language of the Kansas City platform, “give to the Philippines first a stable form of government.” If they are now entitled to independence, they are also entitled to decide for themselves whether their government shall be stable or unstable, civilized or savage, or whether they shall have any government at all; while it is, of course, equally evident that under such conditions we have no right whatever to guarantee them against outside interference (any more than we have to make such a guarantee In the case of the Boxers (who are merely the Chinese analogues of Aguinaldo’s followers). If we have a right to establish a stable government in the islands it necessarily follows that it is not only our right but our duty to support that government until the natives gradually grow fit to sustain it themselves. How else will it be stable? The minute we leave it, it ceases to be stable.

Not a Question of Expansion. Properly speaking, the question is now not whether we shall expand—for we have already expanded—but whether we shall contract. The Philippines are now part of Alnerlcan territory. They f must, of course, be governed primarily in the interests of their own citizens. Our first care must be for the people of the islands which have come under our guardianship as a result of the most righteous foreign, war that has been waged within the memory of the present generation. They. must be administered in the interests of their inhabitants, and that necessarily means that any question of personal or partisan politics in their administration must be entirely eliminated. We must cqptinue to put at the heads of affairs* in the different Islands such men as Gen. Wood, Gov. •Allen and Judge Taft; and it is a most fortunate thing that we are able to illustrate what ought to be done in the way of sending officers thither by pointing out wdiat actually has been done. The minor places in their administration, where it is impossible to fill them by natives, must be filled by the strictest application of the merit system. It is very important that in our own home administration the merely ministerial and administrative offices, where the duties are entirely nonpolitical, shall be filled absolutely without reference to partisan affiliations; but this is many times more important in the newly acquired islands. The merit system is in its essence as democratic as our common school system, for it simply means equal chances and fair play for all. It must be remembered always that governing these islands in the interest of the inhabitants may not necessarily be to govern them as the inhabitants at the moment prefer. To grant selfgovernment to Luzon under Aguinaldo wotild be like granting self-govern-ment to an apache reservation under some local chief; and this is no more altered by the fact that the Philippines fought the Spaniards, than it would be by the fact that Apaches have long been trained and employed in the United States army ami have rendered signal service therein; just as the Pawnees did under the administration of President Grant; just as the Stbckbridge Indians did in the days of Gen. Washington, and the friendly tribes of the Six Nations in the days of President Madison.

Some Local Instances. There are now in the United States communities of Indians which have advanced so far that it has been possible to embody them as a whole in our political system, all the members of the tribe becoming United States citizens. There are other communities where the bulk of the tribe are still too wild for it to be possible to take such a step. There are individuals among the Apaches, Pawnees, Iroquois, Sioux and other tribes, who are now United States citizens, and who are entitled to stand and do stand, on an absolute equality witli all our citizens of pure white blood. Men of Indian blood are now serving in the army and navy and in congress and occupy high positions both tn the business and political world. There is every reason why as rapidly as an Indian, or any body of /Indians, becomes fit for self-govern-ment, he or it should be granted the fullest equality with the whites, but there would be no justification whatever in treating this fact as a reason for abandoning the wild tribes to work out their own destruction. Exactly the same reasoning applies in the case of the Philippines. To turn over the islands to Aguinaldo and his followers would not be to give self-government to tlie islanders; under no circumstances would the majority thus gain self-government. They would simply be put at the mercy of a syndicate of Chinese half-breeds, under whom corruption would flourish far more freely than ever It flourished under Tweed, while tyrannical oppression would obtain to a degree olily possible under such an oligarchy. Yours truly, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.