Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/200

160 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS sonality would be accepted everywhere as repre sentative of a new order of affairs. The man on whom he settled as most nearly meeting all the requirements in education, honesty, conservatism, courage and gentleness was Judge Taft. Flattering as was this choice, it was no light task to convince the object of it that it pointed to his path of duty. In the first place, his one am bition had always been for promotion on the bench ; in the second, there was nothing in his conception of the destiny of his country to which the idea of a colonial system appealed. The president de plored as frankly as he this feature of the situation, but here it was, staring them in the face. What ever anyone might have preferred, the islands did belong to the United States, an armed insurrec tion among their people had been suppressed at great cost, and the time had arrived when they must be brought under civil government as be fitted a peaceful province. Ill-ruled, they would surely be exploited for the benefit of their con querors; well-ruled, they could be developed for the benefit of their natives. This was the argument which settled the question. Judge Taft read in the plan a probable end to his most fondly cherished dreams of a future for himself, but, recognizing in that fact a greater obligation, he yielded. In his new place, though nominally at the head of a commission of five members, he virtually pos-