Beveridge and Hoar were debating the annexation of the Philippines after the Navy defeated the Spanish fleet in 1888. President William Kinsley had Spain surrender the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. Sen. Albert Beveridge went to the Philippines in 1899 and wanted to annex the Philippines. On January 9, 1900 he went to the Senate and argued to keep the Philippines for the United States.

Beveridge said “just beyond the Philippines are China’s illimitable markets” he felt there was a lot of money to be had in Asia and he didn’t want to miss the United States “opportunity in the Orient”. Beveridge felt that the people of the United States were chosen as caretakers of the world and it was our right and duty to take over the Philippines. He said that Americans were “trustee under God of the civilization of the world”. He felt that because we were special in some way that we were chosen and it was our right in the “regeneration of the world”. He believed that good government did not deny liberty and that good government wasn’t necessarily self-government he felt good government “means law”. He felt that liberty “means protection of property and life without price” and “without favor or favorites”. He felt he could gradually give this to the people of the Philippines and American governments and work them to “gradual self-government by the people before they knew what self-government means”. He felt that the Philippines and the Filipino people if left to themselves would live in a “base condition”. He told the president that if left to themselves they would be savage. He ended it with saying that we should pray to God that “the time may never come when American heroism is but a legend”. He appealed to the patriotic nature of United States citizens and the president to conquer the world for God.

 

Sen. George F. Hoar was a Republican from Massachusetts and he disagreed with his own party and he opposed American annexation of the Philippines. May 1902 Hoar gave a speech to the Senate he started off strong by saying “if a strong people tried to govern a week one against its will the home government will get despotic too”. He says you cannot rule a country outside of your borders and still have a Republican America. He went on to say “if you try to deprive even a savage or a barbarian of his just right you can never do it without becoming a savage or barbarian yourself”. This is easily his best argument throughout his speech basically he is saying that if we rule another country in a different way that we rule ourselves we are no better than a dictator to our own people. He said that the fight had been about being sentimental about the United States and that they were “ideals of the fathers of the revolutionary time” and he felt that that time of Abraham Lincoln was over. He believes that all people were created equal and the governments should get their “just powers from the consent of the governed” and of course the Philippine people did not want to be governed by the United States. He believes that the US flag is a symbol of freedom all around the world and “peaceful supremacy and sovereignty”. He makes a good point when he said that just because we have our flag over the Philippines does not mean that we own it forever. We don’t have to believe that sovereignty by force are the “spoils of victory”. He said that if we take over the Philippines now you’re doing wrong by it the Filipinos because they were so excited to see you and they welcomed you as a “liberator” and they greeted you with “gratitude” but if you try to take them over they will turn into “sullen and irreconcilable enemies possessed of a hatred which centuries cannot eradicate”. All the goodwill of freeing them from their captors will be lost if we try to take them over.