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TH E  'T ARXROCB1 ANV:.899-.








ADDRESS
OF  -
HON. M.' EE.' INGALLS
BEFORE THE


COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CINCINNATI,
ON THE


ACQUISITION


OF THE


PHILIPPINES,


JANUARY 21, 1899.
CINCINNATI,
THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY,
I899.




i
I  z.",.' 3 --       -,., 'I, -:,




ADDRESS.
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMERCIAL
CLUB:
There has been so much said on this question, pro
and con, in the newspapers and in the halls of Congress,
that it is difficult to say any thing new, and it is much
more difficult to make any statements without attempting to quote or dispute with those who have delivered
arguments in regard to the question. It seems to be today the one question of great interest. I think we can
all agree that if Dewey, after he destroyed the Spanish
fleet, had sailed home, we should have been delighted.
We should have avoided a difficult question and a vast
amount of trouble; and yet, the same thing is true of
almost every day of our lives. Very few of us can go
through the world like the current of a brook that breaks
over no rocks or waterfalls. We have to face responsibilities; we have to meet conditions; and the wise and
brave meet them boldly and unflinchingly as a part of
the duty of life. So must the nation.
-I have not much patience with statesmen who are
trying to defeat the present treaty in order to prevent
some supposed evil that may come hereafter. If the
government has acted wisely and honestly up to date,
-why not stand by it and say so, and leave it for the
future to develop such differences as may arise. Some
of us were opposed to the Spanish war, but we all rejoice




4


in its results, and there are very few to-day who are not
glad that Spanish dominion is ended on this western
continent, and who will not agree that the suffering and
expenditure have been well made for that purpose.
I wish some of those gentlemen who talk so loudly
against the Philippines would tell us what they would
have had the government do different from what it has
done.  I can well understand that the payment of
twenty millions of dollars to the Spaniards is open to
criticism. We had them beaten, and we could have
forced any terms; but, as a business proposition, the
payment of twenty millions was undoubtedly cheaper
than to open the conflict or continue the contest, to say
nothing about the humanitarian side of it. Would
these gentlemen who lead this opposition have had us
turn the islands back to Spain or leave them in their
hands? This would have been the great crime of the
nineteenth century.  For nearly three centuries the
Spaniard has governed these islands as badly as only
Spain can. She has kept them from improving; she has
kept a large portion of the inhabitants in barbarism;
she has used every means known to civilization to extort
money from the people that inhabit them.  Between
the church and the state, history records no worse government than she has furnished to these people. It so
happened in the contest that we conquered the Spaniards
in these islands and they came into our hands. What
could be said as an apology for any government that
turned them back to the cruelties and corruption of
Spain? Certainly no American citizen would face such
a contingency. But we hear it said, "Let them govern
themselves." Very good; this may do if we find they




5


are capable of governing themselves; but the two hundred and fifty odd years of maladministration of the
Spaniards has not been such as to educate eight millions
of people sufficiently to enable them to govern themselves.
If we had left the islands it would have meant that the
different chiefs and clans would have warred with each
other until the islands were desolated, or Germany or
England or some foreign country would have stepped in
and controlled them. In the interest of civilization, in
the interest of humanity, there can be no question but
that the government thus far has acted wisely and well.
The sovereignty of the islands is ours. The future will
determine slowly, step by step, what to do. Whether
we shall aid in securing a permanent government there,
and then withdraw entirely; whether we shall give the
people of those islands autonomy in government and retain a nominal sovereignty, or whether we shall hold
them absolutely, is yet to be determined. Humanitarian principles as well as conditions, of trade must
govern, to a large extent, this question. Whether this
or that can be done constitutionally, I do not propose to
discuss to-night. That is a legal question and you will
find the best minds of the Republic arrayed on each side.
Whatever we may conclude to do, unquestionably there
will be a proper and legal way found to do it. This constitution of ours which we so reverence, and justly, will
be found to be a wider and broader instrument than is
claimed by some. In my life I have several times heard
the tocsin sound its alarm against the shattering of the
constitution and its proposed violation, but it seems to
have come out of each contest stronger and better for
the trial. One statesman who deems it wise politically




r

6
to oppose expansion will produce one set of authorities,
and another who favors it will produce another class
equally as good. There is nothing so changeable as
political opinions.
"They change with place, they shift with race,
And in the veriest span of time
Each vice has worn a virtue's crown,
All good been banned as sin or crime."
Considered as a commercial question, I should say
most decidedly we ought to hold the territory we have
conquered. This great nation of ours must have its
share of the commerce of the world. It lost a large
part of the carrying trade of the Atlantic Ocean during
the civil war. Slowly it has been getting back some
portion of this, but the competition of the European
nations is very severe and is likely to continue. The
coming trade that we should compete for seems to be
that of the Pacific Ocean. No man can predict or conceive what the twentieth century may bring forth in the
islands and nations of the Pacific. If we wish to get
our share of that commerce and wealth, we must hold
the Philippines; we must build the Nicaragua Canal;
we must build our cable lines, maintain our naval and
military stations at Manilla and elsewhere, and be prepared to take our share of the commerce incident to the
millions and millions of people that dwell within a few
hundred miles of the Philippines. This all comes at a very
fortunate time for our country. We are just entering
upon a new career. Never was there such an industrial
awakening of a great nation as is now going on in our
case. We are to be the great manufacturing people of




7


the next century. With the cheapest and best coal in
the world, with the cheapest and best iron, with the
cheapest and best woods known, with good and substantial food at a minimum price for the laborer, there is no
nation under the sun, Anglo-Saxon or Mongolian, who
can compete with this country. Already we are making
more iron and mining more coal than any other nation.
The year 1896 was the turning point for this people.
We decided then that w~ would be honest, that our
standard should be the standard of the world, that our
bills of exchange should be as good in Calcutta or Melbourne as those of any other country. This gave a great
impetus to our commerce. The economies, which the
panic of 1893 and the succeeding years forced, enabled
us to meet the- prices of the world, and with cheap raw
materials, which I have alluded to, gave us the start
which is just developing. The expansion of our business in the future is beyond conception. If we neglect
this opportunity, we may turn it in other directions and
lose our chance.
There is another side of this question which I would
like to discuss, although it is ridiculed by some, and that
is, the destiny or the direction which Providence gives to
certain events and the control which it has over the affairs
of men and nations. The growth of civilization and improvement of the world has been from the east to the
west. It saw the first dawn of light in China and
Egypt; passed through Greece and Rome; and then
shone on the stormy waters of the North Sea; crossed
the Atlantic, when the voyage was long and dangerous;
and now, having practically spread over the American
continent, it looks as though it was destined to traverse




8


the waters of the Pacific and reach in the twentieth
century the land from which it first took its departure;
again, probably, to roll around in its ever-recurring
cycle until civilization shall have reached its limit, and
after that, the end.
It is all well enough for people to preach and say that
it is better to remain as we are, that we shall be happier,
that we ought not to branch out; so it might be said of
individuals. It is always easier for the ox to be fattened
than to work, but it is a question whether it brings the
same enjoyment. "The hart by the hunter pursued,
that far from the hilltop bounds swift through the blue
solitude, is more to be envied, though death with his
dart follow fast to destroy, than the tame beast that,
pent in the paddock, tastes neither the danger nor joy of
the mountain and all its surprises." When I hear these
statesmen making their arguments that we should remain
at home, that we should not go abroad and tempt Providence, it reminds me somewhat of the days of my youth,
when I was keeping school in the State of Maine, at the
large salary of fifteen dollars a month, and concluded I
would try my fortunes by going west, and on mentioning the matter to an old uncle of mine, who was a farmer
in that hillside country, he said, "Well, my boy, it is
tempting Providence; you had better let well enough
alone." Possibly I had, but I certainly have had more
enjoyment of life by leaving than I would have had if I
had remained in that country to vegetate. The nation that has not taken advantage of circumstances,
that has not pushed out into the world, has decayed and gone back. The greatest example in the
world of expansion is that of England. Compare the




9


England of two centuries ago with that of to-day. Is
there a man who for an instant will claim that it would
have been better for her people if she had adopted the
policy of the anti-expansionists, confined herself exclusively to the British Islands and given up her pursuit
of foreign dominion and trade? She stands to-day to
my mind the most brilliant example (following the old
Romans, but in better lines) of the power of a people
to aid in civilizing and enlightening the world. There
comes to my mind an incident in her career almost like
our own. Suppose on that fated day when Wolfe defeated Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham the same
spirit had ruled in England which is so common with
us to-day and her statesmen had said, "We will not take
advantage of this victory and we will not possess this
country. " Montcalm had been the one man who had conceived the dream of an empire in the west for his country,
but deserted and neglected by the king, who was in his
dotage, he lost to France more than ever was lost to one
nation in one campaign. England succeeded, but she
might have said just as truly as we can say to-day: "Here
is a race of people in Canada not of our blood, not speaking
our language; we do not care to assume the responsibility
of their government; it is beyond a stormy ocean, without the facilities of communication."  Then, it took
more than twice as long to communicate between England and Canada as it does to-day for the United States
to communicate with the Philippines; there were no
cables and she would have been justified in withdrawing
her troops and leaving Canada to its fate; and yet she
would have lost one of /er best colonies and a land
which has furnished opportunity for her sons beyond




10


any that she has ever secured; it has aided her commerce, it has built up the civilization of the world.
The history of our own country from its beginning
until to-day has been one of expansion, and expansion
beyond even the proposition of to-day in regard to the
Philippines. From the first sailing of John Smith to
the Virginias, or of the Mayflower to the Massachusetts'
capes, it has been one steady tread of the Anglo-Saxon
race pushing back the inferior Indian race and planting
the seeds of civilization, over the Alleghanies-first
through the wilderness, a longer and more difficult
journey than to-day to the Philippines; then the Louisiana purchase, which was opposed in its day as thoroughly as expansion is opposed now; after that, the
acquisition of California, which was more than one
hundred days' distant from the capital and seat of
government; all this has been in pursuance of the law
of the world's progress and civilization, the tread of the
conquering people marching west and fulfilling the
law of a higher power than ours;  The Philippines
to-day, by fast steamers, are within fifteen day's sail of
this country; by ordinary steamers, twenty-five days;
by cable, within a few minutes' communication. Let
us not allow ourselves to be misled and deluded by
arguments of old men no longer willing to grapple with
the great problems of life, or by capitalists, who with
the timidity of millions, fear to risk any more-but let
us rather encourage the warm, vigorous Anglo-Saxon
blood to go forward fulfilling its destiny and doing our
part for the future civilization of the world and the control of its commerce.,