it had pursued, and it was regarded with much satisfaction by Spain, as assuring the conduct of the negotiations in the most favorable circumstances. At an early date after the signing of this protocol the President appointed five American peace commissioners, his selections being heartily approved by the nation. They were: William R. Day, secretary of state; William P. Frye, senator from Maine and president pro tempore of the Senate; Cushman K. Davis, senator from Minnesota and chairman of the committee on foreign relations; George Gray, senator from Delaware and the foremost member of the Democratic minority in that body; and Whitelaw Reid, editor of "The New York Tribune" and formerly minister to France and special ambassador to Great Britain. The secretary was John Bassett Moore, assistant secretary of state. The Spanish government appointed a comparably distinguished and appropriate commission, its members being: Eugenio Montero Rios, president of the Senate of Spain; Buenaventura de Abarzuza, senator and formerly a minister of the crown; José de Garnica, deputy to the Cortes and associate justice of the Supreme Court; Wenceslao Ramirez de Villa Urrutia, minister at Brussels; and Rafael Cerero, general of division. These commissioners were most hospitably received and entertained by the French government, and they held their first meeting on October 1. Immediately a demand was made by the Spanish members for a restoration of the status quo ante August 12 in the Philippines; for Manila had been taken by the Americans on the day following the signing of the protocol, and of course some other military operations had been necessary. This demand was refused by the Americans, on the ground that the operations had merely established that American occupation and control which had been contemplated and provided for in the protocol, and which had been fully discussed and agreed upon by the French ambassador and the secretary of state at Washington; for which latter reason the commission did not consider itself competent to reopen the matter. The Spanish commissioners did not agree with this view, but consented to waive the point for the time, reserving the right to raise it again. Next came the question of Cuba. The Spaniards strove ear nestly and persistently to get the Americans to accept cession of the island, instead of a mere relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty; the feeling being that such an arrangement would be less humiliating to Spain than the erection of an independent Cuban republic; and also that it would give better assurance of protection to the many Spanish subjects who were in and were likely to remain in that island. The American commissioners were bound, however, by their instructions, which in this particular were based upon the act of Congress declaring that the United States would not take Cuba for its own but would leave that island to the government of its own people. The Spaniards also asked that the heavy public debt which Spain had contracted on account of Cuba, largely to pay the costs of suppressing Cuban insurrections, should remain as a charge against that island. This the Americans also refused, holding that it would be a monstrous anomaly to compel a people to pay the costs of their own subjugation. After a month of debate, therefore, the first article of the treaty was adopted as dictated by the Americans. Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba, and the United States undertook to be responsible for all obligations under international law for the protection of life and property so long as the temporary American occupation of the island should last. The second article was then soon adopted, ceding to the United States the island of Porto Rico and the other Spanish possessions-a few tiny islets-in the West Indies, and the island of Guam in the Ladrones or Marianas. The crux of the whole negotiations arose at the end of October, in the question of the Philippines. Upon this question the President had not given positive instructions to the commissioners, for the reason that his own mind had not then been fully made up concerning it; and, indeed, information regarding the islands had at that date been so scanty as to deter most members of the American government from forming positive opinions as to the best course to be pursued. The five American commissioners were much divided in opinion. Two of them, Day and Gray, were opposed to American acquisition of any part of the Philippines, and favored entire withdrawal from the islands. Two, Frye and Davis, favored retaining some foothold in the islands; Frye inclining toward annexation of perhaps all excepting the Mohammedan part of the archipelago, while Davis might have been content with the single island of Luzon, the largest and most important of all. The fifth member, Reid, was from the first, as he had indeed informed McKinley before going to Paris, unhesitatingly and resolutely in favor of taking and keeping the entire archipelago. It was, of course, essential that the commissioners should agree among themselves and thus be enabled to present a united front to their Spanish antagonists. To that end, concurrently with the negotiations over Cuba, they conducted a searching inquest into the condition of the islands, the wishes of the people, and the judgment of the best-informed persons. General Merritt, commanding the American army at Manila, and other army and navy officers, consuls, travelers, scientists, and other competent authorities, American, European, and Filipino, were invited to appear before the commissioners and tell what they knew and what they thought concerning the islands. The result was a complete and overwhelming confirmation of the views and policy of Whitelaw Reid; to the effect that the Philippines were highly valuable and well worth acquiring; that they were altogether unprepared for independence and incapable of maintaining it if it were thrust upon them; that American withdrawal would mean a speedy lapse into anarchy or else conquest by some other power; that divided ownership of the group would expose us to incessant and serious danger of friction and embroilment; and that, therefore, the safe and sane, the just and reasonable, course was for the United States to insist upon the cession of the entire archipelago to it, by right of conquest. It may be added that the great majority of intelligent and substantial natives of the islands were represented to be and doubtless were in favor of the establishment of American sovereignty over the islands. This was the logic of the case: The United States had destroyed the Spanish government, which was the only government the islands had had for centuries, and it was under moral compulsion to replace it with another at least as good. Such a government must be one of four: Spanish, alien, native, or American. The first was inadmissible; for, having gone to war to rid one island of Spanish misgovernment, it would be self-stultifying to force other islands back under that same misgovernment. |