Many Republican leaders were advocating the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, not for the reasons I have just stated, but on the avowed ground that it was necessary we should own them as a point of vantage for acquiring dominion in the…

I saw when the time approached for action of the McKinley Treaty that the question could not be separated, at least in debate, from the question of entering upon a career of conquest of Empire in the Far East.

Under these circumstances the question of duty came to me: Will you adhere to the purpose long formed, and vote for the acquisition of Hawaii solely on its own merit?

If something be not done, there will be before long another Revolution, and Japan will get control.

I was obliged to notify Japan that no compulsory measures upon Hawaii, in behalf of the Japan Government, would be tolerated by this country.

I told President McKinley that I favored then, as I always had, the acquisition of Hawaii.

Forcible annexation, according to our American code of morals, would be criminal aggression.

Human rights and constitutional privileges must not be forgotten in the race for wealth and commercial supremacy.

The Government of the people must be by the people and not by a few of the people.

Power, it must be remembered, which is secured by oppression or usurpation or by any form of injustice is soon dethroned.

We have no right in law or morals to usurp that which belongs to another, whether it is property or power.

I do not agree with those gentlemen who think we would wrest the Philippine Islands from Spain and take charge of them ourselves.

I do not think we should acquire Cuba, as the result of the existing war, to be annexed to the United States.

The President returned to Washington, undoubtedly in the honest belief that the country demanded that he acquire the Philippine Islands, and that Congress should govern them.

I have never attributed publicly, or in my own heart, to President McKinley any but the most conscientious desire to do his duty in what, as the case seems to me, was an entire change of purpose.

After the unhappy conflict of arms the solution of the problem seemed to be to compel the Philippine people to unconditional submission.

We were to hold and govern in subjection the people of the Philippine Islands.

To do so would be to reverse accepted continental policy of the country, declared and acted upon throughout our history.

Policy proposed introduces us into European politics and the entangling alliances against which Washington and all American statemen have protested.

It will make necessary a navy equal to largest of powers; a greatly increased military establishment; immense sums for fortifications and harbors; multiply occasions for dangerous complications with foreign nations, and increase burdens of…

Will receive in compensation no outlet for American labor in labor market already overcrowded and cheap; no area for homes for American citizens; climate and social conditions demoralizing to character of American youth; new and disturbing…

No place for colonial administration or government of subject people in American system.

We should set example in these respects, not follow in the selfish and vulgar greed for territory which Europe has inherited from mediaeval times.

Our declaration of war upon Spain was accompanied by a solemn and deliberate definition of our purpose.

Now that we have achieved all and more than our object, let us simply keep our word.