XIII

THE SPANISH WAR: ITS RESULTS

THE foregoing pages constitute a narrative of the disinterested efforts of the United States to establish and maintain friendly relations and free commercial intercourse with the countries of the Orient. It has been seen that whenever the American representatives have approached the governments of China, Japan, Korea, and Siam, it was with the statement that their far-away people cherish no scheme of territorial aggrandizement in that region of the world, and that their only desire was to secure mutual benefit from the establishment of trade and to extend the influence of Christian civilization.

An event is now to be recorded which introduced a new factor in the relations of the United States with the Orient and which materially affected its political and commercial conditions and changed its foreign policy. From being a distant country concerned only in unselfish friendship and industrial development, it suddenly and unexpectedly became sovereign over a numerous Asiatic people and possessed of an extensive territorial domain in that quarter of the globe which was to be defended by an American army and navy.

The war with Spain in 1898 was entered upon by the government and people of the United States with no

thought of territorial acquisition in the Pacific Ocean. The condition of the island of Cuba had been for three quarters of a century a source of embarrassment and concern to them, and the war was undertaken, in the language of President McKinley to Congress, " to relieve the intolerable condition of affairs which is at our doors." The joint resolution of Congress of April 20, 1898, which was virtually the declaration of war, announced the sole purpose to be the expulsion of Spain from Cuba and the establishment there of a free and independent government. But the victory of Admiral Dewey in Manila Bay modified all these plans. The dispatch of his squadron to the Philippines was made necessary by the exposure of American commerce in the Orient and of American cities and towns on the Pacific coast to the reprisals of the Spanish fleet. He fulfilled his orders when he destroyed that fleet. But there was not a single harbor in all the Asiatic waters where his squadron could remain in time of war. only course was to continue in the harbor captured from the enemy till he received orders from his govern

ment.1

His

The close of the war found the Americans in possession of Cuba, Porto Rico, and Manila Bay. The disposition of these conquests presented a serious problem to their government.

The

year 1852 saw the end of the careers of the

1 During the time the admiral remained in Manila Bay he added to his brilliant achievement of arms by wise conduct in his relations with the commanders of foreign squadrons in sympathy with the defeated foe, thus showing himself worthy to be ranked with Perry and Schufeldt in diplomatic service in the Orient.

triumvirate of great statesmen of the middle period of American history, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. Henry Clay, in the early period of his political life, was chiefly instrumental in precipitating war with England, in expectation of the conquest of Canada; and he devoted the later years of his public service to laying the foundation of the system of protection out of which has come in large measure the present power and prosperity of the nation. W. H. Seward, who realized more clearly than any other American the great destiny of his country in the Pacific Ocean, standing by the bier of Clay in the senate chamber, uttered these words, which to-day sound like the inspiration of the seer:

"Certainly, Sir, the great lights of the Senate have set. . . We are rising to another and a more sublime stage of national progress-that of expanding wealth and rapid territorial aggrandizement. Our institutions throw a broad shadow across the St. Lawrence, and stretching beyond the valley of Mexico, reaches even to the plains of Central America; while the Sandwich Islands and the shores of China recognize its renovating influence. Wherever that influence is felt, a desire for protection under these institutions is awakened. Expansion seems to be regulated, not by any difficulties of resistance, but from the moderation which results from our own internal constitution. No one knows how rapidly that restraint may give way. Who can tell how fast or how far it ought to yield? Commerce has brought the ancient continents near to us, and created necessities for new positions perhaps connections or colonies there. . . . Even prudence will soon

be required to decide whether distant regions, East or West, shall come under our protection, or be left to aggrandize a rapidly spreading and hostile domain of despotism. Sir, who among us is equal to these mighty questions? I fear there is no one. one." 1 These "mighty questions" confronted President McKinley at the close of the Spanish war. It was a comparatively easy matter to decide respecting Cuba and Porto Rico, but the disposition of the Philippines was a much more difficult problem. The country had already to some extent entered upon territorial acquisition in the Pacific. The right to the occupation of the island of Tutuila, in the Samoan group, with the commodious harbor of Pago Pago, had been acquired years before, and the Hawaiian Islands had been added to the American Union. But it was a long stretch across the Pacific to the southern shores of China and Siam. In his perplexity as to the course to be pursued, the President caused to be inserted in the protocol of August 12, 1898, which suspended hostilities and formed the basis for the treaty of peace, the following provision:

"The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay and harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition and government of the Philippines."

While the protocol provided that Spain should relinquish its sovereignty over Cuba, and that it should cede to the United States Porto Rico and other islands in the West Indies, no allusion was made to a change of

1 Obituary Addresses on the Death of Henry Clay, Washington, 1852,

sovereignty in the Philippines. A careful examination of the diplomatic history of the period shows that the attitude of the government which resulted in the acquisition of those islands passed through three stages before the final consummation. In the first stage the President, who from the beginning to the conclusion guided the negotiations, was not in favor of demanding the sovereignty and possession of the islands. The language of the protocol sustains this view, and it is confirmed by the President's unofficial declarations.1

A month after the protocol was signed, Messrs. W. R. Day, C. K. Davis, W. P. Frye, George Gray, and Whitelaw Reid were appointed commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace; and three days afterwards they received their instructions. In this interval the President had changed his attitude. The instructions given the commissioners say: "Without any original thought of complete or even partial acquisition, the presence and success of our arms at Manila [which had been surrendered the day after the protocol was signed] impose upon us obligations which we cannot disregard. The march

of events rules and overrules human action." The commissioners were directed to ask for the cession of the island of Luzon, and for reciprocal commercial privileges in the other islands of the Spanish group.

The American representatives arrived in Paris September 28, and held their first meeting with the Spanish

1 On January, 1899, President McKinley stated to Dr. Schurman that he did not want the Philippine Islands. He said "In the protocol to the treaty I left myself free not to take them; but in the end there was no alternative." Philippine Affairs, An Address by J. G. Schurman, New York, 1902, p. 2.