was convinced that, on political, commercial, and humanitarian grounds, the cession must be of the whole archipelago. He "is deeply sensible of the grave responsibilities it will impose," but he believes "this course will entail less trouble than any other, and besides will best subserve the interests of the people involved, for whose welfare we cannot escape responsibility."
Thus the third and last stage in the attitude of the government was reached, and a proposition was submitted to the Spanish commissioners for the cession of the Philippines, and the payment to Spain of twenty millions of dollars. The Spanish commissioners protested that the proposition was in violation of the peace protocol, but in order to avoid the horrors of war, they resigned themselves "to the painful strait of submitting to the law of the victor;" and the treaty of peace was signed which contained the cession of the entire Philippine group to the United States.[1]
Three reasons were advanced for requiring the cession of the Philippines, based upon political, commercial, and moral grounds.
It was claimed that the United States had reached a stage in its history where it should no longer confine its influences to the western hemisphere. Modern means of communication had annihilated distance, so that the United States was nearer to the Philippines than it was to California when that territory was acquired from
- ↑ Peace Protocol, S. Doc. No. 62, Pt. i. 55th Cong. 3d Sess. 282; Instructions to Peace Commissioners, S. Doc. 148, 56th Cong. 2d Sess. 3; Negotiations, Docs. Nos. 62 and 148 (cited); Treaty of Peace, Doc. No. 62 (cited), 5.
