George Boutwell

The President is the creature of the Constitution, and his jurisdiction is measured and limited by the jurisdiction of the Constitution.

In the first quotation I make the charge that President McKinley, in his attempt to govern the Philippine Islands as though the Constitution did not apply to them, was exercising powers not granted to him by virtue of his office.

Again, "We have the right to acquire territory and we have the right to govern all territory acquired, but we must govern it under the Constitution, and in the exercise of those powers, and those only, which have been conferred upon…

In two short years of imperialism, these evils have ceased to be imaginative merely, and they have taken a place among the unwelcome realities of our national life.

Empire means vast armies employed in ignominious service, burdensome taxation at home, and ruthless maladministration of affairs abroad.

If in this year 1900, America had sent forth one word of official cheer to the States of South Africa, the act would have been an act of self- abasement that would have invited the contempt of all mankind.

Our accusation against President McKinley is this: He turned away from the history of America, he disdained our traditions, and he reversed the policy of a century.

Her policy was a policy of imperialism;--a policy of centuries.

In each case there is gross undisguised imperialism.

It is not an answer to say, what may be true, that American ideas and systems of education are superior to Spanish ideas and systems.

We are attempting through war to compel the Filipinos to accept American institutions of education and liberty.

Can the President show wherein his policy, in principle, differs from the policy of Spain?

He is dispensing to them such education as he thinks they ought to have, instead of allowing them to decide for themselves as to the education which may be agreeable or useful for them.

Thus the President is engaged in dispensing liberty to conquered peoples instead of allowing them to enjoy liberty as a birthright.

Will the Republic stay and dispense to their inhabitants the blessings of liberty, education and free institutions, or steal away, leaving them to anarchy or imperialism?

They should be held as Territories, on the way to Statehood, or as possessions entitled to self-government without delay by us.

If we accept the theory of the President that our title to Porto Rico and the Philippines is a good title, then that title can be exercised and enjoyed only in one of two ways under our Constitution and the example that has been set in the…

Through twenty months of war we have been engaged in a fruitless attempt to subjugate our purchased victims, and we have been cajoled, continually, by the declaration that the war was ended.

A title to rule an unwilling, revolutionary people, who, at the time our title was acquired, were demanding of Spain the enjoyment of the right of self-government.

We denounce it as a violation of a provision of our Constitution that was gained at the cost of the lives of four hundred thousand men.

This, by whatever name called, is the imperialism that we denounce.

The President is subjecting ten million people to involuntary subserviency under his rule.

Our answer is this: In the language that I have quoted the President describes himself as an imperialist.

The President denounces imperialism, and with emphasis he declares that we are all republicans in America.

Is it not an assertion of absolute, unconditional, permanent supremacy over the millions of the islands?