ANTI-IMPERIALIST ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
By L. A. S.
The anti-imperialist leagues of the country are again heard from. They come forward now with an address “To the American People,” to be published in the papers, July 4. They believe that the battle for Constitutional liberty and government by consent of the governed is not yet lost, though affairs have gone contrary to their hopes. “They had hoped,” says this address, “that those who voted for Mr. McKinley, while disapproving his policy in the West Indies and the Philippines, would see that their votes were misinterpreted, and would make their disapproval known and felt. They had hoped that Congress would claim its place in our government, and would insist that the principles of freedom must be recognized and applied wherever our country holds sway. They had hoped that the Supreme Court would with no uncertain voice declare that no human being under our control could be without the rights secured by our Constitution, and that neither president nor Congress, nor both together, could exercise absolute power over men entitled to the protection of our flag. “These hopes,” they admit, “have not been realized,” but they are still hopeful of success through the last resort in republican government — an appeal to the people. In their address they say, and say truly, that “where such a revolution is threatened, and when Congress and the Supreme Court both fail, there is no help save in the people. If they would avert the impending calamity, they must help themselves. Let us not be misled by names. Imperialism is not a question of crowns and scepters, of names and titles. It is a system of government. Where a man or body of men, an emperor, a president, a congress, or a nation, claims the absolute right to rule a people, to compel the submission of that people by brute force, to decide what rights they shall have, what taxes they shall pay, what judges shall administer their laws, what men shall govern them,—all without responsibility to the people thus governed,—this is imperialism, the antithesis of free government.” “Even in America,” the address continues, “where we have only to fear the abuse of power by our fellow citizens, we all rely on constitutions, national and State, to protect our rights. We cannot conceive an American community without these safeguards. Do not the inhabitants of Luzon need against us the protection that we need against ourselves? It has ever been the American method to incorporate acquired territory with representation; it is now proposed to revert to the Roman method and hold conquered territory by force without representation. This policy which we oppose gives to the Filipinos and Porto Ricans no Constitutional rights, no American citizenship, no hope of Statehood, no voice in the Congress which rules them; it leaves them without a country, the subjects of a republic. To believers in free government this policy is monstrous.” The anti-imperialist leagues therefore “urge all lovers of freedom to organize in defense of human rights now threatened by the greatest free government in history.” “Let every citizen study the facts and make his conclusion known, combining with his neighbor to influence Congress to stand true to the principles of the Declaration by which this government was founded, and under which it has grown so great. The gravest danger our country has known till now has come from a denial of those principles. The incoming Congress is not yet committed to the policy of incorporating the island peoples into our system without rights. Let it resume its place in the government in defense of the inalienable rights of man.” All this is truthfully and forcibly stated; and realizing its truth and importance, and believing that this nation whose rise has meant so much for the good of mankind, and whose history so plainly bears the marks of Providence, is to continue on its course through indefinite years to come, they cannot bring themselves to believe that the nation has really repudiated the principles of freedom which have been its glory and its life hitherto, and turned back to the paths of despotism. They cannot believe that so dire a change has really come. Surely, they think, some power will rise up in the nation and turn it back into its accustomed path. So they have waited for Congress to do it; they waited for the elections to do it; they waited for the Supreme Court to do it; and they have gone from one disappointment to another, and are now preparing for the last and greatest one of all, by making an appeal to the people. The people have already spoken conclusively upon this question. We have known this from the first, for we have had the clear light of divine revelation upon this great subject. We have known that this nation, this power which in the prophetic symbol “had two horns like a lamb,” would speak “as a dragon.” Now we see the prediction in process of fulfillment. And “when . . . our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.” This is the truth; and it is for us who have it to appreciate it and spread the knowledge of it in every place. L. A. S.