natural ally. These people are fast teaching the natives the depths of Caucasian wickedness, and the natives imagine it is Americanism.

""Chairman Schurman of the Philippine Commission voices his regret that the American saloon was ever permitted to make its advent in Manila. Well may he regret it, as may every other American too who has been in Manila during the past year. It is a great mistake to suppose that every officer, soldier, and sailor in the Philippines is drinking to excess, but some of them do, and the same is true of a great percentage of the civilians. The native is not discriminating, and attributes this vice to all Americans. If saloons were carefully and honestly restricted in number and put under the rigid regulations that decency requires, this shame of Uncle Sam would quickly vanish. It is the glaring opportunity for drunkenness that does so much harm.

"So far as my observation went, I found that the military authorities of Manila were not on record as having done anything to abate this crying disgrace. Indeed, one American officer, fairly high in the councils at the palace, is the putative head of the concern that is doing the most to encourage and supply the thirst of Manila. We tried to civilize the Indian, and incidentally wiped him off the earth by permitting disreputable white traders to supply him with ardent liquors. Are we to repeat this disgrace tenfold, as we at present seem fair to do, in the Philippines?"

"A Crime Against a People.—The American soldiers, however, might drink themselves into death or idiocy, and it would be of less ultimate consequence than the simple fact of the introduction of the liquor traffic into the Philippine

Islands. In one respect, at least, the civilization of the Filipinos was superior to our own, and that was in the use of intoxicating drinks. All travelers have testified to their temperateness and their very slight use of intoxicants. Our first step has been to flood their towns and cities with whisky, and thus break down a conspicuous native virtue. For this liquor curse must remain in the Philippines long after the bulk of the American army has been withdrawn. It is the experience in all tropical countries that the whisky habit, once it secures a foot-hold, is difficult to extirpate. Whisky is a great decimater of tropical populations.

"The seriousness of the crime thus committed must be confessed by the Government itself, since, in its view, the Filipinos must be regarded as children. What would the world think of a nation that deliberately or heedlessly led millions of children into the liquor habit for the sake of profit? It is certainly remarkable that the Government, while regarding the Filipinos as children in their political capacity to govern themselves, should regard them as thoroughly mature in their capacity to govern their physical appetites. The Government has been extremely solicitous not to grant the Filipinos self-rule in political affairs, yet it has left them the prey of American rum-sellers in social affairs.

"One does not need to be a prohibitionist in the United States to believe that the sudden and unrestrained introduction of the liquor traffic into a country where it had never before existed was a crime against heaven and earth. The traffic could have been forbidden at the outset by one man; it could be forbidden to-day by one man, because the

whole archipelago is under martial law.”—The Springfield Republican.

Extract from a speech delivered at a great public dinner given to Mr. Webster at Philadelphia, on the 2d of December, 1846, on the "War Power."

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But the annexation was completed. The western boundary was a matter about which disputes existed or must arise. There was, as between us and Mexico, as there had been between Texas and Mexico, no ascertained and acknowledged western boundary.

"This was the state of things after the annexation of Texas, and when the President began military movements in that direction. Now, gentlemen, that I may misrepresent nobody, and say nothing which has not been clearly proved by official evidence, I will proceed to state to you three propositions, which, in my opinion, are fairly sustained by the correspondence of the government in its various branches and departments, as officially communicated to Congress.

"First-That the President directed the occupation of a territory by force of arms, to which the United States had no ascertained title; a territory which, if claimed by the United States, was also claimed by Mexico, and was at the time in her actual occupation and possession.

"The Texan convention was to assemble July 4, 1845, to pass upon the annexation. Before this date, to-wit, on the 28th day of May, General Taylor was ordered to move towards Texas; and on the 15th day of June he was instructed by a letter from Mr. Bancroft to enter Texas and concentrate

his forces on its 'western boundary,' and to select and occupy a position ‘on or near the Rio Grande, to protect what, in the event of annexation, will be our western border.'

"That the United States had no ascertained title to the territory appears from Mr. Marcy's letter to General Taylor of July 30, 1845. General Taylor is there informed that what he is to 'occupy, defend, and protect' is 'the territory of Texas, to the extent that it has been occupied by the people of Texas.' It appears in the dispatch last quoted, that this territory had been occupied by Mexico.

"Mr. Marcy goes on to say: "The Rio Grande is claimed to be the boundary between the two countries, and up to this boundary you are to extend your protection, only excepting any posts on the eastern side thereof which are in the actual occupancy of Mexican forces, or Mexican settlements over which the republic of Texas did not exercise jurisdiction at the period of annexation, or shortly before that event.'

"This makes it perfectly clear that the United States had neither an ascertained nor an apparent title to this territory; for it admits that Texas only made a claim to it, Mexico having an adverse claim, and having also actual possession.

"Second-That as early as July, 1845, the President knew as well as others acquainted with the subject, that this territory was in the actual possession of Mexico; that it contained Mexican settlements, over which Texas had not exercised jurisdiction, up to the time of annexation.

"On the 8th of July the Secretary of War wrote to General Taylor that 'this department is informed that Mexico has some military establishments on the east side of

the Rio Grande, which are, and for some time have been, in the actual occupancy of her troops.' On the 30th of July the Secretary wrote as already mentioned, directing General Taylor to except from his protection 'any posts on the eastern side thereof [of the Rio Grande] which are in the actual occupancy of Mexican forces, or Mexican settlements over which the republic of Texas did not exercise jurisdiction at the period of annexation, or shortly before that event.'

"It manifestly appears to have been the intention of the President, from the 28th day of May down to the consummation of his purpose, to take possession of this territory by force of arms, however unwilling Mexico might be to yield it, or whatever might turn out on examination to be her right to retain it. He intended to extinguish the Mexican title by force; otherwise his acts and instructions are inexplicable.

"The government maintained from the first, that the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Texas, as appears from the letters to General Taylor of the 28th day of May and 15th day of June, 1845. On the 15th day of June, General Taylor was instructed to take such a position 'on or near the Rio Grande' as 'will be best to repel invasion and protect what, in the event of annexation, will be our western boundary.' In accordance with these are also the instructions of July 30th, to which I have already referred.

"On the 6th day of August the Secretary wrote to General Taylor: 'Although a state of war with Mexico or an invasion of Texas by her forces may not take place, it is, nevertheless, deemed proper and necessary that your force should