As to the question of honesty in getting them, I have again to quote The Independent, for it furnishes the most striking illustration of the perversion, by a prevailing craze, of the moral sense of otherwise scrupulously upright men, The only authoritative declaration of the purpose of our war against Spain is found in the resolution adopted by Congress, which contains the following clauses:
“That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent, . . . That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.”
Nothing could be clearer and more specific than this declaration. It was addressed not only to Spain, not only to the Cubans, but to the people of the United States, and, in fact, to all mankind. The United States proclaimed to the whole world, and it was repeated in this country by press and speech untold thousands of times, that we waged this war against Spain from absolutely disinterested and humanitarian motives, solely to deliver the suffering Cubans from Spanish tyranny. Upon this ground we claimed the sympathy of civilized mankind; and when some European newspapers said that this was all sham and hypocrisy, and that our real scheme was to grab the Spanish colonies for ourselves, our press and our public men repelled the charge with virtuous indignation. If ever a proclamation was morally binding as to the pledge it involved, it was this.
But The Independent tells us that all this goes for nothing, and that we have a perfect right to take and keep Cuba as well as the rest of the Spanish colonies. The argument deserves to be quoted as a specimen inspiration of the new “consciousness.” It says:
“Just think for a moment. The United States engaged to deliver Cuba, preferably by peace, by war, if it must be. The President's ultimatum to Minister Woodford to that effect was sent in plain English to him, in the belief that Spain would steal it from the wires and withhold it from our representative. Spain did both. Fortunately our Minister, who was not without resources of private information, learned that fact as soon as it occurred, and learned also the attitude which Spain intended to take in regard to it. The order of events here is important. Our Minister first received, not the ultimatum, which should have come to him at once, but the official declaration by the Spanish Government that the resolutions of Congress, passed three days before, had ended diplomatic relations between the Governments. He at once accepted the official declaration, received his passports, and left Spain without presenting the ultimatum at all. . . . The President immediately accepted war as a fact, by the act of Spain. . . . We had made Cuba and her deliverance our sole objective. The presentation of our ultimatum might have held us to that. By denying access to the ultimatum, Spain not only freed us from it, as to her, but also launched war on us, in a way to make the injury of our whole country her program, and our disablement of her at every point both our opportunity and our right.”
(The italics in this quotation are mine.)
It is hardly necessary to comment upon this statement, which charges the President with a sly trick by which to find a pretext for perverting the whole purpose of the war, and which argues that the proclamation to the whole world involving a solemn pledge, made by the Congress of the United States, loses all its morally binding force, because the Spanish Government fell into a trap adroitly set for it, and did not regularly receive and receipt for the ultimatum. The Independent is a religious newspaper, devoted, no doubt in perfect sincerity, to the teaching of religious doctrine, of truthfulness, honesty, fidelity to one's word, and righteousness generally. It would certainly not teach its readers to shirk their moral obligations in private life by such quibbles and subterfuges as those by which the statement quoted seeks to justify the taking and keeping by the United States of Cuba and the other Spanish colonies after the resolution adopted by Congress. It has evidently fallen a victim to the craze, and will, I trust, soon join in the prayer that if these are to be the effects of the new “consciousness” and “mission” and “destiny” upon the moral sense of the American people, the Lord in his mercy may speedily deliver us from the evil.
Of the same character and tendency is the assertion, currently put forth by Imperialist papers, that if we deliver the oppressed people of Cuba, of Porto Rico and of the Philippine Islands of the Spanish tyranny, we shall be morally responsible for their future welfare, and that if this can be best secured by annexation to the United States we shall not only be
