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Show PROSPERITY AND EXPANSION LEADING ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN DISCUSSED BY CANDIDATE ROOSEVELT He Accepts Nomination for Vice-President "We Have a Eight to Appeal to All Good Citizens" ---The Menace to Prosperity A Historical Feview of Expansion The On' ly Danger of Militarism Is in Bryan's Idea of a Pre tectorate. South Dakota, Idaho, Montana and a large part of Colorado and Utah, 'was acquired by treaty and purchase under President Jefferson exactly aud precisely pre-cisely as the Philippines have been acquired ac-quired by treaty and purchase under President McKiuley. The doctrine of "the consent of the governed," the doctrine doc-trine previously enunciated by Jefferson Jeffer-son in the Declaration of Independence, Indepen-dence, was not held by hiui or by any other sane man to apply to the Indian tribes in the Louisiana territory no vote taken even of the white inhabitants, inhab-itants, not to speak of the negroes and Indians, as to whether they were will-ins will-ins that their territory should be annexed. an-nexed. The great majority of the inhabitants, in-habitants, white and colored alike, were bitterly opposed to the transfer. An armed force of United States soldiers sol-diers had to be hastily sent into the territory to prevent insurrection, President Pres-ident Jefferson sending these troops to Louisiana for exactly the same reasons and with exactly the same purpose that President MeKinley has sent troops to the Philippines. Jefferson distinctly stated that the Louisianians were "not tit or ready for self-government," and years elapsed before they were given self-government, Jefferson appointing the Governor and other otii-:cials otii-:cials without any consultation with the inhabitants of the newly-acquired territory. ter-ritory. The doctrine that the "constitution "consti-tution follows the flag" was not then even considered either by Jefferson or by any other serious party leader, for it never entered their heads that a new territory should be governed otherthan in the way in which the territories of Ohio and Illinois had already been governed gov-erned under Washington and the elder Adams; the theory known by this utterly ut-terly false and misleading phrase was provisions f colnntnl n,htitim'" I Any territorial government we might establish would necessarily, because of the population, be an oligarchy, which would have to be supported by armed soldiers." Yet Hawaii has now been annexed and her delegates have sat in the national conventions of the two great parties. The fears then expressed in relation to an "oligarchy", and "armed soldiers" are not now seriously entertained by any human being; yet they are precisely the objections urged against the acquisition of the Philippines Philip-pines at this very moment. We are making no new departure. We are not taking a single step which In any way affects our institutions or our traditional tradi-tional policies. From the beginning we hav given widely varyiug degrees of self-government to the different territories, terri-tories, according to their needs. Tl.esiinple truth is that there is nothing noth-ing even remotely- resembling "impe-rialisin" "impe-rialisin" or "militarism" involved in thtresent development of that policy of expansion which has been part of the history of America from the day when she became a nation. The words mean absolutely nothing as applied to our present policy in tue Philippines; for this policy is only imperialistic in the sense that Jeff ersons policy in Lou-isiaiii Lou-isiaiii was imperialistic; only military in the sense that Jackson's policy toward to-ward the Semiuoles or Custer's toward the Sioux embodied militarism: and there is no more dangerof its producing evil results at home now than there was of its interfering with freedom under Jefferson or Jack6on, or in the days of the Indian wars on the plains. Our army is relatively not as large as it was in the days of Wayne; we have not one regular for every thousand inhabitants, in-habitants, 'here is no more danger of a draft than there is of the reiutroduc-tion reiutroduc-tion of slavery. governing these Islands in the interest of the Inhabitants may not necessarily be to govern them as- the inhabitante at the moment prefer. To grant self-government self-government to Luzon under Aguinaldo would be like granting self-government to an Apache reservation, under some local chief; and this is no more altered by the fact that the Filipinos fought the Spaniards than it would be by the fact that Apaches have long been trained and employed in the United States army, and have rendered signal service therein just as the Pawnees did tinder the administration of President Grant; just as the Stockbridge Indians did in the days of General Washington, Washing-ton, and the friendly triles of tue Six Nations in the days of President Madison. Madi-son. There are now Iff the United States communities of Indians which have advanced so far that it has been possible possi-ble to embody them as a whole in our political system, all the members of the tribe becoming United States citizens. citi-zens. There are other communities where the bulk of the tribe are still too wild for it to be possible to take such a step. There are individuals among the Apaches. Pawnees, Iroquois. Sioux and other tribes, who are now United States citizens, and who are entitled to stand, and do stand, on an absolute equality with all our citizens of pure white blood. Men of Indian blood are now serving in the army and navy and in Congress, and occupy high position both in the business and the political world. There is every reason why as rapidly as an Indian, or any body of Indians, becomes fit for self-government, he or it should be granted the fullest equality with the whites; but there would be no justification whatever what-ever in treating this fact as a reason for abandoning the wild tribes to work out their own destruction. Exactly the same reasoning applies in the case of the Philippines. To turn over the islands to Aguinaldo and his followers would not be to give self-government to the islanders; under no circumstances circum-stances would the majority thus gain self-government. They would simply be put at the mercy of a syndicate of Chinese half-breedR. under whom corruption cor-ruption would flourish far more freely than ever it flourished under Tweed, while tyrannical oppression would obtain ob-tain to a degree only possible under such an oligarchv. Yours trulv, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. City platform would bring about the destruction of all the conditions necessary neces-sary to the continuance of our prosperity. pros-perity. It would also unsettle' our whole govermental system, and would therefore disarrange all the vast and delicate machinery of our complex industrial in-dustrial life. Above all, the effect would be ruinous to our finances. . If we are to prosper, the currency of this country must be based upon the gold dollar worth 100 cents. The stability of our currency has been greatly increased in-creased by the excellent financial act passed by the last Congress. But no law can secure our finances ngainst the effect of unwise and disastrous management in the hands of unfriendly unfriend-ly administrators. No party can safely be intrusted with the management of Following is the letter of Hon; Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt accepting the nomination nomina-tion of the Republican National Convention Con-vention for Vice President: Oyster Bay, N. Y, September 15 1900. To Hon. Edward O. Wolcott, Chairman Committee cn Notification of Vice President: Sir I accept the nomination as Vice President of the United States, tendered ine by the Republican Re-publican National Convention, with a very deep sense of the honor conferred upon me and with an infinitely- deeper sense of the vital importance to the whole country of securing the re-election of President MeKinley. The nation's na-tion's welfare is at stake. We must continue the work which has been so well begun during the present administration. adminis-tration. Wre must show in fashion in- our national affairs unless it accepts as axiomatic the truths recognized in ail progressive countries as essential to a sound and proper system of finance. In their essence these must be the same for all great civilized peoples. peo-ples. In different stages of development, develop-ment, different countries face varyiug economic conditions, but at every stage and under all circumstances the most important element in securing their economic well-being is sound finance, honest money. So intimate is the connection con-nection between industrial prosperity and a sound currency that the former is jeopardized, not merely by unsound finance, but by the very threat of unsound un-sound finance. The business man and the farmer are vitally interested in this question; but no man's interest is so great as that of the wage-worker. A depreciated currency means loss and, disaster to the business man; but it means grim suffering to the wage-worker: wage-worker: The capitalist will lose much of his capital and will suffer wearing anxiety and the loss of many comforts; but the wage-worker who loses his wages must suffer, and see bis wife and' children suffer, for the- actual necessities of life. The one absolutely system is sound money. One of the serious problems with which we are confronted under the conditions con-ditions of our modern industrial civilization civili-zation Is that presented by the great business combinations, which are general yknngu ..pi)dpr-jthe..nnme-cf -trusts. only struck out in political controversy at a much later date, for the sole purpose pur-pose of justifying the extension of slavery into the territories. The parallel between what Jefferson did with Louisiana and what is now being done in the Philippines is exact. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration Declara-tion of Independence, and of the "consent "con-sent of the governed" doctrine, saw no incongruity between this and the establishment es-tablishment of a government on common com-mon sense grounds in the new territory; and he railed at the sticklers for au imiossible application of his principle, saying in language which at the present day applies to the situation in the Philippines without the change of a word, "though it is acknowledged that our new fellow-citizens are as yet as incapable of self-government as children, chil-dren, yet some can not bring themselves them-selves to suspend its principles for a single moment" He intended that, ultimately self-government should be"' introduced throughout the territory, but only as the different parts became fit for it, and no sooner. This is just tue policy that has been pursued. In no part of the Louisiana purchase-was complete self-government introduced for a number of years; in one part of it, the Indian Territory, it has not yet been introduced, although nearly a century cen-tury has elapsed. Over enormous tracts of if. including the various Indian reservations, with a territory in the aggregate as large as that of the Philippines, tne constitution haSTTffvSF vet "followed the flag"; the army officer capable of being misunderstood that the American people, at the beginning of the twentieth century, face their duties In a calm and serious spirit; that they have no intention of permitting permit-ting folly or lawlessness to mar the extraordinary ex-traordinary material well-being which they have attained at home, nor yet of permitting their flag to be dishonored dis-honored abroad. I feel that this contest is by no means one merely between Republicans and Democrats. We have a right to appeal to all good citizens who are far-sighted enough to see what the honor aud tiie interest of the nation demand. To put into practice the principles embodied in the Kansas City platform would mean grave disaster to the nation; for that platform stands for reaction and disorder; for an upsetting of our financial finan-cial system, which would' mean not only great suffering, but the abandonment abandon-ment of the nation's good faith; and for a policy abroad which would imply the dishonor of the flag and an unworthy un-worthy surrender of our national rights: Its success would mean unspeakable un-speakable humiliation to men proud of their country, jealous of their country's good name and desirous of securing the welfare of their fellow-citizens. Therefore, we have a right to appeal to all good men. North and South, East and West, whatever their politics may have been in the past to stand with us, because wc stand for the: prosperity , 0l tkB (Dmitry fl'"l f"r th" rrnnwn-ox the American flag. " When we expanded over New Mexico Mex-ico and California we secured free government gov-ernment to these territories and prevented pre-vented their falling under the "militarism" "mili-tarism" of a dictatorship like that of Santa Anna, or the "imperialism" of a real empire in the days o Maximilian. We put a stop to imperialism in Mexico Mex-ico as soon as the Civil war closed. We made a great anti-imperialistic stride when we drove the Spaniards from Porto Rico and the Philippines and thereby made ready the ground in these islands for that gradually increasing in-creasing measure of self-government for which their populations are severally sever-ally fitted. Cuba is being helped along the nath to independence as rapidly as her own citizens are content that she should go. Of course, the presence of troops in the Philippines during the Tagal insurrection has no more to do ' with militarism or imperialism than had their presence in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wyoming during the many years which elapsed before the final outbreaks of the Sioux were definitely def-initely put down. There is no more militarism or imperialism in garrisoning garrison-ing Luzon until order is restored than there was imperialism in sending soldiers sol-diers to South Dakota in 1890, during the Ogallalla outbreak. The reasoning which justifies our having made war against Sitting Bull also justifies our having checked the outbreaks of Aguin-"afdo Aguin-"afdo 'aCTf hisfoTro-Wers,- directed,- as they were, against Filipino and American Amer-ican alike. Th Proteotorate Idea, The only certain way of rendering it necessary for our Republic to enter on a career of "militarism" would be to abandon the Philippines to their own tribes, and at the same time either to guarantee a stable government among these tribes or to guarantee them against outside interference. A far greater army would be required to carry car-ry out any such policy than will be required to secure order under the American flag; while the presence of this flag on the islands Is really the only possible security against outside aggression. The whole argument against President McKinley's policy in the Philippines becomes absurd when it is conceded that we should, to quote the language of the Kansas City platform, plat-form, "give to the Philippines first a stable form of government" If they are now entitled to independence, they are also entitled to decide for themselves them-selves whether their government shall be stable or whether civilized or savage, sav-age, or- whether they shall have any government at all; while it is, of course, equally evident that under such conditions we have no right whatever to guarantee them against outside interference in-terference any more than we have to make such a guarantee in the case of the Boxers (who are merely the Chinese Chi-nese analogues of Aguinaldo's followers). follow-ers). If we have a right to establish a stable government in the island it necessarily nec-essarily follows that it is not only our right but our duty to support that government until the natives gradually grow fit to sustain it themselves. How else will it be stable? The minute we leave it. it ceases to be stable: Properly speaking the question is now not whether we shall expand for we have already expanded but whether wheth-er we shall contract The Philippines are now part of American territory. To surrender them would be to surrender The problem is an exceedingly difficult diffic-ult one, and the difficulty is immensely aggravated both by honest but wrong-, headed attacks on our whole industrial system in the effort to remove some of the evils connected with it and by the mischievous advice of men who either think crookedly or who advance remedies reme-dies knowing them to be ineffective, but deeming that they may, by darkening darken-ing counsel, achieve for themselves a spurious reputation for wisdom. No good whatever is subserved by indiscriminate indis-criminate denunciation of corporations generally, and of all forms of industrial indus-trial combination in particular; and when this- public denunciation is accompanied- by private membership in ! the great corporations denounced, the effect is, of course, to give an air of insincerity to the whole movement Nevertheless, there are real abuses, and there is ample reason for striving to-remedy these abuses'. A crude of ill-considered effort to remedy them would either be absolutely without effect ef-fect or else would simply do damage. The first thing to do is to find out the facts and give this purpose publicity as to capitalization, profits and all else of importance to the public, is the most useful measure. . The mere fact of this publicity would in itself remedy- certain' cer-tain' evils, and, as to the others, it would in soinecases point out the remedies, reme-dies, and wold. at least enable us to tell whether-or not certain proposed remedies would be useful. The state acting in its collective capacity would thus first find out the facts and then be able to take such measures as wisdom wis-dom dictated. Much can be done by taxation. Even more can be done by regulation, by close supervision, and the unsparing excision of all unhealthy, destructive - and anti-social elements. The separate state governments can do a great deal, and where they decline de-cline to co-operate the national government govern-ment must step in. and the civilian agent still exercise authority, without asking the "consenl of the governed." We must rroceed in the Phillppipnes with the same wise caution, taking each successive step as it becomes desirable, and accommodating accommodat-ing the details of our policy to the peculiar needs of the situation. But as soon as the present revolt is put down and order established, it will undoubtedly un-doubtedly be possible to-give to the islands a lnrger measure of self-government than Jefferson originally gave Louisiana. The next great step in expansion was the acquisition of Florida. This was partly eequired by conquest and partly by purchase, Andrew Jackson being the most prominent figure in the acquisition. ac-quisition. It was taken under President Presi-dent Monroe, the aftertime President John Quiney Adams being active in securing the purchase. As in the case of the Philippines. Florida was acquired acquir-ed bv purchase from Spain, and in Florida the Seminoles. who had not been consulted in the sale, rebelled and waged war exactly as some of: the Tagals have rebelled aud waged war in the Philippines; The Seminole war lasted for many yeaTS. but Presidents Monroe. Adams and Jackson declined for a moment' to consider the question of abandoning Florida to the Seminoles. Semi-noles. or to treat their non-consent to be Government of the United States as a valid reason for turning over the territory ter-ritory to them. Our next-' acquisition of territory was that of Texas, secured by treaty after it uad been wrested from the Mexicans bv the Texans themselves. Then came the acquisition of California New Mexico. Arizona, Nevada and parts of Colorado an Utah as the result of the Mexican war, supplemented five years later by the Gadsden purchase. The next acquisition was that of Alaska, secured from Russia by treaty and purchase. Alaska was full of na- The most important of all problems is, ofjsrse? that of securing good gov- ernment and moral and material well-being well-being within our own borders. Great though the need is that the nation should do its work well abroad, even this comes second to the thorough performance per-formance of duty at home. Under the administration of President MeKinley this country has been blessed with a degree of prosperity absolutely un-parolled, un-parolled, even in its previous prosperous prosper-ous history: While it is, of course, true- that no legislation and no administration ad-ministration can bring success to those who are not stout of heart, cool of head and ready- of hand; yet it is no less true that the' individual capacity of each man to get good results for himself him-self can be absolutely destroyed by bad legislation or bad administration, while under the reverse conditions the power of the individual to do good work Is assured and stimulated. This is what has been done under the administration of President MeKinley. Thanks to his actions and to the wise legislation of Oongress onhe tariff and finance, the conditions ot our industrial life have been rendered more favorable than ever before, and they have been taken advantage of to the full by American thrift, industry and enterprise. Order has been observed, the courts upheld and the fullest liberty secured to all citizens. The merchant and manufacturer, manufac-turer, but above all the farmer and the wage-worker, have profited by this state of things. Fundamentally and primarily the present contest is a contest for the continuance con-tinuance of the conditions which have told in favor of our national integrity. If this nation is to retain either its well-being well-being or its self-respect it cannot afford af-ford to plunge into financial and economic econo-mic chaos; it cannot afford to indorse governmental theories which would unsettle un-settle the standard of national honesty and distroy the integrity of our system American territory. They must, of course, be governed primarily in the interest in-terest of their own citizens. Our first care must be for the people of the island, which have come under our guardianship as a result of the most righteous foreign war that has been waged within the memory of the present pres-ent generation. They must be administered adminis-tered in the interests of their Inhabitants, Inhabi-tants, and that necessarily means that any question of personal or partisan polities in their administration must be entirely eliminated. We must continue to put at the heads of affairs in the different islands such men as General Wood, Governor Allen and Judge Taft; and it is a most fortunate thing that we are able to illustrate what ought to be done in the way of sending officers thither by pointing out what actually has been done. The minor places In their administration, where it is impossible im-possible to fill them by natives, must be filled by the strictest application of the merit system. It is very important that in our own home administration the merely ministerial and administrative administra-tive offices, where the duties are entirely en-tirely non-political, shall he filled absolutely abso-lutely without reference to partisan affiliations; but this is many times more Important in the newlf acquired islands. isl-ands. The merit system is it Itr essence es-sence as democratic as our common school system, for it simply means equal chances and fair play for all. It must be remembered always that fives, some of whom had advancea well beyond the stage of savagery and were Christians. They were not consulted con-sulted about the purchase nor was their acqnieseence required. The purchase pur-chase was made by the men who had just put through a triumphant war to restore the Union and free the slave; but none of them deemed it necessary to push the doctrine of the "consent of the governed" to a conclusion so fantastic fan-tastic as to necessitate the turning over of Alaska to Its original owners, the Indian and the Aleut. For thirty years the United States authorities, military aud civil, exercised the supreme su-preme authority in a tract of land many times larger than the Philippines, Philip-pines, in which it did not seem likely that there would ever be any considerable consider-able bodv of white inhabitants. Nearly "thirty years passed before the next instance of expansion occurred, which was over the island of Hawaii. An effort was made at the end of President Pres-ident Harrison's administration to secure se-cure the annexation of Hawaii. The effort was unsuccessful. In a debate in Congress on February 2, 1894, one of the leaders in opposing the annexation annex-ation of the islands, stated, "These islands are more than two thousand miles distant from our extreme western west-ern boundary. We have a serious race problem now in our country, and I am not in favor of adding to our domestic fabric a mongrel population (of this character). Our constitution makes no of justice! The policy of free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 is a policy fraught with destruction to every home in the land. It means untold misery to the head of every household, and. above all, to the women and children of every home. . When our opponents champion free silver at 16 to 1 they ore either insincere or sincere in their attitude. at-titude. If insincere in their championship champion-ship they, of course, forfeit all right to belief or support on any ground. If sincere, then they are a menace to the welfare of the country. Whether they shout their sinister purpose or merely whisper it makes but little difference, save as It reflects their own honesty. No Issue can be paramount to the issue they thus, make, for the paramountcy of such an issue is to be determined, not by the dictum of any maa or body of men, but by the fact that it vitally affects the well-being of -every home In the land. The financial question is always of such a far-reaching and tremendous Importance to the national welfare that it can never be raised in good faith unless this tremendous importance im-portance is not merely conceded but Insisted, on. Men who are not willing to make such an issue paramount have no possible justification for raising it at all, for under such circumstances their act cannot under and conceivable circumstances do aught but grave tttrm. The success of the party representing the principles embodied in the Kansas, History of Fxpanslon: While paying heed- to the necessity of keeping our house iu order at home, the American people ennnoty if they wish to retain their self-respect refrain re-frain from doing their duty as a great nation in the world. The history of the nation is in large pact the history of the nation's expansion. When the first Continental Congress met in Liberty Lib-erty halt and the thirteen' original states: declared themselves a nation, the westward limit of fhe country, was marked by the Alleghany Mountains. Even during the revolutionary war the work- of expansion went on. Kentucky, Ken-tucky, Tennessee and the great Northwest, North-west, then known as the Illinois conn-try, conn-try, were conquered from our white and Indian foes during the revolutionary revolution-ary struggle and were confirmed to us by the treaty of peace In 1783. Yet the land thus confirmed was not then given- to us. It was held by an alien foe until the army under Gen. Anthony An-thony Wayne freed Ohio from the red man. while the treaties of Jay and Pinckney secured from the Spanish and British Natchez and Detroit. In 1803, under President Jefferson, the greatest single stride In expansion that we ever took was taken by the purchase of the Louisiana territory. This so-called Iouisiana. which included includ-ed what are now the States of Arkansas, Arkan-sas, Missouri, Louisiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Min-nesota, Kansas, Nebraska, North and |