The Path of Empire. A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power
by Carl Russell Fish
that momentous question." On the 5th of September, he wrote to John Bigelow: "I fear you are right
about the Philippines, and I hope the Lord will be good to us poor devils who have to take care of them. I
marvel at your suggesting that we pay for them. I should have expected no less of your probity; but how
many except those educated by you in the school of morals and diplomacy would agree with you? Where
did I pass you on the road of life? You used to be a little my senior [twenty-one years]; now you are ages
younger and stronger than I am. And yet I am going to be Secretary of State for a little while."
Not all those who advocated the retention of the Philippines did so reluctantly or under the pressure of a
feeling of necessity. In the very first settlers of our country, the missionary impulse beat strong. John
Winthrop was not less intent than Cromwell on the conquest of all humanity by his own ideals; only he
believed the most efficacious means to be the power of example instead of force. Just now there was a
renewed sense throughout the Anglo-Saxon public that it was the duty of the civilized to promote the
civilization of the backward, and the Cromwellian method waxed in popularity. Kipling, at the summit of
his influence, appealed to a wide and powerful public in his "White Man's Burden," which appeared in
1899.
Take up the White Man's burden - Send forth the best ye breed - Go bind your sons to exile To serve
your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild - Your new caught, sullen
peoples, Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden - And reap his old reward The blame of those ye better, The hate of
those ye guard - The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) towards the light: - Why brought ye us from
bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?
McKinley asked those having opinions on the subject of this burden to write to him, and a strong call for
the United States to take up her share in the regeneration of mankind came from important
representatives of the religious public. Nor was the attitude of those different who saw the possibilities of
increased traffic with the East. The expansion of the area of home distribution seemed a halfway house
between the purely nationalistic policy, which was becoming a little irksome, and the competition of the
open world.
It was not, however, the urging of these forces alone which made the undecided feel that the annexation
of the Philippines was bound to come. The situation itself seemed to offer no other solution. Gradually
evidence as to the local conditions reached America. The Administration was anxious for the
commissioners to have the latest information, and, as Admiral Dewey remained indispensable at Manila,
General Merritt was ordered to report at Paris, where he arrived on the 6th of October. He was of the
opinion that the Americans must remain in the Philippines, and his reports were sustained by a cablegram
from Dewey on the 14th of October reading: "Spanish authority has been completely destroyed in Luzon,
and general anarchy prevails without the limits of the city and Bay of Manila. Strongly probable that
islands to the south will fall into the same state soon." The history of the previous few years and existing
conditions made it highly improbable that Spanish domination could ever be restored. The withdrawal of
the United States would therefore not mean the reestablishment of Spanish rule but no government at all.
As to the regime which would result from our withdrawal, Admiral Dewey judged from the condition of
those areas where Spanish authority had already ceased and that of the Americans had not yet been
established. "Distressing reports," he cabled, "have been received of inhuman cruelty practised on
religious and civil authorities in other parts of these islands. The natives appear unable to govern." It was
highly probable, in fact, that if the United States did not take the islands, Spain would sell her vanishing
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