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."[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
- ↑ Obituary Addresses on the Death of Henry Clay, Washington, 1852, p. 49.
