violate the spirit of the Declaration of Independence because the intention was to organize the territory into sovereign States is without force. That instrument could not be affected by the intentions of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte. A portion of the territory remained outside the pale of self-government for eighty-seven years. The truth is that Jefferson saw in this huge addition to the territory of the original States a chance to make a vast extension of the blessings guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Strict constructionist as he was, it has been said that Jefferson broke the Constitution into fragments by his action. But this is a narrow view. Jefferson loved his country as much in 1803 as he did in 1776, and still revered the Constitution. What he sought to do, and did, was to broaden the scope of that immortal document, just as Marshall did in the years immediately following. McKinley only followed the lead of these great men in making a further extension.

The right to hold and govern territory and peoples as the result of purchase or conquest is one of the inherent attributes of sovereignty. The makers of the Constitution intended to create a nation — not with limited sovereign powers as compared with their neighbors, but a strong, enduring, self-sustaining

nation with all the powers that make for legitimate growth. It was inconceivable, therefore, that the United States, having obtained possession of certain territory outside its borders, had no authority to retain and govern it.

President McKinley, while holding this view, took his stand upon ground even higher. His conception of nationality was as broad as his humanity. The same Christian spirit which was the law of his personal life was also the law of the Chief Executive of his people. He was no Levite to pass by on the other side when he saw a man stripped and beaten and left half dead by robbers. The Filipinos were in just that condition. They were wounded and bleeding and unable to stand alone as the result of three centuries of selfish exploitation. Only a small minority - very small, indeed, compared with the total population - were sufficiently educated to learn the art of self-government and these were without experience. If the Filipinos dreamed of independence, it was only to escape the bondage of Spain. If they failed at first to understand the altruism of President McKinley and the American nation, it was because in all their experience they had never heard of such a thing as a philanthropic ruler. It is quite conceivable that the man who fell among thieves might have mistaken the good Samaritan for another robber

before he felt the touch of his helping hands. It was inconceivable that a Christian nation, which had spent $300,000,000 and sacrificed the lives of more than 5500 officers and men to relieve the people of Cuba from oppression, should deliberately deprive the Filipinos of all hope of relief, by handing them over to the same oppressors. Even the most rabid anti-imperialists did not go so far as to demand that, though there were many statesmen who would have permitted it by the adoption of a weaker policy. Those who knew conditions best were a unit in the assertion that any attempt to recognize the independence of the Filipinos would result in anarchy and make the islands the prey of less scrupulous nations. President McKinley realized this fact and knew, further, the unwisdom of first handing the government over to the Filipinos and then establishing a protectorate. He maintained that

"No government can so certainly preserve the peace, restore public order, establish law, justice, and stable conditions as ours. Neither Congress nor the Executive can establish a stable government in these islands except under our right of sovereignty, our authority, and our flag. And this we are doing.

"We could not do it as a protectorate power so completely or so successfully as we are doing it now. As the sovereign power we can initiate action and

shape means to ends, and guide the Filipinos to selfdevelopment and self-government. As a protectorate power we could not initiate action, but would be compelled to follow and uphold a people with no capacity yet to go alone. In the one case we can protect both ourselves and the Filipinos from being involved in dangerous complications; in the other we could not protect even the Filipinos until after their trouble had come. Besides, if we cannot establish any government of our own without the consent of the governed, as our opponents contend, then we could not establish a stable government for them or make ours a protectorate without the like consent, and neither the majority of the people nor a minority of the people have invited us to assume it. We could not maintain a protectorate even with the consent of the governed without giving provocation for conflicts and possibly costly wars. Our rights in the Philippines are now free from outside interference and will continue so in our present relation. They would not be thus free in any other relation. We will not give up our own to guarantee another sovereignty.'

William McKinley was the first of our Presidents to respond to the call of a broad philanthropy to

1 From the letter of acceptance of the Republican Nomination for President, September 8, 1900.

ward other less fortunate peoples. Lincoln heard a similar call and responded with the emancipation of four million slaves. But that was within our own boundaries. McKinley saw that the time had come when the United States, no longer a weakling nation threatened with dissolution, but strong and able, should take to itself the apostolic injunction, "now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves." He realized that those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which our forefathers so ardently desired for themselves were not intended by the Creator as the exclusive privilege of our own countrymen, but were a part of the endowment of the people of Cuba, of Porto Rico, and of the Philippines as well. It was no part of the duty of the United States to watch the corners of the globe for violations of these rights, but when the current of events placed the destinies of these peoples within our hands, it became our duty to extend to them the same blessings of freedom which we ourselves enjoyed. President McKinley was wiser than his critics in seeing that this could be done, so far as Porto Rico and the Philippines were concerned, only by the exercise of a benevolent sovereignty such as the United States alone could offer. So far from violating the principles of the Declaration of Inde