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of Protest


AGAINST THE
Atrocities in the Phines
ADDRESSES OF
Rev. E. Winchester Donald
Rev. B. F. Trueblood  Rev. Scott F: Hershey
Rev. Francis H.' Rowley Rev. A. A. Berle
Rev. Frank.Q, H-nl1  -Rev. Charles Fleischer
Rev. Robe r   hnsa.: Rev. Paul R.;rothingham
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TREMONT "TEM —PTpE
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MINISTERS' MEETING
OF PROTEST
AGAINST THE
Atrocities in the Philippines.
A meeting to protest against the atrocities perpetrated by
the American soldiers in the Philippines, which was addressed
by clergymen of almost every denomination without respect to
party or creed, was held-in Tremont Temple, Boston, on the
evening of Thursday, May 22d, 1902. The Rev. E. Winchester Donald occupied the chair.
It was intended that no formal resolutions should be prepared, but. the secretary, the Rev. Reuben Kidner had furnished the press a'memorandum, setting forth the aims and objects desired, which read as follows:
Remember the demands-of the President:     (1)
Searching exposure of the wrong doers; (2) No barbarities pardoned or permitted under our flag; (3) Ultimate self-government for the Filipinos, after the
fashion of the really free nations; (4) Generous trade
relations with Cuba.
The conscience of the country urges these demands
in their fullest andstrongest sense, and will tolerate
no influences that tend to weaken or obsoure them.
Contrast the degree of joy and gratitude in Cuba
today with the despair and resentment in the Philippines, and learn the lesson of the contrast.




4
REMARKS OF THE CHAIRMAN
THE REV. E. WINCHESTER DONALD
Of Trinity Church (Epicopal)
- Ladies and Gentlemen:-This is to be a strictly "temperance meeting."  It has not been called to condemn or denounce
the government, but to give the government and the administration our encouragement and support. But encouragement
and support in what? In its investigation of the charges of
cruelty and torture publicly brought against American soldiers
in the Philippine Islands. On the ninth of February last, the
Secretary of War received at the hands of Goveraor Taft a report from Governor Gardner. This report contained serious
charges against the humanity of officers and soldiers. Ten days
after the reception of this report, Mr. Root forwarded to the
Commander-in-Chief of our Army in the Philippines an order
that the charges should be fully and impartially investigated,
and the machinery of discipline set in order at once. This was
followed by a series of telegrams and letters to the same effect.
We are here tonight to encourage and support the Secretary of
War in his enforcement of that order.
Very recently the President of the United.States has, in
the most unqualified and explicit terms, publicly expressed his
determination to discover and to punish all cases of barbarity
committed ly our soldiers in the Philippine Islands. We are
here to express our deep gratitude to the President for this letter, and to express to him our admiration and sympathy, and no
less our confidence that he will carry out fearlessly the promise
of that letter.
We who are to speak are Republicans and Democrats, Imperialists and Anti-Imperialists, hopelessly divided in our conception of what should be the future political policy of America
towards the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. But we are
solidly united in the contention that whatever policy may be
adopted by our mevenment in the enforcement of that policy,
its methods of enforcement shall be humane, civilized and worthy of a great nation.
We, as ministers, do not claim that by virtue of our ordination, we have become statesmen;- especially competent to
guide and direct the government in its public policy, or in the
adoption of measures for carrying that policy out; but, as the
accredited and appointed teachers of religion andz morals in the
community, we feel it to be our duty to let this community and




5
the nation know, beyond all guesswork, that we present a united
front against barbarity, cruelty, and atrocity committed by any
man anywhere where the flag of the United States floats. Some
of us, no doubt, would go still further: if any man, to achieve
his purpose, finds it absolutely necessary to adopt the instruments of shame and dishonor, we affirm that he has no right
to entertain or prosecute that purpose; and if any nation, which
has come into possession of territory, even by fair and honorable
means, finds it absolutely necessary for its retention to descend
to barbarity and inhumanity, then we do not hesitate to declare,
in the face of God and man, that that nation has no right to
occupy or retain that territory.
Whether or not the United States, in its attempt to occupy
and retain the Philippines, has found, or shall find, it necessary.
to turn its back upon the principles of justice and humanity
which have hitherto guided the policy of this country, no man
on this platform will declare. We are here, not in defence of
a policy, or in opposition to a policy, of the government, but as
ministers of religion to protest against the barbarities and.cruelties which we are at last compelled to admit have accompanied
the presence of our armies in the Philippines.
It will be said tomorrow, it has been said, that the story
of outrages in the Philippines has been greatly exaggerated.
For one, I hope to God that it has been exaggerated. I can
easily imagine that the poor fellow who has been testifying
before the Senaie's Commission of Inquiry about dumdum bullets, and revolting and indiscriminate licentiousness, is, perhaps,
representative, in the untrustworthiness of his testimony, of
much that has been said and written by soldiers and officers of
the army, We may not doubt that in many cases men have
"drawn long bows" to relieve the monotony of camp life, when
writing letters to their friends at home, or that others who have
returned toAmerica have made statements in public or private
which have a slender basis in fact. Let those who are disposed
to waive aside all stories of cruelty make the most of these exaggerations; we shall be among the first to express our gratitude
if it shall be found that the public has been misled. But, my
friends, there is serious danger lest this cry of exaggeration,
heard and urged on so many-sides, may have the effect of dulling the public conscience and diverting public attention from
authentic fact. Against this danger we are to be on our guard
It is no longer possible for us to deny that atrocities have
been committed in the Philippines at which the whole nation




6
blushes and hides its head in shame.    It is imperative that
we should not allow a possible, or even probable, exaggeration
to beguile us into cowardly silence.
Who has committed these atrocities?   Civiliza:ion? You
cannot indict, or convict or sentence civilization; btt you can
indict, convict, and punish individuals.  These things were not
done by civilization; they did not do themselves; they were
done by persons.   Who these persons are, we do not know
today, but. we are passionately-.axious to find out.  What. will
be done, what we are certain will be dole, if the conscience
of the people is awakened, is that the responsibility for these
atrocities will be laid at the door, not of civilization or of war,
but at the door of the persons who committed them.   Civilization idoes not care for our condemnation, war does not greatly
heed our censures; but persons do.     Until responsibility is
brought definitely to persons, and not impotently laid upon civilization or war, the s1:ain of dishonor on the nation will not
have been removed.
It will be said, it lias already been said, that since the
President of the United States, in the most explicit terms, has
expressed his (letermniiiation, as the head of the government,
to discover and punish the autlors of barbarities in the Philippin-es, it is unnecessary, evel imipertinent, to call a meeting
like tliis, for the purpose of stiimulating the President to do
his duty. But we are not -here to affirnl that President Ro)sevelt will not d6-his duty, but, rather, to express our confidence
that lie will do his dutyt. AWe are not lhere to declare that the
Secretary of War has not done, or will not do. his duty; on
the contrary, we believe that he will do it.  But you and I
have a duty also: It is to assure the President and the Secretary
of War, il t-erns that cannot be misunderstood, that tlhe conscience and-the conviction of the whole people of the United
States are with them and around them and under them, when,
engaged in prosecuting their investigations to ascertain impartially upon whose shoulders shlould rest the responsibility of
having disgraced the American fla-"and Christian America.
PB so much as the conscience of the nation shall find utterance, by just so, much will the servants of the people be strengthened to do their duty imnartiall- and in the fear of God'; and
if this meeting shall, in the least, strengthen tlhe hands of the
covernment in the task it has undertaken, it will not have been
in vain.
We, who are to speak, have agreed upon no particular line




7
bf utterance. AWe do not hold each other responsible for the
sentiments each of us shall express. Each of us will stand by
what he may be moved to say, and by nothing else.
REMARKS OF REV. BENJ. F. TRLTEBLOOD,
Secretary American Peace Society.
What is the moral and political duty of the country-the
people of the United States-in the face of the ghastly disclosures recently made in regard to our conduct in the
Philippines
The deeds themselves need no characterization.    The
blackness of darkness makes itself felt by'all healthy persons,
without the need of superlatives or rhetorical demonstrations.
The facts are before the country; their number grows daily.
They are past concealment or denial.  What is to be done?
In the first place, the facts must be looked at as they are,
in the light of our common moral sense, of elemental justice,
of our American institutions and historical professions. Party
considerations must not be allowed to enter into the count. It
is reported from Washington that men are with cynical glee
deliberately playing the game of politics with this gravest of
moral issues which have recently confronted the nation. For
the honor of the land and of the men themselves, it is to be
hoped that this report is not true. For a party man to permit
or attempt to cover up the real nature of an issue of this character, in order to put another party man into a- party hole for
party purposes, is to sink to about the lowest depths of public
unworthiness.
In the second place, President Roosevelt, who feels the
gravity of the situation and is anxious to remove the ugly blot
from the nation's honor, as far as possible, ought to have the
active and unequivocal support, in this direction, of all citizens
of all parties and creeds in searching out and exposing all the
wrongs and barbarities which have been committed by American men under the-American flag. Let him know that the men
who have been guilty of these atrocities, of these crimes against
humanity and justice, are visited by the common body of the
American people with just and impartial condemnation, whether
the offender be the humblest soldier in the field or the Secretary of War in the capital, or any man between these. Thus
to judge and thus to support the President in this hour of
national humiliation and shame, is not to make an attack on the




's
army nor to prove disloyal to one's settled political principles.
To do otherwise is to make an attack' of the most serious import
upon the nation's life and fair name, upon common justice and
right, upon civilization and humanity.
In the third place, we must lay the responsibility of this
tragedy of horrors where, in the last analysis, it belongs-upon
ourselves, the people. We must not run to cover, as some of
our public representatives have done, and seek to evade our
share of guilt and dishonor. We, the people of this country,
are the' rulers of this country. The officials are our agents And
servants. We are responsible for the nation's policies and enr
terprises.  We have been silent when we ought to have spoken.
We have been incredulous when we ought to have believed.
We have surrendered ourselves to the cheap and vulgar -notion
that we were being swept on by a destiny over which we had
no control. We have allowed a false notion of patriotism to
smother criticism, and to persuade us that the nation can do
no wrong; we have allowed the deliberate and open employment of the mercenary and cruel Macabebes as the pilots of our
enterprise of conquest. We have spoken of the Philippine inhabitants in a manner to create contempt for them and to
induce a treatment of them scarcely fit for wild beasts. It is
we who are guilty, as well as the men who have done the burning and the torture. It is not possible that this course of wrong
and barbarism should have gone on so long and the people be innocent. And we shall be doubly guilty if we allow ourselves any
longer to be hoodwinked as to the real infamy of the things
which have been done, and do not insist that they be stopped
at once; and the direct perpetrators brought to account. That
the Filipinos have done barbarous things will not excuse us.
The plea of necessity is always the plea of a weakling or a
tyrant.
'But, fourthly, we must go a step further, if we are to wipe
out the stain and redeem the past. The punishment of the
wrong doers will be small atonement, if we do nothing more.
This will not undo the wrongs. It will not bring back to life
the slain. It will not restore the burned villages, nor re-people
the "howling wilderness."  It will not quench the undying
hatred which we have planted deep in every true Filipino's soul.
There is only one course, worthy of the nation. Our presence
in the Philippines, as sovereign, has been justified on two
grounds, the technical right of international law and the duty
to force a people to accent civilization. That the latter reason




9
gives not the shadow of a right does not need to be argued
before a Christian audience. No real American believes, or
ever can believe, that it does. International law, which is confessedly still confused and imperfect, cannot give any right,
when its declarations are contrary to the plainest and simplest
dictates of righteousness and justice. Our country has often
'cast to the winds the old formulas of international law and made
it read more in harmony with fundamental right and Christian
principle. In not doing so, in this case, it has turned back a
good way toward the dark ages of tyranny and oppression.
Out of the fundamental wrong which we have done has
come the national blindness and hardness of heart which has led,
naturally, on to the things which now so appall us. There is
but one atonement worthy of a great and good people that has
gone astray, and that is, to double back on our track. We
should demand the immediate inauguration of the policy suggested in President Roosevelt's message, "self-government for
the Filipinos after the fashion of the really free nations."
How dark and inexplicable seems our policy hitherto toward the
Filipinos when set in contrast with that toward the island south
of us, which has just passed into independent statehood! Two
days ago the flag that we all love and honor as the symbol of
liberty, equality and fraternity fluttered down from the top of
Moro Castle and from every public building in Havana. The
American flag was never raised higher than on that day.
The nation ought at once, under the lead of our generous
and liberty-loving President, to prepare for another scene like
that-in the Philippines.
REMARKS OF REV. FRANCIS H. ROWLEY,
Of First Baptist Church.
From the time of God's ancient- prophets down to the present hour there have been no truer patriots than many of those
whose voices have rung clear and strong in condemnation of
their country's course in hours of national transgression. "We
have had Europe in our mind fifty times," said Lowell, in 1848,
"where we have had God and conscience once."  He charged
the nation then with the thirst for power, and wrote: "When
every other argument in favor of our infamous Mexican war
has been exhausted, there was still left this, that it would make
us more respected abroad."  I doubt not this public gathering
will be declared by many a virtual aiding and abetting of the


7




10
men who are opposing our government in the Philippines.
Must a man keep silence in the face of wrong, because his country has perpetrated it, lest someone accuse him of disloyalty?.
We are here tonight, not as Democrats or Republicans.
We are here as men who, no matter what may be their devotion
to a political party, would rather see it go down in utter defeat
than that the fair flag that gathers into its symbols all we hold
most sacred as a people should suffer a single stain. It is not
a political issue that, concerns us, as men commonly use that
wor-d, but a moral one. It towers above the question of parties
as Sinai towered above the wandering tribes that stood awestricken at its base.
A war begun in the interests of humanity has passed into
a war of conquest. Our army is engaged in reducing to subjection a people who sought no quarrel with us,-a peWple fighting
not to infringe upon any moral right it was ours to claim, who
have never threatened to invade our territory, to destroy our
liberties, or to overthrow our institutions,-a people fighting to
defend what they hold to be their inalienable rights, and to
resist a foreign foe. As we burn their villages and shoot down
their struggling inhabitants, or shock the civilized world with
our inhumanities, we assure them that we are seeking their larger good, and tell them that it is in the name of a nobler civilization than they have known.
"Not but. wut abstract war is horrid,
We sign to thet with all our heart,
But civilization doos git forrid,
Sometimes, upon a powder cart."
I am inllined to think that the atrocities that have accompanired this bitter conflict of our army with a people said to be
absolutely and hopelessly alien, in race, temperament and civilization, were inevitable. A leading journal of this state, refelring recently to Warren Hastings' rile in India, quotes from
one of Lord Irskline's speeches in defence of it, as follows: "He
may, and mu:-t, have offended against the laws of God and of
nature.  If he was the faifhful viceroy of an empire wrested
in blood from a people to whom Cod and nature had given it,
he may and must have preserved that dominion over timorous
and abject nations by a terrifying superiority.  If he was the
faithful administrator of a government having no root in consent or affection, no foundation in similarity of interests,.then that government could only be unheld by strategem
and force. To be governed at all, they must be governed by




11


a rod of iron." By these methods only does it seem possible
to have won and held such a race. It looks as if we, too, had
to face the fact that to subdue thousands of these Filipinos we
must resort to means that are no longer tolerated for a moment
in the wars that civilized nations wage against each other. The
chances are that the American soldier has been as humane as
any'other soldier would have been if he were to carry out the.
orders given him. If I an commanded by a power I dare not
disobey to conquer an enemy, who can predict the means that I
may be led to employ when once the inhuman passions born
c/f war are kindled toward a foe who fights with weapons against,Avhich those I have been taught to wield wit-not avail. The
moral responsibility for the facts that have passed into history
as characterizing our treatment of the Filipinos comes back upon
the government whose will the army must obey. Through this
whole sorry business of our assertion of authority and of our
conduct as a nation in the Philippine Islands I believe there may
be detected the spirit of a fancied race superiority that it is
imagined gives us a right to ride rough-shod over men and women as truly the children of one Eternal Father as we ourselves.
We boast of ours as the age of humanity. We have shouted our
response to the fine sentiment of the great-hearted poet, "A
man's a man for a' that," but the evidence is not lacking that
had we risen as a- people to the s-ublime, conception of man's
brotherhood with man, irrespective of his race or color or previous condition, we had never borne ourselves as we have toward
those who have been made with us in the image of Almighty
God.
It seems impossible that there should be need that this
meeting utter its protest against the cruelties admitted to have
been inflicted by our army upon the Filipinos. From all over
the land, from many a pulpit, from a thousand presses, from
millions of human lips, are not the American people proclaiming
their indignant condemnation of such barbarous deeds? How
can they do otherwise if western civilization is in any sense
Christian and not Pagan? Are we not as a people, President and
Cabinet with us, united in our opposition to everything that
savors of savagery,-the spirit of retaliation and revenge? War,
make it as humane as you can, has horrors enough, desolating,
appalling, without adding to them the brutalities of torture and
the refinements of cruelty. Can it be that the government needs
to know that from Maine to California men and women are
aroused and moved to gather in great assemblies that their voices




12
may be heard against such acts of inhumanity as have disgraced
us in the eyes of the world,-can this be needed to prevent the
leaders of parties from ignoring the significance of the whole
business and turning it into a party debate? I will not believe
that we have fallen so low.
I would that from this gathering here tonight there might
go out a great solemn appeal in behalf of peace. That we might
affirm that it was our unalterable conviction that the nation,
through its constituted authorities, should say to the Filipinos,
say it frankly, say it without reservation, say it as we said it to
Cuba, "We promise you independence. Lay down your arms
and we guarantee you at the first possible moment the fair
chance to work out your own destiny; and to that end we assure
you of our assistance and support." Such a declaration issuing
from Washington would bring us back to the only foundation
on which we can ultimately take our stand if we are to prove
true to the soundest principles embodied in our constitution. It
is honor, not dishonor, to withdraw the flag from every foot of
ground where it cannot float save in violation of the rights of
man. Never has it looked more worthy of our devotion-that
sacred emblem of freedom, ---our country's flag, than when, the
guns of Cabanas fortress saluting with their blazing lips, it
dropped in graceful folds down from the flagstaff of the palace
in the capital of Cuba. That was a sight to thrill the heart of
humanity. That scene made possible again through the nation's
faith in Him of whom we are told justice and judgment are the
habitation of His throne, and through loyalty to His righteous
will-that scene made possible in the islands of the eastern sea,
and there ---
"0 Beautiful! AM   country!
What were our lives without thee?
What all our lives to save thee?
We reek not whliat we gave thee:
We will not dare to doubt thee,
But ask whatever else, and we will dare."
REMARKS OF REV. FRANK O. HALL,
Of North Avenue Universalist Church, Cambridge.
There was a time when one might reasonably doubt the
stories of torture and indiscriminate slaughter on the part of
tthe American forces in the Philippine Islands. That time is




13
past. When there was room for doubt such a meeting as this
might have seemed like an impertinence. Men would have said,
"Let us wait until we are sure of our facts." Well, we are sure
of our facts. There is no longer room for doubt.
There is no reason to doubt that we are doing in the Philippine Islands today, essentially the same things that Butcher
Weyler was doing in Cuba six years ago, only we are doing it
on a larger scale and have improved considerably upon his method. There is no doubt that we have caused the destruction of
more lives in the last three years than the Spanish did in any
century of their misrule. Just now we are horrified at the disaster caused by the volcano at Martinique. When we think of
the ruined homes, the desecrated dead, the hungry women and
children, our hands leap instinctively to help those in distress.
But there is no doubt that we have in the last three years caused
the destruction of more homes, more property, and vastly more
lives, that we have made more widows and orphans many times
over than this desolating volcano. There is no doubt that under
the American flag has been caried on a campaign of torture.
Not all the stories of torture and massacre which come to
us are true. Some are lies, thank God! But enough has been
testified to by eye-witnesses under oath, enough has been confessed by those who took part in the horrors of which the1-tell,
enough has been confessed by the officers under whose authority
deeds of horror were executed, so that there is no longer any
doubt that under the American flag deeds have been performed,
are still being performed, to make every lover of the stars and
stripes cry out with mighty indignation against the disgrace of
our national emblem.
This testimony has unmistakably brought out the fact that
it is the common custom of our soldiers, for the sake of finding
concealed arms and amunition, when they enter a Filipino village, to seize the first natives they find and torture them till they
tell what they know. The ordinary form of torture is known as
the "water-cure." The native is thrown upon his back, his
mouth pried open with a bayonet or a stick while water is poured
into his throat, filling the stomach, lungs and intestines until he
swells to bursting. Then he is trampled on and the water forced
furiously from the mouth and ears and nose and eyes. All this
causes the most excruciating agony. Sometimes kerosene is used
instead of water. This treatment is common, has been used in
unnumbered instances, not merely in isolated instances. It has
been used not only on soldiers in the Philippine army, but upon




14
citizens who neverfraised an arm, upon old men and little boys.
One soldier testifies that he saw a little lad less than ten years of
age treated in this way. Think of this, you mothers and fathers!
Imagine your little lad so treated. Put yourself for a moment
in the place of this tortured people and decide what you are
going to do about it. And worse than all this is true. I may not
in this presence so much as hint at the treatment which the
Philippine women have received at the hands of these men who
are so intent upon civilizing them.
Nor is torture confined to the water-cure or the kerosenecure. Another method of torture is to wind a piece of rope
about the neck of the victim; cross it under his arms,, wind it
around the waist and tie it in the back. Then a stick or a gun
barrel is thrust through the rope between the shoulders and
tw-isted round and round until the rope bends the spine backward, threatens to dislocate the head from the body and disembowel the victim. The torture is indescribable in its agony.
The Spanish Inquisition never devised anything more hideous.
Confession is easily extorted by this means. A man will betray
his brother and give his son over to death to escape the agony.
Such are the methods by which we are carrying on the work of
benevolent assimilation.
Where did our soldiers learn such methods of warfare?
They are not taught at West Point. To be sure, the investigation of hazing at West Point, still fresh in our memory, brought
out the fact that our officers are trained as boys to torture each
other with tabasco sauce, that liquid fire, and that it is there considered quite honorable and gentlemanly to select a well-trained
bully of an advanced class to pummel and maul' with his fists
some untrained freshman, until he is knocked into insensibility.
But even in that, institution officers are not taught the watercure. W'here, then, did they learn it? From the Macabebes.
Who are the Macabebes? A savage tribe who hate the civilized
Tagalogs as the Indians hated the Anglo-Saxon. These savages
have been employed in the service of the United States, just as
the Indians were incited to fight against the colonists in the
French and colonial wars. It is the custom of these savages to
use this-form of torture. We have learned it and have improved
upon it in satanic fashion. I have never heard that the French
adopted the Indian methods of torture by burning at the stake
or making a captive run the gauntlet. They 'left that to their
Indian allies. But we have not left torture to our savage allies.
We have engaged in that business ourselves. There is no doubt




15


about it. It is proven by unimpeachable testimony, admitted,
indeed, by the officers in our army.
Moreover, it has been brought out that we have been engaged not only in a campaign of torture, but a war of extermination. Maj. Waller, in the court martial, admitted that he was
sent into Samar for the purpose of making it a howling wilderness, and succeeded pretty effectually, claiming as a defence that
he had orders from his general to kill everything —"everything,"-men, women as well as men, civilians as well as soldiers,-over ten years of age. The orders were to make this
district uninhabitable. He was acquitted by the court martial
because he was simply obeying orders. Then his general, nicknamed by his soldiers, "Hell-roaring Jake," was placed on trial
and admitted having given the orders. So there is no doubt as
to what has been done. He, also, was acquitted on the ground
that he, too, was acting under instructions from his superior at
Washington. The investigation still goes on. It must not stop
until the responsibility is placed somewhere.
What must be the effect of all thi not only upon the Filipinos but upon ourselves? There are sixg  or seventy thousand
young men out yonder at the present tim  being educated in
these methods of torture and extermination, aught by savages,
schooled in cruelty and abominations. Thesenen are shortly
coming back to America with bodies degenerate by unnameable
disease and souls degenerate because of the expeiences they
have been through, accustomed to torture and extrmination.
These men are to be the fathers of hundreds of thosands of
American children. Do you know anything of the las of heridity? Do you know that the next generations of Americans
are to be cursed in body and in soul by what is being done in the
Philippine Islands today? You may have no son there. You
may have no son to send. But you may have a daughter tho
shall marry one of these men corrupt in body and soul. Or y\ou
may have a grandchild who shall marry the grandchild of one bf
these men. Thus shall the curse come home to you. Sooner &
later, as there is a just God in Heaven, it will come home
every man and woman who is here this night. Sooner or later
the very life of the American Republic will be corrupted on
account of the sins for which you and I are responsible, if we lift '
no voice in protest. We shall reap what we sow. God is not
mocked.
Now I have great confidence in President Roosevelt. I
believe him to be a man of unimpeachable honor and fidelity.






16
He has courage. He has high ideals. He is no man's man. He
has done America splendid service in the short time he has been
at the head of -ur government. He is not responsible for all
this abomination. If he can have the support and encouragement of the American people, whose servant he is, I am convinced that he will cause this horror to end and will bring the
guilty to justice. But he must have the support and the encouragement of the American people. Let us remember that
he is so surrounded in Washington by two classes of people that
the great heart of the nation is far from him. Around him, in
the first place, is a circle of politicians ever whispering to him
that he must do nothing, say nothing, that will hinder success in
the next election. Your politician thinks of nothing beyond the
next election. The politicians are around the President ten
deep. And with them is a multitude of army officers who are
looking for bigger epaulets and wider shoulder-straps, men who
are scheming and plotting for promotion. To them the continuance of the war means promotion, its abandonment means loss of
opportunity. Many of these men justify the Philippine horrors.
They even approve torture and extermination. But these men
do not represent the American people. The President ought to
hear from the American citizens. We do not belong to the
politicians. The politicians belong to us. We do not serve the
army. It is the business of the army to serve us. Let us indicate to our President the will of the sovereign American people.
REMARKS OF REV. ROBERT J. JOHNSON,
Of Gate of Heaven Church.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
As I understand it, the purpose of this meeting is to enter
a protest against certain acts admitted to have been done in the
name of the American people, and by their agents, in the Philippine Islands. I do not believe that any of us have the least
desire to talk politics-I certainly have not. It is the clergyman's province to view public occurrences in their moral aspects,
without regard to their bearings upon the fortunes of political
parties. But we do not cease to be citizens when we become
ministers of the Gospel. Whenever and wherever deeds are
done that are unworthy of our country and its glorious traditions of liberty and humanity, it is not only our right-it is
our duty to denounce the wrong. To keep silence, indeed, when




17
such acts are being committed, excused anid even defended,acts which are dishonoring to our national character, would be to
the last degree discreditable to the Christian ministry.
We leave party politics to the noliticians; it is no concern
of ours. With expansion or anti-expansion, colonies or no colonies, as matters of political expediency, we do not undertake to
deal. With the question of commerce, and whether it is extended most advantageously by conquest and annextion; with
questions of organic law, as whether the constitution follows the
flag, or whether tariffs can be levied against imports from islands
that are under our own flag-all these things we leave cheerfully to the statesman, the jurist and the merchant.
But when there comes word across the seas that in a land
eleven thousand miles away men, women and children are being
tortured and slaughtered, that their homes are being laid in
ashes, and their lands made desolate, under orders given by
officers of the United States, then it is indeed time for all of us
who are jealous of the honor of our country to make stern remonstrance, and to do our part to awaken the moral sense of the
American people, which, though it sometimes sleeps, is never
dead.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am not going to take up your
time nor harrow your feelings by a recital of the horrible things
that have been done in our name in the Philippines. I have no
taste for such recitals, nor do I believe that any good end is to
be served by parading the details'of massacre, arson and worse
things known, and proved to have been done in those islands.
All that I will say on that point is to call your attention not to
what is alleged or even proved by those who accuse us of fiendish
barbarities to the Filipinos; but to what the officers and soldiers
of our army themselves admit that they have done. Upon the
trial of Major Waller of he Marine Corps, testimony was given
by the Major himself aiidcorroborated by other witnesses that
Gen. Smith had instructed him to kill and to burn; said that the
more he killed and burned the better pleased he, Gen. Smith,
would be. Furthermore, Major Waller testified that Smith had
- instructed him to take no prisoners; and that he was to,make
Samar a howling wilderness. When Maj. Waller asked Gen,
Smith to fix the age limit for killing, Gen. Smith replied, "Kill
everything over ten."  "Had a Spanish general," says The Nation, "on the eve of the Spanish war even hinted at practices so
atrocious as those now coolly admitted by an American general
' -why, we should have rent the skies with our indignation."




18
Those frightful violations of the laws of war took place in
the Province of Samar. Now Samar is an island of the Visayan
group. Its people are not savages, nor semi-savages. They are
civilized people, Christian people, who have their homes and
their schools and their churches, and who in common with ourselves are accustomed to pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven."
It is among these people, worshipping the same God before
whom we bow in Boston, that American soldiers, under the stars
and stripes, the emblem of free government and human rights,
have killed and burned without mercy, sparing none above the
age of ten.
Are we Christians, Mr. Chairman, and shall we hold our
peace in the presence of such a wrong? Shall. we stop to consider what effect our protest may have on one political-party or
another? Are we to wait while these atrocities are being done
in our name, and nicely calculate how the next elections will go
if we denounce them? I think not,-I am sure not. The Ten
Commandments are supreme over all platforms. One of these
great commandments is this-"Thou shalt not kill."  I am
aware that there is a distinction drawn. between war and murder,
but if the distinction is to hold good you must at least conduct
your warfare within those limitations of mercy and humanity
which all civilized nations now recognize. You shall not slaughter on non-combatants. You shall not burn homes; you shall
not violate women; you shall not slay children; you shall not
burn and destroy and make a desolation and call that civilized
warfare. If you do these things the fine line between war and
murder disappears and Mount Sinai thunders at you; "Thou
shalt not kill." You know what Lowell says in one of his Bigelow Papers:
"Wut's the use o' meetin'-goin,
Every Sabbath, wet or dry,
Ef it's right to go a'mowin,
Feller-men like oats an' rye?"
Now as I have said, ladies and gentlemen, there is no dispute that these things were done in the Island of Samar. Let
me quote from the record on this point. On April 25th there
came a cable despatch from Manila, from which I will read an
extract:
"The trial by court martial of General Jacob H. Smith
began today. General Lloyd Wheaton presided. Col. Charles
A. Woodruff, counsel for the defence, said he desired to simplify the proceedings. He was willing to admit that General




19 _
Smith gave instructions to Major Waller to kill and burn and
make Samar a howling wilderness; that he wanted everybody
killed capable of bearing arms, and that he did specify all' boys
over ten years of age."
There you have it squarely admitted that General Smith
directed the general desolation of that province, the burning of
its homes, and the killing, without quarter, of all its male population from ten years df age upwards. These are facts beyond
controversy. Attempts may be made, and are being made, to
excuse and even to defend them-but at least they cannot be
denied.
Now listen to what President Schurman of Cornell University, who was President of the first Philippine Commission sent
out by President McKinley, says of the people of Samar and
Batangas:
"These people, remember, are iot savages, or 'injuns' or
barbarians. They are civilized Christians..... It is
here that some of our military authorities have practised Wey-,
ler's system of reconcentration, resorted to Oriental methods of
torture, turned happy homes into a howling wilderness, and not
only killed non-combatants, but murdered boys over ten years
of age."
Now I ask you to mark President Schurman's comment
upon these admitted facts, because its spirit is entirely just. I
believe this meeting will echo and endorse it. President Schurman says:
"I state the alleged facts without either exaggeration or
palliation! Would to Heaven they were only a tissue of devilish
invention! But too much has already been admitted to leave
any hope of appreciable abatement of the hbrror and the anguish
which have wrung the hearts of the American people. I remember (alas, the pity of it!) at the beginning of hostilities in
the Philippines, seeing cities where thousands of people dwelt together in peace and prosperity utterly destroyed. Some Americans, at least, have been guilty of conduct which evokes the
horror and detestation of mankind. But if our cheeks burn with
patriotic shame and our hearts quiver with moral indignation,
let tile bolt strike not only the unhappy individuals but the
system and policy of which they have been the victims."
I agree with President Schurman that it is time to ask this
question"What, I ask, do-you want in thePhilippines?  More particularly, why in any part of Luzon and the Visayan Islands are




20
you making a howling wilderness and killing children over ten
years of age? Why, then, are we making war? Here are
6,500,000 fellow Christians of ours-the only Christian nation
in Asia-as highly civilized as most of the people of Central
and South America.
"Are the American people, then~ the freest people on this
earth, the very flower and chivalry of liberty, shooting down
Filipinos because Filipinos will not do what Americans want,
while all the time Filipinos are endeavoring to ascertain, but
cannot, what it is Americans do want? If -we have no policy,
let us say so and stop fighting. If we have a policy, let us say
so and it may end all fighting. But to keep an army of 40,000
or 50,000 American citizens in Asia to fight for no policy is at
once foolish:'and wicked.
"Goverhor Taft is reported as saying at New Haven that,
-i-twe conferred independence upon them, power would fall into
the hands of the educated classes; but it is an intelligent-oligarchy of Filipinos worse than an intelligent oligarchy of Amercans?"
I am deeply impressed with the fact on which President
Schurman also lays stress, that we have never yet told the people
of the Philippines what we want of them. We have made war
upon them for four years; we have killed thousands of them,
burned their villages, put them to torture by hundreds to force
them to betray their brothers and husbands fighting in the field;
more than 4,000 of our own soldiers have been killed outright,
10,000 more of them have been wounded, and other thousands
have been sent home invalided, diseased and not a few of them
stark, raving maniacs. We have already spent at least $300,000,000,-some experts say $400,000,000,-and we have just
voted one hundred millions more to carry on the war, and yet
we have never offered these people any terms of peace, or proclaimed to them on what conditions we would let them have
peace; nor have we ever permitted them,, though they made the
effort, to lay before us any terms on which this war might be
ended>-/We have even refused a hearing to their accredited
representatives.
It is to my thinking one of the worst and most indefensible
of our blunders in dealing with these people that we have not
allowed them to approach us, nor have ourselves approached
them, for the purpose of conciliation, negotiation and peace. If
we will neither hear them offer terms, nor declare to them any
terms-and that is the precise position we have taken up and




21
are occupying at this moment-how shall the war ever end or
peace ever come? Do we seriously intend the extermination of
these people? When the treaty of peace was being framed at
Paris, Mabini, Aguinaldo and other leaders of the Filipinos
asked to be heard by the commissioners in that city. They were
refused. On several occa'ions since they have asked the privilege of appearing at Washington and laying laying their case.
before our President and Congress. All such requests have been
refused. We are still in that attitude of absolute refusal to receive them or hear them in their own behalf. Aguinaldo and
other leaders are now our prisoners, and we take the ground
that as such they have no right to talk to us; and as to those
leaders who are still uncaptured we should refuse to hear them,
as we did Aguinaldo's delegates before he was our captive, on
the ground that we cannot negotiate with men who are in arms
against us. So, then, it comes to this: If they are fighting us
they cannot be heard because they are in arms; if they are captured they cannot be heard because thev are in prison- in short,
they cannot be heard under any circumstances.
On what reasonable grounds shall we justify to our sense
of right this persistent refusal to listen, to what these unfortunate
people may have to say? Are not they even human beings, that
we should say to them, "You shall not so much as speak one
word to us in your own behalf. We will not hear you"? Why,
fellow citizens, we did not even treat the Indians, whom the
earlier Americans called "red devils," as badly as that! We
received their chiefs, heard what they had to say, treated with
them, and made peace with them by negotiation. It is only
against these Filipinos, who are neither savages nor half-savages,
but a Christian people, whose only crime is that they have read
our Declaration of Independence, believed it to be true,.and
tried to live up to it, that we have taken this high and haughty
position. We declare that they have no right to be heard, and
that we will not hear them. And why? Is there any other
reason except that we are strong and they are weak? And will
any one tell me that it is a really creditable or just attitude for
this great nation of seventy-six million freemen to take toward a
people of less than seven millions, struggling earnestly for lib.
erty? I cannot think so. Surely it is a case where we may
remember that "it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but
it is tyrannous to use it like a giant."
An outcry is raised, however, when we protest against such
things as have been done in Samar that we are attacking the




22


American army. We must be silent, Mr. Chairman, and let
our country be shamed, or we shall be called unpatriotic.  I
yield to ne man in my honor of the American army. I believe
its record from 1776 down to this time is equal to that of any
other army in the world. And it has been to my mind the
proudest boast of America that wherever her soldiers went they
went. "shouting the battle-cry of freedom."
We have been content to leave to other nations the questionable glory of forcing their government and their laws upon
alien peoples at the point of the bayonet. But now it seems
there is a new sort of American patriotism, which forgets the
Declaration of Independence and its "inalienable rights" of men
to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and its doctrine of
"just government" requiring "the consent of the governed."
This new patriotism summons us to carry our flag by force of
arms into far-distant islands and to 'build an empire founded on
military force and commercial greed. But is not this asking us
to turn our backs on all that America has stood for in the past?
Is it not to join in the very oppression and robbery of weaker
nations which heretofore we have always denounced when it
was practised by European powers?
Ladies and gentlemen, it is because we honor the American
army and are proud of its record-always for liberty and against
oppression, always for humanity and against barbarism-that
we are here tonight to protest from our hearts against the tarnishing of its splendid record by such foul deeds as have been
done in the Province of Samar. Wre are not censuring the soldier. We understand that our officers and men are out in those
islands because they were ordered to go there.. A recent writer
well says: "The real enemies of the American army are those
who lay upon it a revolting task..... The real authors
of the dishonor of the army are the men who send it on dishonoring campaigns."
It was admirably said by Senator Hoar in his latest speech
on this subject in the Senate that the American army was not
to llame for the barbarities perpetrated in the Philippines. He
pointed out that it was inevitable that the cruelties done on both
sides, alike by the Filipinos and our own troops, should be done
under the circumstances. He spoke of the carloads of demented
soldiers passing through Omaha on their way from the Philippine Islands, their bodies shattered and their minds wrecked as
the result of their service in those islands, and he said most truly
that this and all the other horrors of the war are "the inevitable




23


result which every reasonable man must have anticipated of the
decisions made in this chamber when we elected to make war for
the principle of despotism instead of a policy of peace." To
make it plain that the responsibility for these awful deeds is not
upon our soldiers, nor even upon the officers of our army, but
upon the Senate itself for having committed the country to a
policy which could bear no other fruit, Senator Hoar said to his
fellow-Senators:
"When you determined by one vote to ratify the Spanish
treaty; when you determined by! one vote to defeat the Bacon
resolution; when you declared in the McEnery resolution, that
we would dispose of that people as might be for the interest of
the United States; when the Senator from Wisconsin said we
would not talk to a people who had arms in their hands, although they begged that there should be no war, and that we
would at least hear them..... you did not know that
this was to come. But you might have known it. A little reflection and a little reason would have told you..... I
cannot understand how any man, certainly how any intelligent
student of history, could have failed to foretell exactly what has
happened when we agreed to the Spanish treaty. Everything
that has happened since has been the natural, inevitable, inexorable result of the policy yotrthen declared."
We do not blame our soldiers, therefore; we only pity
them for being ordered to do work which, being American boys,
born and bred in this free land, they must in their souls loathe
and abhor. But we are here to enter our solemn protest against
the unrighteousness of any policy that requires an American
army to do such utterly un-American things. We protest with
/all the earnestness that we possess against that barbarous method
of warfare which is reported to have brought to death 100,000
Filipinos in one province alone.
Let us not forget for what cause, and on what grounds we
declared war against Spain in 1898. It was in the name of
humanity that we called upon Spain to evacuate Cuba. It was
because the cry of the concentration camps was no longer to be
borne. It was because we could not suffer Weyler's summary
executions to go on. It was because the cry of the slaughtered
Cubans and the smoke of their burning villages became intolerable. We could not endure them for another day. That was
the grounhd*he high and honorable Sround, on whichc we drew
the sword and declared that Spain should set Cuba free. Our
army and navy were set in motion to liberate, not to subdue; to




24
extend the bounds of freedom and give birth to one more selfgoverning Republic. Shall we not end as we began? If we
have strayed from the path on which we started as liberators, let
us hasten to retrace our steps. Let us return to "the path of
judgment." Let our flag stand in the Philippines for the same
things for which it stands in Cuba-a people delivered, a land
pacified, and one more star added to the galaxy of free, selfgoverning nations.
The Chairman at this stage said:
I now introduce something somewhat foreign to the
speeches. This hall was not given to the clergy for nothing.
The printers have demanded their money for a considerable
amount of printing. The United States government was unwilling to send our letters and circulars without stamps, and we
find in consequence that there is a considerable sum to pay. We
do not ask the laity to foot this bill, the clergy will pay its share
and I expect it will be the largest share of the whole, but we ask
you to de your share. The collectors will now go round while
we sing a hymn.
The Chairman then announced that Dr. Franklin Hamilton and Dr. Reuen Thomas, who it had been expected would
address the meeting, were unable to be present.
IREMARKS OF REV. SCOTT F. HERSHEY,
Of First Presbyterian Church.
Mr.?Chairman: I am glad, sir, that you so tersely said that
we should each assume our own responsibility. It seems to me
that we are doing it very well, I am quite willing to assume the
responsibility for anything which I may say, or any sentiment
I may express. The other night in New York the President of
the United States, in speaking to six 'hundred representatives of
more than a million American churchmen, said, "the vital thing
for a nation is the spiritual and not the temporal," and then he
said to these representative-American Christians that "we must
look to the Church to make the standard of righteousness and
morals for the whole land." Now I take it that this meeting is
to express the standard of morals and righteousness for the people of the nation. We have something to-say as to the conduct,
under the American flag, in that island in the far Pacific. Allof the'nations of the earth were once of one blood, and they are
now getting back to the recognition of their unity of blood.




25
The process may be painful, and the transition probably involves
a great deal of hardship; but the nations which areChristian are
leading the other nations in the work of civilization, and ought
to be distinguished for their work for the human kind> and in
teaching them morality and righteousness. The Hon. James
Bryce said the human race has just begun to see that it is one.-.
These people in the lands of the far Pacific are human, and they
are our brothers, and because of these ties of the human race
any injustice, any. cruelty, any torture practised on them is a
thrust at the welfare of the whole race. Fatherhood of God is
admitted by the best nations of the world. Unless the press has
been strangely and culpably wronged; unless private correspondence has been altogether misrepresenting, unless the official
representatives like President Schurman are not to be credited,
the treatment of these people has not only been outrageous, but
simply brutal and savage. Shall, we, I ask, quietly submit,
without protest, to such treatment being carried on toward an
inferior people? I wish to say in explanation of my conviction,
that this treatment, making all allowance for exaggeration and
extravagances, is simply unchristian; and we stand for Christian
dealing with our fellow-men and especially when we are dealing
with a weak and inferior people. Very true it is, that Christianity has some place in this world, and we insist these peoplbahall
be treated kindly in the spirit of humanity, of Christianity.
Our treatment has been un-American. We have been regarded,
and especially in these later years, as being just, and the American soldier will stand comparison for the characteristics of generosity and humanity with the best soldiers of the foremost
nations of the world. We did well in Cuba, and raised the
standard of humanity so high that it now seems a curse that the
Philippines should make for us a background so black and dark.
The captain of a naval vessel when in action and seeing the vessel of his enemy sinking, said to his men, "Don't fire, don't you
see they are dying?" That was nobly said. When the news of
that terrific disaster from the South Atlantic came to us we did
what was grand before all the world. Why can't we do the same
with the Philippines in the same spirit we showed in the South
Atlantic?  imerica is the leader of nations, a leader among nations, and she should set the example widely before all the world
in three things, justice, liberty and humanity. These three
things make for righteousness in all national life. Is there not
sentiment enough, is there not profound conviction enough, and
patriotism enough, of a Christian order to say that we will deal




26


justly and humanely with these people and lead them on to
liberty, aye, and to independence? I do not believe that the
American people will ever be reconciled or satisfied unless independence is given to the Philippine people.
REMARKS OF REV. A. A. BERLE,
Of Congregational Church, Brighton.
MIr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I must confess to
you with perfect frankness this evening that I am more than
willing, in accord with the chairman's suggestion, to assume full
responsibility for every word which I utter. I have for years
been endeavoring to speak only the truth as I understand it
from the teaching of the New Testament, and I am not in the
mood this evening, which will make it easy for me to indulge in
qualification nor make justification of the things which we are
here to condemn a simple task. I have not the slightest desire
to make it easy for those who have so grossly violated not only
the fundamental principles of religion but the elementary precepts of humanity. I have absolutely no disposition to choose
the easiest terms to describe those who have sanctioned what I
believe to be murder and slaughter, nor terms which will make.them sleep more soundly, satisfied with their work in the Philippine Islands.
President Roosevelt, the other day, at the Presbyterian
General Assembly at New York, took occasion to commend the
missionary spirit as displayed by the missionaries of the Christian church in foreign lands, with its self-sacrifice, its patient
toil and waiting for result, as the highest type of civic and
Christian endeavor. Indeed, he exalted it as the best illustration of the strenuous life of which he stands as the foremost
representative. I wish to call his attention to the fact that when
the International Congregational Council assembled three years
ago in this very place the doctrines which he advocates and represents were presented here by the Rev. Lyman Abbott, who
maintained that the Gospel in every age had been preceded by
a reign of law, which he interpreted in our time to mean, that
an army representing force must precede in foreign lands the
herald of gospel peace.
The very next day missionaries from every land mounted
this platform, these very types of the noblest Christian effort,
these models of the strenuous life, and every single one of them
said without reserve that that doctrine -would ruin absolutely the




27
influence of every American missionary on foreign soil. The
one thing they said which had given the American missionary
abroad his unique influence and power, was that hitherto America had never stood for territorial aggrandizement or the subjugation of weaker peoples.  They came from   Asia, from
Africa, from the islands of the sea, from every quarter of the
globe, and to a man they repudiated the doctrine of force and
subjugation which Abbott advocated and which Roosevelt executes. If the voice of the experienced missionaries of the Christian church abroad had been heard and listened to, this meeting
tonight would not have been held.
It has been and is commonly alleged that it was the Church
and the clergy that hurried the nation into the Spanish war,
urging that the cry of suffering humanity demanded that the
sword be drawn for the defence of the weak and the redress of
grievous wrong. If that was true then, it is also true now that
we demand that the sword drawn in the interest of humanity be
sheathed again in the interest of humanity. That the sword
which we hoped would express the righteous resolution of the
American people to end a wicked and disastrous state of affairs
in (uba, shall not become the. symbol of shame and brutality,
visited upon helpless women and innocent children in the Philippine Islands.
I am here, also, tonight to resent the slanderous charge
which the war department seeks to lay at the door of the veteran
soldier of the Civil War. I am here to protest in the name of
all true Americanism' at the monstrous charge which the administration at Washington seeks to justify by bringing shame upon
the name of Abraham Lincoln. I have woindered in reading this
effort to make the atrocities in the Philippine Islands represent
the spirit of Mr. Lincoln's war orders, whether it could he
possible that our shame in this matter should be.crowned, at the
opening of the twentieth century, with an attempt to blacken
the good name and fame of our martyred Lincoln, and I say
that nothing but shame.shall come to the man, be he president
or private, who dares to dignify his own perfidy to American
civilization and humanity, by blackening the memory of Abraham Lincoln. Moreover, the charge is utterly untrue. I hold
in my hand a letter received today from an old officer, a veteran
of the Northern Army, which speaks against this vile accusation.
He was an officer in the Sixth Army Corps and served with
Sheridan during the whole of the campaign in the Shenandoah
Valley. He says: "The attempt to put upon our honored Lin



28
coin responsibility for these outrages is shameful in the extreme.
It is absolutely false and dastardly piece of cowardice. That
order No. 100 is to be interpreted in the light of what was done
under it. There was no assault upon persons, except in battle,
and there was never any wanton destruction of property allowed.
This was expressly forbidden. I was an officer in the Sixth
Army Corps and was with that corps in the whole Shenandoah
Valley campaign and saw what was done under that order.
Barns were burned, but not all. Gristmills were destroyed, but
not all. A humane construction was always put upon the order.
That Iknow as a positive fact. I saw many burning buildings,
but I saw, also, many that were saved. We were not fighting
against unarmed people, though we well knew that their sympathies were with their fathers, their sons and their brothers in the
field. We were not making war on women. We were at war,
but not with old and infirm men and with women and children;
not at all." By this testimony and others like it I protest against
this outrage on the hallowed memory of Abraham Lincoln.
REMARKS OF RABBI CHARLES FLEISCHER,
Of Temple Adeth Israel.
Mr. Chairman: You have modestly said that we ministers
are not statesmen and therefore, probably, have not the right to
advise the administration. Pity it is, if this is true. In the older
days, those from whom we have derived our calling-the prophets of Israel were the statesmen of their times, being merely, as
we are, ministers of righteousness. If it were not the habit of
our days to measure ideals by their "practicability" instead of
insisting upon the elevation of practical things to the level of
the ideal,-we ministers might still be the practical statesmen
of our generations by simply speaking of the truth as, in our
consecration to truth, we can see it.
Also, Mr. Chairman, you have suggested, that in the present instance, we should be satisfied with the discovery and the
punishment of those who have perpetrated the atrocities which
have shocked the conscience of the American people. But I
want to say, for one, that. I shall not be satisfied with such result.
We must make sure that this miserable business will not continue. In an_ enterprise of this nature we may expect on the
average just so much drunkenness and rape and pillage and
murder and all sorts of exhibitions of moral rottenness. However, I would not have one word I say construed as endorse



29
ment of the offences committed by our soldiers in the Philippines. Every man guilty of any of these immoralities should
be brought to book and be visited with condign punishment.
But, after that, let us recognize our own responsibility. These
acts of our soldiers are the poison fruit growing upon a poison
tree. Our present business is to crush the fruit. And our further duty is to destroy the poison tree,-to extirpate it branch
and trunk and root.
What, after all, is the army? These soldiers are our soldiers. They are we. We, therefore, are altogether responsible
for them. They are we, under unfortunate and demoralizing
conditions. I am reminded here of some lines of Kipling, speaking of Tommy Atkins:
"We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards, too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
And if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints."
Be the army what it may, we should not tolerate its use by
either national party as "the football of politics." It is the
American army, and not the Republican or the Democratic
army. Both parties are un-American in using it for partisan
ends. Though there is no need, in a land of free speech, to
apologize for well-meant criticism,-let it be understood that we
tonight do not mean merely to criticize army, party, or President. Our purpose rather is to insist upon it that these, our
servants all of them, shall do our bidding, and do it according to
our most righteous desires. We dare not longer allow to partisanship its present selfish domination of public policies; nor
as a nation can we, with any pretence to morality or even to
prudence, continue the meting out of principles by considerations of "practical" expediency. Absolute righteousness still
most exalts a nation.
A growing number of us is indulging the habit (it needs
no particular boldness) to be critical of President, party, and
army, whenever these, in our opi ion, need criticism. On the
other hand, we are even more lik ly-and more gladly-to put
ourselves back of whatever party or president is apparently doing, or trying to do, the righteous thing. At any rate, we have
the right to insist that their con iuct shall pay more constant
and more evident homage to virt e than vice proverbially does.
America has a bigger business o  hand than the "successful"
carrying out of one or the othe foreign policy. Ours is the
business to make an undoubted success of the experiment of




30
democracy. Every national policy of ours-whether foreign or
domestic-must be the expression of democracy. Any policy
which threatens that principle would better be abandoned than
prosecuted, as self-preservation is still the first law of our nature.
But let us not delude ourselves as to the strength of the
moral sentiment in America, or as to the rule of democracy in
our land, or even as to the power of the democratic sentiment
as a governing and guiding force in this aspiring nation. This
meeting tonight may almost be taken as a test of the strength
of the moral sentiment and the power of democracy in our
nation at the present time. Two hundred ministers of Greater
Boston assured our committee that they were interested in this
meeting, and very many of them have announced this meeting
to their congregations, Should not this hall have been fairly
stormed by thousands of roused lAmericans seeking this opportunity to express their protest against barbarity and their continued consecration to democracyW
I have no desire, Mr. Chairman, to act the Jeremiah of this
occasion-but only to prevent self-satisfaction on our part. Evidently we who are here are "converted," but it remains for us
to influence, arouse, and enthuse the vast mass of the unconverted. We know what the nation ought to do; without selfrighteousness we know it, and cart sav it without prejudice, partisanship or abuse. We mean to support and strengthen the
President in his expressed purpose to make our soldiers do what
is right. We know what morality and democracy demand; but
we would better realize that all America is yet far from having
risen to that plane of principle, which would make impossible
such things as we now complain of, and would be responsible
for only such deeds in the Philippines as would redound to our
everlasting honor. There is work in plenty for us democratic
enthusiasts.
Let us remember that democracy is still on trial in America, and that every bit. of national conduct either advances or
retards its progress. Our deeds in Cuba express our aspiring
democracy. Our work in the Philippines is undemocratic, and
therefore a danger to America. This is sufficient praise of the
one, as it should be sufficient condemnation of the other. Now
and always let our nation be thoroughly democratic and truly
American.




31
REMARKS OF REV. PAUL REVERE FROTHINGHAM,
Of Arlington Street Unitarian Church.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: There are some
subjects on which it is very difficult to be temperate, and this is
one of them. There are some subjects about which a man has
no business to be temperate, and I am inclined to think that
this-is one of those. It is my privilege to fire, as it were, the
last shot at this meeting. It is not to be a shot of defiance or of
defence. I would rather it should be a salute to signify joy and
hope,-a salute announcing something in the near future worthy
to be celebrated, something full of promise and hope and joy.
As I have sat here and listened to these truly eloquent and patriotic speeches, as I have seen your eyes gleam with the fire of
enthusiasm, coming as I did with my mind full of the speech
of our grand senior Senator, which he delivered in Washington
today,-one of the grandest speeches delivered in America in
this generation, and to make a great speech demands a grand
cause-as I have sat here with these things filling my mind I
have felt that you and I, as a people, have gone down to the
last depth of the valley of our humiliation. We are moving
upward at last, away from the darkness toward the dawn.
Let us begin to take courage. If this hall is not full in an
outward sense, it is full of the true American spirit and that
will go out to light this country on its outward way. I have
referred to Senator Hoar, and I suggest that a telegram be sent
to him from this meeting thanking him for his words. I wish
this meeting would adopt this message as a telegram:
"Resolved, That this meeting tends to Senator Hoar its
expression of profound gratitude for the speech which so eloquently voiced the conscience and the religious sense of his
native state."
The Chairman said after a pause: For a moment I was in
doubt as to my duty, for I had been instructed that no resolution
should be put. I suppose this was not anticipated and it will be
put to the meeting.
The expression on taking a vote was unanimous and so it
was declared.
Continuing, the speaker said: Now, ladies and gentlemen,
in regard to this American army of ours. There is one thing
that has deeply impressed me and that is that these tortures,
these cruelties and these abuses have not been sporadic expressions of overheated zeal, of animal passions that have leaped out




i i          c,,
32
on the part of the individual soldier. They have come from
where? From some superior officer; and as we trace them back
they go higher and higher. Captains have received them from
majors, and majors from colonels, and so on. These orders were
given by men of courage and honor in other respects, and I
wonder if our army is really to blame. I don't believe so. But
we are- to blame, because we sent our soldiers out there and
commanded them to enforce our sovereign power. We sent
them to subdue the people, and to make them submit to our
rule and to keep down their rebellious spirits and to say to
them, "You shan't be free." Yes, we sent them through our
representative politicians to do all these things. We sent them
indirectly, to do an un-American thing and the result is that
they have done it in a cruel and un-American way. Yet I am
inclined to think these results have been less with our soldiers
than they would have been with any other soldiers on earth.
We must look behind all this, we. must look behind the individual and lay all the blame upon the policy.
It has been said that it is no part of ministers to advise statesmen what to do, but I have not ever recognized such a superabundance of wisdom among our statesmen that any man who
is honest and has the fear of God should not be able to make
suggestion.
There is only one thing to do. There is only thing for the
people of the country to do. I believe there is only one thing
for the President, the Senate, and Congress to do. That is to
confess, as a nation, that we have been led into error and have
been mistaken, and that we mean to redeem ourselves, and say,
as we have never dared to say, that the people of the Philippines
shall have the same rights and the same privileges that we enjoy
and which we have given to the island of Cuba.
The meeting was brought to a close by the audience rising
and singing "America."